Steele Von Hoff's 2014 Pro Thread

TdU Stage 1 was today so its time for the 2014 Pro Thread.

Not a sprinter Gerrans pipping griepel to the line in a technical sprint. This seems to be his trick, pretty good trick if you ask me.

Cadel is looking really hot. Sure Corkscrew hill is not the Gavia whatever Ligget thinks but he left porte and Gerrans standing.

EXCELLENT choice of thread title

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/jan/24/chris-froome-sunburn-team-sky-mesh-jersey - I lol'd, in horror

AHAHAHAHAHAHA

credit for the thread title really goes to Mr and Mrs Von Hoff

Yeah no I can't even larf that's horrific.

Certainly Boy van Poppel gives SVH a run for the money in the cool-name classification.

http://www.cameronwurf.blogspot.com.au/

steele was predictably nicknamed 'stainess' during the local season that got him the garmin contract

http://instagram.com/p/kB0OUZuit6/# <- quick vid of the sun tour prologue. the paint ahead of the manhole cover denotes the ramp-like lump of tarmac that the really commited guys got air over through that chicane.

“I am a bit of a wildcard in the race tomorrow, so I’ll be doing wild things,” Phinney joked in Kortrijk on Friday afternoon.

Great to see Stannard pick up the win yesterday seeing as he spends most of his time right on the front of the peloton working for somebody else (and he deserved it for his effort in last year's frozen Milan-San Remo. Boonen today with loads of team mates in lead group of ten.

http://instagram.com/p/lXaLRTutGL/

luv this

That is fantastic. Strade Bianche and Roma Maxima are fast becoming my favourite weekend of the year.

Do you know anywhere that shows Flanders or Roubaix live? Given I still can't get hired I'd be up for watching them late into the evening somewhere.

amazing pic.

FYXO had paris-roubaix on at his shop for a couple of years there, but that's northside wheelers now. total thrush might have it! haha. I'll keep an eye out in any case.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/media/ALeqM5jLqloSVO8B6Bfq_O1jyeVMmEE_tw?size=l

smdh at this look, factory pilots windscreens are a concept that do not need resurrection.

otoh it does look like winning, which forgives almost anything

LOL, My current goggles are factory pilots.

I would wear POCs if I weren't poor

yeah well, you make that shit look good! :)

i didn't really mind hejedal's Plastic Man POC plastic aviators, but man the slagter shades are at least not meant for his skinny face imo.

by the way, slagter's annihilation of the contenders in his second P-N win was amaaaaaaaayzing. it's one thing to blast off gilbert style, it's another to be so confident in your dominance that you can just cover three straight attacks, while riding on the front, always in the wind, while side-eyeing your opposition- like it ain't nothing. then a few hard strokes and taking it.

http://www.steephill.tv/players/720/eurosport/?title=Last+Km+of+Stage+7&dashboard=paris-nice&id=watch-slagter-win-paris-nice-164754485&yr=2014

Haven't got enough bandwidth to watch that but the reports seemed pretty impressive. There seem to be an embarrassment of classics young pretenders right now. Should be good watching them battle to ruin Boonen and cancellera's last hurrahs.

can i just

http://31.media.tumblr.com/b53ade370059874f4aaa53f306b7c57d/tumblr_n0p09lIHqs1swtjjuo1_250.gif

http://www.tririg.com/articles/2012_08_Taylor_Phinney_BMC_TM01/650/2012_08_Taylor_Phinney_BMC_TM01_2.jpg

He is the reason I have a pair, he was on the post-giro show a couple of years ago wearing them and I went straight to eBay. Still haven't found any pink skinny jeans, though.

http://✧✧✧.roadbikeact✧✧✧.com/contentimages/Zap%20News/2012/2012%20News/webPhinneyPuyDome✧✧✧@Ph✧✧✧.j✧✧

http://✧✧✧.roadbikeact✧✧✧.com/contentimages/Zap%20News/2012/2012%20News/webPhinneyPuyDome✧✧✧@Ph✧✧✧.j✧✧

oh well, it was phinney pere in pilots

lol, i forget he could just be raiding the old man's cupboard

i mean i know he's not, but if anyone was ever going to...

Whenever I think of Davis he's in those bolle shields from coors light era. I had a pair of them they fucking pink. Fluoro pink. With this weird as detachable foam lined sweat bar.

"Were" f'ing pink

I think POC needs to revive detachable foam sweatbar, that was a feature.

I could do with some neon pick Bolles to go with my neon pick jersey and neon pink bar bike. POC pinks are more giro or fuchsia.

wanna embrace pink properly in next kit. has it been overdone?

