I didn't know who Rainer Kepplinger was and was surprised to learn he had beaten Guerin in Oberösterreich. Apparently he's a former rower who only started riding (seriously) last year after he had suffered from glandular fever at then end of 2020.
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One more sprint incoming, and it's a big one with Jakobsen, Ewan, Ackermann/Gaviria, Groves and Nizzolo all looking to stop Merlier's bid to win his third consecutive Elfstedenronde.
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Ewan was in Jakobsen wheel all the way leading up to the sprint, so not really an excuse this time.
I think that might be referring to how much Ewan had to make up after being so out of position through the approach turns?
Another 50 metres and that podium could have been reversed. Hope Ewan is riding the Belguim Tour. Would be great to see some TDF warm-up sprint battles between these three. Before they face Groenewegen
Good tactics from Salby to use his momentum from closing down that small gap after the roundabout. I think Mareczko should have been relegated again. Not quite as bad it terms on wiggling from one side of the road, but worse in the way he almost took out two riders.
Correct. The entirety of the Lotto train getting caught behind that little gap made life pretty hard for them, they did well to close it back down but clearly Ewan had to expend a lot more energy than Jakobsen to basically start the sprint from the same position, and it wasn't down to Ewan himself losing the wheels this time.
What a podium for a 1.1 race. Insane.
Let's stop this BS. Ewan is simply not prime Ewan right now. Jakobsen was faster. I'm so over this Ewan is always out of position because of his team. The guy should've won 3 stages in the Giro, 4 in Turkey and Kuurne but he didn't because other sprinters were simply faster those days.
He is not going to the Belgium Tour, he's going on an altitude camp. So it's De Lie vs. Jakobsen and Philipsen there. Also interesting to see.
Let's stop this BS. Ewan is simply not prime Ewan right now. Jakobsen was faster. I'm so over this Ewan is always out of position because of his team. The guy should've won 3 stages in the Giro, 4 in Turkey and Kuurne but he didn't because other sprinters were simply faster those days.
I think that might be referring to how much Ewan had to make up after being so out of position through the approach turns?
Another 50 metres and that podium could have been reversed. Hope Ewan is riding the Belguim Tour. Would be great to see some TDF warm-up sprint battles between these three. Before they face Groenewegen
He is not going to the Belgium Tour, he's going on an altitude camp. So it's De Lie vs. Jakobsen and Philipsen there. Also interesting to see.
Agreed that Ewan has been mediocre this year by his standards, but today the margin was small enough that he probably wins if he and the train aren't behind that gap.
a bit late (that quote is from the Brussels Cycling Classic), but I just read about it in an interview with Copeland:
"This [the points system] changes everything, also the way you run. [...] I give an example. Last week we did a race in Belgium. There was a breakaway of a dozen runners in front. They had a minute, and the gap could have been closed. We had four riders in the group behind, including two which could have won. But because of the composition of the break, we decided that we'd prefer to let them go to the line, rather than take risks, favoring others in the peloton who were more dangerous. Those who were in front were no direct rivals for our ranking. And this way of running is clearly negative."
Punti, gare, retrocessioni: che caos questo ranking. Parola a Brent Copeland
Con Copeland, team manager della BikeExchange-Jayco, parliamo del ranking a squadre UCI e del sistema (discutibile) dei punti
bici.pro
Absolutely moronic. For this alone they'd deserve to be relegated.
I also do not understand why BEX rode the Belgian races instead of ZLM Tour.
a bit late (that quote is from the Brussels Cycling Classic), but I just read about it in an interview with Copeland:
"This [the points system] changes everything, also the way you run. [...] I give an example. Last week we did a race in Belgium. There was a breakaway of a dozen runners in front. They had a minute, and the gap could have been closed. We had four riders in the group behind, including two which could have won. But because of the composition of the break, we decided that we'd prefer to let them go to the line, rather than take risks, favoring others in the peloton who were more dangerous. Those who were in front were no direct rivals for our ranking. And this way of running is clearly negative."
Punti, gare, retrocessioni: che caos questo ranking. Parola a Brent Copeland
Con Copeland, team manager della BikeExchange-Jayco, parliamo del ranking a squadre UCI e del sistema (discutibile) dei punti
Absolutely moronic. For this alone they'd deserve to be relegated.
They literally couldve won a bunch of points on their rivals, especially LTS who didn't have any sprinter there. Beyond stupid.
And Cofidis had only Zingle, Consonni and Allegaert left by the end, Israel had only Nizzolo, and EF and Movistar weren't even there to begin with. So either Copeland has zero faith in Matthews and Groves' sprinting ability or he has no common sense and/or basic math skills. It's amazing just how dumb a lot of the people in charge at the teams at risk are, but this has to take the cake. It must be infuriating for the riders to have to follow such orders on the regular...
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I just can't believe that was actually the reason. I'm hoping he's just BSing or we're going to see a lot of weird stuff from BEX the upcoming months. Literally could've won circa 210-130 points on those teams if they closed the gap.
Actually hilarious that they asked for last minute invites to those "easy" Belgian races over the weekend and went back home with exactly 3 points that count.
To be fair in Saturday's race, Groves was looking strong with 30kms to go, even attacking to bridge up to the breakaway until he punctured on the gravel which was the end of his race - In saying that the rest of the team was rubbish - They had all the riders up their with 2kms to go in Sunday's race but the lead out got lost in the run in.
I don't rate Copeland and while his comments seem moronic, it's more moronic, that the points system gives two or three times more points than a first division race - It's a flawed system which needs repairing and what is more irritating is that riders programs are being affected - For example, Sep Van Marcke is denied a Grand Tour to chase points in a third division race or Valverde has to break his holiday to ride Ventoux Challenge and the Mini Libere.
Copeland's view ( or was it misreporting ) about the Brussels Classic is wrong - There was an initial break and the peleton - Then a group of around 8 including Matthews escaped from the peleton and chased the front group - Unfortunately they never got to the front group and were brought back to the peleton - Ideally you would hope the second group gets to the front group but this does not always happen - There was nothing wrong with Bex'x tactics at the Brussels Classic - BEX's biggest issue is they don't work hard enough to get into breaks, especially in one day races - For example, why isn't Matthews in the break today at Suisse as he 's six minutes down on GC
Didn't make a thread for it because there was little interest last year (and I didn't have much time), but also up today is the first stage of Route d'Occitanie. Seems that every organiser bar Switzerland decided to put a sprint stage today.
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There's an excellent racecentre on the official site, the race is also on Eurosport/GCN.
There's an excellent racecentre on the official site, the race is also on Eurosport/GCN.
Démare does what he was expected to and wins. Close sprint though, Pierre Barbier wasn't too far off.
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