Pro Cycling Thread

[Samuel_Vimes]

Huge break gone away in Paris-Roubaix. 33-men including Hammond, O'Grady, Breschel, Franzoï, Klier, Steels, Bileka, Tosatto, Kopp, Pollack, Dean and Iriondo of Euskaltel (!!!) - in Paris-Roubaix today. They've got three minutes, but that's all the peloton wants to give them. Quick racing, I expect.

[Craig]

47 km/h covered in the first hour.

I have to love Roubaix and Flanders, the cobblestones make it so exiting (not if you crash on it)

[Craig]

Originally Posted by Samuel_Vimes

Huge break gone away in Paris-Roubaix. 33-men including Hammond, O'Grady, Breschel, Franzoï, Klier, Steels, Bileka, Tosatto, Kopp, Pollack, Dean and Iriondo of Euskaltel (!!!) - in Paris-Roubaix today. They've got three minutes, but that's all the peloton wants to give them. Quick racing, I expect.

Break is up to 4m 10sec

Lampre were making a token chase even though they have somebody in the break.

[Matteh]

Steels?

Tom Steels? He must be getting on a bit now surely?

[Matteh]

Fairplay to Stuart O'Grady.

[Samuel_Vimes]

Originally Posted by Matteh

Steels?

Tom Steels? He must be getting on a bit now surely?

Yeah, 35. Had a puncture, never recovered.

Really, really amazed by O'Grady today. A career full of honourable placements (2 stages of TdF + HEW Cyclassics and a couple of medals on the track, that's it) and then he hoiks onto Wesemann's wheel when Wesemann decided that Quick Step couldn't catch the group of 6-7 that had got away, helps to get into the first group, and then attacks and leave the other guys arguing about who's to the main bit of work. Gun.

1 S O'Grady AUS CSC
2 JA Flecha ESP RAB
3 S Wesemann GER WIE
4 B Leukemans BEL PRL (!!!)
5 R Petito ITA LIQ
6 T Boonen BEL QSI
7 R Hammond GBR TMO
8 E Franzoï ITA LAM
9 K Van Impe BEL QSI
10 F Baldato ITA LAM

[Craig]

Originally Posted by Samuel_Vimes

Yeah, 35. Had a puncture, never recovered.

Really, really amazed by O'Grady today. A career full of honourable placements (2 stages of TdF + HEW Cyclassics and a couple of medals on the track, that's it) and then he hoiks onto Wesemann's wheel when Wesemann decided that Quick Step couldn't catch the group of 6-7 that had got away, helps to get into the first group, and then attacks and leave the other guys arguing about who's to the main bit of work. Gun.

1 S O'Grady AUS CSC
2 JA Flecha ESP RAB
3 S Wesemann GER WIE
4 B Leukemans BEL PRL (!!!)
5 R Petito ITA LIQ
6 T Boonen BEL QSI
7 R Hammond GBR TMO
8 E Franzoï ITA LAM
9 K Van Impe BEL QSI
10 F Baldato ITA LAM

That's bike racing for you. If somebody can get away at the right point then they will never get themselves organised and said attacker wil lstay away to the end.

The Tour de Georgia starts tonight (Australian time), this is a quality event and IMO it could end up as Pro Tour status if they change the dates, as it is to hard for teams right now.

[Craig]

Big win for Mark Cavendish by beating Robbie McEwen in the Belgian semi-classic Scheldeprijs Vlaanderen and becomes the first Brit (and I know he is dire, he is some loser from the Isle of Man ) to win it as well.

To take such victory as his first pro win in his first full year as a pro is really impressive. It bodes well for the future.

From cyclingnews:

Fans of 2006 Tour de France winner Floyd Landis have stumped up their hard earned cash to buy the American's signature and a photo opportunity with the 31 year-old, with Landis reportedly charging fans 25 dollars for the privilege at a Dallas bicycle shop. The outlandish fundraising idea comes as he attempts to raise the funds to continue a legal battle to clear his name.

"We can't undo the damage that's been done. We can't fix it," Landis told AFP. "But we don't want the next person to have to go through this."

FFS.

[thewizard1o1]

Do you get and EPO showbag for your 25 bucks?

Tour of Georgia? i think it went close to falling through from lack of sponsors...

SSG from EE to win the Amstel Gold on the week end, with Boogie Woogie to come second (again!)

[Craig]

Originally Posted by thewizard1o1

Do you get and EPO showbag for your 25 bucks?

Tour of Georgia? i think it went close to falling through from lack of sponsors...

SSG from EE to win the Amstel Gold on the week end, with Boogie Woogie to come second (again!)

And his last Amstel as well since he is retiring. And yes Georgia nearly didn't happen.

[Craig]

Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner) wins Amstel Gold and Michael Boogerd comes 6th.

[thewizard1o1]

Basso now looks like he's in trouble again, CONI have got 'his' blood bags from the OP investigation and wish to test it against his DNA.

Cyclingnews news flash re: Basso

This could open a real can of worms, although it may also (hopefully) bring some closure to the whole OP investigation.

In other news Rebellin won his second Fleche Wallonne, the water boys are on fire

[Matteh]

Think Basso will probably be forced to retire because of this.

Dragged out Cycling Manager 3 the other day, found an update that takes it to the 2004 season as well and had a go. I can basically win a flat stage easily, but when it comes to a hill or a time trial i can't do anything.

[Craig]

Originally Posted by Matteh

Think Basso will probably be forced to retire because of this.

Dragged out Cycling Manager 3 the other day, found an update that takes it to the 2004 season as well and had a go. I can basically win a flat stage easily, but when it comes to a hill or a time trial i can't do anything.

Gun game though, so addictive.

Read that Landis has come close to losing $10m a result of his positive test. I read an article about money in the sport im Cycle Sport magazine and it said some pros in Portugal were earning 600 euros a month and that is if they were lucky to be paid.

[Samuel_Vimes]

Originally Posted by Craig

Gun game though, so addictive.

Would be even better if they actually bothered to do research and not copy off db-makers with too much spare time...while at the same time changing the database so that said db-makers have to adapt to a new system every time a new version comes around.