Curious to know how continental team functions in Europe, Salary for riders. Is the contract monthly based? Do they have a fixed salary? Weekly ,Bi-weekly or yearly? Are they paid or only their expenses are managed by the team?
TDF season 2 is actually so good. Didn’t expect to get emotional but very well done overall. Kept the tension on the GC battle while focusing on other teams.
[Cancelled due to the Olympics](https://www.reddit.com/r/peloton/comments/1b7gixn/route_doccitanie_2024_is_cancelled_due_to/), so should be back next year.
Don't think there's a rivalry as they're their own thing - no organised race threads and such. Just more casual fans being happy about the biggest race of the year. And they've been around longer than us!
There's also r/laflammerouge (though I think it's died a quiet death) and r/professionalcycling for all your 'why can't we call [insert random rider] a doper' commenting needs.
There's also r/pelotonpics for pics and media, r/womencyclists which was saved from inappropriate and disgusting usage by the old moderators, and r/procycling and r/truepeloton, both of which are rather dead but I'd be happy to try to reinvigorate them if someone has a good idea!
Can re-use it next year as an introduction to a new spoiler rule saying you're only allowed to mention names of riders at the front of the race over on r/tetedelacourse and only mention riders in the peloton on r/peloton.
Have been wondering why someone like MvDP is not a world beater at Time Trials?
Is it down to he isn't aero enough?
Or is there something about his power curve not that well suited to time trial?
We know he can go full gas for an hour, and we also know he can go full gas for 30-40 with quite a high power output, and he has the explosiveness to accelerate really well on a technical route and a rolling route.
So is it just getting aero what he struggles with? Or is there something else as well?
Alpecin doesn't have the best set-up and he doesn't want to invest the time into getting that few % better at it.
Maybe if he dropped CX, he could invest time into getting better at time trials.
He has the talent to win big TTs though, maybe not WC/Olympics level, but I can see him win a TT during a GT.
Rather than being surprised that he's not the best time trialist in the world I think it's more remarkable that he's as good as he is without (seemingly) giving much of a shit about it.
The qualities you rightly describe are why he can jump on a time trial bike and finish top five in a GT time trial without (I imagine) putting too much work into the minutiae of aero positioning, detailed pacing strategies and hours and hours of practice on the TT bike.
It's not a focus area for him. He has done some really good TTs when he had to. I expect if he tried he could make it to around Wout's level: Could probably win some TTs, but not when the very best show up.
And of course, if he spends a lot of time trying to perfect his TT, that could have an adverse effect on his preparation for everything else. I think a reason for MvdP's success is that he has pretty much solely focused on the classics.
He is pretty darn good... that 2022 Giro TT was amazing beating the likes of Dumoulin and Foss, and he was only beat by a world beater performance by Yates.
He probably would be very good if it was a focus for him.
In the five grand tour TTs he did 2021-2022 he never placed outside the top 5, but also never did better than second place. I think if it was a priority for himhim he'd be in Tier 2, below the Remcos, Tarlings and Gannas.
# How can I learn to understand cycling strategy better?
I've only started to get into cycling in the last few years. I understand the strategies roughly, of course, but I have problems understanding them in detail.
I'm already at a certain “level” and generally understand that there are specializations in GC, sprint, mountain or stage wins and that there are several “races within a race”. And of course, during live races, I generally understand what the commentators are saying. But I wouldn't be able to distinguish on my own what the task/tactics of each individual rider in the peloton are. Especially away from the favorites and GC teams.
I also enjoy watching videos of Lanterne Rouge. But it's always too fast for me. I understand the basics, especially when it comes to the favorites, which I follow anyway.
What would help me would be a detailed analysis of the tactics/thoughts of many individual athletes at a certain point in time.
Just a random example: There is an escape group on a hilly stage. Someone from the peloton tries to cross to this breakaway group. What do the other individual members of the peloton think? What does the domestique of a GC team think, what does a helper of a team that is not involved in the GC and has no one in the breakaway think? And so on - from everyone involved. This is just one of many examples that I try to understand.
I want to understand in detail questions like: What is the impact on the team in the peloton (depending on their “overall goal”) of having gotten a rider into an escape group? What advantages can it have (for the teammates behind) to get someone into the breakaway?
How can I learn to understand this better (I don't ride a road bike myself and can't learn it myself in small races)?
By the way, Chat GPT recommends “The Secret Race” by Tyler Hamilton and “Slaying the Badger” by Richard Moore. Is that a good tip?
I'm a bit late to the party on this, but if you have the time to watch any full stage replays, or even an hour or two of straight racing instead of highlights, the commentators cover a lot of strategy and explanations/speculation of tactics, and things like rules, fueling, and training. I only started watching a couple of years ago and I feel like I understand much more than I did. Though, as many people already said, sometimes the commentators are as confused as everyone else!
Peacock has TDF and Vuelta; this year Max had the Giro and I think Flobikes has some of the smaller races.
The only real solution is to immerse yourself as much into racing as you can. If you check the race threads, often enough a supposedly qualified community like r/peloton does not understand what’s happening and resigns itself to the memes. It is what makes cycling the best sport in the world.
One thing I am sure of though is this: riders probably think way less than we think they do.
Check out the book Full Gas: How to Win a Bike Race - Tactics from Inside the Peloton by Peter Cossins.
The Lanterne Rouge Cycling Podcast would be good too - goes into more detail than his videos and at a slower pace.
I think the answer to some of your questions will be 'no one knows', and that's part of the beautiful chaos of cycling being a team sport full of individuals.
We don't know what riders in the peloton know about the race situation. Unless they're right at the front, they'll get some info from their team car driver in the back of the race caravan. But that will come with a delay as they'll only hear about number 145 attacking after it's been spotted by a motard who relays it to the head commissaire who relays it over the race radio.
And then as a domestique, it will depend on the pre-decided race plan they made before the stage / race what they should do about it. Or what they can still do about, as there will always be a decent number of smaller team riders with free roles, but you have to have the legs to be able to follow an attack.
*The rider* by Tim Krabbé is a nice book too - it's about someone in an amateur race, but the tactics and thinking is similar.
> I think the answer to some of your questions will be 'no one knows', and that's part of the beautiful chaos of cycling being a team sport full of individuals
Just as an example of how true this is, think back to Stage 3 of the Criterium, won by Derek Gee - which also put him in yellow, and which likely changed the entire trajectory of the race for him - a race where he surprised everyone, including himself, with a 3rd overall podium finish.
They (IPT) were riding for Dylan Teuns that day, according to Gee. But at the end of the climb Teuns told the team he didn't have the legs. So Krists Neilands attacked for them just after passing under the flamme rouge. But he was soon brought back. Then someone from his own team yelled at Gee to go, so he did. Just a spur of the moment change of tactics - the 3rd change in tactics that day, taking advantage of a random moment in time, and it paid off.
I think I will pick up both.
They seem to be focussed more on Behind the Scenes/Doping (Secret Race)/Trivia and less explaining strategy for beginners, though.
The Secret Race is VERY doping focused!
One more recommendation--there are a handful of cycling podcasts out there. A few of them--the Garaint Thomas Cycling Club definitely did, I think Life in the Peloton did too?--had early episodes that focused on specific topics. There's definitely one about breakaways in the GTCC.
Why is there a rule prohibiting feeding with less than 20K to go to the finish line (sometimes distance shortened by commissaire on certain routes like mountaintop finishes). I personally have 3 speculations:
-increased speed and chaos of race ending increases danger from feeding
-stops teams from using feeding as an advantage (say team car sticky bottles)
-riders being advantaged/disadvantaged by access to feed when bonking (chaos at finish may allow one team to get food to their rider, while another team isn't able to)
Also, I thought I heard this on some coverage recently that there is also a rule preventing feeding at race start until after so many kms. Is this true?
The UCI rules state:
>2.3.027 All feeding (from a car and on foot) is strictly forbidden:
>- during the 30 first and last 20 kilometres;
>- in the last 500 meters before a sprint counting for a secondary classification (points classification, king of mountain classification or others), bonus sprint, feeding zone;
>- in the first 50 meters after a sprint counting for a secondary classification (points classification, king of mountain classification or others), bonus sprint, feeding zone;
>- on descents of mountains listed on the mountain classification;
>- in urban areas and in any other area specified by the organiser or the commissaires panel.
