nice op

Great races today, although Gent-Wevelgem was sadly affected by COVID as both Trek (including defending champion Mads Pedersen) and Bora-Hansgrohe were excluded from the race.

In true Flemish classics fashion, the riders were spread everywhere on the course on a day with lots of crosswind.

A strong group of some of the usual classic specialist and sprinter suspects including WvA, Trentin, Nizzolo, Küng and Sam Bennett got away and were never really threatened. It quickly became clear that it would probably be settled between them, although Bennett (and Danny van Poppel) went cold shortly before the finish. Unlike the others, WvA had a teammate with him, Nathan van Hooydonck who was just incredible, and the two of them had no problem controlling the race until the finish when WvA crushed the others in typical power sprint fashion.



Thomas De Gendt pulled a De Gendt special in Catalonia, winning solo in style after dropping Matej Mohoric on the final climb, with 3 INEOS riders taking the podium, Adam Yates first, then Porte and finally Geraint Thomas

remove dutchman & frenchman from the thread title

The notorious SE thread title curse may be at play (like how it probably contributed to Remco Evenepoel's nightmare crash last year - thankfully I didn't mention him by name).

Although we're not yet at the classics best suited for these two. Between them they have 7 wins since 2018 in the classics that remain.

Dylan van Baarle won Dwars door Vlaanderen after a huge ride where he rode solo for something like 60 km.

Several groups were chasing him but they never came close to catching him, which resulted in the biggest win of van Baarle's career so far.

Now only the big one remains on Sunday, usually one of the best races on the calendar.

Asgreeeeeeeeeeeen omfg what a ride

congrats to Asgreen, was clear with 50km to go that he was way above Julian

Tune in on the final stage of Basque tour that is going right now.

Pure madness, 10/10 entertainment one of the best race ever seen

Yeah really fun stage, Pogacar working for McNulty wasn't the greatest idea.

Roglic is awesome

He is but wish he had raced for the stage win.

Seriously all the anti-roglic buzz after he caught that guy on the finish line of the Paris-Nice stage is so ******ed and it looks like it had an effect on him for this last stage

How stupid or sore do the media and a bunch of frenchmen have to be to paint Roglic as the bad guy for going for stage wins?

He couldn't contest the stage, if they don't deal it, Gaudu stays in Roglic wheel and destroys him anyway.

Anyway it would be the most stupid move to behave like an ******* after staying in Gaudu's wheel the whole Arrate. He would be sure to have no help from anybody in any circumstances on Tour if he did that.

Obviously that buzz when he caught Mader was stupid, Mader did nothing for him in that stage.

Don't know wtf you have with french, you looks like a salty belgian after WC SF, when Roglic crashed in Päris Nice every french rider dropped gave him turns to try to bridge with the peloton, even Bouhanni did

Indeed a fantastic stage, Jumbo, deliberate or not, end up looking like geniuses while the opposite can be said about UAE.

+1 to what Guivre is saying, it's standard if two riders are attacking together, one mainly for the GC and one only for the stage that the stage goes to the latter, at least as long as he puts in the work, which Gaudu did. Roglic would become the most unpopular man in the peloton if he broke this pact, and being unpopular is a huge impediment to success in cycling, so it's in his own interest to not win that stage even though he presumably could have won a sprint with ease.

I also found the Mader thing silly. I felt bad for him when he was overtaken, but that's the nature of the game, you shouldn't let some guy win just because he fought bravely. It's supposed to be a ruthless and cruel competitive sport, the heartbreaks when someone fails to finish what they've started inches from the finishing line is part of what makes cycling great.

+1 to all of the aboves

Cavendish has won a race for the first time in more than 3 years.

You absolutely love to see it. After how emotional he was last year when he thought he might have rode his last race as he was struggling to find a team even though he wanted to go on despite his decline, it's great to see him win again, and to see how much he still loves the sport, wanting to go on even though he's set for life and no longer at the top.

With Greipel also making third, it feels like a sprint result from a decade ago.

When it rains it pours - Cavendish wins again.

It's never going to happen because of Sam Bennett but imagine if he was picked to go to France in July.

Rule, Britannia! Britannia rule the roads!

Cavendish does it again. No wins for 3 years, now 3 in 3 days.

Tom Pidcock with his biggest win yet in De Brabrantse Pijl, beating van Aert and Trentin in a sprint.

this is absurdly close, I suggest to give it to WvA to make up for wednesday

Looked like WvA on the phone screen from that guy. Top production value.

A great race either way, sucked for Roglic with the mechanical, he was looking great. But he did say he was racing for WvA, so if WvA did win I'm sure he's not too fussed about it.

Thread title = vindicated thanks to Alaphilippe winning La Fleche Wallonne for the third time after overtaking Roglic shortly before the finishing line. Valverde sprinted to a third place finish in this race which he's won 5 times, he's in good form at the moment.

Deja vu LBL finish, Alaphilippe overtaken on the line by a Slovenian again, only this time it was Pogacar.

What the **** is this modern phenomenon of youtube highlights of sporting events spoiling the result FFS

For most major races you can find the final km on the peloton subreddit in the results thread a couple of hours after the finish. For LBL, you can watch the final 88 km, but steer clear of the comments.

Somehow Thomas will always find a way to crash.