Stine Momo

Well if Alex Carera says the problem is already fixed then I for one would would never presume to doubt it for a second.

The standard responses from the Pog stans etc to any kind of criticism of the way he impacts racing are also just... Predictable and loud.

Exactly.
The collective fawn response over him and his team from the mainstream cycling media is also just driving me up the wall.

A main feature/attraction of the sport for me has always been the suspense and unpredictability, not just spectacle and dominance.
I don't wanna cheer for boring races.

I'm now just rooting for as many teams to annoy him as much as possible and for everyone to refuse to collaborate with his team.

I also just hate the media framing of the dominance. It was boring in the past, it's still boring now, but now with a bizarre and yucky undertone of "comply in advance"/"accept your unbeatable overlord" defeatism covered in "witnessing greatness".

We don't have to just be quiet and applaud.

It’s more than slightly depressing that simply adding himself to the start line has ruined one of the best races of the season before it’s even started. Won’t go out of my way to watch it now. What’s the point of sport without competition, when it doesn’t feel in any way real?

I had the exact same reaction to this.
Next update is probably "Gianetti says there's absolutely nothing to worry about"...

If anyone is friends with any Georgian air traffic controllers, buy them a nice bottle of wine. As guardians of pretty much the only narrow gap still available between Europe and Asia that avoids both Iran, the Gulf, Ukraine and Russia, they are under some substantial pressure.

‘it would have gone down different if i saw him pulling that shit’ oh yeah?? i’ll pay you fifty dollars if you call your creepiest friend a creep to his face, without pretending to be joking. hell if your honest reaction to that was ‘but i don’t have a single creepy friend’ i’ll make it a cool hundo

men love to be like ‘if i saw some guy doing that shit to my girl i’d kill him.’ no you wouldn’t lol. you can’t even politely ask your buddy to stop calling women fat bitches or whatever

i’ve decided to become a billionaire philanthropist. fifty billion dollars to whoever presents me with the best prototype for Men 2

And no, I don't care that he got caught in the end, he's the rider of the race either way!

(Also hello L.Rex, you're doing amazing post that hellish Alula tumble)

Per Strand Hagenes, welcome back!!

You've been missed!

Guess I have at least 1 thing in common with Brennan... 🤝🏻

I'm strangely happy to see celiac representation in my favourite spectator sport.🤜🏻🤛🏻

Love this picture.

And Trentin yet again proved himself as one of the best rider interviewees in the sport.

Gimme a race analysis show with him and Kwiato please! 🙏🏻

a man in a black hoodie is saying it do be facts tho . ALT: a man in a black hoodie is saying it do be facts tho .

That's just stating facts tho 😂

I love the KBK donkey.

📊Matthew Brennan (20 years & 207 days) wins #KBK26

= the YOUNGEST winner of a FLEMISH cobbled classic

since Jean Bogaerts won Omloop Het Volk in 1945 (20 years & 65 days old)

I saw, poor guy.

Call Den Haag. That last sanction is just cruel and unusual punishment.

He's adorbs, semi secret cutie pie.

The sun is still kinda shining, it's officially spring and we've had a whole weekend without any ewwwwae victory (not for lack of trying mind)...

Turns out life can be pretty okay 😅

Seems plausible but also, due to that unfortunate Tudor guy crash at the front, yesterday's race got super weird.

Let's just say it's good he started today 😅

Amazing turnaround from yesterday btw

Also, whenever his dad joins him for watching races and it goes well, it's adorable afterwards.

Aaaaaand he made it through and back to the front after dropping off jackets for Laporte - despite the last 5km of this circuit being so tricky.

Given how he's likely not a super expensive signing he already proved to be worth his paycheck imo.

And he is winning the positioning battle for tricky corners for his team long into the finale of today, that's not easy for even the established enforcer-types in the cobbled classics peloton. I'm legit impressed so far.

French, basically not even the size of a pint, the absolute opposite of "dependable stability" and a super punchy version of a pure climber? How can I not adore him.

(I still hate that Bahrain is a team sponsor, but that team has so many of my "he's just inherently likable to me" riders)

He's not there to be in the break or get a result. He's basically there to do a role they haven't been able to fill since Nathan had to retire.
Which seemed like a risky bet for the Classics as he still hadn't done many cobbled races after a long life on Italian teams.

But so far he's 💯 doing it.