2025 bike racing thread *SPOILERS*

It stopped raining, unfortunately. Heavier than it looked, but not the pure tractor pull Wout needed to make this a race.

He may well end up as the greatest non-GC GT rider, but too soon to give him that crown unless you clearly limit the category to riders who rode support. Cavendish, Greipel, and Sagan are a few that come quickly to mind with greater GT palmares.

I agree he may be greatest non-GC GT rider who also was main support rider on team with actual GC ambitions.

Sorry I’m late to the party.

Just straight up dealing, no doubt about that one. Though Wout rode really strong too. Great ride by Nys as well, but tough weekend for the Belgians. Next year in Holland? There can’t be any doubt he’ll go for 8th.

Now it’s time to get down for some classics.

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Maybe we need to form an alliance of northern states (playing along with Trump’s 51st state rhetoric for this purpose) or we just call ourselves winter zwift denizens, to counter the mid-Atlantic squad. @echappist ?

Yes, I forgot to mention I will charge you for each entry this year.

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As one who has taken to greatly reducing my usual media consumption and who is very often chided for ‘too soon’ attempts at humor - i deeply appreciate the humor. thanks.
as one who is ludicrously cheap - classics picks tariff frighten me and make me want to take a flyer and pick now (I, like Trail, love the dark horse/contrarian pick) : Jonny Milan / Pithie / De Lie for Omloop glory.

we’ll see if we mid-atlantic-ers can work together or if there is a movistar/pidcock v ineos type of intra squad rivalry. case in point - I love the aggressive racing style of soler but I can’t begin to explain the tactics.

i also don’t understand groundhogs - pretty sure I see 59+ degrees next week.

After riding on Zwift today (at least with benefit of Worlds race for entertainment), I approve of this week’s forecast.

Mvdp’s connection the eternal 2nd makes me think Wout’s grandkids are going stomp like Pogi and Mvdp.

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This is the ole Mid Atlantic one two working. Some February warmth then big precip event first week of March. And then April with the dagger. Classic.

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Very similar to Bend. Except that happens in April and May, sometimes June.

Anyone watching the women’s UAE Tour? That Paternoster crash and all of the other’s was frightening. I’m hoping all are okay.

Also PFF is looking pretty good. I’m curious to see how she goes up hill.

It’s been a weird couple of weeks - watching Besseges right now and like half the teams have quit the race… two days in a row of cars on the course heading straight at the riders. One of the Spanish races last week had a similar situation where the riders refused to race anymore. There was that sketchy road thing in the AlUla tour, the big crash in UAE yesterday…

Totally unacceptable. But I empathize, the budget and margins are so thin to begin with. I can’t imagine what it takes to put on these early races on a shoe string.

Anyone paying attention to the Volta la Valenciana?.
Movistar looks like a whole new team, did some other team by mistake put on their jerseys?.

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Yep. I’m confused by Movistar seeming to know what they are doing and attacking with style.

UAE women’s was awesome today. Ride of the day goes to Sylvia Persico. She rode in the win(d) the whole climb to launch her leader’s decisive move, then recovered in time to attack for second on the stage and take the bonus points away from the rest.

Backstedt showed the familial power as well when Longo Borghini and Persico were caught out in the echelons. She ripped some legs off to bring them right back. I’m loving road racing being back. Omloop is coming!

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I was on the trainer today and got served some spring classics highlights included ‘22 Dwars. It was wild to see Pogacar try to bridge to lead group, not make it and basically be a non-factor in that race. Hasn’t happened many times since.

3 weeks to ‘Loop,

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Watching the sprint today at the Tour of Oman, can’t help but agree that the sport has a crash problem and although, it is not all the time or all of them, but some of these guys are actually a bit reckless. Not much in terms of race route, straight wide road, about 30 guys sprinting for second and somehow they ended up with three different crashes. Watching the replay, it was just wild, guys swerving left and right changing lines, etc. I know they are going faster than ever, but it’s not like Cipo et al weren’t going over 60 kph. Perhaps the UCI should consider harder sanctions for the offenders because it does not seem as if anything is getting better. It likely doesn’t help that too many guys are skipping u23 and going straight to elite without the adequate handling skills. Not sure what the solution is.

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That Oman sprint was contested by a bit of a motley crew of different sorts of riders, I think part of the problem was a lack of proper, well-tuned sprint trains. As you said, dudes veering left and right drifting halfway across the road, I don’t know if it was guys who don’t necessarily have experience in that situation, early season racing, a weaker field so some hungry riders see an opportunity to risk it all for a result, probably all of those things.