trail wrote:
likes_bikes wrote:
How about Luke Plapp taking the Aussie TT championship over Harper by over 30 seconds even with a mechanical?
You can only race who shows up, so good for Plapp.
But looks like Jayco was the only World Tour team to have its Australians enter. No Vine, Scotson Miles, Welsford, Wurf, et al.
Hopefully the crit and road race are more contested.
I do worry that - globally - TT is barely hanging on as a niche. Guys like Evenepoel and Pogacar barely seem to care except for Grand Tour stages even though they're so good at it.
That is a good point, though I think the only person who would have had a chance to trouble Plapp was Vine. I've often wondered if some of the Aussie's who go back home during European winter don't suffer from too much good form early on in Australia, hence why people aren't racing the Aussie champs.
The TT community being niche didn't seem like a thing until I came to the US and then it looked to be completely dead (from my eyes). I think its still doing well, but niche B tier riders who were super-aero certainly no longer have a chance now that so many of the strongest riders and their teams have narrowed or surpassed any perceived aero gaps. It has de-incentivized the likes of Campanaerts et al from prioritizing the TTs anymore.