Cycling silly season > F1 silly season this year.

After all the rumors I'm pretty happy with where things have shaken out. Looks like we'll get Primoz v Jonas v Remco (who isn't ready) v Pogi (unless he does Giro/Olympics/Vuelta as Benji pointed out on Twitter). That should make for a fantastic TdF next year.

They've also got some really solid rouleur-types, like Politt and Denz. And Jungels will certainly be on the Tour team. All in all they should be able to provide good support for Roglic.

Pollitt got the bag from UAE and will be sorely missed at Bora.

You're right, I completely forgot about that! That actually leaves a pretty big hole for the team, eh?

Konrad is out but Dani Martinez is a big addition.

Dani and Higgy reunited!

the start list for lombardy looks crazy high caliber.
but if adam yates (and hirschi and majka) are there to support Pogi - it whittles down the dudes who might be able to stick to his wheel.

picking Rog on sentimentality alone (pretty surefire curse) / Tadej / Remco / sivakov to make the final.

dark horses: richie carapaz/ felix gall / simon says (ok those arent dark - but where's skjelmose when i need him?) tempted to pick sheffield to almost make the split.

gravel is sunday, yes?

I'm thinking the LFF for some reason. Seems intent lately and not sure he's riding for Remco today.
Riding for Remco.
But Scruffy is in the wind.

Italy is not treating Remco very kindly this year.

Ronde, Amstel, Flèche, Lombardia, Paris-Nice, 2nd at Tour and 3rd at Worlds and E3. I’d call that a successful campaign.

agreed - hell of a year, but....did he attack any teammates in the third week of a grand tour (get 1 or 2 stage wins while his teammate was in the jersey?)?
the last 3-4K of the climb at 30k to go looked absolutely nuclear. Tadej seems to know when one more roll of the dice will be too much for the rest.
will MSR or Roubaix be tougher for him to conquer? I think MSR - I don't think he descends with the absolute best and unless he goes from Cipressa, I think he might not gap the best by enough.
I could see him just having too much in the tank in the final of Roubaix for the others to match.

of course the massive good fortune to be in position in those races is A LOT to ask for.

counting on McNulty et alii to get us cranking again in '24 as the racing chatter likely dies down soon. happy off season to us arm chair ds prognosticators!

don't forget cross :)

Nor did he drop his teammate on a small rise after dragging him free, then ride to the finish instead of waiting and celebrate like a peacock or something. In fact, I recall him playing some defense when Yates went up the road to the stage and yellow. No wonder Primo left.

Anyhow. MSR seems doable; when he’s on form and gets a gap, it’s over. And with his sprint you never know if he can pull off a Kwiato. Would love to see him go at that and Roubaix. He seems to be the type of rider who is interested in more than building each season around the Tour and will be looking for new ways to challenge himself.

Tadej Roubaix is doable. Would love to see it. Nothing he can't do. We'll see him riding the cobbles on a unicycle soon. While juggling.

Another stellar road year for the Spoilers.

 
https://www.youtube.com/...=2&feature=share

Speaking of spoiler, bringing the heat! https://velo.outsideonline.com/...-a-big-start-for-me/

+ Keegan Swenson gets 5th at gravel worlds— pretty impressive. Meanwhile, Wout’s year to forget rumbles on.

Yeah, big surprise at Paris-Tours! I was thinking no way the break stays away, boy was I wrong.

And Matej's descending had me getting all twitchy and gripping imaginary brake levers. That was a great ride, super happy for him.

Mohoric makes the MTB guys looks sane. In the words of compatriot Pogi, he’s “crazy.”

The CX World Cup (Coupe du Monde, CDM) has done the U.S. dirty this year. There were at least two races in each of the past two years, but it's only Trek CX this year. I doubt many would want to hop over the pond for just one race (albeit the first on the calendar). Granted, CX Iowa City is no more, but there could be at least one other race.

I doubt Waterloo stays on the CDM circuit much longer if it remains the sole CDM race in the U.S.

Joie de vivre.

A shout for Riley Sheehan for winning Paris Tours in a sprint from the breakaway,

Two days into basically the end of road season (sorry, Tour of Turkeys) and I'm already suffering from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). When does the good CX fire up?

In slightly more than a week with SuperPrestige?

Actually apologies. I should have checked to see if the start list has been updated before my initial post.

Van Empel, Pieterse, Van Anrooij, and Alvarado to Waterloo!
Men's field isn't half bad either.

Quite a bit of rain forecasted for Friday, which will probably make this a bit slower than last year's crit-on-grass race.

Pretty solid warmup for Waterloo. Would be nice to see Nys light it up this year.

Add Zoey B and Yolanda Neff to that women's lineup and it's considerably better than I would have guessed. (Yea!)

Puck and Yolanda were 3rd and 4th in MTB Sunday. Van Empel didn't figure into the MTB this summer, did she?