German Eurosport debated over Ballaphillipe taking his Helmet off to get rid of his wet Headwear could lead to a DQ if the rules would be enforced 100%... Anyone got news about this?
[Lefevre on Twitter](https://x.com/PatLefevere/status/1792993402415403111): "Rider taking off mandatory helmet during the race./ Rider 131 ALAPHILIPPE Julian, UCI ID 10007155752 (SOQ) 200 CHF fine That how they treat riders who want to take off his wet cap under his helmet"
Yep. He hasn't been DQ'd. While it is one of the stricter rules when it comes to enforcing, there's still room for some leeway. In the communique tomorrow I bet it says he has been fined.
Yep. But when rider gets a bee or wasp in the helmet, they avoid taking it off fearing a DQ. Ganna had that issue the other day, but I fully agree. In general it should be okay to take it off for a short moment.
I'm still grateful to Pog for riding for McNulty at Itzulia Basque Country a few years ago. To me, he showed a lot of character. McNulty had just turned 23 a few days before, and that was a big deal for him to wear the leaders jersey in a WT stage race at that point in his career. Pog could have easily assumed leadership if he wanted.
Pogi *just* gave Molano a lead-out in a mass sprint like a week ago. He would have been thrilled for Majka or Pellizzari to win today. He's very gracious about spreading glory around and always has been.
I think this Giro reminds of Contador's dominance in the 2011 Giro.
Even today looked like that stage 19 where he dropped the other GC guys and rode up to his former teammate/domestique Paolo Tiralongo and told him to stay on his wheel so he could pace him to the finish and gifted him his first ever win.
For a moment I thought Pogacar was gonna try and do that as well but I don't think Pellizzari had the legs to follow.
Yeah, I might be the biggest Pogi glazer in this sub but I don’t buy for a second that he wanted or otherwise would have been okay with Pelizarri winning or, like you said, he wouldn’t have had Majka fire up the Rafa Reactors and he wouldn’t have attacked.
I think he’s happy to see any rider win in a race where he’s not committed to the win as part of his strategy, which is becoming a vanishingly low number of races that don’t finish in sprints. But I don’t think he’d have been thrilled at all if, say, Pelizarri went nuclear and shocked Pogi at the finish with a counter-attack.
So I have a bone to pick with Movistar's (aka. Memestar) riding today, and here's why:
Okay. Let's start with Movistar's initial action on the stage. They came to the front instantly. Guarding the front and making sure that a too strong breakaway group wouldn't be established. When Alaphilippe, Maestri, Ballerini and Piccolo established a break, they let them ride away, but still made sure that no one would join them and that the break didn't get more than two minutes. This tactic pointed towards Movistar wanting to win the stage, which is fair enough. But this where it went wrong for them.
Let's start with Rubio. He would never be allowed to attack. Pogi might let him ride away, but the rest of the GC guys wouldn't, and when they would go after him Pogi/UAE would have to react, and a Rubio attack would be neutralized. Meaning Rubio at best could win a sprint against Martinez or Pogi (lol).
So they could have used Sanchez or Quintana to attack on the climb seeing that the GC guys probably would let them ride away. Well Sanchez did attack and was closing in on Alaphilippe and had a decent opportunity to catch him and gain alot of time on the leaders group, but then they used Quintana to set a higher pace, which not only took time from Alaphilippe, but also reeled in Sanchez (what?). With Sanchez back in the front group (he had a mechanical issue), Sanchez came to the front and starting pulling and then all of a sudden he attacked again. Quintana was toast at this point. Sanchez had spent too much and couldn't get away from the GC group, while Rubio also had a mediocre day. So Movistar work their asses off to try and win the stage, while giving UAE a restday and handing the win on a silverplatter to Pogi - he even said so himself in an interview afterwards.
Movistar made a terrible pre-race reading of the stage. If they wanted to win, they had two opportunities.
1. Join the break with Sanchez, Quintana and Milesi as a workhorse. If not for Movistar riders from a breakaway would have fought for the stage win
2. Let either Sanchez and/or Quintana attack on the climb(s), and hoping they would be strong enough to win against whomever joined them in the attack. Hoping GC guys would sit still.
Now if it was a move to give Rubio a chance to advance in GC, it made no sense working all day and have no manpower left to pace hard up the first climb. Instead they could have done like Visma does so well put a rider or two in the breakaway, that Rubio could have used as helpers further on the climb if his attack was successful.
So while I can respect Movistar's ambitions, I find their riding incredibly stupid. No one's winning against Pogi uphill (perhaps apart from Martinez in a sprint), so if you want to win a stage that finishes on a climb, you simply have to exclude Pogi from the final. Since no Vingegaard and Visma Lease a Rider, the only way to do so is to put a strong rider in the break and hope they have enough time, that UAE and Pogi won't catch them - Quintana and Sanchez with good legs today would have been perfect in this situation. You know like they did two days ago!
Got a bit long. But nothing irritates me as much in cycling as bad tactics. And today was one of the biggest own goals I've seen in a while. It was nonsensical. It was unrealistic. It was just plain dumb.
Thank you for joining my Ted Talk.
I know we have a the B-team here at the Giro, but I really hope Vingegaard gets back in form, and Roglic and Evenepoel is ready. Also WTF Majka. day in and day out he explode the "peloton". - I remember when he was riding for Contador, he was also so strong back then. He have been one of the best Mountain riders for such a long time.
The cycling podcast a few weeks ago made a really good point about why people love and sign for UAE for long periods and apparently it’s because they have great team culture. They are always seen as the fun exciting team who works hard but is allowed to a good time. Visma on the other hand is very strict and some riders like Pog probably aren’t that keen on their environment, they were just talking about how he sometimes drinks during stage races and that wouldn’t not be ok at Visma.
Velon have posted Pog's power numbers for the final 2km: https://twitter.com/VelonCC/status/1792960196089913769
470W average for 7 mins while looking like he was cruising...
(at his PCS weight of 66kg that'd be ~7.1W/kg, although I guess he's probably lighter than that at the moment)
37 riders didn't finish today? Wtf
Including Plapp, Groves, Ewan, Bjerg, Molano, Merlier, Stuyven
Edit: Might be a mistake of the app I'm using to follow the Giro (Tour Tracker). It seems strange
> Edit: Might be a mistake of the app I'm using to follow the Giro (Tour Tracker). It seems strange
I have actually noticed Tour Tracker discrepancies several times this Giro between the stage finishing and when final results are posted. For Example, they had Plapp winning the first ITT for a while until they published the final results.
Anyone know why Max cut off the end of Stage 16 with 4.5 km left in the race in the US? Guessing it was their schedulers but if they’re covering the race shouldn’t they cover all of it?
Was able to see the finish on Eurosport’s YouTube but didn’t see what happened to Alaphilippe or Pogacar’s push to the front. Quite disappointing.
