Paris-Roubaix is going to be an all time classic.
Wind has created 2 groups.
Van Der Poel & Van Aert in the second group. All of INEOS and most of Bahrain and Quickstep in the first group.
Mohoric punctures! Wild race so far
Good to see that SBS have picked up the Giro again for free to air, coming up next week. Their exclusive deal with Eurosport made zero sense for the Australian market.
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Done my Fantasy Romandie team and it made me wonder whether Michael Woods is the most underrated cyclist of the last 10 years.
He’s only had 9 wins but 4 were at WT level, 2 of which were at La Vuelta. Another of his wins was Milan-Torino.
He’s got 8 top 10’s in 13 Classics starts, a lowest placing of 65 and only 1 DNF, his first Classic (LBL) in 2016.
He’s rode 7 GT’s, placed in the top 10 in at least one stage at each and last years TdF was his first DNF. His highest placing is 7th (2017 Vuelta) and lowest 38th (2017 Giro).
I dunno about underrated, but yeah he’s a great rider. He was a national level middle distance runner before switching to cycling and in interviews he has said that he really likes getting out of the saddle to use the same biomechanical advantage that he used in running. So anything that is super steep uphill is his jam. Just a shame he doesn’t have much of a time trial, otherwise he’d be much more of a GC threat. And if he had a decent sprint you’d think he’d have converted more of those top 10s to podiums. Although, I did just notice he won Milano-Torino in a two-up sprint against Valverde (!), so who knows where that sprint goes normally.
Still a very good pick as a stage hunter and for consistent high finishes. With Israel’s relegation problems you’d think he’ll be extra motivated to fight for minor placings too. So he seems a good pick for fantasy, depending on the rules. Where do you play?
Velogames.
He’s never that good there though because he has a relatively high buy value for his final score. Consistent top 10’s don’t get you the points a couple of top 3’s do. I’ve picked him this time but he’s cost me 16. I think Rohan Dennis and Brandon McNulty will both score higher because of the 2 TT’s.
Ah, yeah that’s unfortunate. Still, with a couple of uphill finishes he’s a decent shout.
I just realised that Milano-Torino finishes on a steep climb, so actually that win is a bit less surprising, though still formidable against an uphill sprinting gun like Valverde. The real problem for him is the hilly races with flat finishes where his great climbing legs ensure he makes the front group for the final, but his lack of flat sprint means that he misses the podium. No surprise that his only podium at Liege Bastogne Liege came on the old course with the uphill finish. Still impressive to go top 10 there every time since that first DNF though, phew…
Also, given his quality in uphill finishes, it’s kind of surprising he hasn’t raced at Strade Bianche more (only one start, finishing 36th).
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Giro about to start on SBS On Demand.
Caleb Ewan should pick up a couple of stages and Jai Hindley has built into done really good form so a podium isn’t out of the question.
Hell yeah, can’t wait. Hindley is on a really interesting team too. With Buchmann and Kelderman it wouldn’t be out of the question for them to land three guys in the top ten. Question is if they can get any one of themselves onto the podium. Just for fun and to laugh at myself at the end I’ll predict a final top ten:
- Carapaz
- Yates
- Bardet
- Landa
- Almeida
- Buchmann
- Kelderman
- Carthy
- Martin
- Ciccone
Edit: Just noticed that Hindley was 5th at Tirreno-Adriatico, which is a seriously good ride. I think I’ve underrated him here for sure. Not going to change it now though 
I’ve got Almeida to win mostly because of fuck INEOS so I refuse to say Carapaz.
I think Vansevenant is a good shout for a top 10. The other smokey I have for to 10 is Harold Tejada. Nibali will go for the stage win in his home town but I think Astana will give Tejada a good push outside of that.
I’d love for Bardet to win it but I don’t think DSM are strong enough to get him there. He’s probably in the best form of anyone in the race though.
Impressive win for Cavendish last night but the Lotto train completely fucked it huh. Looks like Caleb might have a tough time of it without De Buyst. I was also surprised by Grmay who looked like he was coming with enough speed to go around at the end but was boxed in. It’ll be exciting to see what he can come up with in the next stages.
Grmay is an interesting one to follow going forward and looks like he may be another gem unearthed by Wanty.
His form at the backend of last season in the second tier one day races was really good and he carried that into the World Tour races this season winning Gent-Wevelgem. He had 3 top 10’s at Paris-Nice this year as well before withdrawing.
I have my doubts as to whether he will be able to see the 3 weeks out but, at 22, he definitely looks to be another one for the future.
Edit Just watched the overhead from the sprint the other night and Girmay never got a clear run. Not saying he would have won but he was clearly matching it with the best sprinters in the world. Not bad for someone of his build and with no sprint train.
JAI HINDLEY!!!
What a ride!
Girmay has been forced to abandon after the prosecco incident last night.
Bardet abandons.
This was probably his best shot at a GT and came in with arguably the best form of all the contenders.
I don’t see him getting such an open shot as he got here again.
go hindley!
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Big final week coming up. 1 minute separates the top 5 and the final week and Buchmann is only 2 minutes back in 7th.
Bahrain & Bora can still go with the 2 prong attack so it will be interesting to see how INEOS handles it.
Unless Hindley can take time on Carapaz, Almeida, Landa & Bilbao in the mountains I think he’ll struggle to keep the podium in the TT. He’s in fantastic form and the team is well placed though so he may well be going into it wearing the Maglia Rosa.
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Fark, it’s really coming down to the wire huh. What do we make of the relative time trialing ability of Hindley and Carapaz?
Out of the 3, Carapaz is the best but he’s not one of those typical INEOS power meter riders. Landa & Hindley are very hard to separate but I would lean towards Hindley as he has more upside. He also looks to be stronger at this point of the race. There isn’t a whole lot between the 3 of them though.
Going off the results from the Stage 2 TT I think Hindley will need at least 30 seconds on Carapaz. The minute he already has on Landa should be more than enough.
I think Hindley is looking the best out of the 3 at the moment so if Bora can isolate Carapaz and, to a lesser extent, Landa, then I can see him heading into the last stage with the Maglia Rosa.
Joao Almeida is by far the best TT rider out of the top. At almost 2 minutes and looking a lot more tired than the other 3, he’s too far behind now to be a threat.
Well that’s it for Jai’s chances.
Matt Keenan, Dave McKenzie & Mark Renshaw have all just given him the commentators curse…