Itzulia Basque Country 2024, April 1-6

[pelotonIQ]

After watching the footage from every angle available, this has got to be the most bizzare series of crashes I have ever seen.

1. Roglic had his backwheel slip in the bend.

2. Remco made it past the bend and had a good line when suddenly the Trek rider behind him had a backwheel slip and nudges Remco as he was falling, causing Remco to deviate into the woods.

3. Vingegaard came in with speed together with a bunch of riders almost covering the width of the road leaving him suboptimal outside lines to pick from, he tried to corner, hesitated, and rode into the road sign post which caused him to fall off the bike ending up next to the concrete roadside drain.

That corner looked very deceptive from the overhead shots, no rider mentioned anything about the road surface in the descent being slippery.

 

[tobydawq]

But what value does winning a stage have when the field was neutralized behind? Zero

That's your opinion.

I guess we should take Sylvain Chavanel's first stage from 2010 from him too, then.

 

[search]

it's also not like they were about to be caught. The gap was 2 minutes with only one climb to come, so (dependend on how things unfolded behind), there was a small chance to stay clear.

 

[Extinction]

That's your opinion.

I guess we should take Sylvain Chavanel's first stage from 2010 from him too, then.

I would not want to race for an absolutely meaningless sportingwise stage victory, and think anybody that would is pretty silly and weak-mimded.

 

[Berniece]

Why do you think riders rarely rode off cliffs and died back when they descended mountain passes on gravel roads?

Because they pushed themselves too far? Which is why organizers decided to not use those roads anymore. Which is my complete point. Riders will always push themselves too far if they think they can. Thus save them from themselves by using warning signals (as an example).

 

[tobydawq]

Because they pushed themselves too far? Which is why organizers decided to not use those roads anymore. Which is my complete point. Riders will always push themselves too far if they think they can. Thus save them from themselves by using warning signals (as an example).

Eh, what...

The reason they rarely crashed into ravines and died was because they pushed themselves too far?

 

[search]

Nobody knew this company? Apparently Flanders Classics do. Quite a big organizer in the cycling world. As on organizer you have the obligation to create a save environment. You can't expect this from the riders themselves, because they will push themselves to the edge, and thus go over it. This is basic human behaviour.

as I brought up above, that company still has a business interest, though. So just don't take everything as facts.

They had a meeting with some riders in December, so it's possible that Vingegaard brought up some complaints indeed. But how did he know about this exact descent back then, when the route was only presented at the end of January? And when did he do the recon of it? Those things just don't fit.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Soon this thread will revert to being about the 2024 Itzulia and today's stage. Skjelmose, McNulty, Ayuso and others are in the hunt for a prestigious WT stage race win, and we have an abiding interest in that. It's not the most important things in the world, but as cycling fans we invest a lot of time and interest in something that is not the most important thing in the world.

So do people want pieces of the discussion over the last 20 hours or so to sit deep within this thread and shrivel forgotten, or would you like me to go through and extract comments for further discussion elsewhere (I am imagining some being added to the "How do we prevent crashes" thread, and a new one about lingering coverage of accident aftermath)?

 

[Landeirovic]

uae has tons of cards to play. 4 riders within 47 seconds of Skjemose with Ayuso at 4 seconds, Mcnulty at 12 seconds, Del Toro at 32 seconds and Soler at 47 seconds

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Let's hope the Tour of the Crashque Country is now over and that the Itzulia will finally start today.

 

[KZD]

First of all, wish a speedy recovery to all riders that crashed yesterday.

Second, despite the circumstances happy to see Meintjes winning the stage.

Third, hope that the race becomes less nervous now and that we have a nice GC battle in the last two stages. Skjelmose is in the hot seat but it will be a big test for him to see if he can fend off the riders close to him, especially the UAE ones.

 

[Brullnux]

Soon this thread will revert to being about the 2024 Itzulia and today's stage. Skjelmose, McNulty, Ayuso and others are in the hunt for a prestigious WT stage race win, and we have an abiding interest in that. It's not the most important things in the world, but as cycling fans we invest a lot of time and interest in something that is not the most important thing in the world.

So do people want pieces of the discussion over the last 20 hours or so to sit deep within this thread and shrivel forgotten, or would you like me to go through and extract comments for further discussion elsewhere (I am imagining some being added to the "How do we prevent crashes" thread, and a new one about lingering coverage of accident aftermath)?

