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Itzulia Basque Country 2024, April 1-6

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My theory is Hayter looks so godawful because he has insane FOMO and is afraid of having to miss Paris. So much so that he is frightened of just the thought of having to manoeuvre in the tiniest bit of a nervousness in the peloton, resulting in a mental blockade.
Yeah he told Rodriguez to attack yesterday apparently because he didn't want to get involved in the sprint. Say's he's been doing work in the gym for the track and hasn't worked on his sprint/doesn't want to risk it so not sure why they've been working for him a bit.
 
So this race ended up more or less exactly as predicted by those who were told off for being negative about the race route.

A prologue, then two crappy stages where nothing of value or interest other than crashes happened, then another sprint on the Amorebieta stage, then the race organisers banked everything on the last stage being important from afar and it was.

The only thing we didn't predict was that the only other place where time could be won or lost was neutralised due to the big crash.

Hopefully the fact today was good does not deflect attention from the fact that the four days between the prologue and today were absolutely terrible, and we get a return to a more typical Itzulia next season.
Tbh stage 4 looked very decent, and the time trial should have been worth watching, but wasn't. I think all they need to do is drop one of stage 2 or 3 for a selective day on some proper muros and you have a perfect race in this region.
 
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This particular stage is just a great design. This entire race would have just super good if stage 2 or 3 would have featured a classic murito or three, but circumstances meant it wasn't really worth watching outside of this last stage.

Juan Ayuso seems to have taken a step this year. Who knows what he can do in July...
I can't really say that. He was obliterated by Vingegaard in Tirreno. And this field in Itzulia is very weak when we take out the Big 3
 
Tbh stage 4 looked very decent, and the time trial should have been worth watching, but wasn't. I think all they need to do is drop one of stage 2 or 3 for a selective day on some proper muros and you have a perfect race in this region.
Leintz-Gaztaga isn't a particularly interesting climb for the region I'm afraid. Fairly wide, smooth and a lot more regular than many. They needed something better with either stage 1 or 2, and a proper murito type on one of the other stages ideally.

I mean, I wish they'd do something other than the same old same old around Eibar as the queen stage so they could maybe vary the Eibar stages a bit more, but since the Euskal Bizikleta folded, it's been everpresent by contract so there's not much you can do about it and at least those stages keep delivering - I just would rather they weren't the only stages delivering.
 
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Soler, Ayuso, Del Toro all raced great. The situation for Soler was absolutely awesome, you guys tow me for 20k and then we will sprint for it. Olney was impressive.. guy drank some extra coffee today, great race and result. Del Toro blew out his transmission and in the end even micro Esteban Chavez had a little more juice than Isaac. Del Toro from 15th to 7th overall for his efforts. Carlos Rodriguez is, was impressive in every way today, including his post race interview and the way he worked his butt off w Ayuso..couldn't have been better.. Nice to see Chavez in the mix..Bilbao is a solid racer..
 
Sepp got the mountains jersey in the end

GKfrS0fXoAASA2G
 
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Leintz-Gaztaga isn't a particularly interesting climb for the region I'm afraid. Fairly wide, smooth and a lot more regular than many. They needed something better with either stage 1 or 2, and a proper murito type on one of the other stages ideally.

I mean, I wish they'd do something other than the same old same old around Eibar as the queen stage so they could maybe vary the Eibar stages a bit more, but since the Euskal Bizikleta folded, it's been everpresent by contract so there's not much you can do about it and at least those stages keep delivering - I just would rather they weren't the only stages delivering.
Yeah I mean we agree, you just talk about them as stage 1 and 2 where as I thought they were 2 and 3. Anyways, Leintz-Gaztage probably isn't that selective (I think it would have been raced very hard though this year), but thats not really a problem if you have a hard time trial and a muro stage on one of the pointless stages and the queen stage to top it off.
 
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Soler has surely played a vital role in more putches/raids (some of them unsuccesfful) like these in more stages than ayone else?

final stage Paris Nice when he won
The sprint he lost against Gaudu on la farrapona
The one when he didn't want to wait in the rain in Andorra
Mur de Peguere with Landa when Tour finished in Prat d'albis
When he chased down Quintana in the Galibier stage :p
Angliru last year


When i think of Satellite rider he surely is the first to come up with.