I think they out shone any team by having a squad where anyone is capable of taking a win. Jumbo Visma, Aplecin and Quickstep are essentially one man teams on the classics
1 Like
Anyone see the first stage of the Tour of the Alps? Great last 50k.
I always knew he would win 
1 Like
I knew he would, then thought he wouldnāt, then knew he would again. 
1 Like
Picture the scene, an unknown location in Belgium, code named Service Course.
When Egan had his accident, red lights flashed and klaxons went off at the Ineos bunker.
Sir Dave and his Mini Me, Rod inserted their special keys into the command console and unleashed their hitherto unknow weapon, a decent classics squadā¦
All kidding aside, a lot of credit for this has to go to Roger Hammond. He won PR last year as lead DS as well. The fact they have more than one main rider that can win has really helped.
Be really interesting to see how this develops over the next few years given the fact that Pog will dominate the Grand Tours.
1 Like
Ironic given that Quickstepās success in the classics in the past has been based around the fact that they always had several riders in each race who were capable of winning, so they could play the numbers game and keep firing people into breaks.
1 Like
PR was always known as being a race where the teams used special wheels and tubs to avoid punctures and mechanical issues. I wonder if the manufacturers have pushed the teams to use more standard equipment this year, including flavour-of-the-month tubeless tyres?
1 Like
I was listening to a couple of podcasts that suggested teams were using tubeless without having really tested them. No real idea of the correct pressures or amount of sealant to put in.
Youād never have an F1 team using a new tyre without hundreds or thousands of hours of testing. Cycling teams donāt have the time for that, the riders are pretty much always at races, not doing endless testing.
1 Like
It was a similar scenario at the Giro a couple of years ago. G crashes out and they suddenly decide to have some fun, getting in breaks and attacking. Win for TGH was just a biproduct.
4 Likes
The combination of more punctures with tubeless tyres and slower wheel changes because of discs and through-axels is bad all round.
2 Likes
Do you think that because it was such a fast P-R the pressures that they tested & settled on from the recons was just too low?
Whatever, the cobbles must have been covered in sealant on Sunday afternoon.
Through axel wheel changes are comically bad.
2 Likes
Good question, but surely that should have formed part of any testing, do it in all weather!
I may be wrong but i felt there were more front punctures.
Thereās also a few pics on social media of Laporteās rear wheel totally collapsing.
1 Like
If thereās any race to use rim brakes surely itās P-R - not really doing much braking and makes wheel changes (which are likely) much quicker
2 Likes
One of my mates punctured on his first solo ride on his Venge and was shocked to find that there was no lever on the through axel 
. He had to flag down a passing cyclist to beg the loan of a multi-tool so that he could take his wheel off to fix it 
3 Likes
Iām not even sure what the benefits of thru axle are - Iāve got a road/gravel bike with hydro disk brakes and quick release wheels and it works perfectly 
1 Like
I assume through axels are used with disc brakes because of the lower tolerances between the disc and the pads.
1 Like
I think riders wouldāve been happy to have disc brakes in the conditions last year.
Anyway as we all know disc braking is unnecessary for 99% of riders
2 Likes
Come on, the Tour still has a local with a chalkboard on the back on a motorcycle displaying the timeā¦
ā¦. Thatās almost always wrong.
Iām pretty sure the FIA also doesnāt have to go round the track, before qualifying, erasing all the cocks drawn on the race track.
7 Likes
1 Like
How old is Valverde now? Putting us all to shame
3 Likes