S*** Small Races Thread - 2021

takethehighroad

Saw an interesting tweet from one of the guys behind PCS.

14% of users were reading the Per Sempre Alfredo (a 1.1 mens race) page vs 10% looking for details of the Women's World Tour Alfredo Binda page

orraloon

Elisa Longo Borghini can do a mini MvdP. Good ride there.

As aside, though can't remember her name, the female commentator made me laugh when she described one Aussie rider as able to 'descend like a diva'. Yes, I misheard...

andyp

orraloon said:

Elisa Longo Borghini can do a mini MvdP. Good ride there.

As aside, though can't remember her name, the female commentator made me laugh when she described one Aussie rider as able to 'descend like a diva'. Yes, I misheard...

It's Dani Rowe (or King previously).

yorkshireraw

yorkshireraw said:

Surprised Pedersen isn't going to MSR.

Jesper saving Trek's embarrassment at having forgotten to enter Mads for MSR ;-)

pinno

blazing_saddles said:

The Trofeo Alfredo Binda is currently live on GCN/Eurosport.
(well, when they get live pictures it is)

Small race? Oooh, I see a gender perception/inequality thing going on there. Might have to stir up the Cake Stop PC brigade because i'm offended on their behalf who in turn, are offended on their behalf. It's a Women's WT event.

But i'll summarise the race:

Vos couldn't stir up a chase 'cos she was the strongest in a breakaway group of 5 and no one wanted to tow her across to Borghini, so she had a fee pass and won on a reasonably long solo.
According to commentators, Trek Segafredo provided the perfect springboard for Borghini but from the couch, it seemed like no one was in control and it was chaotic until the chase for Borghini commenced.

andyp

Did you watch a different race? Trek set Longo Borghini up perfectly and her attack dropped everyone and she established a small gap of 8-10 seconds. No-one could close that, even when they were co-operating and it only grew once the chasing group realised that to close it, one of them would have to sacrifice their own chances. Vos looked the strongest but she didn't try anything on the final two climbs.

pinno

andyp said:

Did you watch a different race? Trek set Longo Borghini up perfectly and her attack dropped everyone and she established a small gap of 8-10 seconds. No-one could close that, even when they were co-operating and it only grew once the chasing group realised that to close it, one of them would have to sacrifice their own chances. Vos looked the strongest but she didn't try anything on the final two climbs.

Vos couldn't cross the gap on her own and would have needed help. No one was willing to help her because she would have probably won a sprint had it come to that.
Had Vos attempted to go solo to get to Borghini, perhaps she would have been spent.
The group may have had ambitions of catching Borghini initially but the gap kept growing and there was insufficient cohesion and I would add, insufficient strength.
But that all goes back to how much weight you give to the threat that Vos presented.

Prior to Trek Segafredo's apparent set up, attacks were frequent but none of them stuck.

Cannondale SRAM, NL Jumbo and Trek Segafredo were in the mix and doing their bit to control the race. Had Vos broken clear of the bunch and gone on to Victory, would you say NL Jumbo set it up?

Anyway, all of the above is subjective and ultimately, Borghini delivered a gutsy win.

yorkshireraw

40K to go in De Panne, Hatch & Blyth on comms for GCN (and I assume Eurosport).

pinno

They wrecked the 3 days de Panne and replaced it with this?!

Boring, boring, boring.

Could they not steal 2 days off the 6 day 4 days of Dunkirk and restore some sort of sanity?

DeadCalm

No danger of No TA Doctor's viking thread disappearing off the front page. Jonas Vingegaard takes stage 2 of Coppi e Batali and the overall lead.

Not a bad day for the youngsters, with 21 year olds Ethan Hayter and Mauri Vansevenant in 5th and 6th respectively while 18 year old Marco Brenner finished 8th, just behind his veteran team mate, 20 year old Ilan Van Wilder.

gsk82

pinno said:

They wrecked the 3 days de Panne and replaced it with this?!

Boring, boring, boring.

Could they not steal 2 days off the 6 day 4 days of Dunkirk and restore some sort of sanity?

