The Cycling Thread

[PCozzie]

Tom Dumoulin announces he's taking a break from cycling. That's a shame, I thought this year might be a big one for him. It seems more and more at the top end of sport are suffering physical or mental burnout. Taking a 'gap year' might become more of a 'thing' in future.

Tom Dumoulin puts career on hold and leaves Jumbo-Visma training camp

Dutchman will not race for the time being as he goes on unpaid leave

www.cyclingnews.com

 

[defoes5]

Tom Dumoulin announces he's taking a break from cycling. That's a shame, I thought this year might be a big one for him. It seems more and more at the top end of sport are suffering physical or mental burnout. Taking a 'gap year' might become more of a 'thing' in future.

Tom Dumoulin puts career on hold and leaves Jumbo-Visma training camp

Dutchman will not race for the time being as he goes on unpaid leave

www.cyclingnews.com

Yeah saw that, quite difficult to speculate the reason as it could be down to very personal reasons but yeah there could be a host of reasons, perhaps one being that he’s taken quite a blow mentally these last two years or so from going from winning GT stages and one GT riding for himself whete as now he’s very much a domestique, quite a shame really as he’s such an unbelievably talented rider

 

[PCozzie]

Anyone see Strade Bianche today?

Spoiler: Result

Fucking hell, Matty Van Der Poel is an absolute monster. His final attack in Siena was one of the most brutal accelerations I've seen. Left Alaphillipe and Bernal for dead. Van Aert obviously in very early season and good results for a couple of Brits; Tom Pidcock in 5th and rookie Simon Carr in 11th for EF.

 

[defoes5]

yeah was amazed by MVDP, as you said, great result for tom pidcock and surprisingly good from bernal, i didn’t think he’d suit this type of race.

 

[PCozzie]

yeah was amazed by MVDP, as you said, great result for tom pidcock and surprisingly good from bernal, i didn’t think he’d suit this type of race.

Yeah agree with Bernal. I think it might have been more to do with good positioning than excellent form. He was always at the top of the front group when there was an acceleration and managed to stay on. I don't think he'd have got back on to MVDP and Ala if they'd not basically sat up 10Km out. He clearly had nothing left on that last ramp, but great to see him up there.

Looking forward to Paris-Nice starting today (Eurosport half price deal 12 months £19.99 all in). Tao goes for Ineos and will be interesting to see how he goes on the climbs later in the week. Jumbo-Visma have gone very strong!

 

[defoes5]

Yeah agree with Bernal. I think it might have been more to do with good positioning than excellent form. He was always at the top of the front group when there was an acceleration and managed to stay on. I don't think he'd have got back on to MVDP and Ala if they'd not basically sat up 10Km out. He clearly had nothing left on that last ramp, but great to see him up there.

Looking forward to Paris-Nice starting today (Eurosport half price deal 12 months £19.99 all in). Tao goes for Ineos and will be interesting to see how he goes on the climbs later in the week. Jumbo-Visma have gone very strong!

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he’s excited for paris nice aswell, and christ, didn’t realise eurosport had that offer on, don’t usually buy as struggle to find the time to watch it all but can’t turn down 20 quid for all the races, cheers for mentioning it, how long do i have to buy it?

 

[PCozzie]

he’s excited for paris nice aswell, and christ, didn’t realise eurosport had that offer on, don’t usually buy as struggle to find the time to watch it all but can’t turn down 20 quid for all the races, cheers for mentioning it, how long do i have to buy it?

Think the offer runs to the 21st March, but I'd check to make sure.

 

[PCozzie]

Strong win for Sam Bennett on an uphill drag at Paris-Nice stage 1.

Sad news for Richie Porte on his first race back at Ineos, abandoning after a fairly innocuous looking crash 30 or so km from the finish.

 

[onthetwo]

Anyone see Strada Bianca today?

