BurningLegs
Guru
What's the best way to watch the worlds this weekend? I don't have Eurosport (assuming it would be on there live), does anyone know if there will be highlights on ITV4?
UCI Road World Championships Bergen 2017 **No Spoilers Now**
- Thread starter brommers
- Start date
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mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
http://road.cc/content/news/229296-steve-cummings-withdraws-great-britain-world-championships-team - Cummings withdraws from ITT, saying he was named without being asked and feels he has insufficient time to prepare. Place goes to Tao Geoghehan Hart
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
You're new to British Cycling's ways, then? This uncoordination is minor compared to the bizarre stuff happening around women's racing a few years ago, described in Nicole Cooke's book "The Breakaway".
I like this comment under the road.cc article: "British Cycling shows more organisational incompetence than your average village fête"
Not really. The probability of him riding away from a couple of dozen of the World's best Classics riders on a Classics course is negligible, even if he was fully fit, which he isn't. There is however, a probability that he would ride 250k at the back as he so often does. This contributes nothing to the team, which is what he did in Richmond, a situation not appreciated by some management and riders, particularly as other guys were burying themselves trying to keep Swifty at the front on every climb. If he were to ride for others, he would certainly make a contribution, but he appears to do that very rarely, even at DDD, so BC do not appear to be confident that he will be "on message".
They do not have a realistic contender anyway, so have probably taken the opportunity to introduce 4 younger riders who have not ridden at this level or distance previously, but may be ones for the future.They will benefit from the experience and be prepared to dig in and get their hands dirty.
I appreciate what you're saying and he does ride that way in stage races. My recollection of Richmind was slightly different so I checked the results and he finished in 31st place just behind Swift and in front of the other GB riders, Stannard and Yates, unless I've missed something.
So he can do it if he chooses to.
So he can do it if he chooses to.
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
I thought DDD were cool with Cummings lone-wolfing like that because he picks up the occasional headline win (he was their fifth WorldTour scoring rider in 2016). It's not really a tactic that BC use often, though.
It's a valid tactic, as long as they don't instead learn the DNF habit seen over the last 7 or 8 years. But "realistic contender"? It's a long enough race to be a bit of a lottery sometimes.
He rode at the back for 95+% of the race (commentators were joking about it for 5 hours), contributed nothing to the team, then worked through to 31st . I do not think that was the plan. Given he sat at the back all day then its no surprise that the doms who buried themselves rolled in behind him. I just do not think BC trust him, which may be the problem when it comes to selection.
The management are, but that does not mean all the riders are happy about it, especially when the are knackered and would appreciate a bit of help.
True, he was 5th highest scorer last year, although looking at this year, Thwaites is 4th and he has never had leadership and just done dom work all year...so not sure how much it means in a team like DDD who score so few points anyway
OP
OP
brommers
Years beyond my wisdom
- Location
- Clacton-on-Sea
Steve Cummings did put in a big shift at the Olympic Road Race last year
OP
OP
brommers
Years beyond my wisdom
- Location
- Clacton-on-Sea
Only 11 of the World Tour teams have entered the team time trial.
http://www.procyclingstats.com/race/World_Championships_-_TTT_2017_Startlist
http://www.procyclingstats.com/race/World_Championships_-_TTT_2017_Startlist
