2 bike changes before that! Leather.

San Sebastian this Saturday. A race for all rounders Like Remco,Powless and WVA. I do not see a start list yet.

Link here. Looks like all three whom you named are on the list

https://www.procyclingstats.com/.../startlist/startlist

Powless will have a hard time getting away after his ride last year. I expect him to be heavily marked. It should be interesting seeing how the Tour guys perform given the full on racing block they've just come off of. Remco has been in the mountains for 3 weeks or so training at altitude, so he should have some time this week to absorb it all. I'm curious to see how he is going pre-Vuelta.

is it better for some of these guys to just keep rolling? can't even imagine how they're feeling after a grand tour.

WvA is like, my form is awesome and I had a week off

WvA cracked Pog on a mountain stage, sat up for a minute and recovered enough to catch and drop more pure climbers. A whole week off is like an offseason for him. ;)

Lots of good results over the years at SS from tour riders. They say that with some rest and active recovery with openers some guys can keep the form rolling.

That might be the biggest pileup I've ever seen.

yeah can't remember a bigger pile-up

Thankfully most of the riders can continue except Emma.

"Yeah this can go later, no problem."

Chantal has official hardwoman status.

"It's only a flesh wound"

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

What, aside from the two even bigger piles in stage one of the men's race last year?

I don't know. We might have to do a count.

I heard a few riders on bigger teams give interviews asking the peloton to show each other more respect for safety. Aside from this just being the Tour de France with regard to nervous crashing, apparently it was mentioned that some of the smaller teams had initiated the crashes by not having raced significantly within a strong peloton and that a few times a lone rider would bomb into a team train.

Sadly these massive pileups happen. Its just such a hard and gritty sport and I have massive respect for the chutzpah it takes to be in racing pelotons, sprints, crits, etc. where its just so full on. Its interesting in that I would say I have great technical skills and descending skills, but I always had zero interest in exposing myself to the most dangerous situations in the peloton. I wasn't in races that were going to get me some massive payout and change my life or anything and I had a real career outside of the bike. If I couldn't be on the front doing work or off the front, I was off the bike hiding. Positioning is not anything I have confidence in.

During my time exploring velodrome pursuits the past few years, I took the piss and tried some practices with the sprinters. First off I have to say, I don't have the kind of explosive power needed to do a damn thing, but secondly ya'll are some nuts. On the track and on the road, sprinters are nuts. Just like football goalkeepers. People who can do those things are wired differently.

Yeah, I think it was on Day One that Ant & Hannah said these smaller teams with younger riders might have the skills yet to ride in big groups, or get on echelons, or even what side of the road to get on for support from the team car or for a bike change

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

So this is interesting. The RD of la Vuelta said today that Egan Bernal will be there to ride.

I can't hardly believe that is going to be true, but I suppose we shall see.

Will be interesting to see if INEOS offers a rebuttal

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

i dont know if throwing out a few names for the win is still a thing as we near august, but here goes:
san seb - i'm going bling matthews - i thought his was best win of some great wins in the tour and his wingman simon says yates is on (enough to neutralize Tadej and remco?). if i get extra picks - remco - he might just ride away a la liege. if mohoric makes it anywhere near the front after the last climb he will break something/someone on that descent.

in tdf femmes - i'm going elisa longo borghini - her team looks great and committed and it looks to me like there is room to come back a little at the end even if the climbers (k. niewa..) throwdown on the long climb.
pretty sweet saturday.

Also on the Primoz-to-Ineos rumors. That would sure be interesting. Not sure Geraint Thomas would be thrilled to work his way back up near the top of the Ineos GC hierarchy, only to have Bernal get healthy again and Roglic arrive.

That would be quite "Why do I even fucking bother with you assholes?" call to his agent/management

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

Well Pogacar isn't fully recovered from the TdF. That's actually kind of comforting.

and Remco is doing a redux of his performance circa 2019...

His weight after his 3 week altitude camp in Italy is 60.5. Holy shit. Look at AvV and Remco both today. Wow WoW. Take a timer my friends and do some easy math. MEGA.