DJ Breadsticks unleashing his mountain sprint! What a win.

Nice half-kilo ambush by DJ Breadsticks!

As McEwen noted, tactically shrewd, while Remco was fiddling and gave Poels perhaps just half a second too much. Proper bike racer.

Also, what a kick to the line by Remco.

Love the Pink/Maglia Rosa, Yellow/Maillot Jaune, and Red/Maillot Rojo bands

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

If Costa steals this, there is no god. Go Kam Jam!

Holy s***, a break more or less stayed away. Bonkers! With Ganna chasing Groves all the way to the line, after both having been in the break.

I know such sights are common-place at scripted post-Tour criterium races, but this sort of racing is more reminiscent of downtown crits we have Stateside.

What a ride by Sepp. His other two teammates did pretty well too.

good for kuss overall, groves impressive. i'm thinking kuss comes back next year in his regular role, yet glad to see the result and some exciting racing in the last week, if even for mostly intra squad dynamics.

for a rider with proven climbing skills, is it even possible to improve TT skills without hindering climbing prowess? asking only since putting on additional muscle mass seems to me the inevitable result of that pathway.

Speculation is he’ll have Giro leadership outright and then be back to his role for Tour. He hung in reasonably well on TT, especially considering he probably did very little prep for it. He’ll never be good, but the right course and right field, could probably minimize the damage enough to have a shot.

in an interview a couple of days ago Jonas suggested Sepp could have leadership at some future events. Can't recall if he specifically mentioned grand tours. Easy for Jonas to accept - as Sepp isn't going to be leading the team at the Tour.

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And the question remains. where were you.

i like that idea, see how he does with the weight of the crown. is this more your idea, or a more universal train of thought? haven't seen it talked of yet.

there is a lot of low hanging fruit to pick. I suspect they never bothered.

They will (should).

Sepp rode his TT bike exactly four times, I think it was reported?

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

So now that most of the big road races are over (with coronation of Pogcar in Lombardia left as the sole remaining big race), I'm turning a bit more inward and focusing on my own training.

I'm also creeping toward 40, and one of the goals this year is to do a bit more dynamic strength work (more like circuits). The first few sessions usually leave me quite sore, and I'm wondering if the posters here have suggestions on speeding up recovery. FWIW, when I get sore/ tired from on-bike exertions, I've found massage rolling sticks to be quite helpful (something that I've been doing from my racing days). But this method doesn't work very well when the muscle fibers are somewhat damaged, and the soreness is more a result of swelling and repairs.

Suggestions welcomed.

Sleep and nutrition, of course. We all know, this, of course, but you become more keenly aware of the value the older you get.

Beyond that, I've found that following up an intense strength workout like that some hours later with any very light exercise. 100W for 5-10 minutes on the trainer, going for a walk, etc. Just whatever gets you to the minimally "warmed up" stage, just before you start to actually sweat. I can't immediately find it, but there was a recent physiology paper that came out that verified that this very light work improves the speed of the "protein cleanup" work inside muscle cells - cleaning out damaged proteins, getting new construction underway, etc.

thank you! good suggestion on the minimal effort moving, especially as I'm a desk jockey paper pusher and could use such efforts.

I guess I also have BCAAs. Dread it when I have to take those, as they are nasty, but they are good for these things.

I read it somewhere, can't recall if it was a team comment or speculation.

Pogi vs Remco vs Rog (?) and others? Lombardia should be pretty sweet.

I got a lot more diligent over the past year about overall health & wellness. I try to eat a little better (more nutrients), a recovery drink after every ride over 90 minutes, and doing "body work" nearly every day. That comprises of a 20 minute yoga/functional strength session in am and 5-10 minutes of stretching & rolling in pm. About 10 years ago I hit my peak, and this year I got back to 95+% on much less volume with this focus. Sure wish I'd adopted those practices a long time ago.

Come to think of it, Remco packs a vicious kick. Not sure whom i’d back in a small group sprint


Thank you! The recovery drink is probably something i should adopt as well.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Roglic is defending champion, does he forego a defense of his title in order to play second fiddle at the tour? If Roglic defends and they make Kuss co-leader for the Giro it just might hasten Roglic looking for a new team.

Concur. The little "just touching base" wkos daily seem to help in between the big days.

true, yet its frustrating at 60+, we still want to go at it. aside from self care on the ever increasing mandatory days off, the new challenge is wtf do i do today? other hobbies help, but many of us will never be 'over' it. keep at it brothers.

It looks like Trek signed themselves a Lidl Tractor.

Yin yoga is pretty helpful too. Designed much more for recovery with some flexibility too, as opposed to building strength, balance, etc.

I’ve found that to be 100% true. I do about 20 min a day with an app. It has made a huge difference in how comfortable I am on and off the bike.