IMO, it’s some of the best bike racing of the season. It’s a shame folks tend to miss it, and that broadcasters haven’t figured out how to highlight it effectively.
a - good to hear (jimmy) Mcnulty is on the mend - PSA read and will heed advice.
b - Wout and cross worlds - is that for real - he is lining up? does he have ANY chance?
c - Wout and making early Grand Tour stage breaks. His ability is INSANE. He can create the break/ bridge to the break / ride the hardest in the break and then still win every climb and sprint. We often try to pick who might make the early break on this forum. Most riders who make the break one day need another day or 2 before firing again. Wout is ALWAYS there. How hard dudes are sprinting to create splits - get across from the gun - it is remarkable they have much left late in the stage MUCH LESS anything for the next day or 2. Despite all the Wout praise I’m dishing out - I can’t see how MVDP isn’t a lock for another World Cross title.
B/C - He’s definitely racing. Early word from the course is that it’s shaping up to be a tractor pull, and no one is better than Wout in a pure tractor pull. Including VdP.
He wouldn’t show up if he wasn’t feeling like he had a chance to win it, so odds are he was seeing some pretty encouraging numbers at VLab training camp. If early word turns out to be true on race day and it’s a wattage>skills race, it could be really interesting.
Hope springs eternal! I think a very close race would infuse the big classics teams with some extra motivation. I bet MVdP knows that too and will be itching to imprint his dominance.
Does tractor pull favor any particular women favorites? Lucinda maybe compared to Van Empel, Puck, Blanka…
It is REALLY interesting to think what ‘pretty encouraging numbers’ look like to these super teams. How did they know Matteo Jorg, Sepp were going to be so much better than their earlier results? their oura ring sleep score?
Can someone more knowledgeable than myself explain to me how it’s possible a stage that has to get shortened or neutralized mid stage due to course danger without a significant weather event ever gets approved to race in the first place?
Yesterday morning I’ve got the Alula Tour on in the background as I’m working. I see 62.7k to go before getting on a 5-10 minute call. I then look up and it’s ~19k to go and sunny non wet roads were neutralized. I couldn’t figure out how an hour of my life disappeared.
Certainly appreciate rider safety, but waiting until you’re at the danger point to determine it is a danger point makes no sense.
So they said it was “road conditions”, which in this case I think was a combination of two things. One, the roads looked pretty rough and patched up in that section, which they obviously would have known ahead of time and should have either addressed with repaving (like they do in the TdF - it’s not like they don’t have the money to do this) or not choosing those roads for a stage (I don’t think they’ve used this road in previous editions). The other thing, though, is that you get sand blowing in and getting all over the road. This is more variable and they may have hoped that the weather cooperated and left the roads clean, but it’s the desert and that should also have been foreseeable.
I think the organizers were just going to go with it and the riders, after seeing the roads during the actual stage, demanded the neutralization and the organizers capitulated.
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After a few rides out here I better see why you nuked me on that 1k drag back at nats—it’s all so punchy.
Ha! younger human times. If you think your area is punchy (it is) - Northern Balt County is super hilly (and for longer climbs Frederick, MD is brutal) - The Maryland Pro race uses a bunch of kickers but to stay on a few bigger roads they pass up some even steeper kickers. It’s just a shame the last 40 miles are SO MUCH tamer back to the harbor.
All this typed - gravel tends to be punchier than paved - more than a few pitches where one can easily run out gears with mortal watts.
welcome to the mid atlantic!
The Vardennes.
The hills in Frederick, like those in the Catskills (thinking of Devil’s Kitchen), make me wonder just a) how they managed to pave those in pre-industrial times and b) how horse-drawn carriages can actually get up or down those hills…
Yeah, it’s totally the opposite of my style of riding (steady / high tempo power for long durations) as opposed to constant on/off without any rhythm. Would have done me good back in the day! Frederick sounds to my liking.
Rode by your place yesterday. Didn’t realize it—was just following a route I found—or would have stopped for a coffee (even if Pidcock would disagree).
I’m gutted for Lucinda today.
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Especially if Pidcock disagrees.
WOW - I was late to the spectating - but I couldn’t /didn’t want to forward through the last 20 minutes. It was like you see in their riding/effort that they were at their absolute limits. beautiful riding.
in the junior women 2 Mid Atlantic (I think MD side of DC) powerhouses were 5th and 7th.
Mid Atlantic weather throwing us a break - seeing some temps around the 60 (F) mark next week!
Phenomenal race, maybe the best last lap all year. Tough loss for Lucinda, a gritty win for Fem.
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So much for my hope of a competitive race and Wout win. Mathieu dropped the hammer and said goodbye world.
wait - which one is related to the eternal 2nd - Poulidor? maybe Wout is related to Jan Ulrich? i’m going to try to hold out a lil hope that Fredly’s prediction of tractor pull might allow Wout some drag back racing. It could also just mean an earlier escape to trails dog jog (while the ground is still frozen!).
We may have a new Monsieur Panache on our hands.
Kevin Vauquelin, pronounced Vaquellin like Jaquellin.
Maybe he becomes just Kev, with some big wins.
KV is precocious, 18 years old Maybe could’ve attacked one more time in Marseilles but was likely cooked. Great ride.
Just checking in to say one month!!
Training camps fellas.
@McNulty @Carl_Spackler @fredericknorton are now Virginia-Premier Tech, look out
@trail I SAID @trail has gone Lachlan Morton on us
Everyone else, time to organize
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