2022 PRO Thread

[ducman]

After multiple near misses,

???

[robbosmans]

CX Worlds weekend in Fayettville, Arkansas.

At the moment it looks like a fast course, and not particularly technical; bad news for those who prefer slow, heavy mud conditions,

Like concrete

The top layer seems to become looser, which means its actually quite slippery, so technique will be very important

[robbosmans]

In other injury news, MVP still not able to ride. His old man repeating the same lame story - that the switch from road to mountain is the cause of his back problem.

Where did you read this? The team has communicated multiple times the injury is a disc in back that that causes a lot of pain and hasn’t had the change to heal fully.

[Lina]

And the crash story lacks the ring of truth - didn't see a bus? C'mon. You have to wonder what really happened.

Why'd you doubt the story? Modern TT positions prioritize aero to power ratio over everything, even seeing the road. It's not a massive issue on closed roads in racing but training on a TT bike on busy roads is asking to hit something.

[Kjetil]

Mirrors. Train to see the world upside down, TTers!

Love the EF kit. Wonderfully outrageous, again. Last year's was too subdued.

[AJS914]

I don't understand why super teams like Ineos don't take more precautions when their star riders go training, especially on TT bikes. It seems negligent not to look after your prime "assets" better: the downside in a case like Bernal is huge and the cost of giving them an escort or finding private roads or race tracks comparatively small.

Puzzled

I'm wondering why they are training in Bogota, Colombia in the first place? Can't find quiet roads in the countryside? They have team training camp there just so Egan can be near his family?

I often wonder if they have these out of the way training camps because there is less out of competition testing in these countries.

Froome's career ending crash was because he was taking off a rain jacket while riding a TT bike. I seem to recall that the team was telling him to pull over and try attempt this feat of gymnastics on a TT bike. Maybe Egan did something similarly dumb and they are downplaying that aspect of the crash?

[kytyree]

After multiple near misses,

???

There was some video posted on instagram in the days prior to Bernal's crash of a near miss between their group and an oncoming car passing another in the lane they were riding in, I believe Cyclingtips posted an article on it, and probably others.

Following Bernal on Strava, I know a few those roads he trains on and there are some good places to ride out there. One in particular stands out that has plenty of shoulder and leads out to the north east to some quieter rural roads. An area where I see plenty of locals out riding as well.

I haven't seen anything specific on what type of bus was involved in his crash. But I'm guessing it was one of an infinite number buses running around Colombia and Bogota ranging in size from full size bus to mini-van with a lot of them sprinter van sized. Especially the smaller ones can be pretty erratic and frustrating to drive around, let alone ride a bike. They pull part way off the road randomally and are often stopped still in the road or essentially double parked. Besides the safety aspect, I wouldn't want to "train" where there are many of them solely because of how often you'd be interupted. They're one of the primary culprits for how difficult it can be to drive in and around Bogota. But in a city where public transportation is grossly insufficient, few have cars, and most need to commute to work, I guess they are a necessary evil in that sense. I've been in them a time or two and it's a wild ride...

Traffic in Bogota is certainly unlike anything I've ever seen and I wouldn't ride anywhere near the city. As you leave Bogota toward where he's from I'd want to be out beyond somewhere around Chia before I'd really want to ride. Though I have seen plenty of cyclist around Chia, then again people are commuting on bicycles all over Bogota but usually in places I wouldn't want to be on a bike, for plenty of reasons, I don't even like driving there, for that matter.

[Mr.Gib]

In other injury news, MVP still not able to ride. His old man repeating the same lame story - that the switch from road to mountain is the cause of his back problem.

Where did you read this? The team has communicated multiple times the injury is a disc in back that that causes a lot of pain and hasn’t had the change to heal fully.

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mathie ... ck-injury/
"Reports have attributed van der Poel’s injury to switching between his road bike and mountain bike as he balanced an ambitious road campaign with preparation for last summer’s Olympic Games."

"Reports" as in information coming from the MVP camp. The guy has a spinal issue, Probably dates back to some older event, maybe even during childhood. He probably was not even aware of it when it happened, and as he has increased the load on his body with his advancing pro career, or simply due to the aging process, inflamation is his bodies response to protect the damaged area. If you were MVP would you want your sponsors and potential sponsors to know this? Hence the BS. Think of how painful this must be to keep MVP off his bike. Fingers crossed that the issue stabilizes at a level that does not interfer with being the best cyclist in the world.

