Recent content by Libertine Seguros

7th is a great result and 8th isn't? He feels taken by a chump because Vlasov is ahead of him in the pecking order, so he goes to Visma who have more and better leaders who'll be ahead of him in the pecking order and just demonstrated similar if not more dysfunction in terms of squabbling over...

See, I think the difference in importance between 7th and 8th at the Vuelta is not that great. Quick, who finished in those positions last year? In 2015? 2021? It's not like 1st vs. 2nd, or 3rd vs. 4th. It's two relatively interchangeable positions that are both on the front page of the results...

Idunno, when you put it like that, I think characterising him as a snake who went behind his team's back in pursuit of more money might actually be less insulting than saying that he threw an almighty temper tantrum about betrayal and bullying that made staying on the same team untenable, over...

But he went, after feeling stabbed in the back by a (more proven) teammate going for his GC program, to a team who had not one but TWO more proven GC riders going for a teammate's GC position and who were allowing it until they got ratioed too hard on Twitter. That's what seems so bizarre. That...

Nych is attempting the César Veloso sprint of the last 350m but just doesn't have the legs for it. He'll take the camisola amarela, but he didn't have it to do the full exhibition.

On a serious note though, this is impressive from Lucas Lopes. He's only 22 and won the Volta do Futuro earlier this year.

He's on a Portuguese team though. The real crime is that he's under 30. Marriage suffering as interlopers often do on this climb. The last 2km tend to be decisive here.

Byron Munton is on a Portuguese team, though. Zac Marriage is the surprise interloper - though I would also point out that even in arguably the single most absurd stage of W52's domination, Guarda 2017, Krists Neilandts - of the Israel Cycling Academy team - was the guy that stayed with Alarcón...

This is a team that had Mauri Moreira at a legit 76kg doing this up the climb en route to a Mapei-style 1-2-3 at the summit, and Filipe Cardoso, a sprinter, won this stage from the break one year for the same team. Artëm Nych isn't even in the top 5 most ridiculous things they've done, and...

Down to single figures in the main group and still three boys in fluoro riding tempo to grind them all to dust. Tavira guys look so much like they did in 2009-10 with the Palmeiras Resort sponsorship and David Blanco and Cândido Barbosa bringing the hilarity.

Peñuela has struck out solo and dropped Classen, but the péloton has already halved their advantage so the chances of winning from the break seem pretty forlorn now. There's a classic Volta sight now: a mountain train of motorbikes in fluorescent lycra.

Classic Mondim de Basto crowds in Portugal. Nearly 3 minutes for Classen and Peñuela at the bottom of the climb... Camargo probably is worth a ProTeam level kind of ride and a second go around on the world calendar if he wants it. Contreras has saved the race win on the descent though.

In fairness, he is only 46" down on GC, so this is going for broke on the descent. Los Patios is one of the most classic ascents in Colombia, but it's more for its proximity to Bogotá than anything else. It's a solid cat.2 from the other side (the one they're descending) but not too much from...

They're pulling the breakaway riders out of the bunch now into their two groups to prepare for the restart, and we're go again. The new route from Vila Real to Mondim de Basto resembles that from the 2017 stage, with them restarting on the plateau between the two parts of the ascent from Vila...

The péloton has arrived in Campeã now so by the original plan they should restart soon.