Pro-cycling thread

It’s a shame the last week is so tame.

#notthegiro

From my DS/ psychology armchair, given the day before (not just in the tour) Pogacar was going to come out fighting, quite simply he had to.
JV have isolated themselves from other competitors and have time on the favourite. UAE climbers haven’t really shown up yet!? So not sure there’s a huge swing to UAE.

I also think it could come back to bite Pogacar, my guess would be whilst he might be able to produce sporadic efforts that his recovery between will be the biggest impact in his form.
Both seemed to go pretty deep, Pogacar post finish line body language didn’t seem super positive from what I saw.

Hopefully lots more twists to come!

It’s worth noting that UAE have two stage wins plus 5 days in yellow, compared to Jumbo-Visma who’ve yet to win a stage and have just taken the yellow jersey.

I don’t agree on the UAE climber point, they were too far back yesterday when Kelderman accelerated, but so was pretty much everyone else, but before that they’d been present and correct.

I do think it’s odd that they’ve come to the Tour without three of their best climbers; Ayuso, Almeida and Vine, though.

Cav takes a few days to hit his speed so maybe its all about cav today.

Hmm it wasn’t so long ago that 1-2 ing Jonas, was being touted with Yates and Pog.
It’s a fair point on the wins but Yates was almost by accident. The day before I don’t recall offering much support to Pogacar either.

As for their others Almeida doesn’t seem viable as a domestique or team rider. That’s not a criticism btw.

That said Wout seems to be on his own mystical tour at the mo. Maybe they’ll spring something on a less assuming day.

Wout almost came off after his effort yesterday. I really don’t see him maintaining this same level of effort, not to mention sacrifice, for the whole tour.

That said Wout seems to be on his own mystical tour at the mo. Maybe they’ll spring something on a less assuming day.

Wout sometimes looks like if he said "fuck it" and pushed on he could win the tour on his own.

Also Bora have had a better Tour so far than JV ;-)

I don't really get Wout's strategy. He rides all year for Jumbo, sacrifices himself during the Tour for Vingo (which must take its toll) then gets stick from the Belgians for under-performing during the classics, which he said he wanted to be a 'big fish' in. All while riding cross and going for it in the national and world championships in between.

As @thegreatbelow said he completely emptied himself yesterday (Ultimately for what? So Pog could sit on Jumbo's wheels, conserve energy then successfully attack Vingo?) but I don't think he's going quite as well as he was last year anyway (and his results support this).

It seems obvious to this armchair DS that he's spreading himself too thinly, but is it him? Is he one of those people that overcommits and tries to do everything? Or is it Jumbo? And if so why is he going with a strategy which sacrifices his own personal success? Money? Or because he sort of managed to do that successfully last year?

Relatively and very relatively speaking he’s perhaps not quite good enough?

He’s training to win the Vuleta.

The only flaw I saw with JV tactics is that they shouldn't have pushed so hard on the descent and up the base of the final climb, otherwise what they did made perfect sense. This #insight is all #hindsight isn't it? If it's 8am on the JV bus yesterday what would be the tactics suggested instead to 1) distance Jai and the other low-rent GC contenders further and 2) do some damage to Pog? I don't see how JV's tactics were bad. All those attacks during Stage 11 from last year's TdF was what it took to crack an on-form Pog, and I don't see this as much different.

Pog also looked like he didnt have the firepower to do what he did yesterday, poor preparation and an injury, then falling behind when hindley won the stage. So its understandable they planned to really make him crack. Has he got the base to keep it up?

On a related note (and possibly poorly-informed due to just watching the highlights), I was wondering what UAE were up to, towing Hindley back up towards Pog?

If he hadn't punctured Wout could have very well won P-R, he was right there on final climb of Milan San Sleepo, and his CX season battles were all very close run things, he wasn't eating mud in 12th place with the rest of the full season cyclocross lifers. Wout's main problem outside GC racing is MVDP, and I don't think it's his GC commitments are the impediment to his non-stage racing success.

Sep Vanmarcke has announced his immediate retirement, due to heart issues.

Such a shame, he's never going to get that monument that his talent probably deserved.

Is he really spreading himself too thinly? He's done 28 race days so far this year, which is nothing (Jack Haig has done 59 for example).

I think he races on the front foot in the Tour, am not convinced he does the same at the classics.

My main criticism of this year's Tour is people using JV to refer to Jumbo Visma and also to refer to Jonathan Vaughters. Fucksake you lot, sort it out.

The Netflix docu-soap reminded me of how helpful Roglic was last year, making moves that Pogacar had to follow. It's not the same now. If Pogacar is on form I would put my money on him right now but luckily I don't have any money. Rodriquez and Simon Yates and Gaudu and Pidcock might be where the most interesting competition lies.

Exactly!
JV = Jumbo Visma
Bumface = Cadel Evans
Bumhead = Jonathan Vaughter

Jonathan Vaughters was JV before Jumbo was. Jumbo for the team name.

Tackling the important issues.

I before we except after C

Eye before Ear except after Sea

What Jonas Vingegaard as JV just to add to the confusion