In the men's TT Dumoulin really looked like he was on another level, and in a way I'm happy that a "time trial specialist" (although honestly, can you even classify him that way any longer?) still won the bands, as the climb seemed to be put in there as a foil for Tony Martin and friends. Rohan Dennis continues his streak of bad luck in World Championships... he's been my pick the last 3 years and has had an issue every time. Maybe it's my fault. Froome looked good overall, but tired. Not surprising considering his Tour Vuelta double. He needed to be a lot fresher to compete with TD in form.
The transition area was ridiculous... and pretty much was consistently a bad idea to change bikes. I didn't see anyone who seemed like they gained anything from taking the swap. Martin Madsen (MTM on Slowtwitch) did it with only a single ring on his TT bike and finished a respectable 21st. Dark Horse story (well, it was more a story for the UK guys, I didn't see much about it over here) Hamish Bond turned out rather disappointingly, not because of his performance, but rather his mechanical. It would have been great to see how he stacked up with no issues.
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| hard to argue with that |
In the women's road race, it was tough to see anything but the predictable outcome. The Dutch had the power and the numbers, and Blaak, with a little help from her friends, will get by with the stripes next year.
The men's race... what a good race to watch. (except when the coverage got miffed and we stared at the 1k to go banner for 5 minutes) When you look back at it now, I think... of course Sagan won it, but at the time... I never would have bet on him doing it. Even when he seemingly materialized out of nowhere for the sprint, it didn't look like he had it. But he did. Winning 3 WC road races in very different finishes... it's hard not to think he is one of, if not the best one day racer...maybe ever. Long live the champ.
FYI: You can watch the UCI's replay's (and live streams) on their Youtube channel by using a proxy service to get around the Geoblocking they put up. Of course you can also use Steephill.tv for live viewing, but you get some sketchy websites/streams and often a lot of non-english language streams.
But it wasn't just the WC going on. The Newly opened Mattamy National Cycling Center Velodrome in Milton, Ontario was the scene for "The Day of the Hour" where 8 Canadians set off on attacks on both the Canadian Hour Records as well as the UCI World Hour Records. You can check out lots of video on it here
By the way, Congratulations to all! I only have a taste of what it's like, and my hat's off to anyone who can ride the track for an hour at some serious speeds.
There were 4 new World Records and 8 new Canadians records at the end of the day, with outstanding performances by everyone. Like any good hour record, there was a non-zero amount of drama that has the forums humming. The placement of the little bumpers was not in it's normal position (which is touching the very edge of the upper part of the Cote, to prevent someone from dipping below the black line)
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| My awesome art program showing where they "should" be touching |
While historically the bumpers do indeed touch the other edge, the always informative Alex Simmons brought to light that in the UCI handbook there isn't a rule specifying where the bumpers must be. (At least back to 2000 - take with a grain of salt as I'm not a UCI Comm intimately familiar with the rules)
From an actual performance standpoint... it's kind of a grey area in my mind. On the one hand, actually trying to gain an advantage by riding on the Cote for an hour record is a little ridiculous (you travel less distance in the turns, but you also have less banking) but on the other hand, having that extra 6 inches or so can allow a rider to be significantly braver about the line they choose to ride. Would I ride farther up the track if I was afraid I was in danger of hitting the bumper? Possibly. So in that way there is a little bit of advantage, if only primarily a mental one. Since a few records were set with under a lap of distance between the records, it starts getting a little muddy as to the "spirit" of the rules. That said, there were UCI comm's at Milton who had no trouble with it for 8 hour attempts, so I see no reason to be outraged beyond a curiosity. Perhaps, with the renewed interest in the hour and this day in particular, we might get clearer rules.
That's all about other folk doing great things. Me... I've started riding a semi-serious amount again, but not anything overly exciting. With my mind focused on all the things to get in order for our trip to Germany my own cycling has taken a bit of a back seat, in my mind if not in my legs. I'm sure things will pick back up into full order soon. It's about time for a new project as well... I don't have anything staring at me from the workbench in desperate need of repair, it feels a little strange!
Until next time, thanks so much for reading! I really appreciate it!
- Christopher Morelock
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