General News Thread

[RedheadDane]

Re:

"I'ma ride in the pack anonymously for 3 weeks", which is what he was doing lately, is hardly spectacular or commendable.

Again; I'm not just focusing on his riding style, but his personality. Takes a pretty spectacular(ly mental) personality to even decide to do something like that in the first place. Then there's the whole literally inventing his own shoes part.
Besides, I'm pretty sure I spotted him near the front of the pack Sunday, doing is job, so it's not like he's been going into full Cummings mode the last few years. Not to mention that the whole thing started because Lotto just kept selecting him for Grand Tours, since he - you know - was an asset for the team; both working and with the ability to go into breakaways.

Just look at him, all anonymously in the Giro pack.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Scarcely anonymous today. Someone else would have brought the peloton back to Contu eventually, but it worked well for Lotto that AH did so that bit earlier today, so that Van Sande and Wellens could make the rest of the contenders play catch-up before the final hill. Highly commendable today.

 

[May0maniac]

Two day ago the route of the Giro Ciclistico della Valle d'Aosta Mont Blanc was unveiled:

Source: http://www.girovalledaosta.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=119&Itemid=1075&lang=it

Overall it looks like a great route, not the biggest fan of the final stage, but it could still work in the context of the race and all the other stages are really good.

 

[fauniera]

Re:

Giro Ciclistico della Valle d'Aosta Mont Blanc

Awesome route.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

Giro Ciclistico della Valle d'Aosta Mont Blanc

Awesome route.

Awesome name!
That's a mouthful.

 

[Gigs_98]

The stage to Campoluc is a thing of beauty. I always wanted to see the combination of Arlaz, Tzecore and Joux and then either a downhill finish in Brusson or a different uphill finish as stage 20 of the giro.

 

[Koronin]

Nice route.

 

[Forever The Best]

Great route. Arlaz-Tzecore-Joux <3.
Nice to see Colle San Carlo as well.

 

[May0maniac]

The stage after the Colle San Carlo stage is also nice, the final climb is 4.8km at 10.3%, followed by a steep descent (the first half of the Piani di Tavagnasco climb).

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Giro della Valle d'Aosta is the greatest.

 

[Screecher]

Petr Vakoč is no longer a rider of QS according to UCI´s website. Wonder what that means.

 

[RedheadDane]

Petr Vakoč is no longer a rider of QS according to UCI´s website. Wonder what that means.

He's still on Quickstep's own website.

This is not because I don't believe you, but because I'm confused/concerned about what might be going on.
Has he been racing since the accident?

 

[Screecher]

Petr Vakoč is no longer a rider of QS according to UCI´s website. Wonder what that means.

He's still on Quickstep's own website.

This is not because I don't believe you, but because I'm confused/concerned about what might be going on.
Has he been racing since the accident?

You can see for yourself. http://www.uci.ch/road/teams/. He hasn't raced since the incident.

 

[RedheadDane]

Petr Vakoč is no longer a rider of QS according to UCI´s website. Wonder what that means.

He's still on Quickstep's own website.

This is not because I don't believe you, but because I'm confused/concerned about what might be going on.
Has he been racing since the accident?

You can see for yourself. http://www.uci.ch/road/teams/. He hasn't raced since the incident.

Like I said, I believe you. It was a "WTF is going on?" comment?

Seems to have been a mistake from UCI's part.

Cheers, everyone! Just to be clear: check out the Quick-Step Floors website and you'll see that @PetrVakoc is a proud member of #TheWolfpack.

 

[Breh]

Quick Step is not participating in the Baloise Belgium Tour. Tour des Fjords offers alot more $$$ than Golazo so QS won't be riding their national tour. Rebellin is on the provisional startlist!

 

[johnymax]

The profiles are out for Tour of Slovenia 2018. There will be 5 stages, so one stage more than the usual. 2 sprint stages, one hilly with an uphill finish, one mountain stage with a descent finish and a 20km ITT to end the race:

The field should be the strongest ever with record setting 8 WT teams: Bora – hansgrohe, LottoNL-Jumbo, Dimension Data, Katusha - Alpecin, Mitchelton-Scott, Bahrain Merida, EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale and Team Sunweb. Among top riders for the overall are confirmed Roglič and Majka, also strong sprinting field with Cavendish, Kittel and Ewan.

