Vuelta 2021 ????????

[Yyyy]

4 hours ago, TheoG said:

I might be wrong but in the end I think Louis will end up higher in the GC than Eiking anyway.  In the past Louis was too passive for my liking, seeing him being a bit more aggressive, I like.  Sure he probably stepped on Eiking toes but personally I don't mind that .... .

Nice to see Meinjies upfront and aggressive yes but if he sabotages IWG GC hopes (and by this i mean an almost increasing likelihood of a top 10 for Eiking as each stage goes by) then it could work against him for future opportunities

1 hour ago, Mountain Bru said:

I reckon he learnt that move in the Movistar playbook. 

If I was the IWG DS, I'd have been pissed. Would have been so bad if Eiking got dropped and lost red while Meintjies meme attacked to maybe get a top 10 at best.

But having said that, I get the feeling the IWG DS writes down the tactics for the day with a wax crayon in his colouring in book every morning while drinking tea out of a sippy cup

 

 

So i havnt been following cycling long enough to add much value when it comes to tactics but been listening and being influenced by Lance, Johan and co as well as Chris Horner of  lately.

I would have to say what Meintjies did was not the brightest move. Once Yates when  Eiking was starting to suffer and was isolated with Meintjies riding off ahead

 

 

[Mountain Bru]

25 minutes ago, YaseenEnos said:

So i havnt been following cycling long enough to add much value when it comes to tactics but been listening and being influenced by Lance, Johan and co as well as Chris Horner of  lately.

 

 

I'm not a fan of Lance's podcast -  I feel like they waffle on about nonsense 90% of the time, and Lance has such an abrasive/macho man/look at how great I am kind of personality that I don't always enjoy it. But between him and Hincappie, they have some good insight into the inner workings of the peloton and some cool rider info, but not always too much in the way of analysis. Horner is sometimes interesting too, but I feel like his content is really time dependent and doesn't have much "re-watchability". Like in the hype of the TDF, I'll have a look at it, but never go back to it after that. 

In my opinion, if you want to learn about actual tactics, and kind of understand what actually cracking on in a bike race and why guys do what they do (when there's a logical reason), Lanterne Rouge's recaps, and his podcast (Lanterne Rouge Cycling Podcast) are the absolute best, and are usually pretty entertaining. 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC77UtoyivVHkpApL0wGfH5w

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1sTqWskIXqSItyojGhXPyQ

And if you're a bit old school, the original "bike race analyzer" is called Cosmo Catalano on youtube. 
https://www.youtube.com/user/cosmocatalano
Old, but quality stuff and really interesting to watch "How the race was won". 

[J Wakefield]

20 hours ago, Mountain Bru said:

@J Wakefield Great ride from Majka yesterday. Was it always the plan for him to do a ambitious 70km solo attack?

Also, does Majka still have functioning kidneys after neading a fresh  bidon every 2 minutes for 70km? 

Thank you and yes great ride. Haha no he is fine. Different bidons have different inside so anything from water to iso to 60 or 80g of cho etc and with the high carb volume they are gut trained to handle high volume per hour. 

[DJuice]

19 minutes ago, J Wakefield said:

Thank you and yes great ride. Haha no he is fine. Different bidons have different inside so anything from water to iso to 60 or 80g of cho etc and with the high carb volume they are gut trained to handle high volume per hour. 

John, how does the teams energy drinks differ from off the shelves purchase from us wannebees?  Just percentage, the technical detail will be way above my understanding.

Do the team get off the shelve products or special formulas or even per rider formulated?

[DieselnDust]

were those sticky bidons? all that carb must make them very tacky

[J Wakefield]

1 hour ago, DJuice said:

John, how does the teams energy drinks differ from off the shelves purchase from us wannebees?  Just percentage, the technical detail will be way above my understanding.

Do the team get off the shelve products or special formulas or even per rider formulated?

Yes and no, most of or basically all of the products are what you can buy in the shops if that brand is available where you are. In some cases a small change may be made to increase something or add something in that isnt in. 

The nutrition is periodised to each rider and then additionally at each extra feed there is specific bottles, gels etc handed out based on expenditure. 
Some riders are only able to consume 90g/cho per hour and some up to 120 so you not giving rider X 120g is he cant handle it. Toilet paper is expensive....

Based of expenditure that day their post race recovery, dinner etc will be provided off that info and then breakfast will be the same and what the following stage entails. 

Its not just eat pasta as much as you can and go ride your bike. 

[J Wakefield]

53 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

were those sticky bidons? all that carb must make them very tacky

They dont typically leak no.

[Ozzie NL]

2 hours ago, J Wakefield said:

Thank you and yes great ride. Haha no he is fine. Different bidons have different inside so anything from water to iso to 60 or 80g of cho etc and with the high carb volume they are gut trained to handle high volume per hour. 

Equates to the cycling version of potty trained????

