Paris-Nice 2026, March 8-15

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Jul 27, 2009
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I was only being half serious with the point being that in 2016 nobody knew that Thomas in retrospective would become quite a handy general classification contender.

Same goes for Martinez. Maybe he becomes a fantastic pure climber on his day with a nice kick to secure points for the polka dots jersey. Sounds entirely legit to me. Then it's not a shame to lose a sprint against Martinez after he had a great day and was able to hang on.

After all that's exactly what he did to Almeida at Romandie last year!
 
Sep 5, 2016
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Haters gotta hate!
I will push the Taylor Swift lyric one step further... Lol..
Weird to me that there is a narrative that makes Roglic ( others) of little to no use unless he is capable of the podium. Might just be something I see, but from what I have known of bike racing, racers they lose way, way more than they win and there is still value in racing that doesn't result in a win.
 
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Apr 16, 2009
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Chapeau to both Martínez today. Great effort from both of them.

That said, nowadays in almost every race there is talk about the “low level” of the competition. Supposedly, below Pogi there’s almost no level. Fine — we have Jonas and now El Matador. But that’s about it. People say Ayuso would have provided better competition. Well, he couldn’t even stay on his bike, so what? And what about Remco? The last time I saw him at the Tour he was getting dropped and riding with the grupetto.

Were Onley, Vauquelin, Gaudu, and everyone else who showed up to the race in poor form? Who knows — and honestly, who cares? That’s not my problem, and it’s certainly not Jonas’ problem either.

It would be pretty funny if Martínez finishes second at the Giro behind Jonas, just like he did behind Pogačar. LOL.

Excuses, excuses, excuses.