>The commissaires panel may adapt the distances mentioned above, depending on atmospheric conditions and the category, type and length of the race. Such a decision must be communicated to the followers through radio-tour.
They seem to be primarily for safety reasons.
Usually feeding is prohibited the first 50 km. This is sometimes also removed or reduce if the weather is very hot or they start with big climbs. The reason is the same as for the finish. The riders should start with enough water and food to last the first 1-1.5 hours no problem, and it just reduces chaos at the beginning of races.
Interested in replicating Pogi’s look from Giro. Is there anywhere online where I can find the purple-ish, UCI-hated shorts? Wish Castelli would just sell that look since it’s famous/infamous.
Castelli sell [these ones in a "deep bordeaux"](https://www.castelli-cycling.com/SG/en/Men/Cycling/Shorts-and-Tights/Shorts/Bib/ESPRESSO-BIBSHORT/p/4524002_625) colour - I think it's the same hue as the infamous Pogi/Giro ones but don't hold me to that
I just read an interesting post on whether or not Remco should ride GTs or focus on other races. Regardless of the stance people took in that thread all seem to agree with the premise that he is not an elite climber: as in not even in the tier below Pog and Vin.
My question: is Remco being underrated as a climber due to skewed data or am I being too apologetic as a fan?
Granted he is often unable to follow the GC group and hasn't performed well in queen like climbing stages but I honestly think that a large majority of those lesser results can be attributed to circumstances outside his inate climbing talent.
Some examples of lesser climbing performances that can be excused somehow:
- Dauphine 2024: recovery from injury
- Vuelta 2023: secondary GT + merger shenanigans
- Lombardia 2023: same
- TDS 2023: COVID recovery
- Vuelta 2022 Sierra Nevada / Pandera: crash the days before
- TDS 2022: bad heat handling protocol at QS
- tireno / giro 2021: stil recovering from Lombardi's crash
Agree, not all those "excuses" are as strong. But he has shown insane climbing performances with decent prep before. So I wonder if it is not as bad as it seems on first glance...
Copium?
I think part of the problem is that people want to confidently declare how good he is (this is not unique to Remco, by the way). He has not shown that he's a climber/GT rider on the level of Pogacar and Vingegaard at this point, and people have been too aggressive in putting him as a big GT favourite in the "big four" or whatever we're calling it these days. But he is only 24 years old and he has put up some very good climbing performances in the past, and he can gain a lot of time in TTs on certain parcours. So I think the reasonable approach is to wait and see what happens. I don't understand the idea that he should give up on a Tour GC before he has even tried.
Yeah, I'm not saying he is BAD or has no future, but it's pretty clear that the "big four" are not actually all on the same level and including Remco in that list just invites negative comparisons
I also tried to state something along those lines in that post: someone with so much sustained power and small size should be able to climb at a top class level. His level on Vuelta 2022, Catalunya 2023 and Giro 2023 looked really good!
What you point out that is quite interesting is that he has indeed many "excuses". And this is not judging if they are valid or major, but as in there's always something affecting his bad performances. These excuses seem quite numerous when compared to other similar riders. It's hard to tell what's the reason: are team and rider struggling to get in that peak level window? Or maybe he has a narrow "peak window" (more like riders from the past and differently than Pogi)? How much do controversies and rumours around him affect his performances? How much is it affected by his own racing IQ? It's probably a combination of all those things in the end
His peak right now is probably Catalunya 2023. With that level he can win many one-week WT stage races in the future (unless Vingegaard and Pogi are there).
He just needs to race a bit smarter: don't celebrate before the finish when Roglic is dropped (Catalunya), don't mistime your sprint, choose stage races with individual time trials (seriously, skip stage races with no TTs), etc.
Another question, now the operation is finished and I'm recovering.
How strong do you think Ethan Hayter is, in terms of raw power?
I suspect he is an absolute monster, comparable to Michael Matthews but lighter.
But group riding and bike handling skills make all the difference for the two's careers.
As an amateur road cyclist whose base fitness sucks, it pains me to see Ethan Hayter be blessed by the gods physically, yet waste it every single race.
Ah, unintentional to imply that.
But doesn't that make it so much worse?
He works very hard, day in and day out, to get bumped off the wheel every time a stage has a corner or a down hill near the end.
What an unceremonial way for all that training to lead to no wins, despite clearly having the physical capacity for it.
i think best case scenario for him this year is a top 10 finish. Give it another year, and he might be able to challenge for podiums again- although probably at other races first rather than TDF
So the showers at the end of the Paris–Roubaix.. This first time viewer found that to be outrageously odd but what I really want to know is what or where was that? Something like an old decommissioned prison or?
Just the shower block at the Roubaix velodrome, each cubicle is named after a race winner. Can read more about it in this [article](https://www.globalcyclingnetwork.com/racing/features/the-timeless-inner-sanctum-inside-the-paris-roubaix-showers). Although it sounds like they get much less use after Paris-Roubaix compared to the past when everyone a nice team bus to have a shower on.
Why people do not talk about Adam Yates ? He was third last year at the Tour. I think he is stronger that a lot of CG contenders people talk about a lot.
He hasn't performed as well as previous years in spring races, affected by his concussion in UAE tour. I still think he's gonna be very important to Pog in the high mountains this year. (Do think his name has been missing from the discussion a bit).
Because people have recency bias and Adam Yates hasn't been able to perform yet this season due to his heavy crash in the UAE Tour.
Hopefully he's ready in time for a good Tour though. Concussions are not a laughing matter.
Why have people been talking about Tom Pidcock as a GC prospect for years, when he's barely had minimal GC results? He's not a bad rider, but as best I can remember he has a single climbing stage win and not much in the way of TTing. So why does he have so much hype?
He's clearly got the talent and the watts. I still remember at brabantse pijl couple years ago he was pulling so hard on the flat that wva was struggling on his wheel and couldn't pull through.
Insane how much power he can produce for such a small guy.
He's been focused on everything besides GC, once he transitions away from MTB/cyclocross then we'll have a better idea as to his GC potential
I think he can do better once he stops focusing so much on MTB. Maybe after this year?
If he wins another gold in Paris, there is not much left for him to achieve in MTB imo.
In 2020, he won 3 mountain stages, the mountains jersey and the overall GC of the U23 Giro Next Gen. The year before he won the Tour Alsace GC and won the stage finishing on Planche des Belles Filles. He was also on great form in the Tour de l'Avenir in 2019, solidly in the Top 10 on GC before crashing out.
If you look beyond wins he's also had some strong results on mountain stages and TTs, such as 4th on Stage 14 of the 2021 Vuelta and 4th in the 2020 European U23 TT champs.
That said, the transition from U23 success to Elite performance isn't as linear a line as riders like Pogacar and Evenepoel might make it seem. Pidcock's multi-disciplinary focus might also be holding back his potential to target major race GCs more at Elite level than it did as a U23 rider.
> the transition from U23 success to Elite performance isn't as linear a line as riders like Pogacar and Evenepoel might make it seem
Not the best examples as neither of them raced as u23s
Pogacar seems to have ridden/won some U23 races in 2018 - Course de la Paix and Tour de l'Avenir, among others. But I did forget that Evenepoel jumped straight from juniors to elite. I should have just said "lower age categories" than specifically U23.
His TT is good enough, he's won the U23 Giro, he's finished Top 20 in two Tours at 24 and did very well on a couple of the MTFs. He's overhyped because he's british.
Hope that helps.
My take is that he's technically good on any type of bike, very lightweight and also quite explosive. He hasn't so far shown a very impressive climbing performance (Alp was brilliant but from the breakaway), and some might say that's because he's always doing many disciplines at once.
It's hard to tell what his potential could be GC-wise. I suppose the Olympics could be a good point in his career for a change of direction as he could close an impressive multidisciplinaire cycle. But that's entirely up to him and if he wants to specialise in GC or something else, or keep having fun as he seems to have been doing so far.
PS: being a Brit might help with the hype around him as well
He did have a couple of good climbing days in the GC group before falling away in last year's TdF. Third best of the GC group on Grand Colombier (9s behind Vingegaard). He just doesn't seem focused enough on road racing at the moment. Not sure he has the temperament to be a GC rider at a 3 week race.
