Lesser known races thread 2021

[TourOfSardinia]

Molano again in Palermo

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Richeze is such an overpowered leadout in this field. Two from two for Molano.

 

[F_Cance]

Molano also clearly the fastest here

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Echelons at Tour de l’Eurométropole 2021

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Allegaert, Bissegger, Kwiatkowski, Van der Sande, Pedersen, Vanmarcke, Hofstetter, Van Poppel, Meeus and Bouhanni are the biggest names in the 29-man front group. The gap has come down a bit to 40 seconds, we're into the penultimate lap.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

GPS all over the place...

 

[RedheadDane]

Looked like Kooij in Croatia.

 

[RedheadDane]

Things are coming back together in Belgium.

Or maybe not...

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Valgren has tried to bridge from the peloton on the final ascent of Croix Jubaru and has almost caught the front group. Bouhanni, who was dropped on the climb, is there too but the peloton is closing in with Deceuninck pulling.

 

[RedheadDane]

Jakobsen, and some others, snuck off from the peloton.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

The Jakobsen and Valgren groups have merged. Small gaps all around, inside the final 5k.

 

[RedheadDane]

Front group seems to have given up.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Jakobsen is in front now, the rest of the peloton haven't made the catch yet and won't have time to position even if they do. Flamme rouge.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Jakobsen it is, ahead of Meeus.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Pedersen was left at the front way too early there, but Jakobsen was too strong anyway.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Pedersen was left at the front way too early there, but Jakobsen was too strong anyway.

Pedersen fading did mean Meeus had no space to get around Jakobsen though. Would have been close otherwise.

 

[BlueRoads]

Jakobsen really good, he had to lose a bit of tempo but then he accelerated again, but so did Meeus who was just worse positioned.

 

[Carrick-On-Seine]

Jordi Meeus necks his glass of Kwaremont in one go on the podium!

 

[RedheadDane]

Jordi Meeus necks his glass of Kwaremont in one go on the podium!

Makes him the real winner of the race, right?
Of course, not quite fair that the guy who crossed the line first gets such a huge glass...

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Pedersen fading did mean Meeus had no space to get around Jakobsen though. Would have been close otherwise.

Hm, if Jakobsen could have continued his initial acceleration instead of holding back and restarting it would not have been close tho

 

[Bonimenier]

Meeus getting closer and closer to a good win. In 2022 he certainly gets one.

 

[Carrick-On-Seine]

Makes him the real winner of the race, right?
Of course, not quite fair that the guy who crossed the line first gets such a huge glass...

Certainly made me smile especially when Fabio and Mads looked at him as if to say "did you really just do that dude?"

 

[Devil's Elbow]

The first (potential) GC day tomorrow in both Croatia and Sicily. In the CRO Race, we reach the foot of Sveti Jure without climbing it, instead replicating the 2019 finale, which was won by Yevgeniy Gidich in a sprint of 20-odd riders after a stage that had to be shortened to the loop around Makarska after the conditions imposed by the wind were deemed unsafe shortly after the original start. That edition featured an MTF, though, so you'd expect the racing to be a little more selective this time given that bonus seconds look a lot more important now.

Here's the climb:

From here, it's mostly downhill to the finish in the marina of Makarska. The finish should be just before 5pm.

In Sicily, we have the only uphill finish of the race. It's not a hard one, but there's a lot more climbing beforehand.

I have no profiles of the early climbs, as per LFR the one through Cerda is 9.1k at 3.8% and the one to Monte Piombino is 13.4k at 4.4%. The climb to Pollina looks to be the hardest of the day, at over 40 kilometres from the line, it should be too far out for attacks, but the peloton should at least be whittled down.

After the descent, there's 30 kilometres of flat along the coast until the uphill finish into Carbonia starts. Bonification seconds and small gaps should set up Friday's queen stage quite nicely.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Sicily:
Well done Ben King to claim the Pollina KOM

 

[bigcog]

Froome still there apparently