Ciccone: WFT? Gee-West: Mate, we had a meeting.

It's like the entire peloton other than Giulio Ciccone had a meeting before the Giro, where they decided that anything could happen at this race, other than a Ciccone stage win.

Because I'm an idiot, I'm going to do a heat-conditioning session. I've already got the fan-heater running in the gym, alongside a pan of boiling water.

"Filippo Ganna eyes home stage to prove he's more than just a time triallist," says the Cyclingnews headling. I think they mean, "... even more than a time triallist."

God bless you, AI translation.

A column about the lost skills of cycling. www.cyclingweekly.com/news/we-used...

Given Vingegaard will not want to ride the time trial on Tuesday in the KoM official-issue skinsuit, and that he leads the classification by one point, maybe today is the day Visma ride for 2nd placed Diego Sevilla, and push him over the line first.

Pope John Paul II used to go skiing round the Blockhaus somewhere. For some reason I find the thought of the Pope skiing quite funny.

Sorry -- I must have drifted off. When did "press conference" become "media moment"?

Watched four bike races today. I have no clear idea of who won what, where, how, or against whom.

Nice photo sequence of Paul Magnier slipping through (and over) the crash to recover third on the stage. Having a charmed Giro at the moment.

This stage is really delivering Top Giro.

Just realised that Movistar are going for the team classification already.

Katie is one of my favourite riders -- I'm going to miss her in cycling. This is a great interview, by the way.

I'm commentating on Tour of Azerbaijan this week... race includes Oscar Sevilla, 49 years old, who won a stage of the Tour of Romandie last century. It's like seeing a stegosaurus grazing in a field.

An AI translation of the route description of the climb of Pila at the end of week two of the Giro describes it as "Steep enough to make chunks." I've definitely ridden up climbs like that.

An advantage to Paul Seixas of riding the Tour this year might be that if he didn't, and continues on the same trajectory of improvement, on a debut next year everyone would simply expect him to win it. This year, we all accept he's a 19-y-o "learner".

Went for a ride. It was a nice afternoon. I thought, "Let's do one of the old training routes." After a while I thought, "Let's stick the efforts in the places that I used to do them." Then I thought, I wonder how close to the old numbers I can get?" One good idea and two very stupid ones.

mugger: *points gun* your money or your life me: sure thing *hands him my id* you got 2 kids and didn’t actually understand the matrix mugger: no i mean- me: *already running away* you’re late for steph’s recital

Big cycling debate this week seems to be about whether Paul Seixas should ride the Tour this year, or wait till next year when he's joined UAE-Team Emirates.

I'm going to miss the traffic cone jerseys. They were delightfully easy to spot. On current trajectory the men's peloton will be a uniform grey-blue mush by 2028 and the only team we'll ever talk about will be Uno-X.

Sometimes I feel sympathy for Evenepoel -- in 2018/19, he was going to be the best rider of his generation. He was going to be the next Merckx. He was going to win it all. And then, contrary to all reasonable probability, riders like Pogacar and Seixas started appearing.

Seixas hype-machine now audible only to dogs and very small children.

Crossed the line at the London Marathon a few years ago, and asked one of the helpers, "Who won?" "Who won what?" he said.

I'm beginning to suspect that Paul Seixas is not just getting lucky.

Cycling might not be forever, but I've been on one or two rides where it definitely felt like it.

A column that I now realise is more or less designed to annoy people. And honestly that's not what I set out to do when I write columns. www.cyclingweekly.com/news/dr-hutc...

Would it be too much to ask that Wout wins Paris-Roubaix and Rory wins the Masters?

Honestly can't remember the last time I saw someone finish on the podium of a Monument having used four different bikes from two different manufacturers.

Ah, the simple pleasure of cleaning a chain, drying it, re-lubing it, letting the lube set up, wiping it clean and only then thinking to put a chain-checker against it to see if it's too old for continued use.

The potential to solve the 'Pogacar problem', but only at the cost of a potentially even bigger problem.

In 30 minutes @doctorhutch.bsky.social and I will be live with your from Navarra for the GP Miguel Indurain. Live on TNT and streaming on HBO Max

GP Miguel Indurain on TNT with @josebeentv.bsky.social and me. It's a really good race, with an uphill / downhill finish that's like Milan San Remo but more so. Of course, given it's named after Indurain, really it ought to be 80km of flat time trial. I'd be OK with that.

More French Cup racing this afternoon, with me and John Beavan. 13.30 BST. Can Clement Venturini follow up last week's win? Can Lotto Intermarche win their 800th race? Join us and find out.

If you missed it, I can heartily recommend the last 20 km of Dwars door Vlaanderen.

I've just heard they're going to turn all the AI image generators off for next April 1st.

I didn't care about the Scott Mills story until it occurred to me that the misconduct in question might be dark and satanic.

Join José Been and me for Roue Tourangelle from 14.30 BST! Will Groenewegen win again? Will Coquard take the lead in the French Cup? These are questions you won't find the answers to in Flanders Field. But if you decide to watch that other race, you can always catch up with us later -- HBOMax

Last 5 km of E3 has been sensational fun. All the way to a really neat prank from MVDP in the last km.

I’m watching an episode of Black Books that I have never seen before. I don’t know how that’s possible.

Pedersen through for 4th -- stunning result considering how fast he came back from the injury.

I'm commentating on a bike race this afternoon with Jez Cox. It's the Classica Terres de l'Ebre in Catalonia. It would fit nicely into the bit of San Remo before the Cipressa as a double screen, or on catch up. TNT and Discovery+.

If you think motorbikes have too much influence on the racing these days, you badly need to see this. Milan-San Remo 1999, and every moto in the race all but sucks Pantani up the Cipressa. www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC8b...

On commentary for the GP de Denain with John Beavan from 1300 UK on TNT / D+. It's the mini-Roubaix -- 13 cobbles sectors, 6 of which are in Paris Roubaix in three weeks. It's the race where Matthew Brennan announced his arrival last season.

Every time I see the Tirreno Trident I'm reminded of the time I won a sword at a bike race. A genuine, razor-sharp sword, of the sort one might use for beheading medieval royalty.

He's reminding me of an overheard conversation in a bike shop. "What shorts are you using at the moment." "Well, I always wear at least three pairs of shorts, which seems like a lot." Yes. That does seem like a lot.