I think folks need to take a beat and give Remco a chance to show what he’s got with this (still) new team. He’s the only one who ever won a three week race wearing the Quick-step colors, and it has essentially always been the case that the best way to win the grand tours is to be on one of the teams that knows how to win three week races.
Odds still aren’t great that he’s going to have a breakthrough, but they’re almost certainly better than they were on QS. Who - we should note - have pretty much immediately gone back to success at what they’ve always been good at as soon as they stopped trying to be a GC team.
1 Like
Yeah, I get the same feeling. I find it interesting that if Remco would have began life as a one day races and TT rider like Ganna et al and he would have stayed out of stage races, we would only be talking about how successful he is as opposed to questioning his erratic stage race performances. But unfortunately, unless you are built like a pit-bull (Blijlevens, Commesso, Abdujaparov) it seems as if we always expect guys who are 5’6”-5’7” to be able to climb well over three weeks, and with Remco’s engine, the GT expectations have always been high. Even if he sometimes has a difficult personality, I hope he does well at the Tour and finds his stride on stage races again.
Visualization of ~50g in practical terms (practical for me, anyway)
The weight of stickers, ink, paper & tape
It’s funny b/c I picked up my notebook the other day & thought “it’s gotten MUCH fatter than when I started!!!” LOL
ETA: my standard 3-subject notebook which I use for a sketchbook, that I started for Inktober 2025, and is almost through the second “period,” clocks in at 932g, currently
It’s funny, I come here first to catch up on the missed action. Top rate commentary as always all.
Much to my wonderful wife’s nervousness, the girls and I just returned from a weeklong purely outdoor trek in one piece. Filthy, happy and full of wonder in the world. I believe all kids need this kind of adventure. (I do admit a proper shower is really really nice though and I look forward to a real bed).
5 Likes
In about a month my oldest daughter and I are leaving for a week of camping on Vancouver Island, navigating logging roads in search of giant trees, and yes, my wife is also nervous. We’ll be missing a chunk of the Tour but I agree that these are the experiences that really matter. When we return to civilization I have no doubt the best commentary, insight and wit will be here waiting to catch me up on what went down in France.
1 Like
Words from Action Jackson
Good on ya.
1 Like
The forest is a magic elixir. Soak it up. ( And send some rain vibe to Virginia please )
1 Like
Anyone know why Ben Oliver was wearing a yellow jersey in the last stage of the Tour of Wallonia? He wasn’t in the lead at that point. Wasn’t second in points.
Dunno but Riley Sheehan has had a rough couple of days.
1 Like
though I’d like to see raging Del Toro get redemption on the Finestre tomorrow - I’m going with Demi and Niedamaier to gap the bruised up AVDB. I really wanted to see Van Der Breggen try to reverse her Angrilu loss but Finestre is similarly brutal and the injuries sure seem to tall an order. looking forward to teh spectacle - Finestre is on my wish list.
For the Wiebes situation I’m more than a little suspicious about the team’s response:
- They could’ve weighed the bike themselves and showed it to the media but didn’t
- Their initial response was that the weight difference doesn’t make any difference on a flat stage, implicitly meaning they knew they could be under.
- If they really do think it makes no difference then why push it to the limit?
That being said, the UCI should explain things more and publicly show photos and videos of the weighing
And the calibration. Also if the difference was 20g then the bike was at the limit, not under. Need to send the UCI crew back to high school. There has to be a high bar to kick someone out.
The limit is 6.8 kg, not 6.78 kg.
The limit was determined by converting 15lbs to metric with two significant figures. 6.8kg.
What is 6.78kg to two significant figures?
1 Like
Article 1.3.019 of the UCI Regulations says ‘The weight of the bicycle cannot be less than 6.8 kilograms.’ 6.8 kg. Not 15 lbs. In fact, from what I remember the method by which the UCI arrived at the figure of 6.8 kg was by taking 10% of what was considered the average weight of riders (68 kg). The fact that 6.8 is close to 15 lbs would be a coincidence. Not that it is relevant anyway, because the only thing which matters is what is actually written down in the rules.
What is 6,78kg when expressed as two significant figures? After you’ve done that evaluate it against 6,8kg. Is it less than 6.8kg, greater than, or equal to?
Your example also is numbers calculated to two significant figures.
would 6.75 kg also be taken as 6.8 kg with this method? or is a limit a limit regardless of the significant figures work around?
Yes 6.75 would be 6.8. The scale appears to be reproducible at 20g. Which would support that the limit is meant to be 6.8 not 6.80.
if you are going to kick someone out you need to follow your regulations as written.
1 Like
And it’s unlikely that how different commissioners use the scale is reproducible at any more resolution than 2 sig figures.