The Cobbled Classics thread – spoilers!

I was being a bit silly about Uno-X, although they were the only team wehre everyone finished in a race where entire teams were pulling out. Probably a result of the weather being typical of a Bergen summers day.

On a different note, yesterday reminded me that I don’t really lke watching races with bad weather that much. I end up feeling cold myself and also a bit uneasy about the riders making themselves sick.

I was being a bit silly about Uno-X,

I have spent the last half hour wondering if I did fall asleep watching it and missed the Uno X TTT! 😀

https://www.rouleur.cc/blogs/the-rouleur-journal/liege-bastogne-liege-2024-route-contenders-and-prediction

Liège-Bastogne-Liège Preview

Couple of previews for the Men’s L-B-L; a lot of talk that it might end up being a Pogacar / MvdP battle but the weather is looking pretty miserable which could upset things the way it did at Fleche Wallone.

Rouleur have a good rundown on the Women’s L-B-L too:

https://www.rouleur.cc/blogs/the-rouleur-journal/liege-bastogne-liege-femmes-2024-route-contenders-and-prediction

The only previous winner racing tomorrow is Demi Vollering. Lizzie Deignan is obviously out with her broken arm but Vos is on the startlist. Elisa Longo Borghini is the main favourite though.

Info on watching:

https://www.cyclist.co.uk/in-depth/watch-liege-bastogne-liege

Snow down near Bastogne this morning.  Going to be chilly

The only previous winner racing tomorrow is Demi Vollering. Lizzie Deignan is obviously out with her broken arm but Vos is on the startlist. Elisa Longo Borghini is the main favourite though.

Much more interesting this season that SD-Worx are not dominating everything, and if Vollering leaves that will cement the trend.  On which subject, if Vollering goes to FDJ, what will happen to my favourite, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig?

2 degrees and wet

2 degrees and wet

A mate did the full Sportive yesterday, said it was properly grim!

dry at the moment though looks like they are riding into mordor! 🙂

All beginning to get a bit edgy now, won’t be long before it kicks off!

yeah seems like they’ve had a whiff of something 😕

Gap to the break has started tumbling! Suddenly all getting organised…

Ooh, big crash! That’s caused some splits, MvdP is the wrong side of that one – a load of chasing to get the splintered groups back together.

ipt giving it the beans making it tough for the MvdP group

Well this already looks like Pogacar’s to lose 😕

this mental, full on from 80k out

Outrageous the tows that the MVDP group is getting!

Rob Hatch pronunciation of De-ca-thlon 😂

Outrageous the tows that the MVDP group is getting!

I’m glad it’s back together though! Much more interesting like this although it’s one seriously whittled down peloton.

They’re doing nearly 60mph into the bottom of the climb! 🤯

Aaaand Pog lights the blue touch paper

his seated power is just off the charts, everyone else is out of the saddle wrestling the bike as if it’s a singlespeed….. Pog seated spinning away!

Well the racing might be more or less done but at least I still get to enjoy one of my highlights of the racing year: learning from Rob Hatch just how many syllables are in the correct pronunciation of Liaueaeigea Bastioiangyearear Luwaeuaeeaiegea.

Oh it’s really grim there now, chucking it down. Race blown to pieces. Pogacar still pulling out time.

Too easy – barely out of breath! Looks like he stepped straight out of a salon!

Impressive finish from MvdP in that sprint actually. Bardet’s 2nd place was nice to see as well.

Cool drone footage down the finishing straight too!

Just saw in the replay ‘Attack!!’ was written on the road at the point that Pog went. Cool.

Nice to see Bardet come home as first human.

Was also really pleased to see Bernal looking strong. Would love to see him on the podium at le tour

Was also really pleased to see Bernal looking strong. Would love to see him on the podium at le tour

Yep, good to see he’s recovered to near his previous form. Not sure where he finished though – it was outside the top 10, Pidcock was 10th but he can’t have been much further down.

some classy riding from Bardet

Women’s race coming down to a close finish! Lead group of 3 just been joined by 3 chasers, all getting very cat and mouse.

Great sprint!
I love a race like that where you can’t really call the winner and especially up against the favourites.

Vos leading in the chase group for 7th.

even Remco may not have lived with the Pogster!

Rob Hatch pronunciation of De-ca-thlon

Rob does like accurate pronunciations.

Was also really pleased to see Bernal looking strong. Would love to see him on the podium at le tour
Yep, good to see he’s recovered to near his previous form. Not sure where he finished though – it was outside the top 10, Pidcock was 10th but he can’t have been much further down.

He was 21st in the same group as MvdP, Tom, et al.

He was 21st in the same group as MvdP, Tom, et al.

He was never going to be any good in a bunch sprint but he was right up there on the last two climbs and in between them animating the race, closing gaps etc. was great to see.

Still thinking about Bardet’s ride yesterday. It reminded me a bit of when he was racing Froome in the Tour – outgunned on many fronts but still had the courage to put everything on the line for a result. He’s one gritty fella.

The rest of the top 10 (MvdP excepted) reads as a list of riders due a big win soon. Van Gils in particular seems to be single-handedly reaping enough UCI points to ensure Lotto move back up to WorldTour in the next promotion round.

still had the courage to put everything on the line for a result. He’s one gritty fella.

And he was so happy with it too! That is worth a lot as well – no tantrums over being beaten, just chuffed to do that well. I like Bardet, he’s always been a classy rider, even though he’s almost always one of the “nearly but never quite” guys.

I like Bardet, but he does sit on quite a lot (probably a french thing 😉 )

We watched on catch-up, having subscribed to Discovery+. Quite impresed with their thing where (only on bigger races, and perhaps only on the firestick app as I can’t see it on the website or the iPhone app) you can go “up” from the time bar to see “points of interest” to jump to – they label climbs and interviews, but also show crashes and significant events like “Pogacar attack”. Quite glad we did, as I’m LESS impressed by the fact that there still isn’t a 1 hr highlights programme available for LBL. Mind you there still isn’t a highlights programme for Stage 5 of the Tour of The Alps – stages 1 to 4 are there but nothing for the final, decisive stage. Even when they do show a “highlights” programme, they usually work backwards and just start showing coverage approx 1 hour before the end of the race. there’s rarely any kind of summary of what’s happened previously, and depending on the presenting team you may or may not get any description of the actual race situataion – some presenter will explain who’s in the break, what the gaps are, who’s looking strong and so on, while others will just say “this is the lead group they’re very strong cyclists, it’s very difficult” and so on. Bloody useless “insight” from a former pro and nothing of value from the commentator.

they’re very strong cyclists

Commentator Cliche 101.
“he/she is such a strong rider…”

I know, that’s why they’re riding in a professional bike race. Now tell me who they are, whereabouts in the race they are, what team they’re in, who they’re working for and why.

It’s not as bad as Hugh Porter or Phil Liggett in their old age though, they were just a string of clichés.
“and look at the speed…!”

I can see that Hugh, it’s a professional bike race. 🙄

And Sean Kelly just needs to be retired now.
Commentator 1 (excited):
“And the attack goes! It’s all kicking off, here comes the counter attack! Sean, what’s your take on this move?!”
Sean Kelly (wakes up briefly)
“Yes, well, certaint-lee a big move, dey are really putting some effort in for shure” (goes back to sleep)

Great, thanks for the insight Sean…

“he was once a mountain biker/cyclocross rider so is a great bike handler” is perhaps my favourite cliché