2015 season thread

[Lowlandbrit]

Here's a place for all your thoughts/news for this year in the world of cycling. The World Tour races are listed at the bottom (click on the spoiler), and here are the 17 teams with World Tour licences this season. If you thought there was too much black last year, the designers have listened to you... and said 'black, there's an idea'.

AG2R La Mondiale (FRA)	Astana Pro Team (KAZ)	BMC Racing Team (USA)
Etixx-Quick Step (BEL)	FDJ (FRA)	IAM Cycling (SUI)
Lampre Merida (ITA)	Lotto Soudal (BEL)	Movistar Team (ESP)
Orica GreenEDGE (AUS)	Team Cannondale-Garmin (USA)	Team Giant-Alpecin (NED)
Team Katusha (RUS)	Team LottoNL-Jumbo (NED)	Team Sky (GBR)
Tinkoff-Saxo (RUS)	Trek Factory Racing (USA)

World Tour races:

[Azabache]

And looking a little further ahead, what odds on a Lance Armstrong team after he's "rehabilitated"? The interview this week (reminiscent of the infamous Lady Diana one) seems to be preparing for this.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Looking forward to the Spring Classics big time

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Wiggins struggling to start the season

[dummy_half]

Wiggins struggling to start the season

Not a big surprise - Wiggins has two targets for this year in Paris Roubaix and the Hour record, the first of which is about 8 weeks away. Riding round at race pace but not doing anything in the results is fine at the moment; plenty of time to sharpen up before the Classics get into full swing.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Excellent win for Stannard today in Omloop, and a tidy little earner for me as him and Terpestra both come in top three #winningoncyclingiseasy

[dummy_half]

Good weekend for British riders, with Cav winning Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne on Sunday. Stannard with another good ride, but it isn't quite a tough enough race to eliminate the sprinters before the finale.

Be interesting to see how Sky approach the cobbled classics, as Wiggins is looking for a result in Paris Roubaix and Stannard and Thomas are looking in fine form (plus Bernie Eisel is always a good guy for these races).

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Two weeks in Flanders upcoming - good stuff

Made some money on San Remo - had both Kristoff and Matthews each way, so was rather peeved that not either of them could nick the win off Degenkolb!!

[Azabache]

All the usual suspects seem to be well-trained at this point. Hopefully a competitive season coming up...

[Lowlandbrit]

Geraint Thomas wins E3, but the big news is Cancellara's spring being over.

[dummy_half]

Great ride at E3 - initiated the break on the Kwaremont, about 30km from the finish and only Sagan and Stybar could follow, and then the three held off a decent chasing group (aided by a crash wiping out BMC and then some odd tactics) before GT took off about 4km from the end and soloed in ahead of Stybar. Sagan in the end cracked and finished behind the first chase group.

Very good ride from Thomas at Gent Wevelgem as well, eventually finishing 3rd to Paolini and Terpstra in very tough conditions (howling gale and heavy rain). Possibly blew a chance of winning by not attacking straight away on bridging to the lead pair at 11km or at least pushing the pace enough to keep the riders behind distanced. Was rather the marked man though, and Paolini is a clever rider, and used what strength he had very well to break clear in the last 5km while the two Etixx riders looked at each other...

Role on the monuments.

[Lowlandbrit]

Was rather the marked man though, and Paolini is a clever rider, and used what strength he had very well to break clear in the last 5km while the two Etixx riders looked at each other...

Interesting sub-plot there; Vandenbergh and Terpstra were the two main players in that mess of an attempt to let Boonen win the Omloop...

[dummy_half]

Was rather the marked man though, and Paolini is a clever rider, and used what strength he had very well to break clear in the last 5km while the two Etixx riders looked at each other...

Interesting sub-plot there; Vandenbergh and Terpstra were the two main players in that mess of an attempt to let Boonen win the Omloop...

To be honest, and with the benefit of hindsight, Terpstra should have worked with Thomas and Paolini when they were ahead - the problem was that after Vandenbergh arrived it was up to the two Etixx guys to make the pace and keep the Belgian Champion (forgotten the name - Lotto rider and a better sprinter than the others in the group) at a distance, but Vandenbergh was shot, leaving Terpstra in a difficult position of either attacking against his team mate or riding pace when he knew that Thomas and Paolini were stronger than Vandenbergh.

All this of course while riding at 50kph (big tailwind) and with the fatigue of a very tough race...

Still think Thomas will be slightly kicking himself at missing out on the biggest win of his career to date - he had the strength to beat Paolini, but found himself in the position of having to respond rather than being proactive like he was in E3.

Anyway, coming up to my favourite races of the year - Paris Roubaix (for its sheer insanity) and Fleche Wallonne (for the sheer climb at the end...)

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Etixx might be the single most tactically inept team in the peleton. They genuinely defy logic

[Lowlandbrit]

Etixx might be the single most tactically inept team in the peleton. They genuinely defy logic

Fortunately for them it's the Ronde van Vlaanderen this week, so they probably just need to pick up any newspaper going back a week or so to get many opinions on how to fix it!

[Lowlandbrit]

One rider has already completed his objective for today:
https://twitter.com/Mattbrammeier85/status/584306133524971520
https://twitter.com/Mattbrammeier85/status/584450196215574528


https://twitter.com/CafeRoubaix/status/584654899000057856

[Lowlandbrit]

Kristoff beats Terpstra to cap off a great week for him. Van Avermaet third, Sagan fourth and 21 year old Tiesj Benoot came fifth.

