AIUla Tour - 29th of january to 3rd of february

[Earns1985]

It´s already underway..

Startlist:

Startlist for AlUla Tour 2024

Competing teams and riders for AlUla Tour 2024. Top competitors are John Degenkolb, Rafał Majka and Simon Yates.

www.procyclingstats.com

Stage 1:

Stage 2:

Stage 3:

Stage 4:

Stage 5:

 

[Berniece]

Merlier v. Groenewegen today

 

[Earns1985]

30 km left for today:

Soudal (Merlier), Jayco (Groenewegen) and Tudor (De Kleijn) are pulling..

 

[Landeirovic]

Merlier v. Groenewegen today

And Molano. Him take last year 5 wins. This Alula Tour some slightly uphill finishes that suit him very well! With oliveira twins he have a great lead out

 

[Samu Cuenca]

It seems this Zubeldia is far from being a ninja.

 

[Salvarani]

Punctures galore always in this race.

 

[yaco]

That was a surprise win by Van Uden. Groenewegen cost himself victory by losing Mezgec's wheel in the final.

 

[repre]

Soft sprint by Molano, handed his own leadout to van Uden. Great move by dutch sprinter!

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Merlier v. Groenewegen today

Nice analysise thanks

 

[Bolder]

Nice win for van Uden. DSM keeps coming up with young winners somehow.

I do like a nice clean sprint, no excuses.

 

[Berniece]

Nice analysise thanks

When I typed that, I also had a sentence: "Since it's a sprint it can also be someone else of course, but those two are normally the fastest.". But I removed it, since I thought that was implied. They were still #2 and #3.

 

[Keldergoat]

That was quite an impressive sprint. Van Uden already being on the front at 150/200 meter to go and withstands quite some top tier sprinters. Funny enough he doesn't resembles the typical sprinter at all.

 

[scribers]

Punctures galore always in this race.

What’s the cause? Small rocks? The roads appear immaculate

 

[Salvarani]

What’s the cause? Small rocks? The roads appear immaculate

It blows onto the rode.

Always been many punctures here.

 

[scribers]

Was watching one riders tire come completely off the wheel!

 

[Earns1985]

Any idea, if we can expect the wind to be a factor in the upcoming days? I remember this race last couple of years as echelon festival..

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Nice win for van Uden. DSM keeps coming up with young winners somehow.

Are they doing anything special compared to other teams? Magnier (SQS), Del Toro, Ayuso (UAE), De Lie, Van Eetvelt (Lotto), Pithie, Grégoire (FDJ)...

 

[armchairclimber]

Any idea, if we can expect the wind to be a factor in the upcoming days? I remember this race last couple of years as echelon festival..

Some crosswinds forecast tomorrow.
As I understand it.

 

[Samamba]

Are they doing anything special compared to other teams? Magnier (SQS), Del Toro, Ayuso (UAE), De Lie, Van Eetvelt (Lotto), Pithie, Grégoire (FDJ)...

People don't understand that they just get a lot of talented juniors (and they've fcked up a few of them too) in their devo squad or pick up other riders that everyone can see they're talented. I don't know why a lot of people seem to think DSM does something special. It will get harder for them now that the big teams are snatching riders straight from the junior category. 2023 is the first time they didn't get someone from the top 10 of the FC junior ranking (and they basically all have pro contracts already).

They do give youngster a lot of chances early, but so does Lotto, FDJ, etc. Basically every small team cause they simply don't have a lot of top guys.

I mean I looked it up for example. The riders they got from the top 10 junior FC ranking...
2022: Van der Meulen (3), Van Mechelen (5), Ragilo (10)
2021: Karsten (9)
2020: Andresen (1), Brenner (3), Poole (5)
2019: Brenner (1), Stokke (10)
2018: Van Wilder (2, picked him up a year later ofcourse), Mayrhoffer (6), Vervloesem (7)
2017: Leknessund (1, ofc first at UNO X), Markl (2)

Like it's pretty obvious they just pick up a lot of riders that are well known to be really talented by every guy who follows youth categories. Some make it, some don't. It ain't rocket science. It's not like they make stars out of nowhere. No one does (well apart from Visma I guess).

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Do we know how steep the climb before the finish is on stage 2?

 

[ManicJack]

Do we know how steep the climb before the finish is on stage 2?

Hard to tell from the crappy graphics on PCS, but looks like it gains about 150m in about 3k before flattening out to slightly downhill for the last k. I'm guessing it's not too hard.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Hard to tell from the crappy graphics on PCS, but looks like it gains about 150m in about 3k before flattening out to slightly downhill for the last k. I'm guessing it's not too hard.

If the entire profile (not the detailed one) is correct, it would be roughly 5km long and 182.5m elevation, for a 3.65% gradient.

EDIT: Well f* me, they appear to pass the finishline early in the stage, and according to the PCS profile, the climb is 4.2km long and 3.2%.

 

[ManicJack]

If the entire profile (not the detailed one) is correct, it would be roughly 5km long and 182.5m elevation, for a 3.65% gradient.

EDIT: Well f* me, they appear to pass the finishline early in the stage, and according to the PCS profile, the climb is 4.2km long and 3.2%.

I didn't catch the fact that the first bonus sprint is the same as the finish.

 

[RedheadDane]

Some impressive bike swapping from Merlier and Van Lerberghe.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1752337648872567114

 

[Berniece]

Some impressive bike swapping from Merlier and Van Lerberghe.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1752337648872567114

At what moment in the race was this? Because I felt Merlier was quite alone in the end