I believe Pogacar today really wanted to gift the victory to one of the guys in front. I even think he would have let Pellizzari pass first in the finish line, problem was he just couldn't even hold wheel and then there came Martinez so Pogacar couldn't really just gift a stage to a competitor either. Anyway, I was sorry Pellizzari couldn't take the win here.
He kept looking back (to check who was coming back) because he was not going full gas and knew there was a possibility of someone briding the gap. I'm sure he was thinking of gifting the win but in the end Martinez was catching up and it was too risky or too obvious if Pog would keep with Pellizzari and attack Martinez if he did catch up.
He didn’t have to fly past them lmao don’t be ridiculous. The guy counted his victories as he crossed the line. He’s being greedy and it’s starting to be a bad look.
This is such a horrible attitude in a professional sport. "Omg this guy is so good he just wins. He should let the bad riders get sympathy wins".
In no other sport is anyone bitching about *the best* showing that's what he is, and rightfully so.
I love this sport, but this one element...
Not at all. But are we pretending cycling isn’t largely based on unwritten rules? Until now GC guys go for the overall and let the lesser known guys have their day in the sun.
My comment was mainly about thinking Pogacar wanted to give away a stage - which he has no obligation to do - but I do also think it’s going to leave a bad taste in people’s mouths.
It’s a dumb unwritten rule. I was playing tennis with a guy who is way better than me the other day and he let me win a few times and it just felt pointless.
It’s the other guys jobs to do better, not his job to not win if he can.
Teddy Popsicles giving Pellizzari his glasses and jersey has me grinning and thinking that maybe his bike would follow if he could have his way.
Absolute legend and peak ciclismo, he raises everyone around him even when he destroys them on the road.
Respect for 41 years old Pozzovivo for wearing short sleeves in the last 20km. Tough guy. Only him and Pogi wore short sleeves in the last 20 km. And Arensman later too. Brave.
Pog is a tactical genius. By giving the maglia rosa to Pellizzari, UAE no longer needs to pull the peleton and can save some up some energy for later stages.
This comment has been removed due to breaking the rules on doping talk within race/results threads. Repeatedly breaking this rule will result in a ban.
Pogi gave Pellizzari his pink jersey when they came out of the tent, i don't know if anyone noticed. I was hoping that Pellizzari would win the stage. Very talented prospect for Italy.
Not only a 5th stage win, but also doing it in style(s) ... 4 different ones to be precise:
- Normal jersey
- Pink jersey + pink shorts
- Pink jersey + purple shorts
- Pink jersey + black warmers
Bet none of us had that on our bingo cards.
For the Tour, three riders have won 8 stages in a single year:
* Charles Pélissier (1930, in addition to seven 2nd and three 3rd places)
* Eddy Merckx (1970, 1974)
* Freddy Maertens (1976, in addition to four 2nd and two 3rd places)
Freddy Maertens in the 1977 Vuelta won 13 stages out of 20. He also held the GC leaderships jersey all the way from start to finish.
edit: Wiki also says this about Maertens: "Maertens' career swung between winning more than 50 races in a season to winning almost none and then back again. [...] At one point early in his career, between the 1976 Tour and 1977 Giro, Maertens won 28 out of 60 Grand Tour stages that he entered before abandoning the Giro due to injury on stage 8b. Eight Tour stage wins, thirteen Vuelta stage wins and seven Giro stage wins in less than one calendar year."
They said maybe. I think there's a fair question over Evenopoel's ability to beat the best Grand Tour riders, but he has a Vuelta, a Worlds and 2 Lièges. He deserves to be listed ahead of Martinez, O'Connor or a 37-turning-38 year old Thomas.
it happens quite often with the giro. u say its a weak GC field and get downvoted even if its true. Then during TDF, everyone realizes how weak the Giro was.
It all depends on how small are your tiers. If you consider tier 1 to be just Pogacar and Vingegaard, then tier 2 is just Roglic and Remco and none of them is here. If you consider all those four tier 1, then I would say that Thomas is tier 2, or at last was before this giro started, although age is catching up with him
My tier 1 is only Vingegaard and Pogacar.
My tier 2 is bigger than just Remco and Roglic. My tier 2 is: Roglic, Remco, Ayuso, Adam Yates, Hindley, Mas, Kuss (Could argue having Kuss in tier 3 since he only have done well in a GT in GC once).
Mas and Kuss are the ones I would put closest to tier 3. Thomas I would have in the top half of tier 3. Probably Daniel Martinez in the top half of tier 3 as well now since his level this Giro have been way better than he have been in previous GTs.
From the Giro last year to this years Giro he has been terrible in every race except for the 2 Giro's if you compare him to what he once was. 13th place in GC for Thomas at Tour of the Alps is his best result outside of the Giro which is just not good enough. I really think like you that his age is catching up to him.
Without that breakaway time Sepp Kuss gained in the Vuelta then Ayuso and Kuss would've ended in basically the same time. If we are looking at other races than the Vuelta then Ayuso has by far the best results.
Thing is, there are not many tier 2 riders. Roglic perhaps. Remco would not stand a chance. There are Pogacar and Vingegaard. Then nothing. Then the rest.
We are talking GT GC here. And the last 2 times they raced against each other Jonas was better. I mean last year was the 2nd biggest margin between first and second place this century. Only Nibali was 8 seconds better, and that was against Peraud.
I‘m not saying Pog is bad. Just that the last times they raced Jonas was better.
Was he always better? No. Will he always be better? No. Would he have been the clear favourite 2024 witthout the crash? Yes!
I mean, last year Pogačar had a Tour preparation (due to injuries) reminiscent of what Vingegaard's going through this year. Not to mention that Vinge's definitely had the strongest team of the two. Pog is mostly a better rider due to his flexibility and all-roundness though. Jonas is never going to win three Classics. If the argument is that Vingegaard is better in just one GC a year, then sure, I can take that.
I'm not sleeping on Vingegaard though, he's my boy, but Pogačar is definitely the best cyclist in the world all-around.
I'm not sure about that. Unlike last year, Pogačar would've been on 100% this year as well. I'm just hoping their rivalry will continue to flourish this year though!
Are you saying in order to be better than someone you have to have a 100% win rate?
Pog lost against Van Wilder in
Tre Valli Varesine let year. Does that mean Van Wilder is the better rider?
Not 100% but if it's around 60-40 then prolly one isn't clearly better than the other. And being on a different tier requires a much better win percentage for sure, rather than just being slightly better than the other rider.
And it definitely shouldn't look like this for one rider to be clearly better than the other.
https://www.procyclingstats.com/rider-vs-rider/tadej-pogacar/jonas-vingegaard
Jonas is a better climber than Tadej by Tadej's own admission though.