[Lowlandbrit]

Degenkolb wins Paris-Roubaix, first German to win it since Josef Fischer won the very first edition, and first person since Sean Kelly to win Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix in the same season. Stybar came second, Van Avermaet third, Luke Rowe first British rider in 8th.

[Lowlandbrit]

Kwiatkowski beats everyone that survived Gilbert's attack on the Cauberg to win the Amstel Gold Race in front of Valverde and Matthews.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Ah dammit thought I was on for a big win with Matthews there

[Guest]

Anyone got an update on that cyclist who fell in the Giro today?

[Lowlandbrit]

Anyone got an update on that cyclist who fell in the Giro today?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/pozzovivo-in-serious-condition-after-giro-ditalia-crash

[Lowlandbrit]

Today's stage was exactly the sort of thing you don't see in France, but wish you did.

[Lowlandbrit]

Summary of the past two days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2TL0GHSue0

Overall Astana have looked suspiciously strong at points, but it wasn't enough to beat Contador (barring craziness tomorrow). As usual, it's a shame the Giro tends to be the forgotten GT, coming before the Tour as it does, but I guess that's one of the reasons the racing's more open too.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

So the Tour starts Sunday

[Lowlandbrit]

So the Tour starts Sunday

Week on Saturday actually Olly. National Championships this week(end).

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

So the Tour starts Sunday

Week on Saturday actually Olly. National Championships this week(end).

Whoops - apparently I can't read a calendar 

[Lowlandbrit]

Some winners from the national championships (Road, TT):
GBR: Peter Kennaugh, Alex Dowsett
ITA: Vincenzo Nibali, Adriano Malori
FRA: Steven Tronet, Jérôme Coppel
ESP: Alejandro Valverde, Jonathan Castroviejo
BEL: Preben Van Hecke, Jurgen Van den Broeck
NED: Niki Terpstra, Wilco Kelderman
GER: Emanuel Buchmann, Tony Martin
RUS: Yuri Trofimov, Artem Ovechkin

Full list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_national_road_cycling_championships

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

10 British riders in the tour this year - fancy one of the Yates brothers to crack the top 20...

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

San Sebastian this weekend - gotta think valverde is favourite

[Azabache]

You could make out a case for him being the hero of the Tour-terrific performance and, for him, a pretty selfless role supporting Quintana.

[Lowlandbrit]

Transfers can be announced from today. Richie Porte to BMC was pretty much the worst kept secret in cycling, supposedly Sky are bringing in Landa, Kwiatkowski and at least one Izaguirre.

Stagiaires (http://www.procyclingstats.com/teams.php?c=5&year=2015) can also ride non-WT races for the rest of the season.
Fernando Gaviria is probably the big name to watch, supposed to be Cav's eventual replacement.

[whocares]

Famous win for Adam Yates at the Classica of San Sebastian.

Surprisingly wen he crossed the finish line he was surprised he won!
https://mobile.twitter.com/philousports/status/627496947306381312/photo/1

Yates thought there was still a rider ahead of him and apparently it was Van Avermaet who had up to 15 secs ahead of Yates when he was hit my a motorbike (!) with the tv and race organiser totally ignoring it (!!). https://t.co/6XjRKRbRzU

[Lowlandbrit]

Yates thought there was still a rider ahead of him and apparently it was Van Avermaet who had up to 15 secs ahead of Yates when he was hit my a motorbike (!) with the tv and race organiser totally ignoring it (!!). https://t.co/6XjRKRbRzU

It's worth pointing out that the coverage was even more shambolic than usual, with live images for almost none of the last hour or so of the race. Yates coming over the line not knowing he'd won was actually a stunningly fitting end to proceedings.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Yates was actually pretty much right behind GVA (thus why the bike was trying to get through) - the suggestions from BMC that GVA would've won are ludicrous and disrespectful to Yates

[LuvSports!]

Matt Slater ‏[ltr]@mattslaterbbc[/ltr]  3h3 hours ago
Quintana, Nibali, Van Garderen, Froome (probably)...we're only missing Contador for a full Backstreet Boys reunion at Vuelta

[Lowlandbrit]

The Astana team for the Vuelta has been revealed (I think they want to win):
Nibali, Aru, Landa, Cataldo, Rosa, Sanchez, Tiralongo, Vanotti, Zeits

[Azabache]

Can't wait! Always exciting and slightly different to the "full-blooded" Tour.

[Lowlandbrit]

Final WorldTour rankings:

Riders:
1- Alejandro Valverde (675)
2- Joaquin Rodriguez (474)
3- Nairo Quintana (457)
4- Alexander Kristoff (453)
5- Fabio Aru (448)

Teams:
1- Movistar (1619)
2- Katusha (1606)
3- Sky (1378)
4- Etixx - Quick Step (1158)
5- Astana (1106)

Nations:
1- Spain (1945)
2- Italy (1106)
3- Colombia (1099)
4- Great Britain (1041)
5- Belgium (905)

[Azabache]

Nibali made amends for his Vuelta exit. Due mainly to awesome descending by all accounts.

[Sponsored content]