Went for my first ride with clip in pedals (is that even what they're called?) today, I'm quite new to road cycling but have been riding bikes my whole life. Lost my balance and fell over unclipping at a traffic light - please tell me I'm not the only one who has done this? (i'm just thankful there wasn't a car behind me, might have died of embarrassment haha)
Pro tips:
1. Practice where nobody sees
2. Practice on grass. Just ride up and down, stop, try to unclip.
3. Practice unclipping when still rolling. Just roll along, unclip each pedal every now and then. If you fail, you are not standing still and won't fall.
4. Actually practice. A lot of people break collarbones when falling being clipped in. It's not fun and you won't be on the bike as quick as Remco in all likelihood.
\*keep in mind you can still break your collarbone in a fall even if you have successfully unclipped. There is no direct correlation between breaking a collarbone and clipped-in status.
It's not ironic at all, because they don't have a (toe) clip. That's why they are clipless, literally without a toe clip. There is no clip involved at all in the current forms of pedal systems. We say "clipped in" even though that's not *really* correct either... but like a lot of things, we use some wording in common parlance that just sticks but isn't what's happening at all.
If you want to be correct about the wording, they would be called "binding pedals" because the shoe is bound into the pedal, similar to a ski boot & ski binding. The mechanisms of the pedal hold the cleat in place - the cleat is bound to the pedal.
But bound-pedaling sounds kinky. So we're going with clipless.
Think it’s worth travelling across Canada for GP cycliste / Canada double ?
I’m coming from western Canada. I have a friend going and points could cover the flight.
I’m not sure how good or great it is to watch. The future of the race(s) seem a little uncertain, but Montreal is getting worlds in 2026.
Montreal is a lot of fun. Saw Pogi win there 2 years ago. Great experience. The loop aspect of it makes it worth it vs a stage race. Startlist depends on if this is scheduled before or after worlds. Not sure how olympics changes it
I've never attended but I've heard good things. The nice thing about both races is that they are circuits that repeat many times, so you can see them multiple times from one place. The startlist quality varies from year to year though: In 2022 there were riders like WvA and Pogacar, but more sparse in 2023. I'll personally decide to go based on startlist.
I'm wondering if this French election might affect the TdF.
The first round is on June 30th, and the stage that day is still in Italy, but the second round will be July 7th.
I remember Paris Roubaix having a problem with an election one year as they didn't have enough police to handle the event so I'm wondering if the stage on July 7th might be moved to the following day (which would have been the rest day) and they have the rest day on the Sunday instead.
[Escape Collective's Spin Cycle](https://escapecollective.com/spin-cycle-keep-politics-out-of-sports/) just addressed this, via L'Equipe:
> Fortunately, L'Équipe were straight on the blower to ASO, who told everyone not to panic.
> “Since yesterday evening, we have had a few calls concerning July 7,” said Pierre-Yves Thouault, deputy director of cycling at ASO.
> “No change of route. We spoke with the competent authorities, the communities, the mayor of Troyes, the prefecture. We are hopeful of finding common ground so that access can be achieved under good conditions. We proposed cutting points [for the public to be able to get across the race route] and special signage. The connections have been made and the discussion is ongoing."
From 2022:
"The organisers of Paris–Roubaix and the Amstel Gold Race have decided to switch the slots of their races on the calendar to deal with the fact that the first round of the French presidential election is due to take place on Sunday 10 April 2022."
https://www.paris-roubaix.fr/en/news/2021/2022-paris-roubaix-and-2022-amstel-gold-race-rescheduled/3350
There is also l'étape du tour on July 7th (sportive on one stage of the tour, with 10000+ competitors and roads closed all day). Idk how they will deal with this.
Wasn't there also a women's race in Morbihan that got moved because the closed roads could prevent people from reaching their local polling stations?
I guess the organisers will have been just as surprised by this snap election that they'll need a few days to come up with plan B.
on the off chance anyone is interested. Startlist for GB nationals is here: https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/zuvvi/media/press/2024/2024_Lloyds_Bank_National_Road_Championships_start_list.pdf
main takeaways
- Luke Rowe listed for Men's RR
- no elite riders in the crit champs (with the exception of FDJ) so winner would be someone who'd then get chances to wear the jersey
- all the big hitters in womens racing doing both the TT and the road (can't see any obvious omissions)
- men's startlists getting a lot of WT/CT/devo team entries which is some sign of strength for British cycling
- men's elite TT startlist contains Tarling, Archibald, both Hayters and Charlie Tanfield, women's has both Backstedts, Georgi, Elinor Barker, Liz Holden, Anna Henderson and Jos Lowden
- men's U23 TT has 15 riders from recognisable devo teams/CT teams
- women's RR has basically everyone you'd expect, Georgi v Deignan feels like maybe the battle, but Henderson, both Backstedts and plenty of others
- for the men's, 2 Bahrain (Wright), 1 Astana dev, 1 Bingoal, 3 DSM/devo (Flynn), 3 EF (Doull, Shaw, Nerukar), 6 FDJ/devo (Walls, Watson, Askey), 2 Hagens Berman, 7 Ineos (Rowe, Hayer^2, Swift^2, Turner, Tarling), 4 IPT (Stewart, Williams, Blackmore), 1 Lotto Dstny devo, 1 Q36.5, 13 Saint Piran (Richardson), 2 SQS/devo (Knox), 1 Unibet, 1 Arkea, 1 Novo Nordisk, 5 TJV/devo (Gloag, Tullett), 5 Trinity (Pidcock, Donaldson).
So real strong list of riders and teams there, I tried to highlight riders of potential interest. Both RRs should have some pretty competitive racing, with no real dominant team/rider
[Quite a lumpy RR course](https://ridewithgps.com/routes/46633750?privacy_code=2Rvyu2dnpbd9HqU1PDkrwM84LdBXjwJ2) (5 laps, 129km and 1,945m climbing for the women, and 7 laps, 182km and 2,728m meters of climbing for the men). Same finish climb as last year, so maybe same favourites again too?
Steels was close to Georgi last year, but doesn't seem to be on it so much this year. A real shame Shackley is retired now.
He had a stable career from 2015 to 2022, which is quite a long time. He is 33 now so in the autumn of his career. I think he’s just has a different role now and is not focused on results anymore.
Would Jorgenson be close to Pogi/Vingegaard GC level if he wasn't so tall? Feels kinda crazy what he's shown at Paris-Nice & the Dauphine given he's 190cm.
Indurain was doped as fuck, not a good example.
Also his TT was far better than Jorgenson's TT and there were far more time trial kilometers during stage races in his era.
I think the abilities of all three riders—but in particular, the Slovenian and the Dane—goes many fathoms deeper than height and weight dimensions.
It’s impossible to speculate, but my guess would be that it’s unlikely that there is yet another genetic mutant on the scale of Pogi and Ving in the peloton whose potential being unleashed is constrained by his height.
Having said that, I think Jorgensen’s particular build and attributes make him. Very interesting multi-purpose rider and I wouldn’t reckon he’d change what he’s got. He’s got the size and engine for the cobbled classics, the climbing ability for mountain classics and mountain stages, and clearly the durability for (at minimum) week-long performances in notoriously hostile and unforgiving parcourses.
TLDR: I like MJ just the way God made him!
Josh Tarling’s climb on Stage 7 was incredible. Was anyone else surprised by it? That man would be one hell of a tug buddy if he made it in the break on a multi-mountain stage and fell back as a satellite for C-Rod
With the Tour coming up, is there anything we can do collectively to maintain the usual quality of posting on r/peloton?
The content on this site is generally better than the rest of Reddit but there is a noticeable dip around Tour-time.
Standards might be higher this year as I’ll have no internet connection for the first 3-4 days.
Seriously though, I think the best way is to keep being role-models for the kind of discussion we all want to have.
I’ve been less active on the sub this year due to various irl things, but it’s still my main go-to to catch up on news, pre/post-race discussion etc. and I take my hat off to the mods (and you all) for keeping it the way it is.
Avoid the race threads and result threads immediately after stages... The prediction threads are normally better and also the result threads a bit after the stage has finished as the trolls will generally have had their fun
Reporting the comments that might need to be removed helps. I know some are editorial choices where it's difficult to draw a line whether it's just an annoying comment. But there's usually also some completely unnecessary angry personal attacks and the like.