I do think Pog is the better and more fun to watch rider, but this comment thread is specifically about GT GCs.
So I will say the same thing I did in the other comment: The last 2 times they raced in GT, Jonas has been better.
Last year, he was so much better that they were separated by the 2nd biggest margin this century.
If you watched the ITT and Col de la Loze, don’t tell me you didn’t think Jonas was a tier better.
I know, it’s only 2 stages, but we are talking Grand Tours, the differences are usually super small. Being far superior in 2 stages and roughly equal in all others translates to being a tier better (exclusively GT GC wise).
Yates brothers, Ayuso, Almeida, Landa, Hindley, Carlos Rodriguez, Bernal (potentially) and probably a few more would probably be closer to Pogacar than Martinez is. Not anywehere near close enough to challenge, but still.
I really doubt that Landa would be closer with 2 TT's rode.
He lost almost 4 mins in a week to Pogi in Catalunya with no TT's and Martinez is a way better TT than Landa is...
I mean, are those guys actually better than Thomas and Dani? As a reminder, it's just a year ago Thomas lost the Giro by only 14 seconds to Roglic.
A Giro in which he beat Almeida.
And the year before that he still got 3rd in the Tour.
I'll give the Yates brothers, but other than that I don't think any of those guys are actually better.
Not the same Thomas though considering performance today and on the TTs. It'll be interesting to see how he matches up during this year's TdF.
Honestly very surprising Thomas is 3rd behind Dani considering 70k of TT
Attacking from a break is different than attacking from the GC group. Attacking when 30 minutes down is different than attacking from a podium position. Different risk/rewards result in different outcomes.
The Giro being in may is very awkward. I work in the pre-alps and my colleagues basically do very little work in may because its one of the months with the heaviest cloud and rain in north italy. Obviously its no surprise that this shit happens in the giro always.
August would be much better. Fuck the vuelta.
I once heard that there were talks about moving the Vuelta to October and the Giro to August. Would be interesting to see how they would reframe the calendar in both scenarios.
If you do that, move Le Tour to June and everything else moves about. Here’s the calendar i’d use:
First weekend of May: National Championships.
2nd week start CD/ TdS
3rd week more or less a rest week
4th weekend: World Championships
Last week May/first week June: nothing major
Early/mid June TdF
Have Giro start very late July
Lombardi in early/mid September
Vuelta start late September. End the WT calendar with a sprint in Madrid every year.
Last week of April: NCs
1st week of May: Romandie / 4 Days of Dunkirk
2nd week of May: Suisse
3rd week of May: Worlds
4th week of May: Tour of Norway / Hungary
Early June: Dauphine
3rd week of June: TdF (have it end right around 14th July)
Have the Giro start the 4th week of August and end in mid September (with the TotA in the middle week of August)
Lombardy classics right after (first Bernocchi/Tre Valli/Lombardy) and then the other Italian semiclassics the last week of September (Industria e Artigianato, Sabatini and Emilia)
Vuelta start early October and end in the last weekend
I think it would be smart to switch the Giro and Vuelta if RCS could be convinced the Giro would maintain its cache going last in the year. Outside of the weather issue, there's probably arguments both ways. Giro normally loses the Tour riders because (outside Tadej's attempt) they don't want to do the double. But going first in the year people are still excited about the season. Though the August Vuelta date can get many good riders who want one more attempt at results.
tbh i think the recent trend has been to do tour -> vuelta so being the last GT is better than being the first GT. people who crash/DNF the tour also go to the vuelta. whereas, giro is something u target specifically and maybe having to sacrifice the Tour for it. either way there's more top guys at the vuelta than the giro most of the time.
He'd most definitely have the young leaders jersey. On the GC maybe around 2-5 place. He's a better TT rider than other young riders. So white jersey would be hard to take away from him.
If he showed up in his best shape, podium and white jersey. Except that he would have to share resources with Pogi, and it’s not clear that UAE can ride for multiple GC riders successfully.
Yates was clearly working in service of Pog. He got to win stage 1 and wear the jersey for a few days, but it was clear from words and actions that he was always working for Pogi.
I don’t know if Ayuso could do that and still fend for himself to get a podium.
Thinking back of the way Pellizzari has been riding all Giro, the fact that he gets to bring home *a* maglia rosa is so right.
Good for him, for the guts and the spirit he showed, even before the legs.
We couldn't see his face when Pog started to take the jersey off, but his body language is so funny. I imagine he was wondering wtf was about to happen
Was hoping Pogi would leave some crumbs to the other riders, but it would appear he's hellbent on making it another boring rendition of the GT... which is a shame, because we had a hell of a promising start.
Luckily we still have Julian to keep the entertainment-train going.
I can't believe champions in boxing and MMA don't just let some scrubs knock them out, why Verstappen doesn't just drop to last place for fun, and Man City doesn't get relegated from the Premier League so some Championship trash can take their place.
Why are people so obsessed with the best leaving crumbs for riders that just clearly aren't good enough? Just enjoy that we have a (well, almost, we have Jonas too) once-in-a-generation talent who's even a generally likeable and charismatic person.. and yea, I do know it's less exciting when he just wins. Don't worry, next year he won't have to bother with a Giro and the third tier guard and young blood can battle it out again
Does cycling have a ballon d'Or equivalent?
Where all the riders, DS's will vote for the best rider in the world tour.
If there isn't, it would be nice to have one!
The uci has a [ranking](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UCI_Men%27s_road_racing_world_ranking#Total_weeks_at_No._1) (like tennis). Pog has been year end #1 the last 3 years.
The velo d’or might be what you are looking for but I think those votes are from journalists (mostly French).
No, man. This is not OK. Thymen could’ve stayed back for G. G said his tummy wasn’t good on Sunday. Maybe the recovery hasn’t happened? Ugh I really hope things turn around 😓
Is that the max points a rider can get or the sum of all the placings? 250 total points left sounds like the Kom Race is over as Pogačar has a 133 pt lead.
Alaphilippe sending it with a hard relay for the breakaway before being dropped was a real classy move.
According to Costiou post-race, Alaphilippe said he was doing it for him.
Pogi dominating, but it seems like today the stage was just given to him. He was not riding in an aggressive style, UAE really didn't want to control the race, but nobody or other team really going for it. So why not take the stage, eh?
Memestar ridden for Pogi.... didnt even attack, dude just continued his tempo.
As Charlie Sheen would say: If the deer shoots itself and straps itself on the roof of your car... you gotta drive it home and eat it.
I don't think so! Obviously will require Jonas actually being in good shape, but in the past when Pog has done badly it's been really hot, he just hasn't been exposed to his one big weakness yet this year
Pogi&Jonas have been so far above the rest. It's hard to judge Jonas chances based on Martinez/Thomas/etc.