Was this the one that Flanders Classics bullied in to a change?

yorkshireraw

gsk82 said:

pinno said:

They wrecked the 3 days de Panne and replaced it with this?!

Boring, boring, boring.

Could they not steal 2 days off the 6 day 4 days of Dunkirk and restore some sort of sanity?

Was this the one that Flanders Classics bullied in to a change?

Think so - they moved Dwars Door into the week leading up to Flanders (De Panne's traditional slot) which scuppered de Panne a bit - they can't really have a 3 day event this week due to E3 and GW on the Friday / Sunday, and coming straight out of MSR.

DeadCalm

DeadCalm said:

No danger of No TA Doctor's viking thread disappearing off the front page. Jonas Vingegaard takes stage 2 of Coppi e Batali and the overall lead.

Not a bad day for the youngsters, with 21 year olds Ethan Hayter and Mauri Vansevenant in 5th and 6th respectively while 18 year old Marco Brenner finished 8th, just behind his veteran team mate, 20 year old Ilan Van Wilder.

Ethan Hayter takes stage 3. Yay!

Dorset_Boy

Good day for Ineos.

blazing_saddles

It's E3 time.



You can watch the race live today, from 12.55pm GMT through to 5.15pm on GCN+ and from 1.10pm to 4.55pm on the Eurosport Player.

red.rider

Bora non-starters for E3 due to positive COVID test (Matthew Walls)
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bora-hansgrohe-out-of-e3-classic-as-walls-tests-positive-for-covid-19/

pinno

I think they should shift some of these smaller classics to Scotland. Then the weather will play it's part and in so doing, raise their significance.

RichN95.

There's no point staying at home if the virus can go through Walls

andyrr

pinno said:

I think they should shift some of these smaller classics to Scotland. Then the weather will play it's part and in so doing, raise their significance.

According to cyclingnews we may get our windy race - ideally it will be like the weather I rode through to get to work in Edinburgh this morning: very strong wind with variable amounts of unpleasant sharp rain.

yorkshireraw

RichN95. said:

There's no point staying at home if the virus can go through Walls

Outstanding.

blazing_saddles

andyrr said:

pinno said:

I think they should shift some of these smaller classics to Scotland. Then the weather will play it's part and in so doing, raise their significance.

According to cyclingnews we may get our windy race - ideally it will be like the weather I rode through to get to work in Edinburgh this morning: very strong wind with variable amounts of unpleasant sharp rain.

Both today and Sunday are forecast to have significantly more wind than we saw at De Panne.
That was strength 2-3 for the men and 3 for the women's race which broke into pieces.
Today it should be strength 4, Sunday could see 5. Just about perfect.
Looks like crosswinds for the early stages and then again, late on.

blazing_saddles

E3 now live with 125kms to go.

Niki Terpstra one of 12 men in the break.

blazing_saddles

Crash
Looks as if Gaviria is out of the race with a wrist injury.

pinno

andyrr said:

pinno said:

I think they should shift some of these smaller classics to Scotland. Then the weather will play it's part and in so doing, raise their significance.

According to cyclingnews we may get our windy race - ideally it will be like the weather I rode through to get to work in Edinburgh this morning: very strong wind with variable amounts of unpleasant sharp rain.

I have come up with a few:

We will have Cumbernauld-Wishaw-Cumbernauld which will quickly be known as 'Ronde van duizend rotondes'. To add to the grim only-for-the-hard-men/women events, we'll have EKD (East Kilbride-Dumbarton) where they will have to go like the clappers to avoid being mugged.

There will have to be Fort William-Aviemore-Fort William for sheer tailwind madness followed by sheer brutal headwind and almost guaranteed driving rain*.

*And thereby heralding the 62/22 front chainset.

blazing_saddles

Starting to get some echelons

takethehighroad

Yves Lampaert driving it into the wind with 90 k to go. This is what we want from Classics

rick_chasey

What km are we at for e3?

I’m at 81 to go at pixel

blazing_saddles

Taaienberg launch pad now

takethehighroad

I'm casting through GCN, which is typically 30-60 seconds behind and we're at 80 to go at the bottom of the Taaienberg

takethehighroad

Quick Step drilling it into the Taaienberg