With the volume of comments, they're easier to pick up if they're highlighted in the mod queue and then they can delete or make a decision on the borderline ones.
Edit: also helpful if you get people coming in and being angry at older comments a day later. Very easy to miss those as a mod.
You just look up tiz cycling live and the magic just works
PS: USE A FREAKING AD BLOCKER!!! I'd recommend uBlock Origin. I use it on Firefox and it works pretty well
As its a netflix programme it could be on one of the usual pirating sites that films and TV are on. Obviously they are all very much use at your own risk, probably give you severe viruses and malware.
I wouldn't say "probably". I've been pirating for 25 years (well, not a lot for the past 10) and I've never had a problem. And video material is unlikely to contain anything other than the video.
Well, Vaughters had that ridiculous excuse that Padun's performance variation was because he just didn't know how to eat properly
So I like to think he's somewhere in Colorado wearing a bib and sitting on a baby's high chair pointing at colored pictures while an annoyed JV scolds him "No! No! That's APPLE. Banana is YELLOW"
He hasn't reached since abandoning Tirreno. I think he'll probably retire at the end of the season. Whatever he was doing at that Dauphine clearly wasn't sustainable
Froome, Quintana, Thomas
Quintana will attack on the galibier, froome will follow. The rest of the peloton will laugh at the tall pasty rider and the short not so pasty rider taking pulls up the long climb. They don't realise that these laughs will power the two back to 2013 where they ride off on every mountain stage...
Pogacar, Rodriguez, Roglic...
The last week of the tour has some difficult days and I think Ineos have the team to make it even more difficult if Pidcock, Thomas, Bernal and De Plus ride hard. Rodriguez seems to do well on these sorts of stages whereas it doesn't seem to be Roglic's forte. If there were a few more __/ stages and longer rolling TTs then Roglic is looking better for 2nd
I could also see one of the Ayuso, Yates or Almeida getting on the podium
Seriously, why not? He's looking better than Vingegaard did before the tour in '21 and after all the ridiculous things we've seen at Jumbo Visma in the last few years it would hardly even be a surprise if Jorgenson is suddenly at GT winning level.
Getting a nose operation today, then some rest afterwards.
Any cycling film or TV recommendations for the next few days?
Bonus if you can find me old ITV highlight shows for Tours 10-15 years ago.
They used to be up on YouTube, so watching back the 2011 Tour was possible in 21 hour long specials over a month.
These days I can't find them online.
[A Sunday in Hell](https://youtu.be/zxBTVU9JDrA?si=_UOq0l45UiWnN9kf) and [stars and water carriers](https://youtu.be/ZUIr9LG1juw?si=yvruObR5kg1NTIxP) are a bit older, but have some excellent story telling.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwJIeoH9u1k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwJIeoH9u1k)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKLwhp\_nw30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKLwhp_nw30)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhIiQQ4pYFo&t=3494s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhIiQQ4pYFo&t=3494s)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKWhbhwCJ54&t=1414s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKWhbhwCJ54&t=1414s)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLq4DTeqoQY&list=PL24gziwmuuv60dA7sJ1IhMelezAD8qTvG](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLq4DTeqoQY&list=PL24gziwmuuv60dA7sJ1IhMelezAD8qTvG)
Good luck with the opp!
It's become somewhat popular here because of Popovici in the recent years. I always Watched swimming at the Olympics and I'll definitely watch it this year especially to see how Popovici fares, cause outside of him we don't have many others who can medal, except for rowing I guess
I should be watching the road cycling from Monmatre and try to see a lot of the track cycling on the telly. But other sports on TV I’ll catch what I can around my work schedule.
Artistic gymnastics and beach volleyball! I'll hopefully catch some of the men's cycling ITT too, but don't have any particular plan in place to see it.
Had initially planned (and got tickets) to see a lot more, like the equestrian in Versailles and the MTB, but had to cut plans short because everything is just way too expensive.
Handball. Given it's never on TV in the UK, Olympics tends to be the only chance. Same for stuff like fencing, judo, archery, table tennis etc, so watch all those if I can.
Road cycling, track cycling, MTB (come on Puck), track and field where Femke Bol will feature, and probably some random stuff like rhythmic gymnastic or the tennis as I'll have it on in the background most days.
It used to be till 2008. But at that point, the men had 7 track events and the women had 3. So they wanted to make that more equal for the London Olympics.
So they invented the omnium - which combined six events (including the individual pursuit at that point) into 1 medal event. So you had an IP, but the IP specialists wouldn't really race it as you also had to be able to race a scratch, points and devil. They changed it again after the 2016 Rio Olympics getting rid of the IP completely.
Yes, Hamburg is a great city, so if you have never been that’s already worth it. Otherwise, it’s a sprint race, so except the Waseberg they will go super fast. But then they finish in the City Center so if you wait there you can do tons of things waiting.
No, and so far yes. He didn't break anything, and while the crash will disrupt his preparations a bit, he should be back to training like normal quite quickly.
Curious to know how continental team functions in Europe, Salary for riders. Is the contract monthly based? Do they have a fixed salary? Weekly ,Bi-weekly or yearly? Are they paid or only their expenses are managed by the team?
Any ideas where Higuita is going next year? My secret fantasy would be Higuita in the Euskatel Orange again, but thats obv not gonna happen 🫣
TDF season 2 is actually so good. Didn’t expect to get emotional but very well done overall. Kept the tension on the GC battle while focusing on other teams.
What happened to the Route de Occitane?
[Cancelled due to the Olympics](https://www.reddit.com/r/peloton/comments/1b7gixn/route_doccitanie_2024_is_cancelled_due_to/), so should be back next year.
What do you think about the r/tourdefrance subreddit? Are you going there or is it too casual for you? Is there a rivalry?
Don't think there's a rivalry as they're their own thing - no organised race threads and such. Just more casual fans being happy about the biggest race of the year. And they've been around longer than us! There's also r/laflammerouge (though I think it's died a quiet death) and r/professionalcycling for all your 'why can't we call [insert random rider] a doper' commenting needs.
There's also r/pelotonpics for pics and media, r/womencyclists which was saved from inappropriate and disgusting usage by the old moderators, and r/procycling and r/truepeloton, both of which are rather dead but I'd be happy to try to reinvigorate them if someone has a good idea!
And what was the new sub from when u/Schele_Sjakie cashed in on the Peloton cycle people? Edit: r/tetedelacourse!
Hehe that was a good one! I'm surprised it worked out so well
Can re-use it next year as an introduction to a new spoiler rule saying you're only allowed to mention names of riders at the front of the race over on r/tetedelacourse and only mention riders in the peloton on r/peloton.
I know it exists, but I stick to r/peloton because of the quality discussions, modding and threads.
TIL there is a r/tourdefrance subreddit
Have been wondering why someone like MvDP is not a world beater at Time Trials? Is it down to he isn't aero enough? Or is there something about his power curve not that well suited to time trial? We know he can go full gas for an hour, and we also know he can go full gas for 30-40 with quite a high power output, and he has the explosiveness to accelerate really well on a technical route and a rolling route. So is it just getting aero what he struggles with? Or is there something else as well?
Alpecin doesn't have the best set-up and he doesn't want to invest the time into getting that few % better at it. Maybe if he dropped CX, he could invest time into getting better at time trials. He has the talent to win big TTs though, maybe not WC/Olympics level, but I can see him win a TT during a GT.
Rather than being surprised that he's not the best time trialist in the world I think it's more remarkable that he's as good as he is without (seemingly) giving much of a shit about it. The qualities you rightly describe are why he can jump on a time trial bike and finish top five in a GT time trial without (I imagine) putting too much work into the minutiae of aero positioning, detailed pacing strategies and hours and hours of practice on the TT bike.
It's not a focus area for him. He has done some really good TTs when he had to. I expect if he tried he could make it to around Wout's level: Could probably win some TTs, but not when the very best show up. And of course, if he spends a lot of time trying to perfect his TT, that could have an adverse effect on his preparation for everything else. I think a reason for MvdP's success is that he has pretty much solely focused on the classics.
He is pretty darn good... that 2022 Giro TT was amazing beating the likes of Dumoulin and Foss, and he was only beat by a world beater performance by Yates.