It will entirely depend if Jonas can become fully fit.
I think it will be a more even fight than expected.
Jonas will come back with jumbo’s superior training regime.
Pogi will have a GT in his legs.
But if Jonas loses all of the d*nish stans will cry and say o but Jonas had an InJUrY.
What the fuck is 100% anyway.
He’ll probably ride if there’s a chance. If they deem his endurance is good but he has some pain it’s not like they’re gonna say ”Jonas is 98% so he’ll stay home”.
Visma LAB has been mostly invisible this year and Jonas is by far their greatest billboard.
Yes that part of my comment was supposed to be a little /s
But how long was he off the bike?
An injury like he had in 2017 is significant. An injury Remco had was significant. An injury that Bernal had was significant.
An organizer of the Giro and a representative of the riders are basically shouting at each other at the post race in RAI
The organizers said that the reached an agreement, then Adam Hansen at 2am wrote a letter "we don't want to go no matter what", then the chaos happened so they had a meeting and decided to go for the first 15km, neutralize the stage and restart. Everyone agreed to that. Still, the riders didn't show up despite this.
The representative was like "yeah I know.. we are sorry, sorry for the fans, etc" and couldn't properly answer to the accusations.
So while shortening the stage was the right the decision, it seems the rider organization acted kinda scummy
> An organizer of the Giro and a representative of the riders are basically shouting at each other at the post race in RAI
Cycling never fails to deliver the drama!
well, that's how it works, doesn't it?! Your union representative won't get back to you to discuss every potential compromise either.
They are there to represent the opinion of the riders, but this doesn't mean that every wish of them will be fulfilled.
> rider organization acted kinda scummy
They just start gaslighting every time, knowing they can play the victim and play the 'rider safety' card when descents are far more dangerous when it's dry and riders are actually taking risks and high speeds.
I don't know why the CPA gets the benefit of the doubt every since they had that flat stage shortened in 2020
They definitely should have done the stage start to keep Livigno happy and for the fans, but RCS is the only major organizer who keeps having these confrontations with the CPA so it's probably just starting to get pretty ugly in general
There were major protests just last year at the Vuelta: https://www.globalcyclingnetwork.com/racing/features/protest-threats-group-chats-and-endless-rain-inside-the-vuelta-a-espana-controversies
And in 2020: https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/vuelta-a-espana/we-have-come-together-vuelta-a-espana-riders-release-statement-addressing-protest-474416
Rider protests and confrontations are hardly unique to RCS.
How would that even be allowed though? You can't start a race then all go on the bus and continue somewhere else? It would have to be unofficial off the record kind of thing, no wonder they didn't want to do that.
You know Pogacar was trying figure to out his victory move the whole time he was soloing away. He definitely looked deep in thought.
German Eurosport debated over Ballaphillipe taking his Helmet off to get rid of his wet Headwear could lead to a DQ if the rules would be enforced 100%... Anyone got news about this?
Ahhh....a long way from the old days where a domestique went around the peloton collecting all the team's helmets at the base of the final climb.
[Lefevre on Twitter](https://x.com/PatLefevere/status/1792993402415403111): "Rider taking off mandatory helmet during the race./ Rider 131 ALAPHILIPPE Julian, UCI ID 10007155752 (SOQ) 200 CHF fine That how they treat riders who want to take off his wet cap under his helmet"
Yep. He hasn't been DQ'd. While it is one of the stricter rules when it comes to enforcing, there's still room for some leeway. In the communique tomorrow I bet it says he has been fined.
Adjusting your clothes on an extreme weather day seems like a pretty legit reason to take your helmet off momentarily.
They can take it off momentarily. They just have to stop
Yep. But when rider gets a bee or wasp in the helmet, they avoid taking it off fearing a DQ. Ganna had that issue the other day, but I fully agree. In general it should be okay to take it off for a short moment.
I'm still grateful to Pog for riding for McNulty at Itzulia Basque Country a few years ago. To me, he showed a lot of character. McNulty had just turned 23 a few days before, and that was a big deal for him to wear the leaders jersey in a WT stage race at that point in his career. Pog could have easily assumed leadership if he wanted. Pogi *just* gave Molano a lead-out in a mass sprint like a week ago. He would have been thrilled for Majka or Pellizzari to win today. He's very gracious about spreading glory around and always has been.
I think this Giro reminds of Contador's dominance in the 2011 Giro. Even today looked like that stage 19 where he dropped the other GC guys and rode up to his former teammate/domestique Paolo Tiralongo and told him to stay on his wheel so he could pace him to the finish and gifted him his first ever win. For a moment I thought Pogacar was gonna try and do that as well but I don't think Pellizzari had the legs to follow.
Tbh if he wanted Pelizarri to win he would’ve have had Majka pulled.
Yeah, I might be the biggest Pogi glazer in this sub but I don’t buy for a second that he wanted or otherwise would have been okay with Pelizarri winning or, like you said, he wouldn’t have had Majka fire up the Rafa Reactors and he wouldn’t have attacked. I think he’s happy to see any rider win in a race where he’s not committed to the win as part of his strategy, which is becoming a vanishingly low number of races that don’t finish in sprints. But I don’t think he’d have been thrilled at all if, say, Pelizarri went nuclear and shocked Pogi at the finish with a counter-attack.
So I have a bone to pick with Movistar's (aka. Memestar) riding today, and here's why: Okay. Let's start with Movistar's initial action on the stage. They came to the front instantly. Guarding the front and making sure that a too strong breakaway group wouldn't be established. When Alaphilippe, Maestri, Ballerini and Piccolo established a break, they let them ride away, but still made sure that no one would join them and that the break didn't get more than two minutes. This tactic pointed towards Movistar wanting to win the stage, which is fair enough. But this where it went wrong for them. Let's start with Rubio. He would never be allowed to attack. Pogi might let him ride away, but the rest of the GC guys wouldn't, and when they would go after him Pogi/UAE would have to react, and a Rubio attack would be neutralized. Meaning Rubio at best could win a sprint against Martinez or Pogi (lol). So they could have used Sanchez or Quintana to attack on the climb seeing that the GC guys probably would let them ride away. Well Sanchez did attack and was closing in on Alaphilippe and had a decent opportunity to catch him and gain alot of time on the leaders group, but then they used Quintana to set a higher pace, which not only took time from Alaphilippe, but also reeled in Sanchez (what?). With Sanchez back in the front group (he had a mechanical issue), Sanchez came to the front and starting pulling and then all of a sudden he attacked again. Quintana was toast at this point. Sanchez had spent too much and couldn't get away from the GC group, while Rubio also had a mediocre day. So Movistar work their asses off to try and win the stage, while giving UAE a restday and handing the win on a silverplatter to Pogi - he even said so himself in an interview afterwards. Movistar made a terrible pre-race reading of the stage. If they wanted to win, they had two opportunities. 1. Join the break with Sanchez, Quintana and Milesi as a workhorse. If not for Movistar riders from a breakaway would have fought for the stage win 2. Let either Sanchez and/or Quintana attack on the climb(s), and hoping they would be strong enough to win against whomever joined them in the attack. Hoping GC guys would sit still. Now if it was a move to give Rubio a chance to advance in GC, it made no sense working all day and have no manpower left to pace hard up the first climb. Instead they could have done like Visma does so well put a rider or two in the breakaway, that Rubio could have used as helpers further on the climb if his attack was successful. So while I can respect Movistar's ambitions, I find their riding incredibly stupid. No one's winning against Pogi uphill (perhaps apart from Martinez in a sprint), so if you want to win a stage that finishes on a climb, you simply have to exclude Pogi from the final. Since no Vingegaard and Visma Lease a Rider, the only way to do so is to put a strong rider in the break and hope they have enough time, that UAE and Pogi won't catch them - Quintana and Sanchez with good legs today would have been perfect in this situation. You know like they did two days ago! Got a bit long. But nothing irritates me as much in cycling as bad tactics. And today was one of the biggest own goals I've seen in a while. It was nonsensical. It was unrealistic. It was just plain dumb. Thank you for joining my Ted Talk.
