Roglic's Revenge: Pro Cycling 2021

[ad hoc]

Van Aert is something like the only rider apart from Hinault to win a sprint, a TT, and a mountain stage in the same tour. (but he might be the only one, I'm not sure)

[ad hoc]

Ah Ursus beat me

[ursus arctos]

That feat was more common (but still seriously impressive) in the pre-specialist era

[San Bernardhinault]

There's part of me that's happy to see Cavendish level with Merckx but not surpass him

[caja-dglh]

For now. You can bet he will he looking for a ride next year.

[Sits]

What a rider WvA is. Too big for GC I guess, he can’t sustain a full mountain campaign and without that you can’t win a GT.

A shame we’re not talking about Pogacar, and it’s a an amazing achievement for a very young man. It is hard to know what to say beyond that though.

[San Bernardhinault]

The trouble is that unless Vingegaard genuinely turns out to be something special, Pogacar may well win the next 5 tours and we've already sort of discounted that. We know he's spectacular and feel like he's just in a comfortable position to dominate for a long time. An Anquetil or Hinault or Mercx or Indurain (or Lance).

[ursus arctos]

Two years ago, people were saying that about Bernal.

And there is still Evenepoel (and others still younger).

One can certainly conceive of a Tour that would favour Van Aert. Indeed, the parcours could look like some of those that Indurain won.

[longeared]

Unless he has injury problems I'd expect Pog to win several more Tours, possibly to the extent he puts the record on a shelf. Vingegaard actually gained time on him in the last couple of weeks (a whole twelve seconds) so there is that to cling to but it's still a big step for him to take to be properly challenging. Bernal is a more limited rider than Pog, he's a pure climber who can time trial to an acceptable level. I've not seen any evidence that Evenepoel is a Grand Tour contender (admittedly this is coloured by the fact I don't particularly like him) and he's doing the Giro again next year anyway.

There's some exciting talent lower down, the Belgian prodigy Cian Uijtdebroeks who won their junior nationals yesterday, the German Marco Brenner who's already at DSM and the Italian lad whose name escapes me, but at the moment they're largely just potential and their careers may go in a different direction or just not take off at all.

[Sits]

I imagine a few OTFers could get a glimpse this year:

[Mumpo]

No Lakes, or Yorkshire? Or even the Trough? Oh well.

[Sits]

I hope it’s on SBS here as Stage 1 will be very evocative for me.

https://www.tourofbritain.co.uk/wp-c..._S1_Map_02.jpg

[Felicity, I guess so]

Think I'll be in Wales for the weekend when they do Carlisle to Gateshead, sadly

[Sits]

Good lineup for the Donostia San Sebastián tomorrow. I’m particularly interested to see how Bernal is shaping up as the buildup to his showdown with the Slovenia Massive at the Vuelta begins.

[ursus arctos]

AaV is very fond of this race, left Tokyo early to do it, and has just won it.

[Sits]

AaV is very fond of this race, left Tokyo early to do it, and has just won it.

A surprising number from the Olympic road racers are in these two races which is remarkable in the circumstances. Or it certainly is from the perspective of living in a country with almost completely closed borders.

[delicatemoth]

When is the men's race? I can't find it on the Eurosport schedule.

[ursus arctos]

should be on 30 km to go

Alternative

https://twitter.com/laflammerouge16/status/1421415001437446146

[delicatemoth]

The race tracker is here - https://klasikoa.eus/en/live-3/

Hopefully Eurosport will put it on soon.

Elsewhere, Patrick Lefevre has been channeling Oleg Tinkov again with some foul comments comparing Sam Bennett to women suffering DV (both are "weak" apparently) for returning to Bora.

[delicatemoth]

It's on Eurosport now. Pissing with rain. The commentator is a voice i don't recognise, on his own, and he is struggling a bit. 58km to go and the peloton just under two minutes behind the leader, one Javier Romo.

[delicatemoth]

Odd race. Powless takes the win in a three-up sprint, ahead of Mohoric and Mikkel Honore, who did very well to get up to the other two after a crash on the run-in.

[longeared]

Do your shushing gesture now, Mohoric.

[Sits]

Elsewhere, Patrick Lefevre has been channeling Oleg Tinkov again with some foul comments comparing Sam Bennett to women suffering DV (both are "weak" apparently) for returning to Bora.

What a vile man. I like the team and riders, but he’s unconscionable.

[Levin]

A bit late to these but here are some amazing photos of the Tour from Roger-Viollet Agency.

LINK (other pages on the site can be NSFW but this one is ok)

[Sits]

A bit late to these but here are some amazing photos of the Tour from Roger-Viollet Agency.

LINK (other pages on the site can be NSFW but this one is ok)

Great pics, and that site is a worm hole too.

So transfer season is under way. Sagan to Total Energies seems like quite a step down for him, other than he will be the sole focus. As will Kristoff at Intermarché etc. who let Danny an Poppel out through the other door to Sagan’s old place. Almeida to UAE means they are really piling up the GC talent.

Meanwhile lots of talk around Geraint Thomas without anyone actually stumping up cash.

Separately if you fancy something a bit different, Mitch Docker’s Life in the Peloton in this week’s edition of the Cycling Podcast was an enjoyable road trip/travelogue as he and two amateur riders took part in the Sverigetempot https://sverigetempot.wordpress.com/...rigetempot_en/.