I don't see a lot of it out on the roads of Melbourne, other than that one team that takes design cues from Lampre.

GF got me a great neon pink jersey and arm warmers from Northside Wheelers for Xmas, it has been my colour way since then.

lol guys how old are u my old ticker will not take another flouropink era i fear

richard moore tweeting last night post-MSR saying he chatted with kristoff at katusha team launch - was already fancying his chances, also said he feels as good after 290km as he does after 100

Bloody DVR crapped out when Nibali attacked so I didn't get to see the end.

my feed froze at 700m to go! after a minute it went straight to congratulatory hugs, but i saw the replays.

fwiw I saw it all.

Ed - picture Nibali pulling away up the Cipressa, opening up a gap of about 45 seconds on the chasing peloton while getting closer and closer to the leading two. The Eurosport commentary team (now some Irish bloke partnering Sean Kelly, instead of the excellent David Harmon) say that he's gone so far out, he must be hoping he can catch those two by the end of the descent so that he'll have someone to share the work on the flat section before the Poggio. However, not long after that he goes flying straight past both of them and leaves them for dead on the soaking descent. But the gap is narrowing, slowly but surely, and he only has about 15 seconds when they reach the Poggio. He gets reeled in and instantly dropped. No attacks stick, the lead group, with Cavendish still in it, begin the terrifying descent into San Remo...

Hunter - they enter the final straight, Cavendish opens up his sprint early on the left (as we look at it), he goes into the lead, then suddenly seems to lose all energy and sits back down again, Kristoff storms clear and Cancellara is left banging his handlebars in frustrated cartoon villain style.

Interestingly I think it was david harmon on the SBS feed

kelly on mine, but with whom i can't say.

wait we didn't talk about contador and his breakaway trailer paperboying the final climb in that tirreno stage, did we? because im pretty sure when pistolero paperboys it's steep. amazing.

http://www.steephill.tv/players/youtube3/?title=Last+2.5+Km+of+Stage+5&dashboard=tirreno-adriatico&id=kN1BUAv4fdI&yr=2014

that looked fucking. awful.

30% are you even

Flanders was really good today, I thought

I thought terpstra was going to get across at the end while the front four were freewheeling along looking at each other in the last km!

Damn, pity SBS only had the last 36km but at least the DVR kept up with it.

OPQS is looking like too many chiefs not enough indians, especially with boonen not firing on all cylinders. Also would have been interesting to see where gearing thomas may have ended up if he hadn't spent so much time on the deck.

Can't argue with Cancellara's tactical nouse, even if he can't TT off the front like he used to he can still out think the you guys in a small bunch. I have to ask the question, has he really lost the ability to dump people like he used to or has the change in course joined with a desire to win differently? It certainly makes for better TV.

Track standing in the velodrome next sunday?

omg that crash roll at steephill esp jvs :(

Gearing Thomas

basque country looks like it'd be nice to visit

In other news, the wheels appear to have come off the sky GT bus. Froome is MIA with an injured back, Porte has been pulled from the giro and Contador looks very very strong.

it's no "steele von hoff" but the name "stig broeckx" sounds and looks legit for cobble action.

^^agree w/ this, born for it

haitch, total rush is doing a Paris Roubaix screening on sunday, if you are interested

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/17xIAuFInNBhRkAhUSxm-Zd-STAiO37FG4QgYFIilvS0/viewform

I can't! doing dinner with the fam, probably won't get back in time unforch. there's a few places screening it by the looks - TR, fitzroy revolution, a bloc...

I know him more from MotoGP, but figured this was a good place to ask the Brits:

What is Carlton Kirby's accent exactly? I figure it's Northern, but is it Manchester? Sheffield?

Kind of nondescript, really couldn't say where he's from.

Great race.

i like the winner, but i thought it was pretty boring. it would get to the edge of exciting and then fizzle regroup.

I enjoyed that,

Slightly marred by the fact that on my ride home someone in a white ford falcon estate to the trouble to lead out of their window and hit me. No lights on so not even the slightest inkling of their number plate.

Not sure it was boring, I had my money on degenkolb when it all came together. I was truly impressed to see sky ride a decent classics race even if I didn't think they had much of a chance from that final bunch. In the end though Boonen's super domestique work secured the win.

was bummed to see gva go down and have to chase back in, i was hoping he'd get a shot out of that group.

hope youre ok ed, that's super scary.

I'm fine, it could have been a lot worse.

Thomas:

I was on the back just trying to catch my breath. I was hoping that Brad would go but when he didn’t, the [Giant-] Shimano guy started coming and I rode with him. I was hoping that Brad would hit them in the end, but I guess he didn’t felt confident in doing so. Maybe he was waiting for Fabian to try something, I don’t know. I committed myself for him and that was it.

