Recent content by Jan the Man

I have no intention of denigrating XC - but I struggle with the premise you present as to the number of XCs competitive in a world RR. Clearly XC racers targettheir XC races but the transition is not as easy as you present and there is far more more money from a salary perspective in road...

I broadly agree but I think I would prefer a little more variation in week one, before Planche

It's interesting the 2012 route is not remembered fondly but partially because of the way it was raced and the protagonists. As for how it would pan out raced with the modern riders conjecture- which Vigno/Remco do we get. Vigno 2023 does not lose anywhere near the time Vigno 2025 does in the...

Gone are the days of Ullrich they all maintain a level of discipline during these 3 weeks.

Who does he have to prove himself to- Pog and Vignegaard in grand tours? As he himself has said at the end of the year he has to make a jump again in one day races to match Pog (in terms of the 2-5 minute efforts) - personally I think that is probably more likely than matching Pog in the...

Not suggesting you were obsessed about ASO shoehorning x2 Alpe or Alpe on two days

So many good combos in the Alps not sure what obsession with x2 Alpe stages is

I don’t think extrapolating one day form for any rider is that instructive as to how they perform in GTs - Remco has finished 3rd in Tour and won the Vuelta that’s the best evidence of his ability to challenge the Tour. To be closer to Pog he needs to hope for a more balance route in terms of...

All most people want is balance- it has become unbalanced for the past decade - they need to introduce a lengthy TT preferably before the second big block of mountains. As for some of the rumoured mountain stages they seem ok - we will always want more but my wishlist inlcludes- A mountain...

For Remco I personally would like to see something like- Strade Tirreno MSR Basque AGR Fleche LBL Suisse Tour Britain/Luxembourg WITT WRR Emilia Tre Valle Lombardia Maybe replace one of the WT stage races in Spring with more of a prep race like Algarve/Andalucia. If he rides the Giro I...

That is what came to mind for me tok. AGR, Ronde, and stage 21 of the Tour were also v. enjoyable.

If you’re Pog and you’ve acheived what you have it is natural you want to focus on MSR and Roubaix - it keeps the motivation. Going for the Tour is also a given for the next couple of years- maybe he will give the Tour a miss in 2028 if he wants to focus on LA depending on parcours. I don’t...

Remco’s not a ‘specialist’ per se - he is equally adept at one day races particularly the longer ones, indeed in my view relatively better at those than GTs. The fact he has not done RVV or Roubaix does not mean he is a specialist. I would not class some of the others mentioned as sepcialist...

I voted Remco (for sure), Philipsen (less convinced of) and Kooij (pretty sure of). Maginer is too soon to tell in my view same as Brennan. If they focus purely on WT their win rates will decrease

Each to their own. I respectfully disagree with putting an Olympic gold up there with the monuments or world road race from a historic perspective of judging palmares) also practically from field size/level of competition) - outside of cycling fans/for very casual sports fans then clearly...