Challenge Mallorca 2024 (January 24-28)

[Samu Cuenca]

Lol, Ilan Van was ninth.

Did the organisers get too confused whether his name was Wilder or Welder?

Zpccarato tenth. Aramburu fourth.

Maybe it was just Ilmaestro they had hired to do the graphics...

Aramburu is at least a different version of the right name.

 

[Izzyeviel]

Who's starting the 'He's not a real car, but he's certainly as fast as a carr thread' thread?

 

[RedheadDane]

Who's starting the 'He's not a real car, but he's certainly as fast as a carr thread' thread?

Anderis:

Simon who thought that he would drive a Car(r) now rides a bike like a new Primoz Roglic

A former karting (or should I write Carrting?) driver now beats Primoz Roglic in terms of a successful transition to the road cycling from a sport that is the furthest away from cycling in terms of skill requirements. To be in the 2nd group today in such a big race, ahead of his team leader...

forum.cyclingnews.com

 

[tobydawq]

Mayrhofer and Page, who were 1st and 2nd in Cadel's race last year, were 7th and 8th today. What a January bromance.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Romo and Romeo in 11th and 12th, and a nice 16th place for Iker Mintegi in his Euskaltel debut.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Decent race by Zoccarato. A shame that Bardiani aren't riding too many one day races that suit him more.

 

[Unchained]

I was in and out of sleeping, but I was trying to concentrate to see McNulty win, and the grade was not extreme and all the sudden he went from taking monster pulls and gapping the Bora rider to him absolutely popping and getting spit out the back. Really good race, finally a race were EF had lots of good exposure and the victory

 

[Samamba]

Interesting, not sure what happened with them before, but Van Wilder and Van Eetvelt were the only 2 riders who finished in the 3rd group (for 6th place) and weren't in that group when Bettiol and Aranburu attacked out of it.

 

[ManicJack]

Does anyone know the criteria for entry into these races? Can you simply pay an entry fee and race? I'm not familiar with a few of the teams that are on the start list, but Project Echelon? Come on. I know almost all of the staff and many of their riders, they are a great group of guys, but this seems a bit over their heads.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Does anyone know the criteria for entry into these races? Can you simply pay an entry fee and race? I'm not familiar with a few of the teams that are on the start list, but Project Echelon? Come on. I know almost all of the staff and many of their riders, they are a great group of guys, but this seems a bit over their heads.

Just like with any other .1 or .Pro race, WT, PRT and CT teams are all eligible independent of their ranking. Pretty sure the only constraint for .1 races like the Mallorcan series is a maximum number of WT teams. So for a team like Echelon, it's at the discretion of the race organiser.

Edit: I was going to dig out the relevant UCI rule - turns out my Twitter feed was all I needed to look at.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1750231476489084987

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Interesting, not sure what happened with them before, but Van Wilder and Van Eetvelt were the only 2 riders who finished in the 3rd group (for 6th place) and weren't in that group when Bettiol and Aranburu attacked out of it.

I didn't watch the race but what do you mean by that? Did they close a gap?

 

[RedheadDane]

Does anyone know the criteria for entry into these races? Can you simply pay an entry fee and race? I'm not familiar with a few of the teams that are on the start list, but Project Echelon? Come on. I know almost all of the staff and many of their riders, they are a great group of guys, but this seems a bit over their heads.

If someone spots several giant wind-making fans by the side of the road, we'll know they're up to something.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Good time to be on the forum, between the start of the Tour de Under and Omlopp het Nieuwsblat. The mutants don't come down from teide until March generally, the races are low-key and fun, with smaller teams who are competing for points racing hard against each other without any absurd performances (well Carr today was a bit ridiculous lol. Hopefully just a good winter). You get some surprises, some young stars emerging, but generally the guys who do well are the ones you expext, and there is always one team that seams to have got their sh*t together over winter, only to fade into insignificance once more by the time we are at Tour of Flanders

 

[Berniece]

Interesting, not sure what happened with them before, but Van Wilder and Van Eetvelt were the only 2 riders who finished in the 3rd group (for 6th place) and weren't in that group when Bettiol and Aranburu attacked out of it.

Early season, just not good enough yet

 

[ManicJack]

If someone spots several giant wind-making fans by the side of the road, we'll know they're up to something.

Pretty sure they would end up the victims of their own making in that case

 

[Samamba]

I didn't watch the race but what do you mean by that? Did they close a gap?

Yes from the peloton.

Early season, just not good enough yet

Yet good enough to jump from the peloton to that group tho?

I got an explanation from Van Eetvelt. Good legs but bad timed pee break, when he catched up to the group with Costa, Mayrhoffer, Albanese, etc. Bettiol and Aranburu were already gone.

 

[Berflamand]

Yes from the peloton.



Yet good enough to jump from the peloton to that group tho?

I got an explanation from Van Eetvelt. Good legs but bad timed pee break, when he catched up to the group with Costa, Mayrhoffer, Albanese, etc. Bettiol and Aranburu were already gone.

https://www.strava.com/activities/10620812526/segments/3185264610862624594

I don't know if you can open that link or see the segment but on a climb late in the race (Carretera D'Antratx Climb segment) Van Wilder and Van Eetvelt have the two fastest times, quite a lot faster than guys like McNulty, Carr, Zoccarato, Albanese and other guys that were in front of them.

