Today's Cycling

[Lynskey888]

£30.99 a month if you’re on Sky; 18 quid per month for me on Virgin.

These are my favourite markets. I’ve been counting down the days waiting for racing to get going again. This will not help liquidity.

The Guardian article also suggests the Six Nations will be disappearing from terrestrial TV.

[sionascaig]

I'm £15pm for TnT but thats with a £5 discount (through EE).

Don't mind it so much for footy (apart from the delay) but things like cricket are almost unwatchable due to the amount of adverts they fire out... Suspect cycling could easily be the same..

[Lynskey888]

Sionascraig, is the EE coverage a streamed service then?

Last night I read about cheap TNT deals via EE on Twitter. I thought that may have been a solution, but I wouldn’t want to be way behind the broadcast pictures.

[sionascaig]

Sionascraig, is the EE coverage a streamed service then?

Last night I read about cheap TNT deals via EE on Twitter. I thought that may have been a solution, but I wouldn’t want to be way behind the broadcast pictures.

"The UK's only streaming box that can record live TV" is what they say...

I haven't checked what the delay is but there is certainly a big delay between watching TNT on the TV and through a web browser (> 30secs).. (the box/tv being faster)

Depending on the deal you get can get multiple TV boxes though which can be quite handy (they are all independent). And they will give you an 4g extender with automatically kicks in if the broadband goes down (with no data charge)..

[Lynskey888]

Thanks for replying. Info much appreciated.

[Lynskey888]

I received an email from Virgin today. It says they will provide TNT at no extra cost until the end of my contract because I’m a regular viewer of Eurosport.

Rarely - if ever - have I been so pleasantly surprised.

[sionascaig]

I received an email from Virgin today. It says they will provide TNT at no extra cost until the end of my contract because I’m a regular viewer of Eurosport.

Rarely - if ever - have I been so pleasantly surprised.

Result !

[henbet22]

Chapeau Simon Yates. Epic yesterday.

[Lynskey888]

Yeah, Saturday’s stage will live long in the memory. It’s been a brilliant Giro overall.

For a while last year there was great entertainment to be had watching Pogacar wallop the opposition, but these days I much prefer races where he’s not involved.

[henbet22]

Jonas looks in good nick. Remco had the hammer down. Pogi just not sure. On paper Saturday is the day. What a stage. Pogi at 1.9 for TdF looks like a lay. Unless its a different approach from him. Not sure he can approach it differently.
Don't think Jonas is overcooked here and looks in sparkling form. Game on.

[Lynskey888]

Pogacar and Vingegaard have both been altitude training in the Sierra Nevada. The experience (and possibly his busier race schedule) seems to have taken more out of Pogacar.

I’ve been without TNT for a couple of weeks which has left me watching highlights on ITV4. The time trial result didn’t strike me as particularly strange until I saw the pictures. Pogacar looked awfully slow through some of the corners and terribly drained off the bike, certainly in comparison to Jonas.

If something is ailing Pogacar he’ll likely be able to have a day in the bunch today to get over it. The time gaps are small given the terrain still to come. For all the healthy glow from Jonas he didn’t climb particularly impressively in Paris-Nice (caught by Almeida and very nearly Skjelmose on Stage 4.)

Bit of a drift on Vingegaard overnight in the Dauphiné GC market. I’m not sure what’s going to happen this week. Will watch with interest in between the golf.

[sionascaig]

Jonas looks in good nick. Remco had the hammer down. Pogi just not sure. On paper Saturday is the day. What a stage. Pogi at 1.9 for TdF looks like a lay. Unless its a different approach from him. Not sure he can approach it differently.
Don't think Jonas is overcooked here and looks in sparkling form. Game on.

Looks like most of the money traded on Pod was in the 1.6ish range so far.. This seems crazy low for a three week race where a whole pile of events outside his control could take him out.

No idea what the right price is but anything less then evens seems low to me for the favourite in a grand tour. Last week I could understand but first week?

Take Froome cycling into road furniture and existing the race just because he kept staring at his power meter...

[henbet22]

Lanterne Rouge pointed out Pogi taking on water and clouting a manhole cover in the TT so not a great day. Hard to tell...... maybe undercooked slightly on the TT bike? Maybe in general. Mont Ventoux and Col de la Loze laying in wait in the TdF

[henbet22]

Roast this reply.....

Alright, let's break this down. First, we've got the classic overuse of cycling lingo like "hammer down" and "good nick," which sounds less like analysis and more like a desperate attempt to fit in with the peloton's WhatsApp group chat. Then there's the wild uncertainty—Pogi is "just not sure," but also maybe taking "a different approach," which apparently he "can't" take. So... which is it? The mental gymnastics here could win gold at the Olympics.

And let's talk structure: this is less of a coherent thought and more of a chaotic stream-of-consciousness race commentary, sprinkled with random betting odds like we're all meant to know what "Pogi at 1.9" even means. You might as well have thrown in a weather forecast and a recipe for pasta.

Final verdict? Excited, yes. Cohesive? Absolutely not. But hey, at least you ended on "Game on," giving us that dramatic sports movie energy.

Shall I help refine this into something sharper, or do we leave it gloriously chaotic?

[henbet22]

Recipe for pasta