Wiggins:

There’s a tinge of disappointment. I really had legs, even in the final, I felt strong. I was pinching myself a little bit, I don’t mind admitting that. I attacked, and then after that, I don’t know really, I just felt out-numbered. And the run-in was quite fast in the last five kilometres. Terpstra played it perfectly with Stybar and Boonen. It was a real honour to be in the final, going past Boonen on the Carrefour was special. And then to come on the velodrome with a group like Cancellara. To be there was great. It gave me confidence that I can do it now and match those guys.

ppl r riding 4 u stop pinching urself

I did wonder what they were up to - I thought maybe everyone was waiting for the inevitable surge from Cancellara that didn't come. I was hoping Wiggins was waiting for them to get over the final proper section of cobbles and then just try to break clear and time trial his way home.

It seems to be the eternal sky problem, waiting for the DS to shout go in their ears. I thought when Wiggins and Thomas were chatting about 5km from the end they were formulating a plan, something along the lines of Wiggins chases down any break attempts and Thomas saves it for a sprint. Sky is really not the place to develop a racing brain.

So it appears I was victim of 'Hoon' behaviour last night.

Yeah, I thought they were making a plan at that point as well. Kind of amazed Terpstra got away so easily in the end.

http://www.strava.com/activities/130432764

lol

'jill bear' deploying big ring stylez on the cauberg, yet again - never gets old

nice job by bmc all around.

A+ beer mat skirt on the podium girl

my feed cut off before podium alas

Best teamwork I've seen from BMC in a one day race since Jil-Bear joined, I think.

http://www.cyclingfans.net/2012/images/2012_liege_bastogne_liege_cote_de_saint_roch_peloton1a.jpg

i know, there's the ronde for the roleurs, p-r for the hardmen, amstel for... well, for dudes with insane one time vo2max, but is there anything better than lbl? (no).

btw, slagter.

Ugh. Sickener for Dan Martin.

Poor old Dan, that really was a bummer.

at least epo gave us exploits, this race, it sucked.

need some sort of terrible panda-referencing tabloid headline for the martin crash imo, just a shocker

agree hunt3r that LBL is best race and that it suuuuucked. one kilometre of real action!

martin handled it as well as he could. still, i would be shocked had he podiumed, if he'd stayed upright. too many fresher legs bearing down there, imo.

You're probably right, but he wouldn't have known that, and the feeling as he skidded down must have been horrendous

http://24.media.tumblr.com/3551219d46f97dd59e9411174064b335/tumblr_n4p59dKmfV1ropreyo1_1280.jpg

Doing his best podge and rodge impression.

DVR failed again but from the reports I might have given up watching as well.

Seems like an opportunist win when everyone else had marked themselves out of contention. Perfectly legit way to win but seems to have been the dullest of the classics this year.

Whoever made the animated gif of the skid is a right meanie.

welp so long and thanks for playing mr. martin. :(

Seriously, this poor guy has a hex on him.

Watching a bit of the Tour of California - those roads look great

Wind! Chaos! This is already more interesting than the Giro d'Irlanda

Blimey, Rolland. Has he got this?

He can't hang on for 1.4k, shurely.

This is like watching a lion chasing a baby wildebeest.

Nom.

oh god that premature post-up in the TOC was sort of heart-breaking to watch

It was agony :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NDYpOJgyZQ

i can't watch it again

The look on his face just before he looks round is utterly priceless.

i said i can't

i enjoyed the hell out of watching battaglin bridge up and just know exactly what he could do, and needed to do.

Must have been a hideous feeling for Cataldo

Miserable conditions today. In theory this descent off the stelvio has been neutralised but nobody seems to have told the riders.

proper finish, this! so many hairpins!

amazing performance from ryder, I assumed quintana would've shredded him.

That was a proper stage

I went to bed in the valley after the stelvio. The confusion on the descent offers a glimpse of what it might be like with no race radios. This is turning into a proper race.

I went to bed in the valley after the stelvio

Somewhat impractical?

That was a proper stage

― Turtleneck Work Solutions (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Tuesday, May 27, 2014 11:36 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

Watching the post giro show, Processo alls tappa, right now. The story is that the neutralisation was never announced on radio corsa and that's the only official source of race info. General opinion is it's Uran and everyone else's fail for not responding to Quintana getting away. Riders should thing on the road not rely on their earpieces.

really enjoy seeing quintana on the podium smiling, because on the bike he often just looks sorta robotic, with very little expression. in contrast to aru, whom i also like.

