Lesser known races 2024 edition

[Samu Cuenca]

Wow, they crossed the finish line in Wallonie right when Hjem-IS drove past my house. Perfect timing.

 

[ingsve]

You know what thread that one's going in!

Regarding the Czech Tour, once again JSM is incredibly disappointing. Beaten by several conti riders, including a Pierre Baguette rider, in a field where he should be one of the front-runners. What's going on with him?

Ya, it's so strange. Looking at what riders he was on par with last year like Jan Christen, WJ LeCerf or even Darren Rafferty then he has been nowhere near the same type of results. And he's older than those riders as well.

Hopefully he can have a good off-season and come back a different rider next year.

 

[tobydawq]

Ya, it's so strange. Looking at what riders he was on par with last year like Jan Christen, WJ LeCerf or even Darren Rafferty then he has been nowhere near the same type of results. And he's older than those riders as well.

Hopefully he can have a good off-season and come back a different rider next year.

Apart from Vingegaard and Jorgenson, Visma have lost the plot a bit. So many disappointing riders all over (of course also a lot of bad luck but I think that is shadowing a bit for a bad trend).

 

[postmanhat]

Nice to see Florian Vermeersch again after his very serious injury from his first racing day of the season.

One of my favourite riders. Isn't he supposed to be off to The WT next season?

 

[Samamba]

I swear Nordhagen is even more impressive than Widar, impossible to know without a duel ofc and they don't want to give us one

 

[Samamba]

One of my favourite riders. Isn't he supposed to be off to The WT next season?

You say that like he's never been in the WT and is at some small team lmao.

But technically yes as he's going to UAE.

 

[ingsve]

I swear Nordhagen is even more impressive than Widar, impossible to know without a duel ofc and they don't want to give us one

How was Widar's health in Ronde de l’Isard? He finished 2nd there overall at least so should be fairly fit right? On stage 2 Nordhagen crushed him in the climbs but then Nordhagen had to abandon 2 stages later due to illness.

 

[Samamba]

How was Widar's health in Ronde de l’Isard? He finished 2nd there overall at least so should be fairly fit right? On stage 2 Nordhagen crushed him in the climbs but then Nordhagen had to abandon 2 stages later due to illness.

Not good, he felt bad all week (and weeks before that, since he got sick in Liege), wasn't a fair duel. Widar was far from his best level.

 

[Netserk]

So Tudor's earlier riding on the front has secured bonus seconds to be in play today? Weird way to defend a 6 seconds lead.

 

[Coffeeplanter]

I swear Nordhagen is even more impressive than Widar, impossible to know without a duel ofc and they don't want to give us one

Nordhagen is a physiological monster, it is only a matter of time before he starts dropping watt bombs equivalent of Tsar Bomba. The VO2max numbers must be off the charts. Once they fix his ugly Superman position he'll likely be a monster on the tt bike as well.

 

[postmanhat]

You say that like he's never been in the WT and is at some small team lmao.

But technically yes as he's going to UAE.

Probably could have phrased it better, and don't get me wrong, am a big fan of Lotto too. UAE FFS.

 

[RedheadDane]

WATTS-on!

 

[Tim Cahill]

Andrew August good level, however he seems to have ridden the climb like he was heavy favourite for the race, like 1997 Ullrich just riding everyone off the wheel, and not some 18 year old neopro with no top-10s yet.

 

[tobydawq]

Trentin wins on countback.

 

[ingsve]

Not good, he felt bad all week (and weeks before that, since he got sick in Liege), wasn't a fair duel. Widar was far from his best level.

Ok, so the true fight remains then. Question is if there are any opportunities this season.

 

[Squire]

Trentin wins on countback.

He wins on Strong's declassification yesterday.

 

[Netserk]

Apart from Vingegaard and Jorgenson, Visma have lost the plot a bit. So many disappointing riders all over (of course also a lot of bad luck but I think that is shadowing a bit for a bad trend).

I don't know, who on the team is a good measure of that? I can't really think of any disappointments compared to last year who hasn't had bad luck this year.

 

[tobydawq]

I don't know, who on the team is a good measure of that? I can't really think of any disappointments compared to last year who hasn't had bad luck this year.

Uijtdebroeks? Kuss? Staune-Mittet? Vader. Tulett. Hagenes.

 

[postmanhat]

Apart from Vingegaard and Jorgenson, Visma have lost the plot a bit. So many disappointing riders all over (of course also a lot of bad luck but I think that is shadowing a bit for a bad trend).

With the exception of Klooj in recent years, they seem nowhere near as succesful as UAE in young rider development either?

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Uijtdebroeks? Kuss? Staune-Mittet? Vader. Tulett. Hagenes.

