MN Pro-Cycling Peloton - Spring Time Classics!! Starting with Milan-San Remo Sunday 23rd March

[PansBigChainring]

Resuming domestique duties ...we've raced away from the broom wagon that is a miserable winter and the dudes are up and racing on the Continent.

Milan-San Remo is first up with Cav looking to get his first race win of the season and with Petacchi and Renshawe in his lead out train (and one climb removed for safety reasons) this is where he could do it. It's live on Eurosport with highlights on Euro and Sky.

There are six other one-day classics before the Irish Giro in May, so rather than doing all the research, I'd commissioned the Beeb to do it for me!
So here is a nifty guide to all of them in one easy go

The Irish Giro may get a bit of pure local interest traffic, so I'd started a new thread just for that celebration of all that is green, lycra and on two thin wheels, here...The Irish Giro

Popo (shortening it so I don't have to negotiate varied spellings of back end) looked to be caught by cycling in the gutter, do you think? I hope the lady crossing the road is better than reported, she probably didn't have a clue how fast these guys are actually going.

not sure - looked like his bars got caught in her coat. Sometimes wonder if teams will try sueing spectators for commercial damage, at least in clearer cut cases.

I need to watch it again now! It would be great if they could but people are just so ignorant, probably wouldn't make much difference to the way 99% behave anyway. Then we get onto the subject of taking your dog to watch a bike race and not keeping it safely on a lead...

Lost - Spartacus needs a new helmet..

The commentators seem to think her coat caught on his handlebars - she was fairly close to the edge of the pavement, but if he jumped up onto the pavement then maybe it's equal share of the fault?

Lost - you are spot on about people taking dogs to watch races - we have two, and there's no way they will be coming with us if we come down to Yorkshire for the Tour. It is just not worth the risk.

I took our dog to the ToB once because he was too young to be left for the whole day but I schlepped him all the way back to the car well in advance of the riders coming through, the thought of him near all the riders gave me chills. DS1 and his camera needed enough of my attention as it was! (I need to point out he had a good zoom lense on, he wasn't actually standing in front of beautiful Bernie).

That sounds a very sensible way to deal with it, Lost. Luckily our two are old enough to be left, and anyway ds1 will be home from university, and can be left at home to look after them.

I love this one that he took, it must be so hard being a 'known' rider, having that much attention and having to focus to get past everyone safely must take a lot of energy up.

Ah it must be lovely when they get old enough to be really helpful SDT, DS1 is big enough to take up a lot of room and eat me out of house and home but not old enough to be given a lot of responsibility. I am counting the seconds until he is mature enough to babysit his brothers!

Someone has linked to the video of the lady who got hurt over on twitter, I thought it was the Popo crash but it was the poor lady who was badly hurt, horrible crash, not her fault at all, she was standing on a raised pavement road crossing bit in the middle with other people and the cyclist just went straight up onto the pavement and into her and knocked her flying, urgh, wish I hadn't seen that now.

Just read this on twitter:
"Once they hit the Kwaremont at 50 to go shit will get even more real than it currently is. Which is quite real."

He is pretty helpful - well, both he and ds2 (who's also away at university) - but they are also very good at relieving us of large amounts of cash (so they can carry on affording the little luxuries they have become accustomed it, like eating and living indoors), and eating us out of house and home when they are here.

Ds2 is at uni in Edinburgh, which is close enough for him to come home with his laundry, so he can do it for free here instead of paying at the laundrette!

We love them, though.

Urgh, guests, just missed the last 30k, honestly people who like you and pop in to say hi and give you chocolates, there should be a law against it. What've I missed?

Sagan, Boonen and Spartacus well placed.

Where is G and his gold standard back up crew?

Still in there with Eddy I think. Bradders seems to have wandered off. Quelle surprise...

Lost and SDTG it seems we are all the mothers of three boys . SDTG from seeing you here & on other threads (not stalking, promise) I think yours are a similar age to mine. Boys are fab even though they constantly have their faces in the fridge DS1 has stopped bringing his laundry home because he has a washing machine in his flat. Bizarrely, I miss doing his washing

Utter carnage on the cobbles today, n'est-ce pas? It's very exciting. I switched on a bit late so didn't see the crash that injured the spectator, but it sounds horrific. I hope she's OK.

This race is riveting stuff.

I was reading a bit of Nicolas Roche's biography last night. He gave an interesting insight into riding on cobbles. You can't grip as tightly as you normally would otherwise the vibrations go right through you, so you don't have as much control over your bike as you normally would. They also reduce their tyre pressure a bit which makes it harder on the smoother roads (I think).

That's really interesting Drama, would make a lot of sense. It is quite exciting with the different surfaces, it's just amazing seeing them now some of them still riding so fluently and looking so fit and amazing (and some of them, well, not so fit and amazing looking right now .

Having three boys seems like a cool club to be in! My eldest just turned 14, then 11 and 7, so coming out of the chaos, a tiny bit anyway. Just learning to cope with having the giant teen out on his bike all hours of the day and having to trust him and not worry too much about him staying safe. and the smell, how does my perfect little baby now smell so bad half the time

Oh Wiggers

Bradders still there...

All my favourite people in RL seem to be mothers of three boys . Mine are 20, 19 & 16. They are great fun. My baby is off to Italy with the school next week. I'm wibbling a bit, which is very silly. I need to remember he's growing up & learn to relax a bit. I wasn't like this with his brothers

This race is getting more exciting by the minute. Last bit of cobbles coming up...

What's happened to Wiggo??

Pan! You're making me think grumpy thoughts about my lovely cycling boys

Not long now, can Cancellara keep this up the whole way?

Nothing happened to Wiggo, Pan was stirring! I thought he'd done his 'bored of this now and I'm not going to win' wander off.

Yes, Wiggo does that.

Cancellara getting very cross with the guys with him. Wants them to do some work.

I don't think any of them are up to his standard though and he can't do it on his own. Can he?

Cancellara's looking strong. Eurosport commentators think he's playing mind games with the others, taking a gel at this stage & bossing the other three about.