Venga has confirmed he is on for the Giro / Tour double. My bad early season prediction is something goes wrong for Pogi and Venga wins both.
Trine is going to be PISSED! (and my wife hates that I’m laughing at myself for this)
Surprised to see UAE sending Almeida to the Giro instead of giving El Torito sole leadership. Having said that, I think Venga can beat all of them so it might not matter. I hope they give Torito leadership at the Vuelta but it might be Pogi again after winning the 5th TDF. Hope the kid can redeem himself from that silly Finestre ride, to this date, it still frustrates me to watch any replays.
I think it has more to do with UAE’s rule of only one grand tour for young riders; Isaac is going to the Le Tour to help Pog, so there is no space for the Giro or La Vuelta.
I actually think it’s a good move for del Toro. He will get valuable Tour experience and be there as a second option for Pogi. I’m equally happy to see Almeida get a crack at the Giro. He will be a threat for certain.
I hope they give him sole leadership in a GT soon along with a committed team. Last year Majka was gold as per usual, Yates was so so and McNulty/Ayuso were simply selfish and not very useful.
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Majka retiring is going to hurt a bit. As you said, he was so good in his service last year.
I agree— think it’s more for El Torito to learn. Like Almeida said, “Tadej doesn’t need me to win a GT” but it’ll help IDT to see how he conducts himself everyday. It would also be immense pressure on him to go back to Giro with sole leadership after last year.
Speaking of, if Venga wasn’t going it might be an interesting race.
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FN Jay Vine is a madlad. His response to his death pulls for the peloton at the Aussie Nats.
"After it became clear I was going to be marked out of the race, a group of us tried to make a bridge, unfortunately with strong riders still wanting to sit on the move that kept starting and stopping for about 30 mins. I decided I wasn’t just going to ride around 5 mins behind the bunch and roll in, but instead throw a grenade into the race; and show that in future years I won’t just fill in numbers on a finisher sheet, if you won’t work with me and race, then I will bring the race to you, even if it means I don’t get a result. I had a good block of training on the front of the bike race, and then I rode back to the hotel.
Congratulations to @pat.eddypat.eddy ! Not only raced smart but in the final was super strong to finish off in 2026 
Looking forward to seeing my UAE teammates in Adelaide shortly! B@tourdownundering on @tourdownunder"
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I love that the insanity of that finish was bookended with Thibau Nys’ masterclass of a final lap at the Belgian CX nats on the same day.
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Sunday was a pretty solid day of racing all around.
Good news from DGW, confirming that national champs jersey was indeed a rush job and a new design is on the way:
Derek Gee-West opens up about his future at Lidl-Trek - Canadian Cycling Magazine https://share.google/1kUO80t908VI4SfpR
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I hope @marcag is right and the back is as he suggested. That would be legendary 
Really though I’m glad the jersey is not what was shown. That was disrespectfully bad. Derek comes across in his interviews as such a class (good) dude and he is talking about helping Ayuso with his own ambitions too. I’d love to see them help each other out for each of their ambitions.
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TDF is going through my city (Liverpool) never thought I’d see it!
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Hey everyone,
I created a Slowtwitch League on Velogames.com
Slowtwitch League ID: 151671510
Once you join, you are in for all races
Thanks
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Not racing, but …
Link from Brendan Leonard/Semi-Rad newsletter
This weekend we’ve got CX at Benidorm and the always intriguing Greek national championship, plus back to road season with TdU. All good news for us normie bike fans.
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What a fucking lunatic. Incredible effort.
Has anyone been hearing the rumors that are floating around the darker edges of cycling social media about a “seismic” doping positive that’s going to come out in the near future?
Can’t say I’m clued into cycling social media, but I’ve seen plenty of folks questioning why Yates decided to call it quits and suggesting it was a doping positive. I imagine you mean something other than that though. Got any links you can share?