[Mr.Gib]

[DirtiousDirte]

In other injury news, MVP still not able to ride. His old man repeating the same lame story - that the switch from road to mountain is the cause of his back problem.

Where did you read this? The team has communicated multiple times the injury is a disc in back that that causes a lot of pain and hasn’t had the change to heal fully.

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mathie ... ck-injury/
"Reports have attributed van der Poel’s injury to switching between his road bike and mountain bike as he balanced an ambitious road campaign with preparation for last summer’s Olympic Games."

"Reports" as in information coming from the MVP camp. The guy has a spinal issue, Probably dates back to some older event, maybe even during childhood. He probably was not even aware of it when it happened, and as he has increased the load on his body with his advancing pro career, or simply due to the aging process, inflamation is his bodies response to protect the damaged area. If you were MVP would you want your sponsors and potential sponsors to know this? Hence the BS. Think of how painful this must be to keep MVP off his bike. Fingers crossed that the issue stabilizes at a level that does not interfer with being the best cyclist in the world.

I thought his back injury was related to his crash at the Olympics?

[Karvalo]

@jever98 exactly. Ripping around on TT bikes on busy roads? And the crash story lacks the ring of truth - didn't see a bus? C'mon. You have to wonder what really happened.

.......

This is satire, right?

[Mr.Gib]

@jever98 exactly. Ripping around on TT bikes on busy roads? And the crash story lacks the ring of truth - didn't see a bus? C'mon. You have to wonder what really happened.

.......

This is satire, right?

Not satire. The accounts I have read simply say he didn't see a bus. That's a hard thing to miss. I am not suggesting some wild conspiracy. But was the accident a result being surprised around a corner? Having another vehicle blocking line of sight and then pulling out leaving Bernal facing the back of a bus? Maybe leading riders were slow to react and didn't sound a warning soon enough? But straight road, didn't see a bus? I don't think so.

If you're looking for satire, try this:

Mirrors. Train to see the world upside down, TTers!

[flying]

Not satire. The accounts I have read simply say he didn't see a bus. That's a hard thing to miss.

It is not a big surprise He was on the front head down. Ever see Pro's or Tri riders train on TT bikes?
Head down & many times zoomed in on white roadside line

Only ever looking up every 20-30 seconds to check road

Smart? No
Common? Yes

All that happened is bus which was not on side of road suddenly was to drop a passenger
Others in his paceline saw & yelled but Egan was head down & zoned

Bad mistake & not uncommon I even know someone here did the same into a parking car

The problem is riders thinking open public roads = closed course race
At the end of the day it was a sad costly mistake & hopefully others learn from it

This is probably how he looked right before crash.... so yes not a hard thing to miss if your not looking

[zirxo]

@jever98 exactly. Ripping around on TT bikes on busy roads? And the crash story lacks the ring of truth - didn't see a bus? C'mon. You have to wonder what really happened.

.......

This is satire, right?

Not satire. The accounts I have read simply say he didn't see a bus. That's a hard thing to miss. I am not suggesting some wild conspiracy. But was the accident a result being surprised around a corner? Having another vehicle blocking line of sight and then pulling out leaving Bernal facing the back of a bus? Maybe leading riders were slow to react and didn't sound a warning soon enough? But straight road, didn't see a bus? I don't think so.

If you're looking for satire, try this:

Mirrors. Train to see the world upside down, TTers!

The bus stopped at a random place on the road, so if you're not looking forward all the time it's kinda easy to miss that it stopped all of a sudden.

[TheDoctor]

If you're looking for satire, try this:

Mirrors. Train to see the world upside down, TTers!

Not entirely. If I recall correctly, in the 90's there was some experimentation with prism glasses to look ahead in a face-down time trial position. That went the way of the dodo but such glasses have now become very common in rock climbing (so that the belayer can look up the wall without straining his or her neck). Not sure how this could be integrated in aero visors but the technology is there. You can actually get larger prisms to fit on aerobars - although these don't look too aero to be honest:
http://veloview.bike/