The professional cycling thread

[Johnny]

Tour Down Under starts Tuesday.

Live on SS1HD at 0200 for those that will be awake...

[Don1]

Jesus. Not good. Swift healing to all. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/35392379

[ewenm]

Yeah, saw that on Twitter - horrendous incident.

[anonymous-user]

Although four have been discharged, Degenkolb and Chris Haga are still in a serious condition in hospital...

[TheJelley]

Some positive news:

https://twitter.com/TourDeJose/status/691369846811...

[funkyrobot]

Bloody hell.

Shows how much damage one vehicle can do.

[Don1]

funkyrobot said:

Bloody hell.

Shows how much damage one vehicle can do.

This much...

[Rich_W]

Driver needs to be locked up!

Why oh why did it HAVE to be a Brit woman though!

[Rouleur]

It looks as though mechanical doping actually exists

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/mo...

[funkyrobot]

Rouleur said:

It looks as though mechanical doping actually exists

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/mo...

Not a new issue, but the first time I see it has been found.

There were talks about this sort of thing years ago. I think Cancellara was on the receiving end of some accusations.

[Rich_W]

Obviously guilty. Though if the story about being lent the bike is true she may have a reasonable case.

Question is really how much assistance are we talking? There's a shop near Sigma Sport that sells Scott E Bikes and they all look a bit wieldy. The batteries are a decent size as are the motors aren't exactly small either



So anything that could be hidden in a regular size frame tube is probably not going to offer anything like the power of the bike above. Is a 5% energy saving likely? Is that actually enough to make a difference?

[Katzenjammer]

In a cyclocross race it's maximum effort from the start line for a minute or two to establish a position, which you will hopefully maintain for the rest of the race. If you have a motor giving you even 5% that could be enough to put you into a race winning position.

[Don1]

I didn't see this discussed here: Katusha in trouble?

[Rouleur]

It's okay, there's nothing wrong at all... http://inrng.com/2016/02/katusha-ride-on/#more-275...

[nammynake]

Rich_W said:

So anything that could be hidden in a regular size frame tube is probably not going to offer anything like the power of the bike above. Is a 5% energy saving likely? Is that actually enough to make a difference?

Reports suggest 100-200 W extra, which is a huge amount. At threshold I'd be able to keep up with Cancellara/Wiggins etc with that additional power.

[ewenm]

For those of us who have been following cycling for a while, news yesterday that ex-commentator David Duffield has died. I found his commentary annoying but he was definitely part of my introduction to cycling.

[Digger]

Same here. That's sad news indeed.

Boy, he didn't half ramble on at times.

[johnxjsc1985]

I learned far more about food and wine from David Duffield than I ever did about Cycling. Very sad news a lovely nutter of a man.

[mcelliott]

Ah yeah that's really quite sad, but I do share everyone's frustration at his commentary. Pivotal moment in the race, attack goes up the road, and Dave is still talking about last night's hotel accommodation and meal, and......

[johnxjsc1985]

if you ever met anyone who rode a trike or even worse raced one you would understand Duffers completely bonkers.