Recent content by Pantani_lives

They've just revealed his new bike for next year:

Toughest climbs: Giau (stage 19) Blockhaus (stage 7) Passo Duran (stage 19) Carì (stage 16) Pila (stage 14) Pioncavallo (stage 20) Lin Noir (stage 14) Saint-Barthélémy (stage 14) Corno alle Scale (stage 9) Passo Falzarego (stage 19) So we get three stages with two or more big climbs (14, 19...

This question can be approached in two ways. The best riders in general who never won a monument are Indurain, Zoetemelk, Contador, Froome, Maertens and Ocaña - but most of these are specialists of stage races. A more interesting question is who were the best riders in monuments without winning...

Looking back at 2025 I'd like to distinguish between two kinds of races: the most impressive and the most suspenseful. Most impressive races: Tadej Pogacar - WC road race Tadej Pogacar - Tour of Flanders Tadej Pogacar - Giro di Lombardia Tadej Pogacar - Liège-Bastogne-Liège Remco Evenepoel -...

Starting in Spain means that the Pyrenees come early, so they didn't make them very tough, to prevent an all too early decision - although stage 6 shouldn't be underestimated. It also means that there are no stages in northern France. Some of the sprinters might decide to stay at home. For...

Skimming through the route, it looks very challenging, clearly benefiting the climbers. The five French mountain ranges all have at least one tough stage. One ITT won't be enough to turn the tide. I'll give one to five stars for the toughness of the stages. Stage 1***: TTT with individual...

This feels a bit like a circus act to me.

So what does all this mean for the all-time ranking? Here are the moves of the riders who took points this year: (008) 003 | Tadej Pogačar (016) 016 | Primož Roglič (036) 029 | Remco Evenepoel (058) 047 | Mathieu van der Poel (074) 050 | Jonas...

Pogačar had another Merckxian season. Last year's score was even higher, but the difference is tiny. This is the new top 20 of the best individual seasons ever: Pogačar 2024 - 293 Pogačar 2025 - 291 Merckx 1971 - 275 Merckx 1972 - 272 Merckx 1970 - 268 Merckx 1973 - 259 Merckx 1974 - 230...

After Il Lombardia it’s time for a round-up of the season. The remaining races won’t make a lot of difference anymore. First let’s have a look at the top 20 of 2025: 1. Pogačar 291 2. Almeida 86 3. Vingegaard 82 4. Pedersen 73 5. Van der Poel 70 6. Del Toro 69 7. Evenepoel 68 8. S. Yates 45 9...

Probably tired from the EC.

Interesting early break. Vervaeke is a satellite rider for Evenepoel in their last race together. Bilbao, Simmons and Ganna have the quality to last until deep in the final.

Sometimes I like one rider from a team, while I dislike another. E.g. I like to see Van Aert winning stages or (semi-)classics, but I don't want Vingegaard to win the Tour. I like Evenepoel, but don't care much for Merlier. Sometimes there's a team that I appreciate as a collective, e.g. EF...

I'll do it in three parts: active male/retired male/female Belgium: Remco Evenepoel/Eddy Planckaert/Lotte Kopecky Denmark: Mads Pedersen/Michael Rasmussen/Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig Italy: Filippo Ganna/Marco Pantani/Elisa Balsamo Slovenia: Tadej Pogačar/Tadej Valjavec/Urška Žigart Great Britain...

It would be funny if he lost on purpose in Guangxi, just to keep them from 100.