podium for Hofstetter in Le Samyn today. nice showing
Yeah he did well. He told Direct Velo that he'd burnt a few matches earlier and that was why his sprint wasn't so good even though he was kinda on the wheel of Meeus.
It made up a little for what happened at KBK when he looked to be in prime position for a podium from the overhead shot ie. on Brennan's wheel, but when they switched back to the head-on camera, he'd disappeared and ended up back in 11th. He said it was a combination of getting pushed and then boxed - not sure who by.
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Girmay's results at the weekend were a disappointment. Only saw KBK and he looked off the pace there on the climbs. He's at PN next (provisionally). However I only see one (?) sprint stage and who knows if echelons could make that a tougher day.
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Kretschy held on easily in Rwanda. The parcour seemed a lot easier this year. I do wonder if the German could make a mid-season transfer up to the main team. Williams has his knee issues, Lutsenko is AWOL, Blackmore's only doing short rides on Strava. If they need an extra pair of dom legs for WT events.....
Obviously the rest of the team did well too in Rwanda with several stage wins. It was a good run-out from Tarling especially I thought. No real results last year for him, so it's good to see him getting involved and actually affecting the outcome of stages and the overall. Marti's GC was the only blemish. That's a few times now that he's shown this inconsistency. Maybe one-dayers and stages is all we can expect from him for the time being.
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Line-up for SB:
View: https://x.com/NSNCyclingTeam/status/2029501341265985760
Really not expecting anything from the race.