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Itzulia Basque Country 2024, April 1-6

Page 83 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
So we had an interesting ending despite the lack of three musqeteers! Well played by UAE, Soler was man of the day to me. Bridging from the peleton to the breakaway, threatening the GC lead and helping Ayuso at the end and ... giving Rodriguez the 2nd place in the GC with the final sprint! Ayuso attacked two times and succeeded in the GC with the help of stage winner Rodriguez. Congrats to both!
 
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.
 
Yeah, honestly shut the hell up about "boho its bad manners", this aint a tea party, this is a god damn race and Soler is racing for every second as he should. That could easily be the diffeerence between a 4th or a 5th and what not, you don't really know whats going on or having the full picture of it, and regardless, its still a third on a stage.
Exactly, finishing third on the stage is not bad either.
 
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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