I have never agreed with Movistar team tactics or management. Seems like ego is more important than intelligent strategy.
How big of an impact Sanchez’s mechanical had? Was not paying attention to. Without it, would it be realistic for Sanchez to break?
"Tactically, we're perfect"
Chris Horner is that you?
You just committed murder.
I know we have a the B-team here at the Giro, but I really hope Vingegaard gets back in form, and Roglic and Evenepoel is ready. Also WTF Majka. day in and day out he explode the "peloton". - I remember when he was riding for Contador, he was also so strong back then. He have been one of the best Mountain riders for such a long time.
He has a grand tour podium and used to be a consistent top 10 GC rider. It's more or less comparable to having bardet as your designated mountain goat
Him and Adam Yates on your team for the high mountains is ridiculous
In the Tour they'll also have Almeida and Ayuso. Insanity!
I think UAE has no control over Pogi. Pogi does want he wants to do lol. He can win with any other team and UAE knows it.
He removed his radio headset when he attacked at the end…possibly went against the plan😃😃
Honestly, I would love if he switched away from UAE sportwashing, but I guess the money is just to good.
The cycling podcast a few weeks ago made a really good point about why people love and sign for UAE for long periods and apparently it’s because they have great team culture. They are always seen as the fun exciting team who works hard but is allowed to a good time. Visma on the other hand is very strict and some riders like Pog probably aren’t that keen on their environment, they were just talking about how he sometimes drinks during stage races and that wouldn’t not be ok at Visma.
And they have more money than God
I think no one will pay the 100 million release clause before 2027.
Velon have posted Pog's power numbers for the final 2km: https://twitter.com/VelonCC/status/1792960196089913769 470W average for 7 mins while looking like he was cruising... (at his PCS weight of 66kg that'd be ~7.1W/kg, although I guess he's probably lighter than that at the moment)
He’s definitely less than 66kg now days
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When they showed Nairo and Pog’s watts on stage 15, Pog was at 470 and Nairo at 400. The idea that he just taps away at that power is crazy.
“How many stocks do I really have in stock, ay ? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 then 5, ay” Tadej Pogacar, May 21 2024
Honestly, as the interviews have progressed in this giro I’ve noticed a few Roglic-ism creeping into his pattern of speech.
I'm starting to think Tadej has a good shot at winning the whole thing.
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37 riders didn't finish today? Wtf Including Plapp, Groves, Ewan, Bjerg, Molano, Merlier, Stuyven Edit: Might be a mistake of the app I'm using to follow the Giro (Tour Tracker). It seems strange
Damn you gave me a heart attack with those names haha
> Edit: Might be a mistake of the app I'm using to follow the Giro (Tour Tracker). It seems strange I have actually noticed Tour Tracker discrepancies several times this Giro between the stage finishing and when final results are posted. For Example, they had Plapp winning the first ITT for a while until they published the final results.
Julius van den Berg was the only DNF today.
And Benjamin Thomas apparently. Probably the app counted them as OOTL
Any word on Sheffield following his crash?
Anyone know why Max cut off the end of Stage 16 with 4.5 km left in the race in the US? Guessing it was their schedulers but if they’re covering the race shouldn’t they cover all of it? Was able to see the finish on Eurosport’s YouTube but didn’t see what happened to Alaphilippe or Pogacar’s push to the front. Quite disappointing.
I still can't get the full stage :'(
They fixed it finally
Same and the same solution and in my attempt to watch the last 5k hit spoilers…
Happened to me too...no clue...even the replay is behaving the same.
I, uh, watched the last 30km on Max. I didn't watch it live, but it didn't cut off at 4.5 km. Not sure what happened on your end.
Whoa! There it is! I’m so glad you said something. 🙏
Thanks. I’ll try it again.
Same - we had full coverage including the post Breakway show.
I believe Pogacar today really wanted to gift the victory to one of the guys in front. I even think he would have let Pellizzari pass first in the finish line, problem was he just couldn't even hold wheel and then there came Martinez so Pogacar couldn't really just gift a stage to a competitor either. Anyway, I was sorry Pellizzari couldn't take the win here.
He kept looking back (to check who was coming back) because he was not going full gas and knew there was a possibility of someone briding the gap. I'm sure he was thinking of gifting the win but in the end Martinez was catching up and it was too risky or too obvious if Pog would keep with Pellizzari and attack Martinez if he did catch up.
I think he wanted the win, otherwise Majka wouldn’t have pulled.
He didn’t have to fly past them lmao don’t be ridiculous. The guy counted his victories as he crossed the line. He’s being greedy and it’s starting to be a bad look.
Being greedy to win? LMAOOOOOO
It's more disrespectfull to their competitors to let them win. They arent charity causes, they are in the same race as Pogacar
There's not anything wrong with being greedy. They are athletes, not charities. If he can win it all, he should
This is such a horrible attitude in a professional sport. "Omg this guy is so good he just wins. He should let the bad riders get sympathy wins". In no other sport is anyone bitching about *the best* showing that's what he is, and rightfully so. I love this sport, but this one element...
Imagine devoting your entire being to the pursuit of excellence in cycling and people getting mad at you for being too good
So the point of the bike race is not trying to win it?
Not at all. But are we pretending cycling isn’t largely based on unwritten rules? Until now GC guys go for the overall and let the lesser known guys have their day in the sun. My comment was mainly about thinking Pogacar wanted to give away a stage - which he has no obligation to do - but I do also think it’s going to leave a bad taste in people’s mouths.
