Pro Cycling 2015 thread: Le Tour, Giro, Vuelta, etc.

[gusmahler]

I started last year's cycling thread with a kit video. Might as well do that again:



Here's the pro tour calendar. Season starts tomorrow!

[gusmahler]

Biggest off-season news includes:

* Alberto Contador is going to go for the Giro/Tour double.
* Bradley Wiggins is leaving Sky after Paris-Roubaix
* Cadel Evans has retired
* Peter Sagan has moved to Tinkoff-Saxo

Also, important for American cycling fans, the UCI World championship will be held in Richmond, Virginia in September. Details here: http://richmond2015.com/

[Andro]

in

[disco5tu]

cav speaking his mind. 1:32 particularly good

[gusmahler]

This has to win an award for the worst coverage ever. The camera angles are terrible. The camera quality is 2 decades old. The audio would have sounded better if they recorded on a laptop in a moving car. And the announcers--

Spoiler:

called the race for Cavendish even though the winner is clearly the guy in the white jersey and Cav isn't wearing a white jersey this season.

Spoiler:

The winner, Gavira, is in his first year as a pro. So that means, in his first race ever, he beats a guy who has a legitimate claim to the title "best sprinter ever." Impressive.

[gusmahler]

A round-up of the bikes used in the pro tour:

http://cyclingtips.com.au/2015/01/20...e-pro-peloton/

[Nandos v2]

From what I've read, Cav is blaming the lack of visibility of the distance markers in the finishing straight. He was waiting for the 200m marker before launching his sprint, never saw it and therefore went too late.

You'd think a pro as experienced as Cav would be able to judge straight finishes by instinct however.

[gusmahler]

Stage 3 of the Tour de San Luis

Spoiler:

Etixx-QuickStep completely f'd up the lead out, meaning that, for the second time in 3 stages, Gavira, a rookie rider on a continental team, beat Cav in a sprint.

[kingweed]

Armstrongs first interview since Opera.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/30981609

[ntanygd760]

[gusmahler]

Stage 7 of the Tour de San Luis

More bad coverage. Either they covered the last kilometer in 26 seconds, meaning an average speed of 138 km/hr (86 mph) or they cut off a bunch of it.

[gusmahler]

Dubai Tour stage 1:

Spoiler:

Etixx Quick-Step does it's best to screw up the lead-out (whoever was in front of Renshaw was just terrible), but Cav still pulls it out.

[disco5tu]

just got round to watching some the tour down under highlights. pretty good stage.

[gusmahler]

Forget I ever said anything bad about the Etixx-QS lead out train; they absolutely killed it today:

[andyhop]

First stage of the Vuelta Andalucia and crashes have destroyed the field

[andyhop]

Vuelta Andalucia has been a great race with Contador out time trialling Froome and then dropping him on the first mountain finish stage before Froome fought his way back to limit the damage.Then yesterday's mountain finish had Froome drop Contador to turn a 27 second overall deficit into a 2 second lead.

[gusmahler]

Originally Posted by andyhop

Vuelta Andalucia has been a great race with Contador out time trialling Froome and then dropping him on the first mountain finish stage before Froome fought his way back to limit the damage.Then yesterday's mountain finish had Froome drop Contador to turn a 27 second overall deficit into a 2 second lead.

That end was amazing.

[The Brickie]

Wow nice. I was worried Contador was going to run away with everything this year - good to see it's still competitive.

[another_rack]

Het Volk and KBK next week, official season start IMO.

[DropTheHammer]

Stages 3 and 4 of Vuelta Andalucia were fantastic to watch. It was a real treat to watch what's in store for us this season with the Froome vs Contador rivalry. It's really fun to see them go head to head with their vastly different styles.

[another_rack]

Anyone know the price on Contador doing the double?

[gusmahler]

Team Astana is losing its UCI license! No defending the TdF title for Nibali?

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/201...tiur-de-france

Shocked that a team involved with Alexander Vinokourov could be doping!

[guivre1408]

And saxo tinkoff managed by Riis for years / Sky with lol wiggins becoming a climber are as clean as holy water

[gusmahler]

It'll be interesting to see who swoops up Nibali. Presumably, the other Specialized teams won't be interested in him (EQS concentrates on classics/sprints and Tinkoff has Contador).

[guivre1408]

Garmin, Belkin sucks in mountains, BMC will probably ride for Gilbert stages win, Movistar is stacked

AG2R, Katusha, Lampre are the only realistic teams capable of supporting him in mountain stages.