Topic: Pro Cycling 2023

[Knight]

Todays stage played out as expected.Which was a good thing as the route the final 5 km took was as moody as it gets.

A great win, from a great rider.

He must be hugely relieved. Been a long time in the wilderness for someone of his calibre.

[De La Goal]

My concern is people building up this double, Giro-Tour double is rare, iirc, only seven riders have managed it. Too lazy to search.

As to a triple...it's never been done simply because asking any rider to have form for 60 plus days over the course of a season isn't doable.

The last one was a ripped off his tits Pantani, was it not?

The double... It's being built up because (a) Pogi is an exceptional rider who has clealy managed his race diary with the double in mind, and (b) the issues attached to the other probable GC contenders.

Maybe Pogi will have a jours (or Tour) sans, Roglic will fall off, Remco will Remco, Vingo will face post-crash struggles - and Simon Yates will win the whole shebang. Or Adam. But I would make Pogi a strong favourite at this point - as do the bookies for that matter.

The triple - I'm being somewhat facetious. But hey, Sepp Kuss rode all three GTs last year, winning the third... 

Spoiler

Yeah, I *know* he wasn't riding for GC in any of 'em, but hey.

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[SouthDerryLaggo]

Pogacar seems to be able to keep himself at at least 90% all year which not many riders can do. Jonas goes 100% for the tour and does little else all year, similar to Lance. If Jonas is t fully fit at the tour then pogacar at 90% has a good chance

[De La Goal]

To be fair to Vingo, he looked very strong in winning Tirreno Adriatico. And he clearly fancied his chances at last year's Vuelta before Jumbo belatedly told him to stop attacking his teammates. But he just doesn't go for the classics - which is why he's less fun than, say, the Slovenian twosome, Pidcock, even S. Yates.

Pre-cancer, Armstrong was a pretty formidable one-day racer. It's only after he "got with the program" that the Tour became the sole focus. He'd still pop up in other races - I saw him at Circuit de la Sarthe back in 2001, for example.

[Baby Huey]

To be fair to Vingo, he looked very strong in winning Tirreno Adriatico. And he clearly fancied his chances at last year's Vuelta before Jumbo belatedly told him to stop attacking his teammates. But he just doesn't go for the classics - which is why he's less fun than, say, the Slovenian twosome, Pidcock, even S. Yates.

Pre-cancer, Armstrong was a pretty formidable one-day racer. It's only after he "got with the program" that the Tour became the sole focus. He'd still pop up in other races - I saw him at Circuit de la Sarthe back in 2001, for example.

Really? Museeuw was pretty formidable, you know, 6 monuments, amongst a plethora of other one day wins.

Armstrong won a Klasikoa and F-W, not much else. The Worlds he won was more to do with the attritional nature of that day, the weather and course were treacherous and  the favourites, along with lots of riders packed. But he stuck at it and won, so he can have that. Formidable, no.

As to his doping, he was on a full programme prior to his 1998 transformation.

[Baby Huey]

Pogacar seems to be able to keep himself at at least 90% all year which not many riders can do. Jonas goes 100% for the tour and does little else all year, similar to Lance. If Jonas is t fully fit at the tour then pogacar at 90% has a good chance

Vinegaard's programme is quite good. One race a month from Camino thru the start of the Tdf, for the past two seasons. The one month he doesn't race is spent at altitude. Same last year too. He did ride LBL and other races in the past, not well though.

[Baby Huey]

Just caught up with the finish at the Giro. Decent lead-out from Gaviria. Seriously, Milan is so like Kittel. Pure brutal speed. A better rider over the lumpy bits than Kittel was too. A nice break out race this.

[De La Goal]

Armstrong might not have been right at the top level of classics riders - but he was well on his way pre-cancer. Have a gander at his 1996 palmares - his last before illness. He was just 24 then.

And sure, he was already doping (like most of the pros), but the "program" I have in mind is the one for the Tour - and everything that implied. If nothing else, cancer seems to have triggered a realisation that he could win a dozen monuments, but that wouldn't impress the US audience as much as a single yellow jersey.

NB: I am absolutely *not* a Lance fan - more than anything, I despise the way he went well beyond the "patron" role and became an outright bully of the likes of Bassons and Simeone.

[De La Goal]

More importantly - today's Giro stage... Blimey.

Spoiler

Does anyone seriously see Pogi losing it from here? He's not very crashy, rarely gets sick, doesn't need to take risks... And how does the final week of the Giro take shape now?

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[SouthDerryLaggo]

final week is surely breaks winning every day. Ive never seen a mountain stage so dominant since..... landis and Froome really.

[San Diego Red]

final week is surely breaks winning every day. Ive never seen a mountain stage so dominant since..... landis and Froome really.

Pog didnt have to do that today if he didn't want to. He is hungry to win stages etc. He was under no threat from the rest of the GC peeps (and lets be honest there is no one in that group who can touch him). So he will probably try and win a stage or 2 before the end.....he probably shouldn't and save some energy for the TDF

[Knight]

final week is surely breaks winning every day. Ive never seen a mountain stage so dominant since..... landis and Froome really.

Landis' thing wasn't a thing really given he was immediately busted for it. Don't think Froome ever took so much time in such a relative short amount of time although he did have that epic getaway in the Giro which was probably the single most impressive GT stage I've ever watched.

[Rosario]

Vingegaard up Col du Granon in 2022 was more impressive given how quickly he put minutes into all his rivals. But 3 minutes in 15-20km is still mighty impressive even if the field is relatively weak compared to Pogacar.

[SouthDerryLaggo]

Landis' thing wasn't a thing really given he was immediately busted for it. Don't think Froome ever took so much time in such a relative short amount of time although he did have that epic getaway in the Giro which was probably the single most impressive GT stage I've ever watched.

Yeah I’m talking about the Froome giro thing. He should probably take it easy this last week now and prepare for the tour.