Pidcock is welcomed fresh air for sure. Hopefully he creates his own long legacy for us to wash the taste of the Froome era.
‘Landscape is lacking’
Don’t ever bother going to the Lake District, Wales or Scotland 
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Part of the problem IMO is that they don’t build e.g., the Tour of Britain with good stages to make use of that scenery, as they always try to have start/finishes in populated areas/major cities which leads to quite a lot of pretty bland stage finishes.
And then we lose really good races (Tour de Yorkshire for example, which has produced some really good racing with great scenery) from the calendar all the time, which is really self-defeating.
Unfortunately they can only go where the councils bid to host the start/finish. To have the money spare the councils need to be fairly well funded.
We have been lucky in Cumbria over recent years for starts and finishes but I assume the council baulks at closing the passes and the resurfacing/roadworks to make it safe for a peloton to do, for example, Hardknott, Wrynose etc. Plus any stage that made full use of the climbs would decide the GC. I would imagine that it would be similar with a full mountainous stage in Wales/Scotland? A real Tour of Britain could be stunning but trying to co-ordinate seems an impossible task!
In Scotland you have potential wind issues on the mountains as well (obviously a bit of wind is good for the racing but sometimes it would be too much). The best mountain roads probably aren’t close enough to very populated areas either.
There is a sportive called the 3 Pistes Sportive which I always wanted to see a pro race on - goes over Glenshee (highest public road), The Lecht (super, super steep climb) and finishes at the Cairngorm ski centre which would be a good finish area, and Aviemore is a decent sized tourist place (lots of hotels etc). https://www.strava.com/routes/2210552?hl=en-GB
Would be a nice change from lots of town centre sprint finishes.
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Who?!?
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Training in ERG Mode is far superior to training in Resistance/Slope Mode
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I used to think this, but controlling your trainer with “Grade Mode” in a Garmin Computer disabused me of that notion.
Not sure if this is an unpopular opinion but since you can have several counter perspectives (e.g. all were doped; or these days they don’t dope anymore) it can be a highly disputed opinion:
Greg Lemond and Cadel Evans were the only two clean TdF winners.
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I assume Geraint Thomas is clean, he doesn’t have the same high highs 
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We have no idea if that is true.
In Lemond’s case, EPO didn’t exist yet so any drugs he could have taken were not very transformative.
I find it hard to believe that Evans beat known dopers like Contador and Schleck in 2011.
Blood transfusions and microdosing of EPO was still not detectable.
Let’s not forget that even Eddy Merckx tested positive … several times.
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Team Sky, the inventors of modern doping (probably an unpopular opinion in the UK). The aforementioned Christophe Bassons gave a very enlighting interview on current practices in the peloton. And how it was possible to transform track specialists to skeleton like GC contenders without losing any watts. It’s not eating low carb and bringing your own pillow to a training camp.
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I don’t for a second think Ineos was a universally clean set up.
I still like to believe in Wiggins, and I don’t know Geraint to be clean. I just have no evidence that he was any dirtier than Cadel or Lemond…
Watching the Individual Pursuit and Team Pursuit was always one of my highlights.
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Contador rode and won the the Giro. Even juiced up it would have been difficult to win a double. And he was involved in a mass crash early on in the tour. Lost a lot of time. And Schleck basically lost it on the downhills, especially on stage 11. No doping in the world helps with this.
Colnagos and Campagnolo live on their glorious names only, because they are some very average products.
Hopefully Colnago will change its direction under the new ownership, but I won’t hold my breath to test one again.
While Campagnolo will always be in intensive care.
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Campagnolo is doing just fine by all accounts…they have scaled their operations to match their business model.
They have long ago accepted that they cannot, and don’t want to, compete against Shimano or SRAM and adjusted their business model appropriately.
I’m a Colnago/Campagnolo fan but I’m looking elsewhere for my next build.
Colnago is now owned by private equity and I think they see the brand as a Louis Vuitton or Rolex of cycling. The new C68 is now $7000 retail which is just ridiculous for a frameset. $7000 may have worked during the pandemic when anyone would buy anything at any price but I think they will struggle going forward.
Campagnolo by all accounts is a very financially healthy company. I think they were selling all they could produce during the pandemic but have since fallen behind technologically. They have no middle or lower tier electronic groupsets, they don’t have any wireless options, and they have zero affordable power meter options if you want a Campagnolo crankseet.
I’ll add an unpopular opinion in response to your #3: Road cycling requires such a low level of skill that it doesn’t require specific practice. I enjoy and actively participate in both road and MTB. Sometimes I’ll choose a road ride over an MTB ride (even when the dirt is amazing), simply because I just want to put my head down and crank out some miles compared to riding singletrack which requires so much more mental effort and skillset in terms of line choice, speed adjustment, and body positioning.
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So I’m new to mountain biking. Had done road riding/triathlon stuff on the past but now just to gravel and mountain biking. And can totally relate to your statement. I also have a 20 mile gravel loop I could navigate in my sleep so I can just zone out other than on descents. But mountain biking is much different. I have to actually stay awake. lol
So funny . . . I once bunny hopped a (surprise) cattle grate on my roadbike barreling down a mountain doing 40+ mph. I was grateful for the “bike handling skills” I’d picked up racing bmx bikes in Northridge when I was 14! But, that was 30 years ago and it hasn’t happened since! I imagine my “handling skilz” are flagging in comparison to my mtb breathren. I’ve been using clipless pedals for 30+ years and still fall over at least twice a year . . . so, there is that. And, I do think the mtb flat pedals make way more sense for 98% of the people on bikes. But, I ride with the slow kids; those are my people and they appreciate hearing they can still legitimately ride a bike without locking into a skibinding pedal! No way I’m changing my clipless pedals out though. I’m just too dug into my “roadie” rut! GCN did a cool “flats v clipless” 10 minute video recently. I thought that was pretty neat.
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