He hurt himself to hurt Jorgenson more. Yes, that sounds right. Who cares about a good result when you can get an opponent to abandon. He knows what's important.

If he had started his sprint from Evenepoel's wheel, he could have used the draft to get to that speed.

Evenepoel came out of the wheel with more explosivity. It looked like Skjelmose was on a bigger gear and just didn't have the power to get to the speed where having the higher gear is an advantage. Skjelmose made a big mistake by taking over from Evenepoel in the last 1.5 km.

Mountain stages aren't exactly 'hilly'.

Agree to disagree, I guess. We'll have to see in a couple of years.

The point is, he doesn't need to be the best to win a lot of races. If only 2 riders with very different qualities are better than him, he could build an enormous palmares.

In my opinion, neither Finn nor Widar could have done a top 10 result in AGR at the moment.

So that's 2 riders, Which leaves a lot of room for AWP to take the victories that Seixas and Brennan don't take.

When exactly?

Is a victory in LBL U23 more impressive than 10th in Giro d'Emilia or 2nd in Tre Valli Varesine? What if AWP's general level will be so high that he's on the same level as specialists (other than maybe the absolute top).

tbh, I'm not sure he's less strong than Finn or Widar on hills. He was 10th last year in Giro d'Emilia, Which is incredibly impressive. He was also able to compete with Laporte and Trentin in Paris-Tours.

I think you're underestimating how good of a rider he could become. He's still only 19 years of age and just came 8th in AGR. Who says that in a couple of years, he won't be able to compete with Grégoire and Skjelmose in hilly races?

That's assuming all the best riders are at the start, which is rarely the case and if he becomes good enough, there may only be a handfull of riders that are stronger than him on his preferred terrain.

What makes you think he won't be good enough on cobbles? I believe he will do just fine in the future.
With a hard race, he doesn't need to ousprint riders in GW and the top hilly riders almost never compete in San Sebastian.

But those riders also have weaknesses that AWP maybe doesn't have.

I don't think he should try to go for GCs, he seems more of a 1-day rider. He could win races like Omloop, GW, Amstel, San Sebastian... I think it will be very difficult to drop him in those races in the future.

He may struggle to win the absolute biggest races (monuments, championships...), but I don't doubt that his palmares will be very extensive.

"that is not going to win many races"

I disagree. I think he'll become a rider that will be difficult to drop on various terrains and he has a sprint that he can use to finish it off. He doesn't necessarily have to be the best in order to win a race.

For me it's Gent-Wevelgem (yes, that's the correct name).

Struggling? Out of the 3 stage races he rode this year, he only finished outside of the top 3 in 1. A weaker moment after an illness suddenly means he's out of contention for the Giro?

I actually would like to swap Aranburu with Izagirre and make it:
1. Bilbao
2. Izagirre
3. Grégoire

Bilbao, Grégoire, Aranburu

3 stages with 4000+ altitude meters, of which 1 has over 5000 altitude meters. That's pretty normal for a GT.

What makes it hard is that there are 5 mountain stages and 1 ITT in a span of 8 days.

Looks like it.

Larsen is a track cyclist, I would not underestimate him in a sprint.

I thought the same thing until I learned Pogacar rode that last week with a painful knee. Also, the route of this year's Tour favores Pogacar enormously.

Volta a Catalunya stage 6 LIVE: Racing begins in penultimate stage with major mountain tests ahead Three major climbs on the penultimate stage

All the best to Michel Hessmann 🇩🇪 who had a very serious crash in the neutral.

The race was stopped so the ambulance could get to him. He required a neck brace and stretcher to get onto the ambulance to be taken to hospital.

Hope he has a smooth recovery.
www.cyclingnews.com/pro-cycling/...

Het was Abrahamsen die niet wou overnemen. Vermeersch bleef nog even rijden en probeerde de rest te overtuigen mee dat gat dicht te rijden. Dit was niet zijn fout.

Daar hadden we onderzoekers voor nodig?

Petition for less riders per team in a race, please. With less organisation and less control, Segaert would have won this race (and Per Strand Hagenes the Samyn Classic). He so deserved it.

#nokerekoerse