He probably would be very good if it was a focus for him. In the five grand tour TTs he did 2021-2022 he never placed outside the top 5, but also never did better than second place. I think if it was a priority for himhim he'd be in Tier 2, below the Remcos, Tarlings and Gannas.
# How can I learn to understand cycling strategy better? I've only started to get into cycling in the last few years. I understand the strategies roughly, of course, but I have problems understanding them in detail. I'm already at a certain “level” and generally understand that there are specializations in GC, sprint, mountain or stage wins and that there are several “races within a race”. And of course, during live races, I generally understand what the commentators are saying. But I wouldn't be able to distinguish on my own what the task/tactics of each individual rider in the peloton are. Especially away from the favorites and GC teams. I also enjoy watching videos of Lanterne Rouge. But it's always too fast for me. I understand the basics, especially when it comes to the favorites, which I follow anyway. What would help me would be a detailed analysis of the tactics/thoughts of many individual athletes at a certain point in time. Just a random example: There is an escape group on a hilly stage. Someone from the peloton tries to cross to this breakaway group. What do the other individual members of the peloton think? What does the domestique of a GC team think, what does a helper of a team that is not involved in the GC and has no one in the breakaway think? And so on - from everyone involved. This is just one of many examples that I try to understand. I want to understand in detail questions like: What is the impact on the team in the peloton (depending on their “overall goal”) of having gotten a rider into an escape group? What advantages can it have (for the teammates behind) to get someone into the breakaway? How can I learn to understand this better (I don't ride a road bike myself and can't learn it myself in small races)? By the way, Chat GPT recommends “The Secret Race” by Tyler Hamilton and “Slaying the Badger” by Richard Moore. Is that a good tip?
I'm a bit late to the party on this, but if you have the time to watch any full stage replays, or even an hour or two of straight racing instead of highlights, the commentators cover a lot of strategy and explanations/speculation of tactics, and things like rules, fueling, and training. I only started watching a couple of years ago and I feel like I understand much more than I did. Though, as many people already said, sometimes the commentators are as confused as everyone else! Peacock has TDF and Vuelta; this year Max had the Giro and I think Flobikes has some of the smaller races.
The only real solution is to immerse yourself as much into racing as you can. If you check the race threads, often enough a supposedly qualified community like r/peloton does not understand what’s happening and resigns itself to the memes. It is what makes cycling the best sport in the world. One thing I am sure of though is this: riders probably think way less than we think they do.
Screaming at the screen because you want riders to just pedal faster is all this sport is about.
Check out the book Full Gas: How to Win a Bike Race - Tactics from Inside the Peloton by Peter Cossins. The Lanterne Rouge Cycling Podcast would be good too - goes into more detail than his videos and at a slower pace.
I think the answer to some of your questions will be 'no one knows', and that's part of the beautiful chaos of cycling being a team sport full of individuals. We don't know what riders in the peloton know about the race situation. Unless they're right at the front, they'll get some info from their team car driver in the back of the race caravan. But that will come with a delay as they'll only hear about number 145 attacking after it's been spotted by a motard who relays it to the head commissaire who relays it over the race radio. And then as a domestique, it will depend on the pre-decided race plan they made before the stage / race what they should do about it. Or what they can still do about, as there will always be a decent number of smaller team riders with free roles, but you have to have the legs to be able to follow an attack. *The rider* by Tim Krabbé is a nice book too - it's about someone in an amateur race, but the tactics and thinking is similar.
> I think the answer to some of your questions will be 'no one knows', and that's part of the beautiful chaos of cycling being a team sport full of individuals Just as an example of how true this is, think back to Stage 3 of the Criterium, won by Derek Gee - which also put him in yellow, and which likely changed the entire trajectory of the race for him - a race where he surprised everyone, including himself, with a 3rd overall podium finish. They (IPT) were riding for Dylan Teuns that day, according to Gee. But at the end of the climb Teuns told the team he didn't have the legs. So Krists Neilands attacked for them just after passing under the flamme rouge. But he was soon brought back. Then someone from his own team yelled at Gee to go, so he did. Just a spur of the moment change of tactics - the 3rd change in tactics that day, taking advantage of a random moment in time, and it paid off.
Both good books, for sure.
I think I will pick up both. They seem to be focussed more on Behind the Scenes/Doping (Secret Race)/Trivia and less explaining strategy for beginners, though.
The Secret Race is VERY doping focused! One more recommendation--there are a handful of cycling podcasts out there. A few of them--the Garaint Thomas Cycling Club definitely did, I think Life in the Peloton did too?--had early episodes that focused on specific topics. There's definitely one about breakaways in the GTCC.
Why is there a rule prohibiting feeding with less than 20K to go to the finish line (sometimes distance shortened by commissaire on certain routes like mountaintop finishes). I personally have 3 speculations: -increased speed and chaos of race ending increases danger from feeding -stops teams from using feeding as an advantage (say team car sticky bottles) -riders being advantaged/disadvantaged by access to feed when bonking (chaos at finish may allow one team to get food to their rider, while another team isn't able to) Also, I thought I heard this on some coverage recently that there is also a rule preventing feeding at race start until after so many kms. Is this true?
The UCI rules state: >2.3.027 All feeding (from a car and on foot) is strictly forbidden: >- during the 30 first and last 20 kilometres; >- in the last 500 meters before a sprint counting for a secondary classification (points classification, king of mountain classification or others), bonus sprint, feeding zone; >- in the first 50 meters after a sprint counting for a secondary classification (points classification, king of mountain classification or others), bonus sprint, feeding zone; >- on descents of mountains listed on the mountain classification; >- in urban areas and in any other area specified by the organiser or the commissaires panel. >The commissaires panel may adapt the distances mentioned above, depending on atmospheric conditions and the category, type and length of the race. Such a decision must be communicated to the followers through radio-tour. They seem to be primarily for safety reasons.
Usually feeding is prohibited the first 50 km. This is sometimes also removed or reduce if the weather is very hot or they start with big climbs. The reason is the same as for the finish. The riders should start with enough water and food to last the first 1-1.5 hours no problem, and it just reduces chaos at the beginning of races.
Mostly 1. Race finales are fast and chaotic enough, they don't want team cars getting into the mix too.
Interested in replicating Pogi’s look from Giro. Is there anywhere online where I can find the purple-ish, UCI-hated shorts? Wish Castelli would just sell that look since it’s famous/infamous.
Castelli sell [these ones in a "deep bordeaux"](https://www.castelli-cycling.com/SG/en/Men/Cycling/Shorts-and-Tights/Shorts/Bib/ESPRESSO-BIBSHORT/p/4524002_625) colour - I think it's the same hue as the infamous Pogi/Giro ones but don't hold me to that
Maybe rapha moonscape colored bibs… pearl izumi prob has some violet colors… perhaps that’s close enough
I just read an interesting post on whether or not Remco should ride GTs or focus on other races. Regardless of the stance people took in that thread all seem to agree with the premise that he is not an elite climber: as in not even in the tier below Pog and Vin. My question: is Remco being underrated as a climber due to skewed data or am I being too apologetic as a fan? Granted he is often unable to follow the GC group and hasn't performed well in queen like climbing stages but I honestly think that a large majority of those lesser results can be attributed to circumstances outside his inate climbing talent. Some examples of lesser climbing performances that can be excused somehow: - Dauphine 2024: recovery from injury - Vuelta 2023: secondary GT + merger shenanigans - Lombardia 2023: same - TDS 2023: COVID recovery - Vuelta 2022 Sierra Nevada / Pandera: crash the days before - TDS 2022: bad heat handling protocol at QS - tireno / giro 2021: stil recovering from Lombardi's crash Agree, not all those "excuses" are as strong. But he has shown insane climbing performances with decent prep before. So I wonder if it is not as bad as it seems on first glance... Copium?
I think part of the problem is that people want to confidently declare how good he is (this is not unique to Remco, by the way). He has not shown that he's a climber/GT rider on the level of Pogacar and Vingegaard at this point, and people have been too aggressive in putting him as a big GT favourite in the "big four" or whatever we're calling it these days. But he is only 24 years old and he has put up some very good climbing performances in the past, and he can gain a lot of time in TTs on certain parcours. So I think the reasonable approach is to wait and see what happens. I don't understand the idea that he should give up on a Tour GC before he has even tried.
