and its won on the descent!

Just! That was one nailbiting final couple of km!

The unofficial world road downhill championships has a winner !
I wonder what Sagan would’ve made of it

the bunny hop out of the gutter just so nonchalant 😀

UCi bans droppers in….3…2…1

the bunny hop out of the gutter just so nonchalant

well, yes. But he put his head down and sprinted himself *into* the gutter.

And was extremely fortunate he got out. No time to think, hence the nonchalance.

Limited criticism: he was there, and winning. Max rate rate, taking risks, and it paid off.

But he got out of a situation he put himself into while not even looking.

Just caught up on MSR. The Cipressa was savage and I thought that it would be Pgacar, Roglic and WVA fighting it out on the Poggia, without reckoning on the sneaky dropper post attack! Interesting that Mohoric chose to use a dropper over an aero bike and it paid off. Is MSR the only race with a descent that close to the finish that it can be decided with a dropper!?

But he put his head down and sprinted himself *into* the gutter.

I think he was looking to see if he had a gap.

MVdP 3rd, mancrush in overdrive as we head to Flanders!!

mancrush in overdrive as we head to Flanders!!

My mancrush did his usual, sat very close to the front the whole time, chased every move, ruined himself for the final sprint and eventually didn’t even contest it (I’ve noticed in the past he’s sort of ‘all or nothing’ in that respect).

I wonder if MvdP got inside WvA’s head again though, although they were both very quick to credit one another for working in the chase, a bit different from the handbags after Ghent Wevelgem (?) a couple of years ago.

Catching up on some of the minor classics on Eurosport.

Commentators both asked the same question I was wondering after Sagan’s mechanical – why can’t the pros put their own chains back on??

I don’t mean when it’s jammed solid under the BB shell, I mean when it’s obviously just hanging loose and rattling off the sides of the chainrings and the cranks are still spinning. Seen two other instances of riders waiting for team car when there is obviously nothing jammed or stuck.

why can’t the pros put their own chains back on??

It’s cringey to watch isn’t it?! They look like the average Sportive rider, standing on the left of the bike, bent double over it fiddling around ineffectually.

I wonder how much of it is mechanics / DS telling riders not to mess around with it; the car and a nice new bike will be with you imminently. Better to stand there and grab a quick drink then get rolling again than get your hands covered in crap. Maybe?

Yeah or maybe they just want to be sure they have a fresh bike, rather than taking time to get chain back on etc. then getting 500m further down the road and finding their Di2 is in crash recovery or something

Oof, Nokere Koerse! Uphill sprint finish on cobbles, lots of alarming sideways back wheel action 😬

some nice analysis from Dan

Lets see if they can beat me this weekend 🙂

I noticed the Eurosport commentators talking up Michael Matthews yet again. Why do they do this? Is it just because he can speak English? Are they friendly with him? Because, let’s be honest, he had a cat’s chance in hell of winning M-SR against thaT field, and, looking at his palmares, it’s many years since he was at his best and he wasn’t even that good then.

Or is it just me? 😀

Sprinters day out in the sun for Brugge-De Panne today.

com’ on Mark don’t crash this year !

Nice… i knew it was on but hadn’t checked who was or wasn’t racing yet.

Or is it just me?

Yes. Bling is still pretty handy despite not having had a win for ages – until a couple of days ago. But no, he wasn’t going to win MSR. Tadej Pogacar was. Oh wait…

booo hissss no echelon madness it’s just sunday club ride to the pub and back!!!

Horny tractors !!!!!

fascinating tactical battle !

boom!

Awesome

Awesome indeed. That was great to see

Women’s Gent-Wevelghem just finishing now, this is a very attacking race.

It was epic. We were in a bar 200m from the line talking garbage with Belgians over lots of beers.

We went to Ypres this morning to watch the start, the drove back to Aalbeke then cycled to wevelgem to watch and drink beer with locals. As you’d expect, they’re all massive Woute fans (for pronunciation not spelling)
But everyone really enjoyed it

My cranks are borked and even after 80nm this morning they are now falling off for the 3rd time this weekend. Lol. Trying to race my mate home expectibg the cranks to fall off as they were moving 20deg to side on every pedal stroke was comical.

crazy racing !!!!

come on tom!

monster

That was a proper battle in the last 3-4km… epic..

Tom was unlucky, but i think at best even if he’d got the gap closed to VDP and Benoot, the best he’d have managed was still 2nd… VDP just had the power at the right time.

Wout is unwell today and is doubtful for Sunday – horrible luck given what he has prioritised this season. A lot of illness disrupting the peloton it seems.

On the face of it a massive gift to everyone else capable of winning the race – although vdP being clear fav may not be such a helpful thing for him in how the race unfolds.

NP was 373 apparently!

Tour of Flanders on Sunday – first time for the Women’s peloton in going up the Koppenberg as well. Annemiek van Vleuten is the defending champion.

Men’s race seems quite an open one – no Peter Sagan, no Julian Alaphilippe, Wout van Aert is in doubt (missed the team recon ride due to illness). Tom Pidcock is on the start list though as is last year’s winner Kasper Asgreen.

Pogacar outside chance? Solo long attack?

MVdP massive favourite but hasn’t much team support. Can see Laporte or Benoit going and no one chasing. Pidcock has a strong team around him so has a good chance. I expect MVdP will go early and hope only 1 from each team can follow.

The old Quickstep wolfpack of years gone by have had a quiet spring by their standards. No doubt missing Declercq the tractor, who’s just coming back and they have a lot of illness going around so I guess Asgreen will be freelancing. I’d like to see Turgis and Campenaerts do well this year and spare a thought for poor old Sep Vanmarke who can’t ride as Israel whatever they are called, are out due to Covid cases. He’s had so much bad luck at Flanders over the years.

The obvious prediction is that Jumbo seek to isolate MvDP and do him in a sprint, a la Asgreen. Hopefully, Pidcock’s form is coming back and he’ll be there to contest the final.

Mads P v MVdP for me. Would like MVdP to get it though.

Can’t see Pogacar having the power to drop MVdP but I could imagine them both going clear together

Would love to see a spectacular MVDP win a la Amstel Gold. But think Pogacar will be in with a great shout (not a fan!).

Wout’s got Covid! Wonder how rest of Jumbo are feeling? Benoot seemed pretty healthy on Wednesday.