2023 Tour of Scandinavia - Battle of the North, WWT, August 23rd to 27th

[RedheadDane]

HECK YEAH!

 

[Samu Cuenca]

A screamer from Cille!

 

[jaylew]

Nice win after yesterday.

 

[yaco]

My take from the stage is how poor Jayco Alula is at recruitment - Cadzow from NZ should have been scouted by the teama and they couldn't even get Fisher-Black when Bigla collapsed - And Jayco are light on for climbers and they will lose Sansesteban and Faulkner.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Lorena Wiebes may have come through to wish Cille a Morrissey-esque Unhappy Birthday and ruin all that is good in the world (as well as the hopes and dreams of all reasonable men and women and those who support and cheer for Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig - if you'll pardon my tautology) yesterday, but today JUSTICE WAS SERVED and nobody was there to prevent a fair and just conclusion for all.

Interesting few seconds gained by Lippert from behind, could be useful in the TT - I'd expect to see a couple of riders like Moolman and Chabbey make some gains there, but there isn't a Reusser or a Dygert-like rider for whom you can practically guarantee a significant gain in that group at +31"

Edit: nvm, forget that, I forgot Liane, like Cadzow, was in the group that dropped time yesterday. Classic Liane, and absolutely the thing she needs to work on if she's going to become a genuine leader in stage races.

 

[JR1012]

Will be interesting if Grace Brown can hold the current gap she has until the TT on Stage 4. If so, she can maybe get the leaders jersey in the TT.
Also don't count out Olivia Baril in the TT.

AVV, Brown and Baril are my favourites right now. But lets wait for stage 3, how the time gap between those three will be.

 

[Dk one]

CUL: Tdff form peak gone wrong gone right.
CUL is not bad at shorter time trials, so we will see how it goes.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

CUL: Tdff form peak gone wrong gone right.
CUL is not bad at shorter time trials, so we will see how it goes.

She may have mistimed her peak, but it's also clear that she has much more confidence now than a month ago.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Will be interesting if Grace Brown can hold the current gap she has until the TT on Stage 4. If so, she can maybe get the leaders jersey in the TT.
Also don't count out Olivia Baril in the TT.

AVV, Brown and Baril are my favourites right now. But lets wait for stage 3, how the time gap between those three will be.

Baril did do a good ITT in the Tour, but she also had the advantage of overtaking a teammate (the one whose team car blocked Reusser), and she was also able to follow Reusser's lines on the descent. I think the 19th place in Glasgow is more telling of her actual level, but we'll see how it goes on Saturday. I am a fan of hers, by the way, so I would be happy if she finishes in the top 5 overall.

Movistar has just tweeted that Aalerud has no fractures, so that's good news.

The current weather forecast predicts that it won't be raining much during the stage tomorrow, so it'll probably be a fairly big group that makes it to the finish.

 

[JR1012]

Poor Elisa Balsamo. Crashed before the finish line. Hopefully she is ok.

Expected win from Wiebes, Lippert second and CUL third. No time gap in the GC.

 

[yaco]

At least the peleton got it right today by making SD Worx work for the stage win.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I couldn't watch the stage due to the early finish, but it pretty much went as expected.
The climb wasn't hard enough for Wiebes to get dropped, and Lippert has been a better finisher than CUL this season.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I couldn't watch the stage due to the early finish, but it pretty much went as expected.
The climb wasn't hard enough for Wiebes to get dropped, and Lippert has been a better finisher than CUL this season.

Lippert is a better finisher than Cecilie up to around 9-10% by and large, Cille tends to be better when it's really steep, although she mistimed form at the Ardennes.

So Liane apparently was in the front group in stage 1 and is now 4th on the GC. I guess maybe her transponder wasn't working yesterday because she didn't show in the GCs at the initial time.

 

[Izzyeviel]

Uno-x have managed to make the Specialised TT helmet look like a sensible helmet. The Uno-x team are literally riding with *** heads.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Very fast first split by Franzi Koch, if the time is accurate.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Bäckstedt took back 11 seconds on Koch from T2 to the finish, but it wasn't enough.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Uno-x have managed to make the Specialised TT helmet look like a sensible helmet. The Uno-x team are literally riding with *** heads.

Do you mean to mention SD Worx as one of the two perhaps, rather than Uno-X for both?

Whatever may be possible with the Specialized ones, the POC helmets cannot be saved by anybody, mind.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Strong time by Hanson, but Brown will probably go quite a bit faster.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Pretty good performance by Cadzow. A shame she lost the GC on stage 1.

 

[yaco]

Brown would have won the World ITT if she stayed at Jayco on the Giant set up. It's very disappointing her lack of performance in the World's RR.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

AVV had the advantage of having Marturano as a target, but CUL also disappointed a bit. I had hoped the difference after the stage would have been within bonus seconds distance, but now the overall win seems decided. That said, I'll of course b ehappy, if AVV gets at least one mere victory before retirement.

 

[yaco]

Gigante is back in the peleton and I guess she is getting ready for the Australian summer - She is an excellent TTER when in shape and probably would have come top three - Jayco, yet another failure with their rider selection - You bring Howe to this race just for the ITT and you probably get a podium.

 

[RedheadDane]

Hold on, didn't watch much of the stage yesterday. The time check was at Fuglsang?

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Hold on, didn't watch much of the stage yesterday. The time check was at Fuglsang?

Yes, he was standing there with a huge flag and everything! (not actually, cause he was somewhere in Germany at the time)

And today they finish in Haderslev; home of the Fuglsang brewery.

 

[RedheadDane]

Yes, he was standing there with a huge flag and everything! (not actually, cause he was somewhere in Germany at the time)

If he hadn't been, it actually would have been quite fun to ask him to stand there, with a banner or something.