They must have made an impressive jump at some point.

 

[Berniece]

Yet good enough to jump from the peloton to that group tho?

I got an explanation from Van Eetvelt. Good legs but bad timed pee break, when he catched up to the group with Costa, Mayrhoffer, Albanese, etc. Bettiol and Aranburu were already gone.

Oh, I thought they were always in that group but not good enough to follow McNulty/Vlasov or Bettiol/Aranburu. So they just weren't part of that group of 20, and eventually closed the gap?

 

[ingsve]

I wonder if some teams are under the impression that tomorrow is a flat sprinter race? This stage used to be for the sprinters but now it's an uphill finish. Seems that teams are starting the strongest sprinters they have in the squads on probably the worst stage for the sprinters.

 

[Samamba]

Oh, I thought they were always in that group but not good enough to follow McNulty/Vlasov or Bettiol/Aranburu. So they just weren't part of that group of 20, and eventually closed the gap?

Yes. The peloton split early in the race on the descent of the Soller. They were both in the first peloton but then everything split again (after Soler had already attacked). Van Eetvelt said he was on a pee break when Vlasov and McNulty attacked and when he thought he made his way back there was another big group already up the road (no idea about Van Wilder). So basically they were in the group that finished 5 min down eventually. They both made their way back to the group ahead where Bettiol and Aranburu already attacked from. So they must've had good legs, I expect them both to be good on Friday.

https://www.strava.com/activities/10620812526/segments/3185264610862624594

I don't know if you can open that link or see the segment but on a climb late in the race (Carretera D'Antratx Climb segment) Van Wilder and Van Eetvelt have the two fastest times, quite a lot faster than guys like McNulty, Carr, Zoccarato, Albanese and other guys that were in front of them.

They must have made an impressive jump at some point.

Yeah that's probably the moment they made the jump, as that is also the point where Aranburu and Bettiol attacked I think.

I wonder if some teams are under the impression that tomorrow is a flat sprinter race? This stage used to be for the sprinters but now it's an uphill finish. Seems that teams are starting the strongest sprinters they have in the squads on probably the worst stage for the sprinters.

It looks harder on the profile than it is. I would even say it's way easier than last editions that actually had a real climb the sprinters had to get over. This might look like a somewhat uphill finish, it isn't really. It's just like 7km of false flat and the last km is flat or even slightly downhill.

 

[search]

Does anyone know the criteria for entry into these races? Can you simply pay an entry fee and race? I'm not familiar with a few of the teams that are on the start list, but Project Echelon? Come on. I know almost all of the staff and many of their riders, they are a great group of guys, but this seems a bit over their heads.

Just like with any other .1 or .Pro race, WT, PRT and CT teams are all eligible independent of their ranking. Pretty sure the only constraint for .1 races like the Mallorcan series is a maximum number of WT teams. So for a team like Echelon, it's at the discretion of the race organiser.

in reality, this often means that empty spots in smaller races go to teams willing to pay their hotels etc. themselves. Looking at the start list, I would assume this is the case for some of the teams at the Mallorca Challenge.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Interesting, not sure what happened with them before, but Van Wilder and Van Eetvelt were the only 2 riders who finished in the 3rd group (for 6th place) and weren't in that group when Bettiol and Aranburu attacked out of it.

Apart from Castrillo

 

[Tim Cahill]

Good time to be on the forum, between the start of the Tour de Under and Omlopp het Nieuwsblat. The mutants don't come down from teide until March generally, the races are low-key and fun, with smaller teams who are competing for points racing hard against each other without any absurd performances (well Carr today was a bit ridiculous lol. Hopefully just a good winter). You get some surprises, some young stars emerging, but generally the guys who do well are the ones you expext, and there is always one team that seams to have got their sh*t together over winter, only to fade into insignificance once more by the time we are at Tour of Flanders

It's a case of timing really. Evenepoel fans are currently mostly banned, Poggies little fans are all at school and have homework, Roglic's troupe are currently too busy stalking K-Pop singers, writing fanfictions and making voodoo dolls to watch any non-Roglic races, Van Aert fans can't watch because the races are on too early in the American timezones and Van Der Poel's fans are busy serving hard-time for punching 6 year old girls.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Interesting, not sure what happened with them before, but Van Wilder and Van Eetvelt were the only 2 riders who finished in the 3rd group (for 6th place) and weren't in that group when Bettiol and Aranburu attacked out of it.

This probably explains some of it. Van Wilder took the KOM on the climb, and did it 23s faster than Vlasov, Carr and McNulty. Van Eetvelt second fastest, 8s slower than Van Wilder. I assume this is where they bridged to the first big group. Next climb they were both a lot slower than the Vlasov group, so likely by then they had bridged.

 

[Rob5091]

Thursday's Trofeo Ses Salines-Felanitx will be one for the sprinters by the looks of it. UAE are back to the Gen Z gang.