Linger and shrivel

 

[AnotherArmChair]

Third, hope that the race becomes less nervous now and that we have a nice GC battle in the last two stages. Skjelmose is in the hot seat but it will be a big test for him to see if he can fend off the riders close to him, especially the UAE ones.

Hard to see beyond Skjelmose and UAE
The Baque riders of Bilbao, Landa and Izagirre would maybe put up a fight and Hindley as well but parcours are not hard enough I think

 

[Slavique Nuke]

the Specialized Venge from 4 years ago is faster than the SL8 they are using now, Specialized even admitted that

Maybe on flat, but the SL8 frame is almost 300 grams lighter than the Venge. When the gradients get more serious SL8 will destroy the Venge.

 

[Rob5091]

Yep, after yesterday, it's now Skjelmose's chance to make a name for himself and push his GC credentials. He seems to be a better bet now then Hart at Trek.

 

[noob]

Soon this thread will revert to being about the 2024 Itzulia and today's stage. Skjelmose, McNulty, Ayuso and others are in the hunt for a prestigious WT stage race win, and we have an abiding interest in that. It's not the most important things in the world, but as cycling fans we invest a lot of time and interest in something that is not the most important thing in the world.

So do people want pieces of the discussion over the last 20 hours or so to sit deep within this thread and shrivel forgotten, or would you like me to go through and extract comments for further discussion elsewhere (I am imagining some being added to the "How do we prevent crashes" thread, and a new one about lingering coverage of accident aftermath)?

I think your imagination parentheses suggestion sounds good!

 

[Ilmaestro99]

This would have been an incredible opportunity for the great Mikel Landa if he didn't manage to lose a minute in a fricking prologue. Landismo vive

 

[Devil's Elbow]

This would have been an incredible opportunity for the great Mikel Landa if he didn't manage to lose a minute in a fricking prologue. Landismo vive

Surely he would have been instructed not to take any risks in the prologue, given that he was supposed to be on domestique duty? For once, it wasn't Landa being flaky...

 

[Tim Cahill]

Soon this thread will revert to being about the 2024 Itzulia and today's stage. Skjelmose, McNulty, Ayuso and others are in the hunt for a prestigious WT stage race win, and we have an abiding interest in that. It's not the most important things in the world, but as cycling fans we invest a lot of time and interest in something that is not the most important thing in the world.

So do people want pieces of the discussion over the last 20 hours or so to sit deep within this thread and shrivel forgotten, or would you like me to go through and extract comments for further discussion elsewhere (I am imagining some being added to the "How do we prevent crashes" thread, and a new one about lingering coverage of accident aftermath)?

I think so yes, its good to have major incidents like this properly archived so in years we can look back on how silly we sounded, or in my case how my views were no doubt triumphantly vindicated and I can receive my much deserved plaudits.

 

[yaf]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1776205176895885545

View: https://twitter.com/VelonCC/status/1776205176895885545?t=8il5lIpz_hZXFa_YZxzqAA&s=19

This is bad news for all cycling fans😓 hope it wont affect his cycling career🙏

 

[Tim Cahill]

This would have been an incredible opportunity for the great Mikel Landa if he didn't manage to lose a minute in a fricking prologue. Landismo vive

https://twitter.com/x/status/1776215157632373016

Time to turn the tables I think, maybe with a big move from far on Krabelin tomorrow

 

[Tim Cahill]

No break yet, good to see them taking it easy after yesterday!


11m
Average race speed so far: 54.231 km/h.
(55.18 km covered in 01:01:03).

(a bit of downhill in there)

 

[Earns1985]

No break yet, good to see them taking it easy after yesterday!


11m
Average race speed so far: 54.231 km/h.
(55.18 km covered in 01:01:03).

(a bit of downhill in there)

Well I would say it´s more the opposite than taking it easy..

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Well I would say it´s more the opposite than taking it easy..

I know sarcasm isn't always easy to catch on the internet, but...

 

[Danskebjerge]

Road surface issues or problems of that kind are usually noted in the roadbook route instructions.

teams are also perfectly capable of recon of their own on a route.

True. But we're up against "feelings" here, and the "feelings" of certain cycling fans are very loud.