Competitive Cycling

[Nickslikk2112]

Pidcock out with a bad knee.

[Thenop]

Pidcock out with a bad knee.

Shouldn't have offroaded yesterday then.

[Nickslikk2112]

Lizard Lips won again today, unsurprisingly. Bloody Sticky Martinez up to second now, wheel sucking weasel that he is.

Oscar Onley been disappointing this race, although he did move up from 18th to 12th on GC today. He had been pulled from Paris-Nice due to illness so maybe still suffering from training loss.

[Nickslikk2112]

Thrilling start to Holy Week in Gent-Wevelgem!
WvA and MvdP had a minute on the Peleton with 30km to go and were slowly brought back in. MvsP will be happy enough as team mate Jasper Philipsen won. Wout's team mate Christophe Laporte in third.

Pluckiest Brit Bob Donaldson in fifth, was hoping Sam Watson could do something, but he's not up with the best sprinters.

Great Uncle Edwin got a grandstand view as ever when they passed though the Menin Gate.

[Nickslikk2112]

Lorena Wiebes wins the women's Gent-Wevelgem, but nearly lost it by celebrating before crossing the line, Fleur Moors not too far off.

Pluckiest Britess was Pfeiffer Georgu in 12th.

Now to catch up on Catalunya...

[Nickslikk2112]

Lizard Lips got his GC victory in Catalunya.

Brady Gilmore won a very active final stage, pipping Klute Godon on the line. Klute was guided in by Oscar Onley who was looking a bit more lively today, meant that Klute overtook Lizard Lips for the Points jersey.

[Nickslikk2112]

And Finally Clément Venturini won La Roue Tourangelle for the Unibet Rose Rockets.

Pluckiest - only - Brit was Alfred George in 24th

No more watching until Wednesday.

[Nickslikk2112]

That was some Dwars Door Vlaanderen. Pippo Ganna managed to Time Trial his way along to beat WvA just before the finish line. Wout had been away for 40km or so, but ends up second for the second year in a row.

Ganna had his own problems to overcome along the way, needing a bike change due to a puncture, then the handlebars on his spare bike snapped, he then had to change back to his original bike after waiting for its wheel to be changed.

Mrs S is gutted for Wout. I'm happy for Pippo, he deserves a victory in one of the one day semi-classics.

[Nickslikk2112]

Marlen Reusser beat Demi Vollering in the women's DDV, they started messing about in the approach to the line and Lieke Nooijen had taken a flyer from the chasing group and came but faded to third as Reusser and Vollering got their sprints going.

Zoe Backstedt (4th) beat Cat Ferguson (6th) in the battle of the plucky Brits. Serves Cat right for sitting out last season's Cyclocross.

[Nickslikk2112]

Ion Izagirre won today's Gran Premio Miguel Indurain for the third time today. Not bad for a 37 year old in his final season as a pro rider. Looks like he's got five kids, hope he's not going to use his retirement to beget more...

Pluckiest Brit Lukas Nerurkar in 13th. I remember his dad as British 10,000m champion back in the day.

[Thenop]

The only question left now is: will he win Roubaix next week?

[Thenop]

Well done Demi, what a fantastic final that was. She looks superstrong, the new team fits her well.

[Nickslikk2112]

Well done Demi, what a fantastic final that was. She looks superstrong, the new team fits her well.

Gah! Wish I'd not seen this, watching it now...

Just caught up with the men's race after an extended Easter lunch. Pogi's quite good. Remco didn't do badly.
Pluckiest Brit Lewis Askey in 21st. Surprised to see Sam Watson as a DNF

[Nickslikk2112]

Nice to see Puck in 3rd in the women's and a good 5th for Zoe Backstedt. Go Cyclocross!

[dom]

So it looks like Paul Seixas is a decent time trialist. Good to have that in his armour if he is to compete at the top level.

A decent field competing and lots of climbing over the next 5 days so it will be a stiff test.