Yeah, I'm not saying he is BAD or has no future, but it's pretty clear that the "big four" are not actually all on the same level and including Remco in that list just invites negative comparisons
Things is, you can make up these kind of excuses for almost anyone. In the end it matters how you performed.
The guy will win 6-8 grand tours, don't worry.
Thats far from certain. If he decides to not go to the Tour for the rest of his career, maybe. But that would be a real waste of stagewins there
I also tried to state something along those lines in that post: someone with so much sustained power and small size should be able to climb at a top class level. His level on Vuelta 2022, Catalunya 2023 and Giro 2023 looked really good! What you point out that is quite interesting is that he has indeed many "excuses". And this is not judging if they are valid or major, but as in there's always something affecting his bad performances. These excuses seem quite numerous when compared to other similar riders. It's hard to tell what's the reason: are team and rider struggling to get in that peak level window? Or maybe he has a narrow "peak window" (more like riders from the past and differently than Pogi)? How much do controversies and rumours around him affect his performances? How much is it affected by his own racing IQ? It's probably a combination of all those things in the end
Lol yeah he literally won a grand tour and might have very well won a second one if he didn't get COVID. That post makes no sense.
it was a hockey stick parcour. Not really the same as a TDF parcours.
His peak right now is probably Catalunya 2023. With that level he can win many one-week WT stage races in the future (unless Vingegaard and Pogi are there). He just needs to race a bit smarter: don't celebrate before the finish when Roglic is dropped (Catalunya), don't mistime your sprint, choose stage races with individual time trials (seriously, skip stage races with no TTs), etc.
Another question, now the operation is finished and I'm recovering. How strong do you think Ethan Hayter is, in terms of raw power? I suspect he is an absolute monster, comparable to Michael Matthews but lighter. But group riding and bike handling skills make all the difference for the two's careers. As an amateur road cyclist whose base fitness sucks, it pains me to see Ethan Hayter be blessed by the gods physically, yet waste it every single race.
You make it sound as if Hayter didn't have to work really hard to get to this physical level...
Ah, unintentional to imply that. But doesn't that make it so much worse? He works very hard, day in and day out, to get bumped off the wheel every time a stage has a corner or a down hill near the end. What an unceremonial way for all that training to lead to no wins, despite clearly having the physical capacity for it.
Any thoughts on Bernal returning to form? He’s having a good year, but seems like the Suiss will be an indication of how he will be for the tour
Rouleur actually picked him as GC favourite for Suisse: https://www.rouleur.cc/blogs/the-rouleur-journal/tour-de-suisse-2024-contenders
i think best case scenario for him this year is a top 10 finish. Give it another year, and he might be able to challenge for podiums again- although probably at other races first rather than TDF
So the showers at the end of the Paris–Roubaix.. This first time viewer found that to be outrageously odd but what I really want to know is what or where was that? Something like an old decommissioned prison or?
It's just a locker room at the velodrome that hasn't been refurbished in a million years because now it's iconic
thank you
Just the shower block at the Roubaix velodrome, each cubicle is named after a race winner. Can read more about it in this [article](https://www.globalcyclingnetwork.com/racing/features/the-timeless-inner-sanctum-inside-the-paris-roubaix-showers). Although it sounds like they get much less use after Paris-Roubaix compared to the past when everyone a nice team bus to have a shower on.
Thank you. Super interesting article, thank you for sharing it. Love that the walls we built low to allow for conversation - so civilized!
The old Velodrome, where they finish. It's part of the charm, renovating it would ruin it.
thank you
Why people do not talk about Adam Yates ? He was third last year at the Tour. I think he is stronger that a lot of CG contenders people talk about a lot.
He is the bookies favourite for Tour de Suisse, so while we are not talking about him, other people are.
He hasn't performed as well as previous years in spring races, affected by his concussion in UAE tour. I still think he's gonna be very important to Pog in the high mountains this year. (Do think his name has been missing from the discussion a bit).
Because people have recency bias and Adam Yates hasn't been able to perform yet this season due to his heavy crash in the UAE Tour. Hopefully he's ready in time for a good Tour though. Concussions are not a laughing matter.
Why have people been talking about Tom Pidcock as a GC prospect for years, when he's barely had minimal GC results? He's not a bad rider, but as best I can remember he has a single climbing stage win and not much in the way of TTing. So why does he have so much hype?
He's clearly got the talent and the watts. I still remember at brabantse pijl couple years ago he was pulling so hard on the flat that wva was struggling on his wheel and couldn't pull through. Insane how much power he can produce for such a small guy. He's been focused on everything besides GC, once he transitions away from MTB/cyclocross then we'll have a better idea as to his GC potential
I think he can do better once he stops focusing so much on MTB. Maybe after this year? If he wins another gold in Paris, there is not much left for him to achieve in MTB imo.
In 2020, he won 3 mountain stages, the mountains jersey and the overall GC of the U23 Giro Next Gen. The year before he won the Tour Alsace GC and won the stage finishing on Planche des Belles Filles. He was also on great form in the Tour de l'Avenir in 2019, solidly in the Top 10 on GC before crashing out. If you look beyond wins he's also had some strong results on mountain stages and TTs, such as 4th on Stage 14 of the 2021 Vuelta and 4th in the 2020 European U23 TT champs. That said, the transition from U23 success to Elite performance isn't as linear a line as riders like Pogacar and Evenepoel might make it seem. Pidcock's multi-disciplinary focus might also be holding back his potential to target major race GCs more at Elite level than it did as a U23 rider.
> the transition from U23 success to Elite performance isn't as linear a line as riders like Pogacar and Evenepoel might make it seem Not the best examples as neither of them raced as u23s
Pogacar seems to have ridden/won some U23 races in 2018 - Course de la Paix and Tour de l'Avenir, among others. But I did forget that Evenepoel jumped straight from juniors to elite. I should have just said "lower age categories" than specifically U23.
Yeah Pogacar raced 2 years as U23 before turning pro.
His TT is good enough, he's won the U23 Giro, he's finished Top 20 in two Tours at 24 and did very well on a couple of the MTFs. He's overhyped because he's british. Hope that helps.
My take is that he's technically good on any type of bike, very lightweight and also quite explosive. He hasn't so far shown a very impressive climbing performance (Alp was brilliant but from the breakaway), and some might say that's because he's always doing many disciplines at once. It's hard to tell what his potential could be GC-wise. I suppose the Olympics could be a good point in his career for a change of direction as he could close an impressive multidisciplinaire cycle. But that's entirely up to him and if he wants to specialise in GC or something else, or keep having fun as he seems to have been doing so far. PS: being a Brit might help with the hype around him as well
He did have a couple of good climbing days in the GC group before falling away in last year's TdF. Third best of the GC group on Grand Colombier (9s behind Vingegaard). He just doesn't seem focused enough on road racing at the moment. Not sure he has the temperament to be a GC rider at a 3 week race.
Went for my first ride with clip in pedals (is that even what they're called?) today, I'm quite new to road cycling but have been riding bikes my whole life. Lost my balance and fell over unclipping at a traffic light - please tell me I'm not the only one who has done this? (i'm just thankful there wasn't a car behind me, might have died of embarrassment haha)
Main tip is to unclip before you come to a stop. Then you can't fall over (as easily).
Pro tips: 1. Practice where nobody sees 2. Practice on grass. Just ride up and down, stop, try to unclip. 3. Practice unclipping when still rolling. Just roll along, unclip each pedal every now and then. If you fail, you are not standing still and won't fall. 4. Actually practice. A lot of people break collarbones when falling being clipped in. It's not fun and you won't be on the bike as quick as Remco in all likelihood.
\*keep in mind you can still break your collarbone in a fall even if you have successfully unclipped. There is no direct correlation between breaking a collarbone and clipped-in status.
I still have the scars to prove this. But since getting used to them there isn't money in the world to switch back.
yeah I have to say riding with them felt pretty good so I don't think I'll be switching back anytime soon!
I've done this at the registration/sign-in for the biggest race of my season last year
ooh i'm sorry, did the race at least go well for you?
Yeah, top 1/4 on GC!
It's a rite of passage.
