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

Oooh a nice Beemer estate is auto du jour . Knocks my 16 yo Megane into last week! Nice to think my bike costs more than twice the cost of the car. Which is the way life should be!

Jolly to see Sky boys leading the peloton out.

Ahhh I didn't know there was a cycling thread! DP is really in to cycling and I've been sucked in to watching and now I'm enjoying it a bit too much. Even considering buying a road bike and some Lycra

At the in-laws at the moment but will catch up on Paris-Roubaix when I get home, so I will be back

Felix - We also have a Irish/Italian Giro thread, which isn't too far away now

Brilliant! I enjoyed the giro last year. DP will be impressed with my participation

Also change of plan, I have Paris-Roubaix up on the laptop now!

Dh said your bike is probably worth twice what the old merc was worth too! I did love that car, though.

The Beemer is pretty elderly, but comfortable - and not about to turn I to a pile of cornflakes, which is a big plus.

Did you see Cancellara on the deck? He didn't look too happy, and I don't blame him!

I was also quite shocked to hear how much damage the cobbles do - the commentator was saying that the riders can't go to the loo comfortably for a week afterwards, due to the pounding the undercarriage gets! Owwwww!!

Wiggo on the front!

Just finished watching Paris-Roubaix. What a race! Really enjoyed that, but am pretty sure most of the riders didn't . Cobbles & dust - ouch!!

Looks like Wiggo is coming into a bit of form, which is good to see

It was almost surreal - there they are in multi-coloured lycra on machines that cost X-thousands of pounds each, tinkering with the 'marginal gains' by tweaking a brake caliper by a mm or two......and then bashing it all across Napoleonic blocks of stone amidst a dust cloud. It was Python-esque!

Good to see Greg LeMond as a Eurosport summariser.

Good to see Juan Antonio Flecha too. Mucho respect for him ever since the TdeF a few years ago when he had a close encounter with a car, a tree and some barbed wire. And then got back on the bike!!

I think that was in the winds of northern France fairly early in the Tour? A media car tried to pass him on a lane and feared hitting a tree - so instead of slowing or stopping took Flecha out, who took others down. What I most remember is that it was a fail-to-stop. The driver just drove on as if nothing happened. Chapeau.

This one?

I've got this t-shirt somewhere. (scroll down a bit)

Ow Ow Ow Ow Ow and a final OW!!! Was that Hoogers through the barbed wire??
Like the slogan "Pain is temporary. Pride is forever."

They both finished the stage and shared the combativity prize. Did I mention I LOVE pro cyclists?

That was Johnny Hoogerland - sporting his 'mauled by a tiger' look!

Yes that's it. Loving the t-shirt!

Pro-cyclists are tough dudes alright

Just out of entirely personal interest, here is the climb I do each morning on the way to work - Mottram Moor which is a dual carriage way, always busy with trucks coming off the M60 on the way into Manchester...

God designed it with bikists in mind, so he thoughtfully ramped it up at the end at 22% gradient. Not sure which is scarier - climbing up it with trucks, or zooming down it in the wet and wind.

Yers, that looks, umm, fun? What time do you want your spare wheel tomorrow?

Although that must mean it's down hill all the way home. I don't think I'd be keen on sharing it with traffic.

Rather you than me, Pan. Not sure if you're brave or daft At least it must be keeping you fit!

Brave or daft - ha! You certainly hone your road craft..and it's only a short bit of the journey.This is the route that @millarmind would have taken to the velodrome when he lived near me during his ban. Quite a few of us ride into M/c. It's long but rather that than sit in traffic for hours. And yes you do get v fit!
Am due to base myself near the velodrome again soon, so more hero-spotting to come.

I'm in Manchester today, had to resist the urge to shout Pan at every cyclist I drove past this morning. There were a lot of cyclists though so it's a good job I resisted the urge

That's very restrained of you, dear. What's funnier is that I've been off with darling daughter at home in the sunny Peaks! M/c has the highest student population per resident for any city in Europe - there's thousands of the dudes, stylishly swishing around on their hybrids and MTBs. And generally getting in the way when you're in velo mode.

Brilliant! So long since I watched that, I am like this now ---> .

Right, heels off, lippy gone, back from the big city (SO many people, how do you cope living there), what's next for cycling watching, Amstel Gold? I do like Gilbert, there's something about him.