UKH

Well, the opening weekend in Belgium was pretty good.

Jungels win in Kuurne today was fantastic and Stybar’s attack was timed to perfection in Het Nieuwsblad. Also some uk interest with Owen Doule’s 2nd place. Avermaet still looking like a winner in the weeks to come.

Anyone catch your eye?

Nicole Hanselmann looked interesting for a while!

A good weekend for quickstep fans!

And another win for them at Le Samyn. 

Alaphilippe or Stybar for Strade Bianche?

They've got plenty of options!

I’m going with GVA. He didn’t look that sharp on Saturday but I think he’ll grind out the win this weekend.

I'll be rooting for Kwiato to win Strade Bianche on Sat. 

Strade Bianche is my favourite race, I rode some of the course a few years ago and it is just great.

Unfortunately it is also the race with the best evidence for motor doping (using thermal imaging)...

CB

Really? I'd not seen anything on that...

Back in 2016, but the story got buried rather quickly by UCI after they sacrificed a 19 yo Belgian CC rider.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mechanical-doping-used-in-strade-bianche-an...

The full stade2 video was quite obvious, including the same rider imaged on the flat and uphill, with the thermal signature in the seat post only detectable in the latter case, but seems to have since been deleted (at least from what I could find in a brief google search)

Looks like his Di2 battery to me. I have one bike with the battery in the seat post and another with the battery placed in the downtube.

I can see an argument for placing the battery low down in the seat tube above the BB and close to the junction box because it would lower the centre of gravity.

No way, the heat output is way too high for a Di2 battery pack, and this idea also does not explain why the thermal signature would only occur during certain phases of the race.

CB

I concur, but it's important to rule out other possible explanations. For example I've had two Di2 batteries fail, in one case the gears worked intermittently and when I removed the battery it had swollen up. I guess it's possible my battery produced heat spikes  before finally giving up the ghost but i'm not a battery expert so am only guessing!

I'm not trying to defend anyone but just want to point out there may be other equally plausible explanations.

Rosa up the road early. That speaks of serious intent by Sky. Although it's obviously not gone quite to plan given that they don't have anyone else in the lead group!

Splendid stuff in Siena. 4/4 for Quickstep.

Aye, Alaphilippe looked untouchable. My pick, GVA isolated and never really looking in it...