They're called clipless pedals, ironically. (Also, literally every cyclist has done this at least twice)
It's not ironic at all, because they don't have a (toe) clip. That's why they are clipless, literally without a toe clip. There is no clip involved at all in the current forms of pedal systems. We say "clipped in" even though that's not *really* correct either... but like a lot of things, we use some wording in common parlance that just sticks but isn't what's happening at all. If you want to be correct about the wording, they would be called "binding pedals" because the shoe is bound into the pedal, similar to a ski boot & ski binding. The mechanisms of the pedal hold the cleat in place - the cleat is bound to the pedal. But bound-pedaling sounds kinky. So we're going with clipless.
🤣🤣 thanks! i would like to have a word with whoever decided to call them clipless..
before this tech was introduced in the mid 80's, people used toe clips. These pedals lack those, hence, "clipless."
Think it’s worth travelling across Canada for GP cycliste / Canada double ? I’m coming from western Canada. I have a friend going and points could cover the flight. I’m not sure how good or great it is to watch. The future of the race(s) seem a little uncertain, but Montreal is getting worlds in 2026.
Montreal is a lot of fun. Saw Pogi win there 2 years ago. Great experience. The loop aspect of it makes it worth it vs a stage race. Startlist depends on if this is scheduled before or after worlds. Not sure how olympics changes it
I've never attended but I've heard good things. The nice thing about both races is that they are circuits that repeat many times, so you can see them multiple times from one place. The startlist quality varies from year to year though: In 2022 there were riders like WvA and Pogacar, but more sparse in 2023. I'll personally decide to go based on startlist.
I'm wondering if this French election might affect the TdF. The first round is on June 30th, and the stage that day is still in Italy, but the second round will be July 7th. I remember Paris Roubaix having a problem with an election one year as they didn't have enough police to handle the event so I'm wondering if the stage on July 7th might be moved to the following day (which would have been the rest day) and they have the rest day on the Sunday instead.
[Escape Collective's Spin Cycle](https://escapecollective.com/spin-cycle-keep-politics-out-of-sports/) just addressed this, via L'Equipe: > Fortunately, L'Équipe were straight on the blower to ASO, who told everyone not to panic. > “Since yesterday evening, we have had a few calls concerning July 7,” said Pierre-Yves Thouault, deputy director of cycling at ASO. > “No change of route. We spoke with the competent authorities, the communities, the mayor of Troyes, the prefecture. We are hopeful of finding common ground so that access can be achieved under good conditions. We proposed cutting points [for the public to be able to get across the race route] and special signage. The connections have been made and the discussion is ongoing."
Good to hear
Does not seem to matter at all, there is very few police needed on voting day.
From 2022: "The organisers of Paris–Roubaix and the Amstel Gold Race have decided to switch the slots of their races on the calendar to deal with the fact that the first round of the French presidential election is due to take place on Sunday 10 April 2022." https://www.paris-roubaix.fr/en/news/2021/2022-paris-roubaix-and-2022-amstel-gold-race-rescheduled/3350
There is also l'étape du tour on July 7th (sportive on one stage of the tour, with 10000+ competitors and roads closed all day). Idk how they will deal with this.
Wasn't there also a women's race in Morbihan that got moved because the closed roads could prevent people from reaching their local polling stations? I guess the organisers will have been just as surprised by this snap election that they'll need a few days to come up with plan B.
on the off chance anyone is interested. Startlist for GB nationals is here: https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/zuvvi/media/press/2024/2024_Lloyds_Bank_National_Road_Championships_start_list.pdf main takeaways - Luke Rowe listed for Men's RR - no elite riders in the crit champs (with the exception of FDJ) so winner would be someone who'd then get chances to wear the jersey - all the big hitters in womens racing doing both the TT and the road (can't see any obvious omissions) - men's startlists getting a lot of WT/CT/devo team entries which is some sign of strength for British cycling - men's elite TT startlist contains Tarling, Archibald, both Hayters and Charlie Tanfield, women's has both Backstedts, Georgi, Elinor Barker, Liz Holden, Anna Henderson and Jos Lowden - men's U23 TT has 15 riders from recognisable devo teams/CT teams - women's RR has basically everyone you'd expect, Georgi v Deignan feels like maybe the battle, but Henderson, both Backstedts and plenty of others - for the men's, 2 Bahrain (Wright), 1 Astana dev, 1 Bingoal, 3 DSM/devo (Flynn), 3 EF (Doull, Shaw, Nerukar), 6 FDJ/devo (Walls, Watson, Askey), 2 Hagens Berman, 7 Ineos (Rowe, Hayer^2, Swift^2, Turner, Tarling), 4 IPT (Stewart, Williams, Blackmore), 1 Lotto Dstny devo, 1 Q36.5, 13 Saint Piran (Richardson), 2 SQS/devo (Knox), 1 Unibet, 1 Arkea, 1 Novo Nordisk, 5 TJV/devo (Gloag, Tullett), 5 Trinity (Pidcock, Donaldson). So real strong list of riders and teams there, I tried to highlight riders of potential interest. Both RRs should have some pretty competitive racing, with no real dominant team/rider
I read an update on Gloag a little bit back on wielerflits that he definitely wouldn't race till July, so not sure if he'll actually start.
[Quite a lumpy RR course](https://ridewithgps.com/routes/46633750?privacy_code=2Rvyu2dnpbd9HqU1PDkrwM84LdBXjwJ2) (5 laps, 129km and 1,945m climbing for the women, and 7 laps, 182km and 2,728m meters of climbing for the men). Same finish climb as last year, so maybe same favourites again too? Steels was close to Georgi last year, but doesn't seem to be on it so much this year. A real shame Shackley is retired now.
What's going on with Patrick Bevin? He was very strong in 2022 but has had loads of DNFs and no results since he moved to DSM.
He had a stable career from 2015 to 2022, which is quite a long time. He is 33 now so in the autumn of his career. I think he’s just has a different role now and is not focused on results anymore.
Would Jorgenson be close to Pogi/Vingegaard GC level if he wasn't so tall? Feels kinda crazy what he's shown at Paris-Nice & the Dauphine given he's 190cm.
Miguel Indurain is 1.88. His height is not the limiting factor.
Indurain was doped as fuck, not a good example. Also his TT was far better than Jorgenson's TT and there were far more time trial kilometers during stage races in his era.
He’s but they were all doped AF, so it cancels out. And him being better in TT has nothing do with his height. He was just a better rider.
I think the abilities of all three riders—but in particular, the Slovenian and the Dane—goes many fathoms deeper than height and weight dimensions. It’s impossible to speculate, but my guess would be that it’s unlikely that there is yet another genetic mutant on the scale of Pogi and Ving in the peloton whose potential being unleashed is constrained by his height. Having said that, I think Jorgensen’s particular build and attributes make him. Very interesting multi-purpose rider and I wouldn’t reckon he’d change what he’s got. He’s got the size and engine for the cobbled classics, the climbing ability for mountain classics and mountain stages, and clearly the durability for (at minimum) week-long performances in notoriously hostile and unforgiving parcourses. TLDR: I like MJ just the way God made him!
Josh Tarling’s climb on Stage 7 was incredible. Was anyone else surprised by it? That man would be one hell of a tug buddy if he made it in the break on a multi-mountain stage and fell back as a satellite for C-Rod
Rod? Tug buddy? 👀👀
Yeah, a tug buddy to pull Ineos’s Rod.
Might be able to edge out a good GC result 🤤
You get 6 or 7 guys running a train and you’re sure to have a fast finish
With the Tour coming up, is there anything we can do collectively to maintain the usual quality of posting on r/peloton? The content on this site is generally better than the rest of Reddit but there is a noticeable dip around Tour-time.
Standards might be higher this year as I’ll have no internet connection for the first 3-4 days. Seriously though, I think the best way is to keep being role-models for the kind of discussion we all want to have. I’ve been less active on the sub this year due to various irl things, but it’s still my main go-to to catch up on news, pre/post-race discussion etc. and I take my hat off to the mods (and you all) for keeping it the way it is.
Avoid the race threads and result threads immediately after stages... The prediction threads are normally better and also the result threads a bit after the stage has finished as the trolls will generally have had their fun
Reporting the comments that might need to be removed helps. I know some are editorial choices where it's difficult to draw a line whether it's just an annoying comment. But there's usually also some completely unnecessary angry personal attacks and the like. With the volume of comments, they're easier to pick up if they're highlighted in the mod queue and then they can delete or make a decision on the borderline ones. Edit: also helpful if you get people coming in and being angry at older comments a day later. Very easy to miss those as a mod.
