Simmons continuing his pattern of trying to be the guy who rides the hardest in a break.

All back together again. I guess he did his leg-opener efforts there?

This course needs a shake up. So much potential, yet it's really conducive only to a move that goes in the last 4 km...

ETA: with van Hooydonck pretending to be an anchor, it's clear what Jumbo's strategy is here. I think Laporte goes with longer-range moves here; WvA to mop up if things come back.

Well Cosnefroy disrupted the script! Well done after all that French talk.

Girmay made my (very late) pick look decent.

Sweet ride from Benoit. And JV looked like a JV squad there at end.

Meantime, USAC is sending gravel & MTB ace Keegan Swenson to road worlds. Anyone else want to volunteer to go?

It's a bit of a bummer, for the first time in years the US has qualified a large squad but are sending a B squad.

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Keegan is a tremendous athlete with a WT motor, but this looks like another cheap PR play by USAC.

Agree. There have to a lot of dedicated road racers who must be kind of miffed. Did the likes of Larry Warbasse turn down an invite?

But while we're volunteering, can one of us apply to be the new official rider interviewer for the Vuelta? The guy they've got is terrible.

Maximus going with "the look" at Mas Macho.

System Soler having good tour.

Movistar has a game plan. Dang.

Hail Remco Maximus. He's all that. Happy to stand corrected.

Larry is coming off an injury so not sure where his fitness is, but even guys like Robbin Carpenter and Kyle Murphy deserve a shot, they did pretty good at the Baltimore race.

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Teams arrived in Montreal today. This is the vibe

Nice. And Quebec had such great crowds.

So different from the Spanish tifosi! (yes I know tifosi is Italian, but it still fits).

Polite clapping from the Canadians.

Absolutely dominating performance, bravo.

But now Don has a problem: he needs to build a GT team around Maximus to keep him.

agree on the human health guys and worlds - i think Murphy is automatic with his nats win? Carpenter looked very good in Bmore (I bet he's a bit bummed he didn't get early break duty as he was waiting a bit but then it was too late). fwiw - when Carpenter took off with Gallopin (and for a bit with Bling) he set some strava koms that were pretty outrageous (we're already thinking if any are flat enough we can get a leadout going for a local pro).

Montreal picks - rain? i have to think Wout and Tadej and more than a few want a confidence builder for worlds. but i'm picking Bling to put his name front and center for home leadership. Bling, Wout, yates - sagan for a 2/2 dnf weekend.

Believe Kyle is in but exactly, lots of guys at that level that can benefit. I do wonder if Keegan has already signed with a team and that’s part of this. But still, Robin has way more experience at this level.

It looked like he had deuce troubles Friday? The camera had him moving quickly toward a Porta Potty when he bailed.

i saw sagan's porta potty route through the feed zone also.
one take on that is that he used the fast moving group for the fastest way to the john (and was still mostly attached to the back of a dwindling field) and if given better circumstances may be able to race for a high result. the other is that he was done as soon as covid hit europe in early 2020.

as i've switched allegiances to bling after col de mende (and he signed my 2015 richmond worlds poster last week in Maryland), i fear its the latter but as a 'former' huge sagan fan i remain more hopeful than i deserve to be. a 4th worlds would revive his legend status.

bummed us isnt bringing their a game to worlds. i think peak simmons, sheffield, powless, mcnulty could be a wrecking crew.

maybe borrowing from current events (and the smiths) - the queen is dead, long live the bling. with wout and yates rounding out the podium.

Looks like we are making the trip down today (the kids are actually the most pumped about it). The family picks for the podium are:

Pogacar, Wout, Stuyven

Though personally I'll add Matthews and I've got a feeling about Bettiol sneaking away. Could also see Mohoric doing his thing on the last lap, though I have no idea what his form is like.

I ran the course this morning. Traffic at 7:30AM was a clusterF.

There is construction at the bottom of Remembrance where they hit top speeds and there is now a pretty sharp right turn. Could be interesting.

There is also a stretch along Cote Des Neiges (at the funeral home) where they put a new feed zone and access is a little difficult but I suspect it will be "the" place to collect bottles.

The guys were around the coffee shops yesterday. From the GP FB page. 99% of the population doesn't even know the race is happening

that 99% doesnt know about the race - was mostly true in Bmore last week (though this is first year so hopefully some momentum was built). the saturday coffee shop rides (and Bmore does a saturday charity ride - mostly with Human Health guys at a few spots) were the place to get the riders to talk to you for a few minutes. the local bike riders (and hopefully in Bmore this is increasingly true - and the not too distant bike riders (DC and VA and PA) all knew about it and found ways to support it.

I have a brutal pulled muscle in my core from lifting gone wrong, so have the trifecta going on in the Situation Room this morning. Spain, France, and Canada. Taco Sunday in France, but he looks doomed.

We have bad smoke so similar situation here, except it started with F1 and will likely end in disappointment when the Cowboys lose tonight.

Man, Formolo getting flogged upfront, doing his his gasping for air impression

Sep, GvA in the mix here. GvA had a good Quebec.