Vetplant

I just added the correct Afrikaans lingo....👍 (Apologies to those who find it offensive)

🤞Remco vs Pog vs Vingegaard Yes please!

My thoughts too, give it a day or two to sus things out. If needed, you can pull from the race at the start line on Tuesday... A bit weird TBH

Interesting.....

That sucks! Really looked forward to the next two weeks of racing from Remco. Alas, the rest of the gents will surely bring a good battle, but Primoz should then wrap this up convincingly in the end* * : if he stays on his bike

The rule is you need to cross the finish line with your bike, right?

Relax.... turns out to have been a minor incident: 13:49:28 In the meantime, Pinot has been caught, while the World Champion is now back in the bunch Live News 13:47:41 Thumbs up and wave to the camera: Evenepoel looks good! Live News 13:46:44 The fall was triggered by a dog, which suddenly jumped into the middle of the road Evenepoel and a team-mate went to the ground. The Belgian needed a few seconds to get up, probably a little frightened and surprised by the sudden tumble. He is now back on the road with four team mates and is rejoining the group.

Anyone near a TV to tell us what is going on?! Live News 13:40:36 REMCO EVENEPOEL ON THE GROUND!!!

JV going a bit too far to try and beat Remco?

@daniellloyd1 Primož Roglič has won three of the last four Grand Tours he's finished, but not finished three of the last four Grand Tours he's started.

Flip, would have been better to see Pog and Remco have a good battle today. Alas, the crash took it away from us. Heal up Pog, LeTour awaits.

Remco is gone! That is all she wrote folks...

Remco now the out-and-out favourite. Can they finish it off...? Tiesj still able to sit back and watch Quickstep chase his teammate. Fingers crossed Tiesj can sneak a win here...

Without checking, I wanted to say Merckx, but that is too obvious. So from my investigations, I'm guessing Sean Kelly, 1986?

I took the discussion further over here, feel free to chip in:

@Irvin85, out of respect of the Classics thread, let's discuss the doping thing further here. Is it fine if we "pretend to live under a rock" with other sports? Let's take Rugby for example: is there even close to the same level of scrutiny on doping controls as there is for Athletics and Cycling? Or, is it a case of us liking the status quo of not labelling Rugby as a dopers sport, thus we don't increase doping control? Cases for which a final decision has been rendered and a sanction(2019) -Cycling: 139 -Athletics: 173 -Football: 67 -Weightlifting: 137 -Rugby: 57 -American Football:14 -Baseball: 15 -Bodybuilding: 217 WADA(2019) report attached for context. There might be a later report, but this one was easy to find. 2019_adrv_report_external_final_12_december_2021_0_0.pdf

What might seem counter-intuitive is that it is actually the riders that DON'T do well that is more likely to be caught for doping... https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/italian-rider-fabio-mazzucco-faces-four-year-ban-for-epo-positive/

Highlights from last year:

Well... this is ominous for LBL.. Kid might well sit on 5 monuments by this time next week. Going to take something special for anyone to beat him in his current form

@Adam2007, a left-field idea here: Have a look at which Carbon wheelset you REALLY want, instead of what you can settle for at R6000. Now, take your R6000, draw up a business plan to get that amount up to the amount you need for your ideal wheels. -Buy snacks at the Big retailers, sell them during breaks at school -Cut the lawn for neighbors in the afternoons, clean their pools -Get a waitering job at a local restaurant over weekends/School Holidays -Buy bicycle parts on Facebook marketplace, clean them up, come resell them here Do whatever tickles your fancy to get there. 1. You'll get an awesome set of wheels 2. You'll get fantastic life experience, this can also be added to a CV once you leave school/varsity. Future employers will value your work ethic. OR, the entrepreneur bug will bite and you will never work for a boss in your life. Use-it, don't us it. Enjoy the XC!

MvdP vs Pog: I think MvdP might consider focusing an entire season to building towards those "final-2" monuments to complete the set. The inverse of what Pog needs to do, which is to build muscle mass, MvdP will need to give up some of his Classics Power to be an excellent climber to knock off the final two. Out of the options provided, I think MvdP has the higher probability of reaching 5. Pog CAN do it, but he needs a lot more luck than MvdP does. WvA: Even though WvA only has 1 monument, which is MSR, he has the one that is very tricky one to get. I think Wout is actually more balanced and have less adaptation required to be ready for the various challenges of the remaining monuments. -Flanders he lost in a photo finish to MvdP in 2020. (Within Reach) -Roubaix, 2nd in 2022, 3rd in 2023. (Within reach) -LBL, 3rd in 2022. (Within reach) -Lombardia...... loading: "The Giro di Lombarida is definitely an option this year," van Aert told Wielerrevue. "If I want to be successful there, I need specific preparation with a training camp at altitude. And I noticed that it is difficult to make three peaks of form during the road season." The Italian monument is the only one van Aert has not raced until today, but that may change in 2023. PS.He won on the Mont Ventoux stage, so he can climb. (LBL and Lombardia)

Watched the 3 hour replay now as we were on the road this afternoon. What a crazy race this is, luck plays a massive part in winning this. It could just as well have been MvdP going down when Degenkolb hit the deck. Or maybe, his handling skills is what won him the race as any other rider might have gone down alongside Degenkolb... Gutted for Wout, that blooming puncture robbed us of an epic 2-up sprint in the velodrome, where he just might have been able to pip MvdP. (But honestly, I think MvdP wins in such scenario too). Well played Alpecin, worthy reward being 1-2 today. They bossed the race.

2022 Results: Outside of WvA and MvdP, who are deserved favorites with their recent run of form, I think Mohoric is in with a solid chance as a dark horse that can slip away without an immediate reaction from the favourites.: Stefan Kung is my other dark horse with 6th at E3 and 6th at Ronde. I think the biggest determiner of success for WvA and MvdP is whether their teammates can be there as long as possible to keep covering the attacks before they are ready to launch their own. 2-up sprint between the two Cyclo-crossers in the velodrome...? YES PLEASE!

Some people called the first three big results waaaaay out, in December already. Getting 3 in a row is nice, but let's see whether someone is able to get to 4 and 5 in a row respectively. They seem alligned that WvA takes Roubaix...