Official Cycling Thread

[jeepers]

Nicholas Roche placed third in the third stage of Paris-Nice today. Paris-Nice is one of the most prestigious of the regular stage races (not a grand tour) and has been won a record number of times by Sean Kelly.

Dan Martin (Nicholas's cousin) is also in the race. He's doing fine, but as he's a climber rather than sprinter, he hasn't had much chance to show his stuff so far.

This is looking like a good season for the Irish cyclists in the upper echelons. Roche in particular has started very strongly, and has proven that he can climb and sprint.

 

[tim the trip]

roche reminds me of pantanani. great things to come from that lad.

 

[jeepers]

roche reminds me of pantanani. great things to come from that lad.

Absolutely. He has the personality to do it as well. I think he'll be good in the classics.

 

[jeepers]

Roche has moved up to 15th and is only 16 seconds off the top 10. Tough finish yesterday with Contador attacking like a mofo on the last climb, but he stuck with it and finished in the first 20.

Martin seems to have been working for Vandevelde, as they finished well back on the same time.

Contador a class apart, even though he wasn't showing TdF form.

 

[jeepers]

Roche up two more places to 13th, finished 8th today. Still 16 seconds from top 10. His team almost helped him pull off a win today but he was left to do too much on his own.

Sagan looks fucking amazing, another stage win and this is really his first pro tour season.

 

[jeepers]

Good weekend for Irish cyclists abroad.

Roche came 4th on the last stage of Paris-Nice, finishing 11th overall. He was easily one of the most prominent cyclists on the tour and has continued the improvement from last year.

David McCann, who races for the Giant Asia Team, won the opening stage of the Tour de Taiwan and has a fair chance of holding on for the week, as there aren't many climbs.

 

[jeepers]

David McCann held on to win Taiwan, good result for him. He was suffering from a chest infection throughout the week, so good going.

Nico Eeckhout of the An Post-Sean Kelly team placed second on the Ronde van het Groene Hart. This team is doing really well this year, so the young Irish cyclists are getting good exposure to success.

 

[jeepers]

Roche placed 9th in the prologue of the Volta a Catalunya (Tour of Catalan), 6 seconds off the lead. This is good, he should place well, especially as he's capable of picking up seconds in the intermediate sprints.

 

[tim the trip]

u into triathlon at all?

 

[jeepers]

u into triathlon at all?

Can't - fucked knee, so can't run. Have done a couple of adventure/relay/triathlons alright, but standard tri is a no. Hoping to do more of the above this year, last year I did mostly long distance sportives.