Dirt Tracker

I bought a set of the Flow / Hopes at CWC and they have been great so far. For that price I think it's a bargain. They are hand built in house and I've put them through some tough stuff and they have come out fine. You will get some people saying the spokes aren't double butted, brass nipples etc but from my experience they are none the less for it. One benefit to think of is the Hope hubs are very reliable and you can get all the spares you need easily so should last long enough to rebuild with different rims if you want in a couple of years. Edit: The Lyne and the Rapide are also really, really good wheels. I've got a set of the Lynes on a different bike and for the price are just great. I think out of the options you have you're not going to make a bad decision.

Those are Pretty nice.

Charge Spoon in Brown. Great saddles. I've been running them for years on all my bikes and would be hard pressed to change. https://www.tredz.co.uk/.Charge-Spoon-Cromo-Saddle_65215.htm

Not a bad 'minor' team hunting for opportunities. I've not studied the course but with the racing being so full gas the opportunistic stages will either be abundant as it will be chaos or strangled by the bigger teams. Nizzolo has been there or there about since the restart, Pozzovivo has alot of experience, Boasson Hagen has won before, Valgren needs to show some of the big ticket talent that got him signed and the rest are pretty solid. Would love Gibbons take a win for but it's going to be a fierce battle to the line for the sprinters even though it looks like a few are going to be missing through recent injuries and crashes. Wonder who in the team are looking for a new contract this year?

Oh, you got the new giant! Very nice! Kidding. Looks amazing.

Pleasure my man. Hope you enjoyed the riding on the weekend.

I read somewhere this morning that Julian Alaphillipe had a broken wheel, 3 bike changes and 6 punctures. Overall 160 riders started and 42 finished.

http://www.steephill.tv/2020/strade-bianche/photos/page-01/400-_FF52000.jpg

http://www.steephill.tv/2020/strade-bianche/photos/page-01/272-_FF51885.jpg

http://www.steephill.tv/2020/strade-bianche/photos/page-01/240-_FF51818.jpg

http://www.steephill.tv/2020/strade-bianche/photos/page-01/250-CORVOS_00032325-105.jpg

He looked like he wanted it from the world go today. Really pleased he took it after 2 podiums. MVDP gets a lot of the rockstar coverage but WVA has been building his road craft, while being stupidly talented, quite quietly. The way he rode for Gilbert in the worlds and stuck with him was a real teller about him. Hope this is the first of many. The young guys are doing great things. Remco in Burgos, WVA here. Let's see what the rest of the season brings. It's great to have the season back and opening with such a gem of a race made a real statement.

I managed to get it working and to be honest I think it did pretty well. I don't know how I bought the pass, just pressed loads of things then the Apple payment thing appeared, took my money and then wouldn't acknowledge it found about an hour. Oddly it presented the payments to me in Rands even though I was running a VPN to make it look like I was in the UK. So I tuned off the VPN and ran it normally and it was pretty good.

In Burgos Sosa has cracked Remco to take the stage for Ineos with Landa and Chaves all in the mix until the last 700m. Doesn't change much as Landa can only get 2 secs out of it and the young quickstep'r wraps up the GC nicely.

Cipo. Ewww. That oke is dodgy as. Currently on a charm offensive while he deflects from some unsavoury personal stuff by crushing junior riders on the track dressed in WC kit.

Just wish we could see more of it. The womens tour is going so well and not only deserve more races covered but better coverage in the race. Most of the moves today were lost unfortunately.

'That' corner on the climb will always be WVA's corner. Never seen a rider lock up and stop dead like that a few years back.

Leah Thomas is sitting at 1.16 for third on the road. The 'Rocky' moment would be Garcia fights back on the final climb for a gritty win but with AVV gapping her on corners and descents it doesn't look certain they will be together when the road rises.

Amazing to see how fast AVV destroyed the lone leaders advantage in such a short time. Gerry Ryan should dip into his pockets to keep the WC in the Mictchelton - Scott colours. Hope Gacia can recover enough to keep second. Weird not really seeing crowds. Looks more like a cameraman following a super fast coffee run!

You'd have to think AVV has this wrapped up the way she is going. She is in insane form.

14kms to go. Gacia is out front but the World Champ has dropped everyone else and carving in to the lead and we're in for a nail biting chase to the line.

I've got ExpressVNP running for the GCN App on my mobile. Have been trying access Eurosport with my VPN on my desktop but it seems to kill my connection dead and the site just hangs. At this rate I'll just load DSTV and sit back.

Not yet. I was waiting to see what other options might be about. Out of those 2 I'd rather give my money to GCN but I don't know anything about who is giving the services to them and their backbone. I'm guessing they are derived from one of the big guys and their infrastructure. Think I'll sign up now and then let you know. Edit - Now signed up I've ignore up and paid for the RaceTV on GCN but now it won't accept that I've actually given them money. Also when I go into the race app it says that the coverage will be at 4:30pm UK time.

In the the womens event seems Ashleigh MP is out after a training crash and Trek ladies team has had their bike stolen en mass with thieves cutting through the top of their team truck and taking 6 race bikes. Say what you like about SA but I've not had 6 of anything stolen here, let alone bikes.

So do we have a winner to be able to watch the race today on line? I was thinking of doing the GCN sign up as it's on special for £19 for the year. Eurosport is also on special @ £19. I've been through most of the 'free' options and also the UK channels but hardly anyone is covering them.