Lesser known races 2023 edition

[Devil's Elbow]

Calzoni had attacked solo but crashed on the descent, now Rivera leads with a small gap to a chase group.

Edit: and then Rivera crashed too.

 

[Salvarani]

Raining apparently. Slippery roads.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Engelhardt wins the reduced sprint ahead of Stewart and Holdager, that may be the worst podium we'll have all season in a European 1.1 race.

 

[RedheadDane]

Pithie wins Cholet.

 

[repre]

Pithie with near sweep of french weekend

 

[yaco]

Engelhardt is a a first year pro so has done well to win a race so early in the season - I'll also add that Stewart is fairly quick, so Englehardt must have some speed.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Meanwhile Pithie wins Cholet with a proper finisseur move, groundbreaking weekend for him.

 

[Salvarani]

Groupama - FDJ will have a headache on which riders they are gonna be able to retain in the future.

So many talents on their roster. They have done really well with their set up and bringing riders through their development team to their first team.

 

[DNP-Old]

Piffie!!!

 

[DNP-Old]

Groupama - FDJ will have a headache on which riders they are gonna be able to retain in the future.

So many talents on their roster. They have done really well with their set up and bringing riders through their development team to their first team.

Their talent is not stacked into only one or two areas, luckily. They have good parity in what sort of races are deemed the best fit for the leaders they have. I'd say right now Madiot won't have many headaches, but once the likes of Le Huitouze and Gruel join the party, you might be looking at a Jumbo situation where very talented guys will do nothing but donkey work.

 

[DNP-Old]

Btw, I think Ralph Denk made a big mistake choosing Lipowitz over Engelhardt. Too fixated on the numbers and what could be, rather than what is.

 

[Samamba]

Not sure what happened but did EF really manage to not get a top 10 in this race?

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Their talent is not stacked into only one or two areas, luckily. They have good parity in what sort of races are deemed the best fit for the leaders they have. I'd say right now Madiot won't have many headaches, but once the likes of Le Huitouze and Gruel join the party, you might be looking at a Jumbo situation where very talented guys will do nothing but donkey work.

In addition, Pinot is retiring and Démare could well be leaving at the end of the season too, leaving a lot of protected role opportunities for their talents to step into and also a fair chunk of budget to further reshape the team with.

 

[Samamba]

Their talent is not stacked into only one or two areas, luckily. They have good parity in what sort of races are deemed the best fit for the leaders they have. I'd say right now Madiot won't have many headaches, but once the likes of Le Huitouze and Gruel join the party, you might be looking at a Jumbo situation where very talented guys will do nothing but donkey work.

With the difference that Madiot doesnt have the money to keep those guys happy. Jumbo does. He'll have to make choices. Probably will prefer to keep the French guys.

 

[Salvarani]

Their talent is not stacked into only one or two areas, luckily. They have good parity in what sort of races are deemed the best fit for the leaders they have. I'd say right now Madiot won't have many headaches, but once the likes of Le Huitouze and Gruel join the party, you might be looking at a Jumbo situation where very talented guys will do nothing but donkey work.

They will have a headache on who retain in the future, if many are performing this well. These talents will eventually demand a bigger salary or get offers from other teams. That just how it goes.

It has nothing to do with that they have a number of riders with different abilities coming through. That there wont potentially be headaches on who to retain. That is just something that speaks even more to their great set up. They are able to develop riders with different characteristics.

Nice problems to have and a very interesting team to follow atm. Future looks bright for them.

 

[RedheadDane]

Not sure what happened but did EF really manage to not get a top 10 in this race?

Alfredo?
Looks like only the top-3 is known.

 

[Tim Cahill]

Not sure what happened but did EF really manage to not get a top 10 in this race?

Steinhauser broke off for 40km but was caught on the final climb, from the video I don't think they had anyone in the top 10.

 

[Samamba]

Alfredo?
Looks like only the top-3 is known.

There's a video. Not getting a top 10 in this field is impressive. Could be that some guys crashed ofcourse.

 

[RedheadDane]

There's a video. Not getting a top 10 in this field is impressive. Could be that some guys crashed ofcourse.

I wasn't aware of that. And I just found it funny you wrote "this race", as if it was the only lesser known race that had been on today.
I was focused on the race with coverage.

 

[Salvarani]

There's a video. Not getting a top 10 in this field is impressive. Could be that some guys crashed ofcourse.

Feels like a race that should have suited Quinn pretty good.

 

[RedheadDane]

And Aular won over in Portugal.

 

[staubsauger]

Relieved to see that I'm not the only one who spend his Sunday afternoon with watching Around the church spire in France!

 

[RedheadDane]

Relieved to see that I'm not the only one who spend his Sunday afternoon with watching Around the church spire in France!

They were nice enough to time it with the women racing over in Italy, so you could concentrate on one race, and then switch to the next.

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

Btw, I think Ralph Denk made a big mistake choosing Lipowitz over Engelhardt. Too fixated on the numbers and what could be, rather than what is.

This!

While Engelhardt keeps on delivering as neo-pro just as he did as U23 rider, all Lipowitz has ever done was hanging on for dear life for an anonymous 20th place on some random Giro del Trentino stage some years ago. Jayco picked up a really good rider there.

 

[DNP-Old]

This!

While Engelhardt keeps on delivering as neo-pro just as he did as U23 rider, all Lipowitz has ever done was hanging on for dear life for an anonymous 20th place on some random Giro del Trentino stage some years ago. Jayco picked up a really good rider there.

Exactly. And while I do not doubt Lipowitz probably has insane potential on paper and can drop huge numbers in the lab, Engelhardt has been the one to progress on tarmac every year. High risk, high rewards is not always the best option. This quest Denk set himself to find the new Roglic has been a dud so far. Though it must be said Zwiehoff is developing into a very decent rider. But it's safe to say Palzer ain't the one.