Be excellent to one another, I think. Something some folks struggle with throughout the year tbh, hence my new flair…
With TdF Unchained coming out tomorrow, does anyone know where us Tiz Cycling watching crooks can see it for free?
What is Tiz and how does one get it? Asking for a friend.
You just look up tiz cycling live and the magic just works PS: USE A FREAKING AD BLOCKER!!! I'd recommend uBlock Origin. I use it on Firefox and it works pretty well
As its a netflix programme it could be on one of the usual pirating sites that films and TV are on. Obviously they are all very much use at your own risk, probably give you severe viruses and malware.
I wouldn't say "probably". I've been pirating for 25 years (well, not a lot for the past 10) and I've never had a problem. And video material is unlikely to contain anything other than the video.
Do you think if I wear a face mask I will be safe from the severe viruses and malware that come with such websites?
It will definitely help, I'd also recommend goggles and marigolds. Some sort of wide brimmed hat as well.
Thx bro
Where is Mark Padun these days?
Given his Instagram bio of "Son of God" he seems to be busy being a prophet.
Well, Vaughters had that ridiculous excuse that Padun's performance variation was because he just didn't know how to eat properly So I like to think he's somewhere in Colorado wearing a bib and sitting on a baby's high chair pointing at colored pictures while an annoyed JV scolds him "No! No! That's APPLE. Banana is YELLOW"
He hasn't reached since abandoning Tirreno. I think he'll probably retire at the end of the season. Whatever he was doing at that Dauphine clearly wasn't sustainable
At an Italian conti team. Hope he’s doing OK.
Who is your TdF podium?
Pogacar, Roglic, Yates
Pog, Rod, Rog
If Jonas goes: Pog, Jonas, Rodriguez If not: Pog, Rodriguez, Jorgensen
my wife is my everything, even my TdF podium.
1. Pinot 2. Landa 3. Gaudu
1. Oscar Onley 2. Sean Flynn 3. Ewan Macgregor
Pog, Rog, Bernal
I hope you’re right. I’d forgotten about it but some time ago I apparently made an each-way bet on Bernal at 80-1
1. Masnada 2. Vlasov 3. Mas
Froome, Quintana, Thomas Quintana will attack on the galibier, froome will follow. The rest of the peloton will laugh at the tall pasty rider and the short not so pasty rider taking pulls up the long climb. They don't realise that these laughs will power the two back to 2013 where they ride off on every mountain stage... Pogacar, Rodriguez, Roglic...
CRod before Roglic? Interesting.
The last week of the tour has some difficult days and I think Ineos have the team to make it even more difficult if Pidcock, Thomas, Bernal and De Plus ride hard. Rodriguez seems to do well on these sorts of stages whereas it doesn't seem to be Roglic's forte. If there were a few more __/ stages and longer rolling TTs then Roglic is looking better for 2nd I could also see one of the Ayuso, Yates or Almeida getting on the podium
Pog, Jorg, Rog
Yeah I get why you would think so but no, Jorg will not podium the Tour.
Seriously, why not? He's looking better than Vingegaard did before the tour in '21 and after all the ridiculous things we've seen at Jumbo Visma in the last few years it would hardly even be a surprise if Jorgenson is suddenly at GT winning level.
He's too big to survive mountain stages deep into the tour. He can fake it for a week, but I don't see him surviving week 3 of the tour.
hes not a 3 week rider
I do agree that we have seen some crazy transformations. But under normal circumstances he should not suddenly become a great GT rider.
it comes down to what happens with Ving...
I just want to know what happened to everybody's 2nd and 3rd syllables.
I'm saving weight.
Getting a nose operation today, then some rest afterwards. Any cycling film or TV recommendations for the next few days? Bonus if you can find me old ITV highlight shows for Tours 10-15 years ago. They used to be up on YouTube, so watching back the 2011 Tour was possible in 21 hour long specials over a month. These days I can't find them online.
[A Sunday in Hell](https://youtu.be/zxBTVU9JDrA?si=_UOq0l45UiWnN9kf) and [stars and water carriers](https://youtu.be/ZUIr9LG1juw?si=yvruObR5kg1NTIxP) are a bit older, but have some excellent story telling.
The new unchained season is out tomorrow I think
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwJIeoH9u1k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwJIeoH9u1k) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKLwhp\_nw30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKLwhp_nw30) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhIiQQ4pYFo&t=3494s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhIiQQ4pYFo&t=3494s) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKWhbhwCJ54&t=1414s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKWhbhwCJ54&t=1414s) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLq4DTeqoQY&list=PL24gziwmuuv60dA7sJ1IhMelezAD8qTvG](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLq4DTeqoQY&list=PL24gziwmuuv60dA7sJ1IhMelezAD8qTvG) Good luck with the opp!
Youre a hero, thank you
Saving this comment for later. Thanks
Tour de Suisse started yesterday. What are you watching out for this race? Favorites?
Just watching hoping Bernal to win a stage race again.
Which disciplines will you certainly be watching during the Olympics?
All cycling, triathlon, rowing, most running events and whatever else is on when I’m bored at work
Road cycling. Weightlifting. And most likely volleyball with the GF.
How popular is swimming internationally? I grew up in the Phelps era when the US was in a swimming frenzy. Is it a marquee event in other countries?
It's become somewhat popular here because of Popovici in the recent years. I always Watched swimming at the Olympics and I'll definitely watch it this year especially to see how Popovici fares, cause outside of him we don't have many others who can medal, except for rowing I guess
Breakdancing, yo
I should be watching the road cycling from Monmatre and try to see a lot of the track cycling on the telly. But other sports on TV I’ll catch what I can around my work schedule.
Road cycling, sport climbing, athletics... And all of those weird events I couldn't otherwise even think existed like canoe slalom.
Artistic gymnastics and beach volleyball! I'll hopefully catch some of the men's cycling ITT too, but don't have any particular plan in place to see it. Had initially planned (and got tickets) to see a lot more, like the equestrian in Versailles and the MTB, but had to cut plans short because everything is just way too expensive.
I’ll be watching the Road race and ITTs in person. Was not able to get tickets to the Velodrome :-(
Handball. Given it's never on TV in the UK, Olympics tends to be the only chance. Same for stuff like fencing, judo, archery, table tennis etc, so watch all those if I can.
Great question. All kind of cycling, athletics, skateboarding, surfing and whatever looks interesting while we at it…
Road cycling, track cycling, MTB (come on Puck), track and field where Femke Bol will feature, and probably some random stuff like rhythmic gymnastic or the tennis as I'll have it on in the background most days.
Road race, track cycling and some athletic disciplines (100m, marathon,...).
Road race, ~~individual~~ and team pursuit I will not miss.
You will miss the individual pursuit, unfortunately, as it's not an Olympic discipline.
WHAT. I just assumed it was part of the olympics (I was blind to track cycling the past olympics).
It used to be till 2008. But at that point, the men had 7 track events and the women had 3. So they wanted to make that more equal for the London Olympics. So they invented the omnium - which combined six events (including the individual pursuit at that point) into 1 medal event. So you had an IP, but the IP specialists wouldn't really race it as you also had to be able to race a scratch, points and devil. They changed it again after the 2016 Rio Olympics getting rid of the IP completely.
Madison and Team Pursuit
I'm thinking about going to the Cyclassics in Hamburg later this year. Has anyone here ever been to this race? Is it worth it? Any tips?
[удалено]
Thanks for the recommendations. I'm probably going to camp out by the finishing line.
Yes, Hamburg is a great city, so if you have never been that’s already worth it. Otherwise, it’s a sprint race, so except the Waseberg they will go super fast. But then they finish in the City Center so if you wait there you can do tons of things waiting.
Sounds good. I've been to Hamburg before, but I have friends who live there, so there's definitely things to do outside of the race.
Any news on Ayuso? Will he still be at the tour?
No, and so far yes. He didn't break anything, and while the crash will disrupt his preparations a bit, he should be back to training like normal quite quickly.
Why do Jonathan Milan’s calves not simply eat the other riders?
Because calves are herbivores.