Vetplant

Well, yes....

Managing a squad for something as significant as a monument must be tough. Alpecin: MvdP already won it, but he would surely love to Triple up. So, you can send Søren Kragh ANDERSEN up the road, for the others to chase, but you actually want him to be caught eventually to allow MvdP to the launch his own final attack. PS. Sam Gaze! Haven't heard that name in a while. Could be an interesting dark horse. Same at JV: WvA dearly wants this one, I would think. So you have Tiesj and Laporte to play up front, who can then actually run away and win it. So setting it up in such a way that Wout has a good shot could be tricky. A 2-up or 3-up attack seems like a very good way to go away and stay away. Can they make it work? UAE: Tadej is going to have to try something mental to beat the two 'crossers, he has been unable to drop them on the key attacks this Classics season. I don't know what rabbit he needs to pull from the hat to win, but we know for sure he is a racer and will try anything. INEOS: Pidcock has been somewhat flying below the radar the past couple of weeks, even though he won Strade Bianchi. I'm backing him as an alternative to the BIG 3. Then for the 'Mortals' that could sneak a win if the big guns look at each other: Alberto BETTIOL, Matej MOHORIC, even Biniam GIRMAY has a shot if he can have guys in the group chasing down a small lead group for it to to end in a sprint. Going to be great fun to watch!

Might not have gone too swimmingly, Affini had a DNF:

Tech has probably been on shakers and test benches and passed the tests there. This outing at DwarsDoor is low-profile enough to not have repurcussions if it failed during real-world race conditions. I don't see someone like Wout, Matthieu or Pog racing with this, as I think the unproven nature of it isn't worth the risk. But someone else, just half-a-step below these guys might take the chance to give them that 1-2% they need to be able to compete. But only if it passed with flying colours at DwarsDoor. So Dylan van Baarle, Tiesj and Lapporte might have these on at the start of RVV or PR. If it fails mechanically during the race, they can just swap out for a "normal" front wheel. So, you aren't tied to that tech for the whole race.

17km to go Alexander Kristoff part of a 2-man lead group with 20-ish seconds lead Tune in if you can

Interesting tech. Very appropriate timing to see it out in the wild.

And when these three don't start, the "mortals have a chance". Like today at DDV

I have to agree, some performances are truly unbelievable

Broadcast starting now on SS. Looks like they had a proper wet start. Currently on 162km to Go. GvA in the break with a lead of 3m30s My money on Mads Pederson in this kind of weather. My heart would love a Biniam repeat win though.

My spidey senses are thinking TJV will launch WvA and/or Laporte the way they did on Stage 4 of the TDF last year:

I'd always choose lithium batteries. Long-term, they will always work out more economical. My father-in-law bought new Gel Batteries for his basic backup inverter, they lasted less than a year.

Imagine finding out from a Hubber that you are moving to a new team, that would be quite something. All the best Mr Wakefield!

I used to experience cramps in those final 20kms, then discovered CrampEase tablets. Popped one regularly during the event, never had issues again.

Thanks for the clarification, I was confused

EDITED: I thought it was Tshwane Classic. My bad.

In the comments....

That one is easy.... but if you get it wrong it will potentially be 100% headwind...

Like one of these...?

At school, our one friend was Very into electronics. Soldering boards and building circuits was his main hobby. So imagine our surprise when he showed up one day with burn marks on his eyelid! He was in thought, soldering away, and suddenly had an itch on his eyelid that needed scratching, and he scratched it!

And Top Ganna just smashed the World Record in the Individual Pursuit at the Track World championships! Brilliant week for Ganna!

I don't agree with Greg by the way. For the Average Joe at least, faster is easier. 4 Hours on Jhb Roads, in November, on a Mtb, dodging all kinds of riders... is much harder than 2h55 on a Road Bike in the first bunch of batches in the cool morning breeze with open roads.

It doesn’t get any easier, you just get faster. – Greg Lemond