['Dale]

Gastric emptying at WorldTour levels - the final frontier, tricky stuff and vital to performance. Gotta love John's gracious response to the "tacky" carb-heavy bottle question.????

Today's work - one with the men with big quad, superior fast-twitch mossels and leadout organisational skills.

Edited August 31, 2021 by 'Dale

[Mountain Bru]

33 minutes ago, 'Dale said:

Gotta love John's gracious response to the "tacky" carb-heavy bottle question.????

 

Twice now he's played the ultimate "I don't know what you're talking about, Officer" card.... Well played Mr Wakefield... ????

(In case you missed it, Majka seemed to be taking a bottle from his DS almost every time the camera showed him on screen. Might just be the perception from the footage that was shown, but I only watched for around 30 minutes or 40 minutes, and I swear I saw him take like 4 bottles from the DS. The man must have been seriously thirsty.) 

Not taking anything away from Majka though. To pull off a 70km solo break is pretty special, even if the guys behind you are disorganized. The fact that Kruiswjik just dangled at around 90s back for what felt like an hour shows how strong Majka was too. There might have been shenanigans in the groups trying to bridge that slowed them down, but Kruiswijk would have been trying as hard as he could to close the gap, and couldn't make any head way. Really special ride from Majka. 

Edited August 31, 2021 by Mountain Bru

[J Wakefield]

I didn’t see the stage as I left Vuelta and came here to Belgium for Benelux Tour so all I can add is that when I was at Vuelta it had days of 43/44’c it was insane and riders where consuming many bidons and also to keep cool by pouring on themselves as well as ice in stockings
 

example when Caruso broke away with 62km to go and won on Velofique, I was at 7km to go parked next to their soigneur. He handed him 3 bottles alone then. 2 to drink the remainder as coolant. 
 

look how many bottles Landa used when he did the infamous breakaway. 
 

Majka is a monster on a bike; he came to win a stage and not hunt GC so being spot on on that day makes sense. 
 

Not defending as I was not there or saw the overall stage but wanting to add insight possibly as it was different grabbing bottles than watching 3 BH Burgos riders come around the corner holding their team car…..

[Mountain Bru]

12 minutes ago, J Wakefield said:

I didn’t see the stage as I left Vuelta and came here to Belgium for Benelux Tour so all I can add is that when I was at Vuelta it had days of 43/44’c it was insane and riders where consuming many bidons and also to keep cool by pouring on themselves as well as ice in stockings
 

example when Caruso broke away with 62km to go and won on Velofique, I was at 7km to go parked next to their soigneur. He handed him 3 bottles alone then. 2 to drink the remainder as coolant. 
 

look how many bottles Landa used when he did the infamous breakaway. 
 

Majka is a monster on a bike; he came to win a stage and not hunt GC so being spot on on that day makes sense. 
 

Not defending as I was not there or saw the overall stage but wanting to add insight possibly as it was different grabbing bottles than watching 3 BH Burgos riders come around the corner holding their team car…..

I love hearing your views from actually being at the race. I can imagine it's been a really tough race in the heat. Thanks for the sharing. Who are you riding for at Benelux? McNulty?

Just to be clear though, I'm not accusing Majka of anything suspect. It just looked a bit bad on TV when every time they cut to him, he seemed to take a bottle from the DS. But it's part of the game, and I'm 100% sure Kruiswijk had just as much support from his DS while trying to chase. 

[J Wakefield]

1 hour ago, Mountain Bru said:

I love hearing your views from actually being at the race. I can imagine it's been a really tough race in the heat. Thanks for the sharing. Who are you riding for at Benelux? McNulty?

Just to be clear though, I'm not accusing Majka of anything suspect. It just looked a bit bad on TV when every time they cut to him, he seemed to take a bottle from the DS. But it's part of the game, and I'm 100% sure Kruiswijk had just as much support from his DS while trying to chase. 

No I did not think that accusation at all.

Yes, McNulty, maybe Bjerg, Hirschi and sprints with Gaviria haha. Kinda like lets go race bikes. 

[DieselnDust]

6 hours ago, J Wakefield said:

They dont typically leak no.

are those TACX bottles, cos my named bottles leak like  the plumbing in Venice

 

also is CHO short for CarboHydrate (carbon with a HO group)?

When I google cho I find it hard to believe that vietnamese food is going to go down well in km 157 at 40 degrees of heat

Edited August 31, 2021 by DieselnDust

[J Wakefield]

1 hour ago, DieselnDust said:

are those TACX bottles, cos my named bottles leak like  the plumbing in Venice

 

also is CHO short for CarboHydrate (carbon with a HO group)?

When I google cho I find it hard to believe that vietnamese food is going to go down well in km 157 at 40 degrees of heat

They Elite bottles. 

Yes carbohydrates and def not Vietnamese food!!

[emme]

Mountain stage live from start on ss6.Start is going to be hectic..!!