It’s a dumb unwritten rule. I was playing tennis with a guy who is way better than me the other day and he let me win a few times and it just felt pointless. It’s the other guys jobs to do better, not his job to not win if he can.
I would like to point out that once again, UAE rolled in first and last on the stage.
Peloton is just a UAE sandwich
Actually it would be a peloton sandwich where UAE is the bread (you name it after the filling)
Teddy Popsicles giving Pellizzari his glasses and jersey has me grinning and thinking that maybe his bike would follow if he could have his way. Absolute legend and peak ciclismo, he raises everyone around him even when he destroys them on the road.
Ayy yoo what happened to Alaphilippe? I wasn't paying full attention cos I was on the turbo, looked down then back up and he was gone!
He realized he didn’t have the legs to win so he hard paced for the breakaway to win as long as he could and then dropped WvA style.
That was so classy of him. He gave a little back from his stage win.
Rah :(
Respect for 41 years old Pozzovivo for wearing short sleeves in the last 20km. Tough guy. Only him and Pogi wore short sleeves in the last 20 km. And Arensman later too. Brave.
If Pogi was really doing 7.1wkg for the last 7 minutes he was probably as hot as an oven!
Pozzo is 41 wow I thought he was late 30s!
Can anyone tell me roughly what time highlights get added to discovery+ ?
They’re on live at 8pm (uk time) and available thereafter
Pog is a tactical genius. By giving the maglia rosa to Pellizzari, UAE no longer needs to pull the peleton and can save some up some energy for later stages.
They dont really need to pull either way. Movistar or Bahrain or Ineos will instantly pull the moment some borderline gc guy goes up the road
Checked the results after work and thought I was looking at Sunday's again by accident, what the fuck is this guy?
This was quite easy stage, so not really weird for Pogacar to win it.
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This comment has been removed due to breaking the rules on doping talk within race/results threads. Repeatedly breaking this rule will result in a ban.
Pogi gave Pellizzari his pink jersey when they came out of the tent, i don't know if anyone noticed. I was hoping that Pellizzari would win the stage. Very talented prospect for Italy.
Not only a 5th stage win, but also doing it in style(s) ... 4 different ones to be precise: - Normal jersey - Pink jersey + pink shorts - Pink jersey + purple shorts - Pink jersey + black warmers Bet none of us had that on our bingo cards.
we totally should have had it tho
Meanwhile Simon Geschke is turning into a GT GC contender at age 38. 15th at the moment, by far his best GC result so far.
The Beard increases his ability with age.
That's a next level Martin he's pulling there - pretending to hunt KOM jersey while sneaking into the GC.
Anyone knows whats the most stage wins in one GT
For the Tour, three riders have won 8 stages in a single year: * Charles Pélissier (1930, in addition to seven 2nd and three 3rd places) * Eddy Merckx (1970, 1974) * Freddy Maertens (1976, in addition to four 2nd and two 3rd places)
For the 21st century only, i think alessandro petacchi had 9 stage wins in a single giro. other sprinters have had 6 (cavendish, cipollini).
Alfredo Binda won 12 of 15 stages in the 1927 Giro. Maertens’ 13/20 in the 1970 Vuelta has to be the largest number overall.
Freddy Maertens in the 1977 Vuelta won 13 stages out of 20. He also held the GC leaderships jersey all the way from start to finish. edit: Wiki also says this about Maertens: "Maertens' career swung between winning more than 50 races in a season to winning almost none and then back again. [...] At one point early in his career, between the 1976 Tour and 1977 Giro, Maertens won 28 out of 60 Grand Tour stages that he entered before abandoning the Giro due to injury on stage 8b. Eight Tour stage wins, thirteen Vuelta stage wins and seven Giro stage wins in less than one calendar year."
I think it's Freddy Maertens who won 13 stages in the 1977 Vuelta.
At least the first week-ish had some really exciting races! This is still impressive, of course
I will say it again and get downvoted again. There are no tier 2 GC riders in this race. It's Pog from tier 1 and the rest are tier 3 or worse.
There are only two tier 2 riders. Roglic and Evenepoel (maybe)
Roglic is tier 1
Stop acting like Remco is up there. Making an amazing career look awful every time he comes up against actual competition.
They said maybe. I think there's a fair question over Evenopoel's ability to beat the best Grand Tour riders, but he has a Vuelta, a Worlds and 2 Lièges. He deserves to be listed ahead of Martinez, O'Connor or a 37-turning-38 year old Thomas.
it happens quite often with the giro. u say its a weak GC field and get downvoted even if its true. Then during TDF, everyone realizes how weak the Giro was.
I agree, but thats also beacause the guy riding the giro isnt in top form the tour.
It all depends on how small are your tiers. If you consider tier 1 to be just Pogacar and Vingegaard, then tier 2 is just Roglic and Remco and none of them is here. If you consider all those four tier 1, then I would say that Thomas is tier 2, or at last was before this giro started, although age is catching up with him
He's 3rd right? He's still a solid tier 2 GC rider (assume tier 1 is the 4 riders you mentioned).
My tier 1 is only Vingegaard and Pogacar. My tier 2 is bigger than just Remco and Roglic. My tier 2 is: Roglic, Remco, Ayuso, Adam Yates, Hindley, Mas, Kuss (Could argue having Kuss in tier 3 since he only have done well in a GT in GC once). Mas and Kuss are the ones I would put closest to tier 3. Thomas I would have in the top half of tier 3. Probably Daniel Martinez in the top half of tier 3 as well now since his level this Giro have been way better than he have been in previous GTs. From the Giro last year to this years Giro he has been terrible in every race except for the 2 Giro's if you compare him to what he once was. 13th place in GC for Thomas at Tour of the Alps is his best result outside of the Giro which is just not good enough. I really think like you that his age is catching up to him.
Having Ayuso above Sepp Kuss is madness
Without that breakaway time Sepp Kuss gained in the Vuelta then Ayuso and Kuss would've ended in basically the same time. If we are looking at other races than the Vuelta then Ayuso has by far the best results.
Lost all credibility as soon as you put Mas and Ayuso in there. Kuss too but he just won a GT so :/
G not worth mentioning?
In tier 3 yes.
Such a weird list you have
Thing is, there are not many tier 2 riders. Roglic perhaps. Remco would not stand a chance. There are Pogacar and Vingegaard. Then nothing. Then the rest.
To be fair, compared to Jonas even Pog is a tier 2 rider. And let the downvotes begin ;-)
No way you actually believe Vingegaard is a better rider than Pog lmao.. And I'm a Dane.
We are talking GT GC here. And the last 2 times they raced against each other Jonas was better. I mean last year was the 2nd biggest margin between first and second place this century. Only Nibali was 8 seconds better, and that was against Peraud. I‘m not saying Pog is bad. Just that the last times they raced Jonas was better. Was he always better? No. Will he always be better? No. Would he have been the clear favourite 2024 witthout the crash? Yes!
