Liege Bastogne Liege 2018

harringtonp

Start list

https://www.cyclingstage.com/liege-bastogne-liege-2018/riders-lbl-2018/

See Eddie Dunbar is in it, along with Dan Martin

1bryan

Dan doesn't seem to be having much luck this year. I wonder if family distractions are affecting him. Will be hoping he has a good outing on sunday. I'd imagine this is his big target for the whole year.

Macy0161

Yep, really hope the held up by a crash stuff was real and isn't just bluffing and his legs are as good as he claimed. Looking forward to saying goodbye to this finish too!

Lusk_Doyle

Hard to see past everyone's favourite rider, Valverde, matching Merxck with 5 wins tomorrow. No doubt will be close given what happened on Wednesday but that will only have spurred him on to make this his again.

Raam

http://www.velonews.com/2018/04/commentary/commentary-how-to-make-liege-great-again_463805

Two Aqua Blue riders in the break of 9. 5:40 up the road.

brocbrocach

Hopefully we get loads of stickybottle articles telling us how strong they were in the break....

Anna van der Breggen takes the womens race. Such a talent.

MPFGLB

I dont know why there is all the hate on here on AquaBlue

They are a team that going in breaks because they dont have the riders who can challenge for the overall win from the peloton..unless Dunbar can do something today

They are doing what they can do and doing it well

One man has put his own money into cycling (which badly needs it) and is tying to make it a viable project , he is employing Irish riders who would never get to ride on this stage at thi point ...youd swear he was doing some awful attack on cycling as a whole

godtabh

AquaBlue are in the break to raise their profile after not getting into races. Fair play to them. Getting lots of mentions. Its good for Irish cycling

godtabh

Some sky riders really suffering

retalivity

No sign of dan anywhere in that latest shakeup - 20k to go

retalivity

retalivity wrote: »

No sign of dan anywhere in that latest shakeup - 20k to go

nevermind there he is in the second group on the road, 20s behind jungels

bazermc

Ah FFS Dan

dahat

Mechanical for Dan, looks to be his day done.

godtabh

Dan with a puncture. Looks fed up

retalivity

not sure on the timings, jungels lost 30s+ on that climb!

godtabh

Bob of the Jungles has this

godtabh

Bob of the Jungles has this

Quigs Snr

Is pro cycling starting to get boring ? Fellas seem to be more interested in finishing second that actually trying to finish first of late.

Raam

Quigs Snr wrote: »

Is pro cycling starting to get boring ? Fellas seem to be more interested in finishing second that actually trying to finish first of late.

UCI points, innit?

MPFGLB

Quigs Snr wrote: »

Is pro cycling starting to get boring ? Fellas seem to be more interested in finishing second that actually trying to finish first of late.

Dont think its they are more interesed in finishing second...just alot of teams do not want to tow Valverde or Allaphillipe to the line

Also alot of the helpers are not as good as Quick Step's 2nd, 3rd, 4th rider who can all win

Its a problem when one teams dominates as we saw with SKY at the Tour

Everyone is scared of the ods

Quigs Snr

Well fair play to Dan Martin having a few death or glory cuts off it anyway. He must be one of the unluckiest cyclists.

Dan looked to be in better shape today than in recent times.

velo.2010

Might not be everyone's favourite but I have to say that I much prefer the Tour of Flanders over every other Spring Classic. Just seems a much more dynamic race that is on the go from much further out than other races. Roubaix is a great race too but I don't warm to it in the same way as I do Flanders.

The Ardennes classics promise so much but are sometimes a bit of a let down. The finish of Fleche Wallonne is an exception.

Miklos

Go on Jungle Bob! One of my favourite racers.

brocbrocach

MPFGLB wrote: »

I dont know why there is all the hate on here on AquaBlue

They are a team that going in breaks because they dont have the riders who can challenge for the overall win from the peloton..unless Dunbar can do something today

They are doing what they can do and doing it well

One man has put his own money into cycling (which badly needs it) and is tying to make it a viable project , he is employing Irish riders who would never get to ride on this stage at thi point ...youd swear he was doing some awful attack on cycling as a whole

I don't see "all the hate" you speak of. I don't like the excessive praise irish riders or riders on an irish team get for doing what all pro conti teams are expected to do. In the case of Eddie Dunbar it's reached sickening levels, especially when it's clear he has a problem staying in the peloton and using his gifts to take a competitive part in a race. But he's young so hopefully he'll be learning.
Rick Delaney deserves great credit for what he's doing. But slating the same system that gave his team a ridiculous leg up just last year is classless.

Amprodude

brocbrocach wrote: »

I don't see "all the hate" you speak of. I don't like the excessive praise irish riders or riders on an irish team get for doing what all pro conti teams are expected to do. In the case of Eddie Dunbar it's reached sickening levels, especially when it's clear he has a problem staying in the peloton and using his gifts to take a competitive part in a race. But he's young so hopefully he'll be learning.
Rick Delaney deserves great credit for what he's doing. But slating the same system that gave his team a ridiculous leg up just last year is classless.

Harsh there on Dunbar. It's his first season racing at this level and he is doing pretty good if you ask me.

Macy0161

velo.2010 wrote: »

The Ardennes classics promise so much but are sometimes a bit of a let down. The finish of Fleche Wallonne is an exception.

I think Fleche is (generally) the most boring one tbh. I'm hoping that a change back to a flat run in will help Liege from next year on, but I think this years Ardennes week shows it's the riders that make the race not the route - Fleche shook up by Nibali on the attack, relatively long range attack winning Liege after plenty of action from La Redoute....

brocbrocach wrote:

In the case of Eddie Dunbar it's reached sickening levels, especially when it's clear he has a problem staying in the peloton and using his gifts to take a competitive part in a race.

Incredibly harsh on Dunbar - at this stage of his career it's better to be out front and visible in a break, than be anonymous in the bunch. If nothing else for potential career progression in terms of teams.

brocbrocach

Macy0161 wrote: »

Incredibly harsh on Dunbar - at this stage of his career it's better to be out front and visible in a break, than be anonymous in the bunch. If nothing else for potential career progression in terms of teams.

I don't want it to sound like an attack on Dunbar, he's obviously a star. But these articles are way over the top. The breakaway is not bad but it's not where the good riders are.

harringtonp

brocbrocach wrote: »

I don't want it to sound like an attack on Dunbar, he's obviously a star. But these articles are way over the top. The breakaway is not bad but it's not where the good riders are.

No but the whole point is that each year he has progressed. Cycling is not like gymnastics or olympic snowboarding where the top level stars peak at a young age. No matter how good somebody is it takes years to be able to race hard after 250km of road which is undoubtedly why there is a specific U23 category in cycling.

The real benchmark is how he compares with the other U23 riders who enter these classics.