Spoiler: Result

Fucking hell, Matty Van Der Poel is an absolute monster. His final attack in Siena was one of the most brutal accelerations I've seen. Left Alaphillipe and Bernal for dead. Van Aert obviously in very early season and good results for a couple of Brits; Tom Pidcock in 5th and rookie Simon Carr in 11th for EF.

unbelievable change of pace at the end from VDP....made the World Champion look like a novice. Curious to see how his team manages his workload for the year given all the Cx riding he does through the Winter and whether they build a team around him for one of the Grand Tours.

 

[al_pacino]

unbelievable change of pace at the end from VDP....made the World Champion look like a novice. Curious to see how his team manages his workload for the year given all the Cx riding he does through the Winter and whether they build a team around him for one of the Grand Tours.

He's going to the Tour but I think his main aim is (but maybe was) the Olympic mountain bike.

 

[PCozzie]

His team published his power stats for the race....738 Avg power (in just under 5 hours) and 1000w average over the last 60k! Never seen anything like it...

Was there any power stats posted for the last ramp to the line in Siena? If he's averaged 1000w for the last 60k he must have hit near 2000w in the last sprint.

 

[onthetwo]

Was there any power stats posted for the last ramp to the line in Siena? If he's averaged 1000w for the last 60k he must have hit near 2000w in the last sprint.

Those were the ones i saw published on Twitter.....literally had no idea power in excess of 1000w was even possible for a sustained period.

 

[PCozzie]

Those were the ones i saw published on Twitter.....literally had no idea power in excess of 1000w was even possible for a sustained period.

Found some more info. It seems the 1000w was the average of the final attack up the hill into Siena, maxing out at 1362w. Still, that's absolutely insane.

Mathieu van der Poel's insane Strade Bianche watts revealed

It turns out the Dutchman did not produce enough watts to get to the Moon but got very close. Photos: Offside

www.cyclist.co.uk

 

[onthetwo]

Found some more info. It seems the 1000w was the average of the final attack up the hill into Siena, maxing out at 1362w. Still, that's absolutely insane.

Mathieu van der Poel's insane Strade Bianche watts revealed

It turns out the Dutchman did not produce enough watts to get to the Moon but got very close. Photos: Offside

www.cyclist.co.uk

Sorry, my mistake. The 1000w figure was from the 20 second sprint into Siena and the 738w figure from a 60 second stint on a section called ´Le Tolfe.´ Hes human after all

 

[muppetman]

Been watching Paris-Nice on ITV and their coverage is excellent. Ned, David and Gary are all really good.

As for the race itself, Primos is an absolute machine, but even machines sometimes break down. Amazing last day.

 

[nidge]

So do we think anything will come of this?

 

[PCozzie]

Nice to see Mark Cavendish on the podium behind Jasper Philipsen and Sam Bennett at Scheldeprijs today. Looked like he might have had a chance on a different wheel. Been a long time since I've been shouting "Go Cav!" at the telly.

 

[PCozzie]

Well here is some great news. Cav wins! Absolutely top draw sprint on stage 2 of the Tour of Turkey, beating Greipel and Philipsen to the line. He looked really emotional after, which isn't surprising as it's his first win in three years.

Lefevere: Mark Cavendish gave the best response and let his pedals do the talking

Belgian team boss on the one-year deal that has saved Cavendish's career

www.cyclingnews.com

 

[PCozzie]

Well here is some great news. Cav wins! Absolutely top draw sprint on stage 2 of the Tour of Turkey, beating Greipel and Philipsen to the line. He looked really emotional after, which isn't surprising as it's his first win in three years.

Lefevere: Mark Cavendish gave the best response and let his pedals do the talking

Belgian team boss on the one-year deal that has saved Cavendish's career

www.cyclingnews.com

And again! 2 in 2. Bossed today's sprint from start to finish.

 

[PCozzie]

And again! 2 in 2. Bossed today's sprint from start to finish.

3 in a row!