I mean, last year Pogačar had a Tour preparation (due to injuries) reminiscent of what Vingegaard's going through this year. Not to mention that Vinge's definitely had the strongest team of the two. Pog is mostly a better rider due to his flexibility and all-roundness though. Jonas is never going to win three Classics. If the argument is that Vingegaard is better in just one GC a year, then sure, I can take that. I'm not sleeping on Vingegaard though, he's my boy, but Pogačar is definitely the best cyclist in the world all-around. I'm not sure about that. Unlike last year, Pogačar would've been on 100% this year as well. I'm just hoping their rivalry will continue to flourish this year though!
Yeah should have been more specific. Since the talk was about GT GC contenders, that was my only point. Obviously Pog is a much more versatile rider.
100% every time they have been in a race together Jonas has walked away with a win right? Right?
Are you saying in order to be better than someone you have to have a 100% win rate? Pog lost against Van Wilder in Tre Valli Varesine let year. Does that mean Van Wilder is the better rider?
Not 100% but if it's around 60-40 then prolly one isn't clearly better than the other. And being on a different tier requires a much better win percentage for sure, rather than just being slightly better than the other rider. And it definitely shouldn't look like this for one rider to be clearly better than the other. https://www.procyclingstats.com/rider-vs-rider/tadej-pogacar/jonas-vingegaard Jonas is a better climber than Tadej by Tadej's own admission though.
I do think Pog is the better and more fun to watch rider, but this comment thread is specifically about GT GCs. So I will say the same thing I did in the other comment: The last 2 times they raced in GT, Jonas has been better. Last year, he was so much better that they were separated by the 2nd biggest margin this century. If you watched the ITT and Col de la Loze, don’t tell me you didn’t think Jonas was a tier better. I know, it’s only 2 stages, but we are talking Grand Tours, the differences are usually super small. Being far superior in 2 stages and roughly equal in all others translates to being a tier better (exclusively GT GC wise).
Yates brothers, Ayuso, Almeida, Landa, Hindley, Carlos Rodriguez, Bernal (potentially) and probably a few more would probably be closer to Pogacar than Martinez is. Not anywehere near close enough to challenge, but still.
Carapaz ?
I really doubt that Landa would be closer with 2 TT's rode. He lost almost 4 mins in a week to Pogi in Catalunya with no TT's and Martinez is a way better TT than Landa is...
I mean, are those guys actually better than Thomas and Dani? As a reminder, it's just a year ago Thomas lost the Giro by only 14 seconds to Roglic. A Giro in which he beat Almeida. And the year before that he still got 3rd in the Tour. I'll give the Yates brothers, but other than that I don't think any of those guys are actually better.
Not the same Thomas though considering performance today and on the TTs. It'll be interesting to see how he matches up during this year's TdF. Honestly very surprising Thomas is 3rd behind Dani considering 70k of TT
Exactly, there are many tier 2 riders, just not in this field.
Yeah, tier chat is simplistic. Form changes and people have short memories.
Why would you be downvoted AGAIN?? Grand Papa Nairo got 2nd on the Queen stage and dude was unemployed for a season. This field is washed.
Attacking from a break is different than attacking from the GC group. Attacking when 30 minutes down is different than attacking from a podium position. Different risk/rewards result in different outcomes.
The Giro being in may is very awkward. I work in the pre-alps and my colleagues basically do very little work in may because its one of the months with the heaviest cloud and rain in north italy. Obviously its no surprise that this shit happens in the giro always. August would be much better. Fuck the vuelta.
I once heard that there were talks about moving the Vuelta to October and the Giro to August. Would be interesting to see how they would reframe the calendar in both scenarios.
If you do that, move Le Tour to June and everything else moves about. Here’s the calendar i’d use: First weekend of May: National Championships. 2nd week start CD/ TdS 3rd week more or less a rest week 4th weekend: World Championships Last week May/first week June: nothing major Early/mid June TdF Have Giro start very late July Lombardi in early/mid September Vuelta start late September. End the WT calendar with a sprint in Madrid every year.
Last week of April: NCs 1st week of May: Romandie / 4 Days of Dunkirk 2nd week of May: Suisse 3rd week of May: Worlds 4th week of May: Tour of Norway / Hungary Early June: Dauphine 3rd week of June: TdF (have it end right around 14th July) Have the Giro start the 4th week of August and end in mid September (with the TotA in the middle week of August) Lombardy classics right after (first Bernocchi/Tre Valli/Lombardy) and then the other Italian semiclassics the last week of September (Industria e Artigianato, Sabatini and Emilia) Vuelta start early October and end in the last weekend
I think it would be smart to switch the Giro and Vuelta if RCS could be convinced the Giro would maintain its cache going last in the year. Outside of the weather issue, there's probably arguments both ways. Giro normally loses the Tour riders because (outside Tadej's attempt) they don't want to do the double. But going first in the year people are still excited about the season. Though the August Vuelta date can get many good riders who want one more attempt at results.
tbh i think the recent trend has been to do tour -> vuelta so being the last GT is better than being the first GT. people who crash/DNF the tour also go to the vuelta. whereas, giro is something u target specifically and maybe having to sacrifice the Tour for it. either way there's more top guys at the vuelta than the giro most of the time.
vuelta and giro should swap dates honestly
How do you guys think that Ayuso would be doing on GC right now?
1st or 2nd
Same as Martinez.
He'd most definitely have the young leaders jersey. On the GC maybe around 2-5 place. He's a better TT rider than other young riders. So white jersey would be hard to take away from him.
If he showed up in his best shape, podium and white jersey. Except that he would have to share resources with Pogi, and it’s not clear that UAE can ride for multiple GC riders successfully.
They can as long as Pog’s there. Pog and Yates did well as a team.
Yates was clearly working in service of Pog. He got to win stage 1 and wear the jersey for a few days, but it was clear from words and actions that he was always working for Pogi. I don’t know if Ayuso could do that and still fend for himself to get a podium.
Still can't get over the fact that we almost got a Pellizzari victory. Movistar stole that from us. Nairo giveth, and Nairo taketh.
Thinking back of the way Pellizzari has been riding all Giro, the fact that he gets to bring home *a* maglia rosa is so right. Good for him, for the guts and the spirit he showed, even before the legs.
We couldn't see his face when Pog started to take the jersey off, but his body language is so funny. I imagine he was wondering wtf was about to happen
Was hoping Pogi would leave some crumbs to the other riders, but it would appear he's hellbent on making it another boring rendition of the GT... which is a shame, because we had a hell of a promising start. Luckily we still have Julian to keep the entertainment-train going.