Uijtdebroeks had to abandon the Giro (and was doing at least okay before that), Kuss hasn't been healthy all year. Staune-Mittet has just been straight up terrible, though.

Better answers would be Van Baarle('s spring) or Valter.

 

[ingsve]

I'm very excited to see how Jörgen Nordhagen develops. I have a fear right now that he will end up being a typical mountain goat who does well in climbs but suffers on the flat and in ITTs.

I'm just basing that on some of the racing he has done this year but that could of course have other explanations. For example he was a beast up the main climb in the 2nd stage of Ronde de l'Isard but despite having a minute lead over the top of the climb he was caught on the downhill and flat by Max van der Meulen.

Even his ITTs this season has been a bit disappointing. 28th in Giro Next Gen for example was well below what I expected but that might have been early signs of illness hampering him of course. Also 10th place in the norwegian championships only 1 second ahead of his brother Truls also seems under par. He always tended to do well in Junior ITTs but I'm wondering whether he struggles in ITTs in senior level since they are not gear limited like in the junior levels?

Or it's simply other aspects that explain these results. The future will tell.

 

[Squire]

I'm very excited to see how Jörgen Nordhagen develops. I have a fear right now that he will end up being a typical mountain goat who does well in climbs but suffers on the flat and in ITTs.

I'm just basing that on some of the racing he has done this year but that could of course have other explanations. For example he was a beast up the main climb in the 2nd stage of Ronde de l'Isard but despite having a minute lead over the top of the climb he was caught on the downhill and flat by Max van der Meulen.

Even his ITTs this season has been a bit disappointing. 28th in Giro Next Gen for example was well below what I expected but that might have been early signs of illness hampering him of course. Also 10th place in the norwegian championships only 1 second ahead of his brother Truls also seems under par. He always tended to do well in Junior ITTs but I'm wondering whether he struggles in ITTs in senior level since they are not gear limited like in the junior levels?

Or it's simply other aspects that explain these results. The future will tell.

I have similar fears regarding Nordhagen's time trial. Pidcock was also a beast in junior TTs.

 

[Coffeeplanter]

I'm very excited to see how Jörgen Nordhagen develops. I have a fear right now that he will end up being a typical mountain goat who does well in climbs but suffers on the flat and in ITTs.

I'm just basing that on some of the racing he has done this year but that could of course have other explanations. For example he was a beast up the main climb in the 2nd stage of Ronde de l'Isard but despite having a minute lead over the top of the climb he was caught on the downhill and flat by Max van der Meulen.

Even his ITTs this season has been a bit disappointing. 28th in Giro Next Gen for example was well below what I expected but that might have been early signs of illness hampering him of course. Also 10th place in the norwegian championships only 1 second ahead of his brother Truls also seems under par. He always tended to do well in Junior ITTs but I'm wondering whether he struggles in ITTs in senior level since they are not gear limited like in the junior levels?

Or it's simply other aspects that explain these results. The future will tell.

He suffered from cramps on the flat towards the finish in Isard. Not in a million years would he lose time to Van der Meulen on a descend and/or flat in normal circumstances, who is everything you are afraid Nordhagen will be. I wouldn't look into that one at all.

However, I, too, thought he'd deliver better time trials at this point, but not because of his junior resume. Some juniors are sponsored by big WorldTour teams, others are riding on amateur material. The difference between the two is immense. Furthermore, while juniors are getting more and more professional in nutrition and material, most of them have done zero work on their positioning and there is a lack of specialism. Raw power is what wins you the races.

 

[ingsve]

Uijtdebroeks? Kuss? Staune-Mittet? Vader. Tulett. Hagenes.

Hagenes hasn't really been bad. He has had to ride a fair bit of domestique work for Van Aert for example and he had a crash where he broke his nose I believe so he missed a fair few races and he's also ridden a much harder program this season with the monuments for example where he at least finished decently in both De Ronde and P-R for it being his debuts.

 

[tobydawq]

Uijtdebroeks had to abandon the Giro (and was doing at least okay before that), Kuss hasn't been healthy all year. Staune-Mittet has just been straight up terrible, though.

Better answers would be Van Baarle('s spring) or Valter.

I think that's a very generous assessment of Uijtdebroeks' season. He was semi-alright in Tirreno, disappointing in O Gran Camiño, outright terrible in Catalunya and bad in Suisse. Okay, he looked decent in the Giro but he abandoned too early for us to really know how he would have done.

Also, this is a comment on how Visma are disappointing this year. Normally, they would have been able to elevate him to a new level after his transfer and they certainly have not been able to do that.

Kuss being unhealthy the whole year? I don't know, that seems a long time while still be riding races...