Here's a photo of him on the by sort of smiling.

https://twitter.com/velocast/status/472396959849148416/photo/1

Otherwise the level of focus is somewhat terrifying.

on the by - on the bike

Tour de France 2014

I know him more from MotoGP, but figured this was a good place to ask the Brits:

What is Carlton Kirby's accent exactly? I figure it's Northern, but is it Manchester? Sheffield?

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Sunday, April 13, 2014 7:54 AM (2 months ago)

oh btw Kirby called Sheffield his home town the other day, I was on the right track.

pissing down at the commonwealth games road race - isle of man man peter kennaugh has been away solo since the first lap with 60km to go. cav is playing DS for him in the car! is our man on the ground cozen there, I wonder?

Heartbreaking seeing Emma Pooley coming across the line in tears. She's retiring, in part because there aren't enough races for a a female climber/time trialist.

http://tourtracker.usaprocyclingchallenge.com/

scenic views right now on kebler pass (dirt!)

Pipi and Popo commenting on a stopped race with no pictures is about the worst

welp, too bad about stoppage, but tourism tip if you ever want to see the aspens in full color in colorado, kebler is probably about the best place imo.

le tour - the one that shows whose really best
giro - the one i want to see in person
la vuelta - the one that always seems to deliver the best crazy ass racing

this 5km is like, what i want every gt to deliver. it's goddamn glorious.

http://www.steephill.tv/players/youtube3/?title=Last+5+Km+of+Stage+14&dashboard=vuelta-a-espana&id=SY7WPlTHnDM&yr=2014

https://twitter.com/RydersMotor

Pretty good assessment. Giro is also best at media and easiest to watch in the way I want to watch it. Although having said that la videotape is going through my favourite part of spam over the next week and I wish I were there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjjM2tI6THs

minute left

way to go jensie

was nice hearing ppl pronounce his name right.

https://i.imgur.com/SU7Jsnr.jpg

"im cycling bacon"

love how every $250 aero helmet now looks exactly like a department store cheapie.

Jens Voigt what's on your iPod

Warmup:

REO Speedwagon "Keep on loving you"
Brian Adams "Summer of 69"
Journey "Wheel in the sky"
Air supply "Making Love out of Nothing at All“
Metallica "Turn the page"

Hour Record:
Republica "Ready to go"
P.O.D. "Feel so alive"
Metallica "One"
AC/DC "Hells Bells"
AC/DC "Highway to hell"
Farmerboys "Here comes the pain"
Ugly Kid Joe "Goddam Devil"
AC/DC "Thunderstruck"
Black Sabbath "Paranoid"
Metallica “Frayed ends of sanity"
Europe "Final Countdown"

Cooldown:

Metallica "Nothing else matters"
Cranberries "Zombie"
Kansas "Dust in the wind"
Air Supply "All out of love"
Lita Ford/ Ozzy Osbourne "Close my eyes forever"

http://open.spotify.com/user/nicstevenson/playlist/4UzwfZhomtYoZpdnQ8c109

Not sure I like the idea of the top cyclists competing in all three grand tours. I mean, I love the idea of seeing the big fish go head to head more often, but comparing the cycling calendar to sports like tennis seems a bit wrongheaded given the energy expense over such long periods of time. Am I missing something?

Ooh hello, a finish *and* a start in Rodez next year? That is highly convenient for my parents' place.

one TT at the start! froome unimpressed according to reports.

the "all the big names at all grand tours" thing would help strengthen the position of the giro and vuelta, which would be good. I'm sceptical to say the least at the level of form each contender would bring to each race, though - which is probably the main issue that counts against it.

RIP Paul Sherwen.

https://www.twitter.com/lancearmstrong/status/1069342584840089602

seems a bit too early for a dedicated TdF thread but: froome out, broken femur

Remco?!

Pro tour bout to be dominated by low country cyclocrossers and colombian climbers for the next half decade

one group has vo2max and handling that will break you, the other has watt's/kg ftp that will...also break you. they must fite each other now.

mvdp just did another last lap CRUSH on shurter and now fluckiger. it's...his world man.

bike racing
it's good man

bike racing
it's good man

― gbx, Sunday, August 4, 2019 3:13 PM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

PR this year one of the best races i've seen in ages

yup

Rolling Pro Cycling Thread

not sure about this glasgow course - the elite RRs coud be carnage if it rains. so twisty !

what a race. psyched for the U23 and women’s elite RR next week

I’m a roglic bidon truther

GC kuss

“why did he hi five and not try to get the red”

i think he’s just awesome like that and also doesn’t need the boys to suffer any extra on his account tbh lol

GCN+ dead, I'm devastated

Pog has activated beast mode