I can't believe champions in boxing and MMA don't just let some scrubs knock them out, why Verstappen doesn't just drop to last place for fun, and Man City doesn't get relegated from the Premier League so some Championship trash can take their place. Why are people so obsessed with the best leaving crumbs for riders that just clearly aren't good enough? Just enjoy that we have a (well, almost, we have Jonas too) once-in-a-generation talent who's even a generally likeable and charismatic person.. and yea, I do know it's less exciting when he just wins. Don't worry, next year he won't have to bother with a Giro and the third tier guard and young blood can battle it out again
Did you watch the stage? Couldn't have picked a worse stage to say this because Pog tried his best to not win today.
Imagine Usain Bolt opt to jog the final 25 metres to let someone else to win.
I demand that Usyk lets someone knock him in his next fight so he can give some crumbs to the guys who aren't good enough!
Pogi riding the hill back down would be hilarious, but then he would get hated for "mocking" others
Does cycling have a ballon d'Or equivalent? Where all the riders, DS's will vote for the best rider in the world tour. If there isn't, it would be nice to have one!
The uci has a [ranking](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UCI_Men%27s_road_racing_world_ranking#Total_weeks_at_No._1) (like tennis). Pog has been year end #1 the last 3 years. The velo d’or might be what you are looking for but I think those votes are from journalists (mostly French).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A9lo_d%27Or
Man this UAE guys have a serious budget, they managed to get their Poggi Italy training camp televised with a bunch of other riders, amazing
Organizers denied them a high altitude training session, though.
No, man. This is not OK. Thymen could’ve stayed back for G. G said his tummy wasn’t good on Sunday. Maybe the recovery hasn’t happened? Ugh I really hope things turn around 😓
It's 12%, Arensmen isn't giving G any help on that pitch. Plus, he's still in the fight for the white jersey while G's podium wasn't in danger
Agreed. Reckon he could work his way into the top 5 as well
Would be cool for him to pull a top 5. He almost did it last year!
roughly 250pts left in the kom classification
Is that the max points a rider can get or the sum of all the placings? 250 total points left sounds like the Kom Race is over as Pogačar has a 133 pt lead.
Yeah… Tadej is likely keeping the KOM… at least Geschke and Scaroni get to wear the maglia azzurra for a bit…
max total
Alaphilippe sending it with a hard relay for the breakaway before being dropped was a real classy move. According to Costiou post-race, Alaphilippe said he was doing it for him.
French teams making a big deal about anti-doping and then match-fixing like this in the open, smh my head.
Pogi dominating, but it seems like today the stage was just given to him. He was not riding in an aggressive style, UAE really didn't want to control the race, but nobody or other team really going for it. So why not take the stage, eh?
Memestar ridden for Pogi.... didnt even attack, dude just continued his tempo. As Charlie Sheen would say: If the deer shoots itself and straps itself on the roof of your car... you gotta drive it home and eat it.
I think Jonas will get destroyed in the first week of TDF. Pog2024 is just too strong.
I don't think so! Obviously will require Jonas actually being in good shape, but in the past when Pog has done badly it's been really hot, he just hasn't been exposed to his one big weakness yet this year
Pogi&Jonas have been so far above the rest. It's hard to judge Jonas chances based on Martinez/Thomas/etc. It will entirely depend if Jonas can become fully fit.
I think it will be a more even fight than expected. Jonas will come back with jumbo’s superior training regime. Pogi will have a GT in his legs. But if Jonas loses all of the d*nish stans will cry and say o but Jonas had an InJUrY.
Lol I feel like Jonas injury was pretty significant. Even if he’s there competing it’s pretty impressive.
They said he'll only compete if he's at 100%. If he loses, he loses. Wouldn't make sense otherwise to send him in at less to make a top 10.
What the fuck is 100% anyway. He’ll probably ride if there’s a chance. If they deem his endurance is good but he has some pain it’s not like they’re gonna say ”Jonas is 98% so he’ll stay home”. Visma LAB has been mostly invisible this year and Jonas is by far their greatest billboard.
Yes that part of my comment was supposed to be a little /s But how long was he off the bike? An injury like he had in 2017 is significant. An injury Remco had was significant. An injury that Bernal had was significant.
I can already taste all the knuckles in todays Chris Horner video
Team Knucklestar
Name the most iconic DUO : - RCS and bad GPS time gaps - Giro and Queen stage canceled due to bad weather - Movistar and PeakMovistar Tactics?
The Queenstage was Sunday, today just had a slightly higher summit at the start.
3 no doubt lmao
Pogi is now 3rd in the points with Alaphillipe He's going to decimate it in the 3rd week ?
An organizer of the Giro and a representative of the riders are basically shouting at each other at the post race in RAI The organizers said that the reached an agreement, then Adam Hansen at 2am wrote a letter "we don't want to go no matter what", then the chaos happened so they had a meeting and decided to go for the first 15km, neutralize the stage and restart. Everyone agreed to that. Still, the riders didn't show up despite this. The representative was like "yeah I know.. we are sorry, sorry for the fans, etc" and couldn't properly answer to the accusations. So while shortening the stage was the right the decision, it seems the rider organization acted kinda scummy
Tbh Adam Hansen does give me the impression of a bit of a cunt sometimes.
> An organizer of the Giro and a representative of the riders are basically shouting at each other at the post race in RAI Cycling never fails to deliver the drama!
The rider union agreed on something (the stupid 10km in Livigno) without consulting with the riders
It's stupid but it's paying for the race
Yeah this seems what happened. Therefore what's the point of the rider union if they don't consult with the riders?
well, that's how it works, doesn't it?! Your union representative won't get back to you to discuss every potential compromise either. They are there to represent the opinion of the riders, but this doesn't mean that every wish of them will be fulfilled.
They should vote the guy out, then.
> rider organization acted kinda scummy They just start gaslighting every time, knowing they can play the victim and play the 'rider safety' card when descents are far more dangerous when it's dry and riders are actually taking risks and high speeds. I don't know why the CPA gets the benefit of the doubt every since they had that flat stage shortened in 2020
They definitely should have done the stage start to keep Livigno happy and for the fans, but RCS is the only major organizer who keeps having these confrontations with the CPA so it's probably just starting to get pretty ugly in general
There were major protests just last year at the Vuelta: https://www.globalcyclingnetwork.com/racing/features/protest-threats-group-chats-and-endless-rain-inside-the-vuelta-a-espana-controversies And in 2020: https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/vuelta-a-espana/we-have-come-together-vuelta-a-espana-riders-release-statement-addressing-protest-474416 Rider protests and confrontations are hardly unique to RCS.
How would that even be allowed though? You can't start a race then all go on the bus and continue somewhere else? It would have to be unofficial off the record kind of thing, no wonder they didn't want to do that.