Road Cycling
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Watched Laurence Pithie put in a truly outstanding performance at Gent Wevelgem yesterday. Only guy to mix it with Mads and VdP when they attacked and only ran out of juice on the final time up the Kemmelberg. Commentators on Eurosport were raving about him. He will win a big world tour race one day.
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Sunday was my annual favourite race day of the year; a day sitting with mates watching end to end race coverage with a box of Belgian beers. Have done the Paris Roubaix sportive before and it’s is brutal, like nothing I’ve ever experienced on a bike before. In the race itself, VdP put on a legendary ride; the speed he distanced supreme one day riders on the Orchies cobbled sector 60km from the finish was astounding. Commentators were raving about Kiwi Pithies performances this year and Sunday was no different. He looked like he belonged and but for a mistake and crashing on a corner 20 odd km from the finish, may v well have got on the podium. As it was, 7th was fantastic. Evidently he’s in demand by a few teams and strongly rumoured to be heading to Bora to head up their Classics team next year.
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George had his best result in quite a while in the Giro d'Abruzzo - coming in 3rd in the GC, 2nd in the KotM, and 2nd in the final stage.
Solid throughout.
Behind Lutsenko and Sivakov, but ahead of Adam Yates, Ulissi, Pozzivivo and a few other decent names...and everyone else.
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In case anyone who is interested hasn't noticed - the Tour of Switzerland is being shown on Sky this week.
Finn Fisher-Black currently 4th on GC after the opening short TT and a sprinters' stage. George is 73rd, but less than 30 seconds back. Another flat (ish) stage tonight - then lots of mountains to come.
Interested to see how George goes in these - he seems to be riding his best for several years.
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George picks up 14th on the first mountain stage and jumps to 16th in the GC - two minutes down on Adam Yates. That's definitely showing better form than the last couple of years.
Interestingly, they showed a pre-stage interview with George (which I missed the start of and was tryig to work out if it was him) where he sounded like Steve Williams was their main hope, with potentially Matthew Riccitello as back up. Steve cracked and Riccitello finished only a few seconds ahead of George, so should be a reshuffling of the pecking order.
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Adam Yates and Almeida fighting this one out for UAE. Yates has 31 seconds going into the final time trial. Almeida is a better time trialist, but that looks a lot to make up. I'm guessing Yates will hold on.
Those two have put the rest of the field to the sword - which is a bit crazy when you think they're likely to be Pogacar's super domestiques come the TdF. They can also pick from the likes of Ayuso, Soler, Vine, Majka, McNulty, Grosschartner, and del Toro for their climbing domestiques. They could field two strong teams!
Saw a suggestion today that Jonas shouldn't ride theTdF since he's not yet back from injury.
George is 18th in the GC. A decent time trial should keep him in the top 20, which would be a good result for him, I think. If he does a good one (for him) he could pick up a couple of places.
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No TdF for Finn Fisher-Black either. They've named their Super Team.
Tadej Pogačar (Slo)
Juan Ayuso (Spa)
Pavel Sivakov (Fra)
Marc Soler (Spa)
Nils Politt (Ger)
Adam Yates (GB)
Joao Almeida (Por)
Tim Wellens (Bel)I think they've got more guns than Jumbo LaB.
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@Chris-B said in Road Cycling:
No TdF for Finn Fisher-Black either. They've named their Super Team.
Tadej Pogačar (Slo)
Juan Ayuso (Spa)
Pavel Sivakov (Fra)
Marc Soler (Spa)
Nils Politt (Ger)
Adam Yates (GB)
Joao Almeida (Por)
Tim Wellens (Bel)I think they've got more guns than Jumbo LaB.
Jumbo won’t go close. I think the only potential saving feature would be if the super doms are competing against each other. Cant see that with Pog there though.
I think we are going to see a procession - Jonas is just coming back from injury so they’ll crack him on the first huuuuuge weekend. After that, it’ll be pretty boring.
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@gt12 Just reading that Sepp Kuss has covid and won't start, so that's even worse. They've still got a good team, but Sepp is the guy you'd expect to still be there at the end of the mountain stages.
I'm prepared to give Jonas some benefit of the doubt - and Tadej rode the Giro, so that may catch up with him at some point.
TAB has:
Tadej 1.62
Jonas 3.50
Primoz 9.00
Remco 17.00Everyone else over $20. Given the likelihood of crashes, covid and unexpected cracking - someone like Remco or Joao Almeida ($41) might be worth a small punt!
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can't see it being anything other than a cake walk for Pog. Hard to have that much time off and get the required level of fitness back. (see Pog last year after his busted wrist).
reckons he's fully recovered from the Giro and better than ever (noticeable how much leaner he is this year... which seems absurd considering how skinny they are..)
was funny listening to poddy with Geraint and him on it - G asked him out of 10 how rooted he was after the giro - answer was a 7.. G was basically 'ruined'.. and had to come home and spend time immediately doing stuff with his kids, Pogi 'no idea how you can do that - i just spent 2 days on the couch with the missus, good to go.'Can't think of any kiwis at the tour this year.. no pithie or dion smith...
another year of waiting for our first stage (solo) victory!Carapaz might be a good dark horse for a podium
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cycling world has lost its sh*t on the internet after she only ended up losing the tour by 4 secs....
in other news - close for Corbin Strong last night - 3rd in stage 2 of the Vuelta - no much press considering one of the best ever results for a kiwi in a stage in a grandie
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Tour de Suisse 2024 Stage 4 results