 

[Netserk]

Nice. Even just a prologue would have been enough for Rogla Smash though. This should fit him like a glove.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re:

Quick Step is not participating in the Baloise Belgium Tour. Tour des Fjords offers alot more $$$ than Golazo so QS won't be riding their national tour. Rebellin is on the provisional startlist!

Don't forget that Tour des Fjords leads into Hammer Stavanger; Quick Step with their self-nicknaming team spirit and prominence in that kind of drive are probably quite beholden to support the Hammer Series even though it's the sporting equivalent of syphilis.

 

[Breh]

Re: Re:

Quick Step is not participating in the Baloise Belgium Tour. Tour des Fjords offers alot more $$$ than Golazo so QS won't be riding their national tour. Rebellin is on the provisional startlist!

Don't forget that Tour des Fjords leads into Hammer Stavanger; Quick Step with their self-nicknaming team spirit and prominence in that kind of drive are probably quite beholden to support the Hammer Series even though it's the sporting equivalent of syphilis.

Oh right! I completely forgot about that. Lefevere does have a hard on for that "race".


https://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20180518_03520929

In other news; the Flanders bid for the WC 2021 is a cooperation between Flanders Classics and Golazo (Baloise Belgium Tour and tons of other sports events in Flanders).

The TT would be ridden between Knokke Heist and Bruges which means it's probably as flat as can be.
The road race would start in Antwerp and have a couple of local laps in Leuven. Possible options in the area of Leuven are the parcours of the GP Jef Scherens and the Brabantse Pijl.

The run in from Antwerp to Leuven should be hard in order to make a parcours suited to the classics riders, including cobbles and alot of "hills". The organizers absolutely do not want a bunch sprint. Estimated budget is around 16 to 20million euros, mainly funded by the Flemish government.

 

[El Pistolero]

Carrefour quits as sponsor of the Tour. Good, I hope many more sponsors quit. Only with drastic measures will this rotten sport be able to change.

 

[pastronef]

Re:

Carrefour quits as sponsor of the Tour. Good, I hope many more sponsors quit. Only with drastic measures will this rotten sport be able to change.

sponsor won´t ever quit ASO and the Tour

Carrefour quits and Leclerc comes on board for ASO

 

[El Pistolero]

Re: Re:

Carrefour quits as sponsor of the Tour. Good, I hope many more sponsors quit. Only with drastic measures will this rotten sport be able to change.

sponsor won´t ever quit ASO and the Tour

Carrefour quits and Leclerc comes on board for ASO

They will if Sky keeps ruining every race they enter.

 

[pastronef]

Re: Re:

Carrefour quits as sponsor of the Tour. Good, I hope many more sponsors quit. Only with drastic measures will this rotten sport be able to change.

sponsor won´t ever quit ASO and the Tour

Carrefour quits and Leclerc comes on board for ASO

They will if Sky keeps ruining every race they enter.

sure :lol:

 

[johnymax]

One more WT team has confirmed his participation for Tour of Slovenia, that's UAE Team Emirates. A list of all teams:

World Tour:
Bora – hansgrohe
LottoNL-Jumbo
Dimension Data
Katusha – Alpecin
Mitchelton-Scott
Bahrain Merida
EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
Team Sunweb
UAE Team Emirates

ProConti:
Androni - Sidermec - Bottecchia
Nippo Vinni Fantini Europa Ovini
Gazprom RusVelo
Israel Cycling Academy
CCC Sprandi Polkowice

Continental:
Adria Mobil Cycling
Ljubljana Gusto Xaurum
Dukla Banska Bystrica
Elkov Author Cycling Team
Meridiana Kamen Team
Sangemini MG.Kvis
My Bike - Stevens

and Slovenian NT

 

[janraaskalt]

Is Tour of Slovenia really 2.1 and the currently riding without any World Tour team the Tour de Luxembourg a 2.HC race? Does not make any sense.