I Belong To Glasgow: Pro Cycling 2023

[matt j]

I liked the sprint win from Molano yesterday. It looks so under control for Groves until it wasn't, really incredible mad dash leadout from Oliviera.

Just starting watching coverage for today. Kuss & Vingegaard up the road with Roglic in a near following group and Evenepoel nearly 2 minutes behind.

Incredible helicopter shots today too.

[longeared]

"Tell the press they don't have outbreaks of sickness at INEOS, Dad"

[matt j]

I wish coverage stayed on some of these post-race conversations between riders a bit longer.

[Lobachevsky]

amazing dominance from Jumbo.

[Sits]

Woah. Where did all that jeopardy go?

Meanwhile Arnaud De Lie gets his first WT win in Quebec.

[longeared]

The jeopardy now sits firmly within Jumbo and how they handle this. They cannot cannot allow themselves to lose this race from here but how do they go about managing the individuals. Do they potentially piss Kuss off by allowing them to race and he potentially loses the lead and then decides, bugger it, I'm going to ride for another team and have a go at winning Grand Tours myself. Or do they tell Roglic and Vingegaard to ride formation and make sure the team wins and annoy them a bit. Being beaten by a superdomestique would not be a brilliant look for either of them. I suppose Rog is the one they can most afford to annoy and sacrifice, he's won this race multiple times before and he's not the long term future of the team.

Evenepoel lost 27 minutes in the end and he still hasn't put together a strong ride in a big high altitude mountain day, if he wants to win the Giro or Tour in the future he needs to learn how to do this pretty damn quick. Cian Uijtdebroeks's day yesterday was better than anything Evenepoel has ever managed on that terrain. He was right to complain about absolutely everything in the early days of the race but it wasted energy for him again, the Jumbo boys had similar issues but they just kept their heads down and played the long game.

[Sits]

Agree with all of longeard’s post there, including the Evenepoel stuff.

On Jumbo, I found it interesting watching their three riders after the finish. Vingegaard looked genuinely pleased for Kuss, and has plenty of years and potential GCs ahead. Roglič less so, and his career clock is ticking. Maybe he is just realising that he really likes the Vuelta.

[ursus arctos]

A surprising factoid from Friebe yesterday

That was Evenepoel's second ever race day in France as a professional

I wonder if the Belgian hype train will bevtuening to Uijtdebroeks

[Sits]

Interesting bit of Flemish there ua.

[ursus arctos]

My autocorrect is hopelessly confused by ventures into other languages

[Sits]

Evenepoel has gone in the break. Of course he has.

[ursus arctos]

Remco is going to have the polka dots by the end of the stage

[Lobachevsky]

Remco tearing it up. Must be getting a bit pissed with Roman sitting on his wheel.

[ursus arctos]

Just increases the mystery of yesterday

[longeared]

Remco tearing it up. Must be getting a bit pissed with Roman sitting on his wheel.

ALLEZ ROMAIN

(late to this, was at a wedding yesterday very nice thank you, but got here as quick as I could)

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/petercossins/status/1700842653921808761?s=12&t=xvOireV8JOIS_CpbTtDBow

[longeared]

I know there's an element of "social media warriors in their bedroom" here, but reading the whole article it's really not a good look for the organiser to tell critics to sit down and shut up. The fundamental problem is that they didn't address flaws in the staging of the race when times were good and now when things have got a bit harder it all looks low rent and tinpot.

In a slightly unfortunate development the race has been neutralised while they get past a road accident that has blocked the route; we're told it's not a race vehicle involved and it's not JSO or the like.

[ursus arctos]

Remco once again in the break, which has about 2:45 on the leaders

[longeared]

Exciting situation in the ToB as INEOS shredded the peloton on an horribly steep hill coming out of Aberdare and Carlos Rodriguez escaped with Stevie Williams with WvA unable to follow. The pair are now a minute clear with 25k left. Williams was in the front group yesterday and is thirty-odd seconds ahead of Rodriguez on the GC if they stay away.

AVV has ended her career at the Simac Ladies Tour. Kopecky won overall and Britain swept the podium in the Not SD Worx race from Henderson / Georgi / Backstedt - the latter putting together a really strong performance for fifth on her first outing for Canyon SRAM.

[longeared]

Rodriguez dropped Williams and went on to win the stage, there was a thrilling chase behind with a strong defensive ride from WvA who also had to keep Magnus Sheffield at bay. The chasers got the gap down to about 10 seconds at the end so WvA wins the race overall. That were a really good stage, overall the race has been a bit like the Tour de Yorkshire used to be what with a load of sprints then a couple of days exciting racing at the end on punchy courses to decide the GC.

[ursus arctos]

Vingegaard empties the tank on the day before Angliru and is within half a minute

[ursus arctos]

Do any other Cycling Podcastg listeners share my increasing annoyance at Friebe's repeated attempts to turn Jumbo Visma team dynamics into Real Housewives style reality show style drama?

I can't help but think that Moore would have shot him down by now.

[Sits]

Do any other Cycling Podcastg listeners share my increasing annoyance at Friebe's repeated attempts to turn Jumbo Visma team dynamics into Real Housewives style reality show style drama?

I can't help but think that Moore would have shot him down by now.

Yes. I think he feels he must do something to liven things up. They're doing it on the Escape shows too, in fairness.

[Lobachevsky]

Well I think they should have kept Sepp on their wheels at the top there.

[matt j]

A 1,2,3 for Jumbo Visma and Kuss remains in the lead.

At least from what I've seen/heard (which is not podcasts) there is sort of the desperation to develop an 'infighting' storyline for the trio, but at least from interviews and their post-race interactions, it looks like a massive stretch. I'm sure the team (overall) would love to get another tour win this season, and isn't too fussed who. And I'm sure a 1,2,3 GC would be something spectacular to put on the books, no matter what order.

Kuss has always been pretty clear as to how he feels about being the GC guy (especially during TdF), and there is a lot of 'whoever is strongest deserves it' and 'no gifts' from all three of them, so... at least by my interpretation... the coverage (especially Peacock/NBC) is a lot of flag-waving nonsense.

(Of course, somebody now is going to tell me that Roglic is on his last season with Jumbo, that Kuss is going to switch and become a leader of some US-based team, and they'll have massive interviews complaining about each other in two years or so.)