Recent content by spiritualride

Re: Right? It was a mess and it looked like Groenewegen was the one with the slowest reaction and paid the price for it. Maybe he was looking down at the wrong moment... he appears to have just rode into the cyclist in front of him who had tapped the brake.

Either the race pace was too hard for anyone to attack successfully, not even a rider in good enough form to win the Tour... or they all played this far too cautiously and are throwing away the race to Sky. While I've seen plenty of awful tactical decisions by the top cyclists over the years, I...

I don't know... stage 10 had what was effectively almost 15km of 9% climbing as a near MTF type finish but still hardly anything happened. This type of stage is an exact profile that would be very exciting without a dominating team controlling it, but very boring if there's a dominating team...

Re: Really nice post OP ! Start time is 12:35 local. 75km to go would be the start of the main action, at about 14:30 to 14:40 local time. This is 8:30-8:40 Eastern US time. 16:10 to 16:30 is the finish ... 10:10 - 10:30 AM Eastern US time. So the spectators on much of the route will have...

How does Simon Yates descending compare to TD's?

Re: Re: Really as expected result given Dumu's and Yates' strengths. They're neck and neck for GC. Yates will keep gaining seconds in the mountains, but it will be tight whether it is enough to hold off Tom in the TT. Froome establishing himself as clear 3rd favorite now. If he stays on...

Re: Re: There are always exceptions. Doping techniques vary. A rider will change techniques over time, and sometimes be forced to change them due to losing a doc or a new test showing up. This can cause serious performance fluctuations for athletes who are big dope users and big dope...

Stage 11 is not unlike fleche wallone... Should be GC time gaps. Dumoulin ... His climbing consistency gives him the edge right now if I had to pick a favorite. He's so hard to crack on the queen stages coming up. Four really tough mountain stages soon

It's a great sport to download and watch later, having it on in the background during the boring parts and being able to skip around up to the point of importance. Watching live it's not as good unless it's a spring classic or last kilometers of a GT stage

Re: One of my favorite performances ever. I wish that that Tour wasn't so stacked with MTFs and had all the big names in top form and finishing it, because it would have made this stage more memorable and influential. Astana was incredible here. How has Fuglsang not won Paris Roubaix...

Re: Re: I'm surprised at the lack of outcry about the tramadol use by the team. It's a very serious drug. An opiate and an antidepressant. Daily use causes opioid dependence just like any other opioid such as oxycodone or heroin. Using tramadol regularly when it is not necessary, such as...

Wow, thank you so much for the writeup! Great work. Here are all the stage profiles together on a single web page for quick scrolling: https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/giro-d-italia/2018/stage-5/stages/all-stage-profiles Stage 11 finish looks like a slightly easier version of the Mur de...

Profile looks exactly the sort that suggests a climber putting their team flat out on the last climb, losing every teammate by the last 4km when the gradient goes up. Which team(s) do you all think, if any, will put the hammer down on the last climbs? It's 40 km (!) of a gentle grind, ideal...

Interesting street view on Maps at the location of the OP's photo, the ceramic steps of Caltagirone: https://goo.gl/maps/PmhA1BYz4ru A street of steps in the very center of the town... wow. Must visit Italy some day... https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ceramic-steps-of-caltagirone

After ignoring the Froome saga mostly this year, I'm surprised to find out that he's entered the giro. What is the consensus of the situation? Why did the giro allow him? Is he likely to get away with the positive? Will he be allowed to enter the tdf if he hasn't yet been banned by July? Or will...