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

OK ok, I'll stop now, promise

Contador has already taken the Basque Tour by the scruff of the neck...

Ooh has he? I have finally handed in my homework but it was at the expense of keeping up to date with cycling

And today Tony Martin got in on the action with a fine stage win from a break. Very impressive.

Ben Swift took a very creditable second place on the stage.

just seeing the h/lights. Wasn't it T Martin who was pipped on the Vuelta after leading out from the start?

Yes it was. This must've been a very satisfying win for him.

That was heartbreaking in the Vuelta, glad he did well yesterday. What channels are you seeing all this on? (mind you if it's at midnight I won't be staying up, damn you early rising children)

I'm recording it from Eurosport & watching it when I get home from work.

I have the opposite problem to early rising children - teenagers who refuse to get out of bed.

I have an early rising teenager, he's a real conundrum, goes to bed earlier than the 7 year old and then gets up earlier too. I don't think anyone has explained being a teen to him yet.

Just finished facetiming a brilliant friend and her husband making plans for Paris-Roubaix watching on Sunday, we are going to make cake in the early bits of the race whilst keeping an eye on breaks and then eat it watching the finish. Can't wait to watch cycling with real people as well as people who live in my computer .

I'm relying on this thread as I only have Freesat. . So I can only watch whichever races are on proper telly.

Lost that sounds like a lovely plan for Sunday. I'll be watching with DH who fortunately is also a cycling fan.

DoctorTwo hello & welcome to the MN Peloton!

I can't be much help on the result today as I dozed off while watching the playback of the race . But I do know it ended in a bunch sprint with an Orica GreenEdge rider taking the win. Contador still leads overall from Valverde, and tomorrow they are back in the mountains.

Evening Doc. Missed the events today and can't find any h/lights. Nice to see an OGE winner. They are the funsters of the peloton and rather endearing, esp compared with the self-conscious seriousness of Team Sky.

Wrong! Highlights on Euro 2 at 2am! Erm...we have limits!

Exciting finish today with lots of attacks on the last climb. Contador able to repel all boarders again, although Valverde picked up a few seconds at the line. A great stage win for Wouter Poels of OPQ.

Oh forget the race! Where was Team Pan when I had a puncture this morning on the way to work? No flash car, on mike. No replacement wheel or bike. Just me and a spare tube and set of tyre irons.
You'd think it's one rule for some and another for others.

I've got a Skoda Octavia Scout Pan, some MN decals and we could do it Also I'm in the NW next week

I'd love to know everyone's opinions on Brailsford giving up British cycling role

Skoda? I was hoping for an estate Merc tbh.

Brailsford? Well, it's a business decision isn't it? A sort of word against him is that the notion of 'marginal gains' has been around management circles outside of cycling for years. ( I'm a senior manager in my org. and I've been practising this for years). This isn't 'news just in'. IN support of him, he has had the gumption and confidence to actually apply it, in an environment which historically, I think, is quite inward-looking and change is viewed with a bit of suspicion. Though now most teams are applying this principle.

Shane Sutton? Lovely bloke. Sometime last year, or the year before, he zoomed in on me from right, on the way he work. He slowed down, to say to me "G'day" and then within a few pedal strokes he disappeared into the distance. Obv not evidence enough to be the performance director, but still it counts for something.

Hey don't dis the Skoda, it's bloody fast a very practical 4x4 (and YES I need one where I live ) turbo on a sporty estate chassis (Audi use the same one) and actually looks quite sexy and I am totally brainwashed by the TdF. Also the largest boot capacity you can get without driving a van. I love my car. Wouldn't want a Merc anyway.

I agree though, marginal gains is hardly rocket science but I think he applies it well. He's certainly put the UK on the cycling map which I don't think anyone would have thought possible 10 years ago, Boardman excepted. I suppose everything is commercial in the end, I wish sport could just be sport for the sake of it and not all sucked in by the money makers and brands . Would be nice if it was all purist like the old days when they drank wine and repaired their own bikes. What's that? The Tour de France was a marketing jobby for a sport paper with yellow pages...

Pleased for Swifty today, not sure about his expression being kissed by the podium girls but he's done really well. Getting all prepped for Sunday now, hope it's a good day for everyone.

bike of tomorrow's winner

Delighted for Swifty yesterday. I didn't see the podium presentation, but he was certainly delighted with himself when he went over the line.

On the subject of Brailsford, I think he may have been spreading himself a bit thin over the last couple of years. I guess after ten years at the helm of British cycling he has done as much as he can, and it is probably time to hand over to a new generation who can bring in some new ideas.

As far as marginal gains goes, of course it's nothing new in management circles. What was new was that Brailsford was one of the first, if not the first, to apply such ideas to a professional sporting setting & he was monumentally successful in doing so.

Just seen on the Euronews channel that Christopher Horner, last year's Vuelta winner, is in hospital after being apparently hit by a car on a training run in Italy yesterday. He has a punctured lung, four broken ribs and cuts to his head and will be in hospital for a few days.

I'm not a fan of the man, but that sounds nasty.

I saw that on twitter, poor guy, humans are very flimsy when compared with cars and tarmac.

Happy Paris-Roubaix day everyone

Pan - we used to have a mercedes E class estate - ohhh how I loved that car. Sadly it was made with a batch of defective (cheaper) steel that Mercedes-Benz decided to use for a year or so, and it was rotting from the inside out. Huge Little patches of rust bubbling up all over. Dh gave it something less than a year before it would have collapsed into a heap of rust-cornflakes on the drive - so we got rid of it.

We have a BMW estate now, with roof bars, and we have roof racks that can go onto it at almost a moment's notice - would that do?

I've got Paris-Roubaix set up on the sky+ box, and am planning a lovely afternoon admiring my bike boys.