Race Thread

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Neither Wout nor Pidcock are racing CX Worlds with MVDP so I'd expect their form continues rising towards the Spring Classics and MVDP form falls off a bit perhaps? Saying that though, Wout's big objective this year seems to be Giro GC/Stages and Pidcock's entire season is focused on Tour de France.
i wouldnt count on it. No falling off happened in the previous years VDP did the cyclocross season. Even when he won Amstel Gold Race and did a FAR longer cross campaign then this year.

They know what they are doing
 
No, Van Aert has said that his main goal are the cobbled classics and there will be no Giro GC just stages. He still has plenty of time to improve his condition ahead of the classics but I see no reason to believe Van der Poel won't arrive there in top shape either.

Pidcock quite disappointing today has to be said, Van der Poel once again looking magnificent.

Awesome podium for Ava Holmgren in the women's race.
Whenever Jumbo & Wout say they're not trying to win something, take it they are. It happened several times last year that's the game jumbo always play, same as Roglic always says he's' tired and not going for the stage and then does.But I'll admit Roubaix fits into Wout building for Giro so no reason he can't aim for that too as will Pidcock probably as he can build back up again for July from April.
 
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i wouldnt count on it. No falling off happened in the previous years VDP did the cyclocross season. Even when he won Amstel Gold Race and did a FAR longer cross campaign then this year.

They know what they are doing
Just different approaches. MVDP will hopefully hold his form as long as possible into the classics, but he wouldn't e.g. be aiming for stages in Giro, he won't last that long, so his progression is very different to Wout this year as can be seen in the results already in CX.
 
Just different approaches. MVDP will hopefully hold his form as long as possible into the classics, but he wouldn't e.g. be aiming for stages in Giro, he won't last that long, so his progression is very different to Wout this year as can be seen in the results already in CX.
Different approaches maybe but this year, more than any other recently, is one where both riders' targets are most closely aligned (spring classics, Olympics, worlds, no Tour).
 
Whenever Jumbo & Wout say they're not trying to win something, take it they are. It happened several times last year that's the game jumbo always play, same as Roglic always says he's' tired and not going for the stage and then does.But I'll admit Roubaix fits into Wout building for Giro so no reason he can't aim for that too as will Pidcock probably as he can build back up again for July from April.

Do you realize that Uijtdebroeks will be Visma's GC leader at the Giro?

Plus, Pidcock won't be at Roubaix, he will be doing the Ardennes classics instead as he should given that he weighs 58kg...
 
Whenever Jumbo & Wout say they're not trying to win something, take it they are. It happened several times last year that's the game jumbo always play, same as Roglic always says he's' tired and not going for the stage and then does.But I'll admit Roubaix fits into Wout building for Giro so no reason he can't aim for that too as will Pidcock probably as he can build back up again for July from April.
Roglic is indeed prone to a bit of sandbagging, but other than that? Jumbo usually clearly formulate their goals. And GC in the Giro for Wout is not one of them. He really doesn't believe he can do it... and I think he's right. He's 76 kgs at his very lightest, that's way too much for a GT contender.
 
Watching the parts of the women's race at Baal that I had missed earlier. It's really quite annoying how poor of a job the Lidl-Trek designers did with Ava Holmgren's national championship jersey.
I think the Lidl logo gets in the way.......Santini have designed Canadian national jerseys before; Emily Batty's when she was still at TFR......From memory it had a large maple leaf on the front.

When the Holmgrens signed for Lidl-Trek, most of us assumed they would race CX with Sven's Baloise-Trek team; but nothing was ever announced.......Any reason why they won't? Philipsen has said he won't race CX for Baloise, but Lidl-Trek.......
 
I think the Lidl logo gets in the way.......Santini have designed Canadian national jerseys before; Emily Batty's when she was still at TFR......From memory it had a large maple leaf on the front.

When the Holmgrens signed for Lidl-Trek, most of us assumed they would race CX with Sven's Baloise-Trek team; but nothing was ever announced.......Any reason why they won't? Philipsen has said he won't race CX for Baloise, but Lidl-Trek.......
Maybe the Holmgrens aren't interesting for a sponsor like Baloise? Like every sponsor in cyclocross, their sponsorship is focused on the Belgian market. They have a healthy Dutch contingent but at least Baloise also operates in the Netherlands (although the exposure there is quite minimal).
 
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Maybe the Holmgrens aren't interesting for a sponsor like Baloise? Like every sponsor in cyclocross, their sponsorship is focused on the Belgian market. They have a healthy Dutch contingent but at least Baloise also operates in the Netherlands (although the exposure there is quite minimal).

Good point, which I did wonder about - as I mentioned previously, Pidcock was the last non Benelux rider they had.
 
I think the Lidl logo gets in the way.......Santini have designed Canadian national jerseys before; Emily Batty's when she was still at TFR......From memory it had a large maple leaf on the front.

When the Holmgrens signed for Lidl-Trek, most of us assumed they would race CX with Sven's Baloise-Trek team; but nothing was ever announced.......Any reason why they won't? Philipsen has said he won't race CX for Baloise, but Lidl-Trek.......

I was wondering the same…is it because Trek-Baloise already has a full roster? I don’t know what the max team size is for cyclocross?
The commentators mentioned yesterday that Ryan Kamp is being supported by the Roodhofts but that they didn’t have spots left on their teams for him, so kinda similar…?
 
I was wondering the same…is it because Trek-Baloise already has a full roster? I don’t know what the max team size is for cyclocross?
The commentators mentioned yesterday that Ryan Kamp is being supported by the Roodhofts but that they didn’t have spots left on their teams for him, so kinda similar…?
The Roodhoofts do something similar where they have a specific WT team (for the women, Fenix-Deceuninck) and multiple specific cyclocross teams. In cyclocross Puck Pieterse rides for Fenix, but Alvarado rides for Alpecin. On social media this is especially confusing since even though they're basically on the same team, Pieterse's wins don't get a mention on the Alpecin account but Alvarado's wins do. When Alvarado rides on the road however, she rides for Fenix as well.
 
I was wondering the same…is it because Trek-Baloise already has a full roster? I don’t know what the max team size is for cyclocross?
The commentators mentioned yesterday that Ryan Kamp is being supported by the Roodhofts but that they didn’t have spots left on their teams for him, so kinda similar…?

max team size for a pro cyclo cross team is 16, but most seem to stick to around just 10 riders, I suspect theres probably financial costs the UCI extracts per rider or size of team as well, and it just gets too complicated to drop a couple of riders into a cyclocross team, youre supposed to get tri party contracts between rider and both teams to do it, just for a few races unless theyre really marketing those riders specifically for those cyclocross sponsors.

and both Holmgrens are arguably more valuable to market for Lidl Trek, not Baloise Trek, reasons.
 
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The Roodhoofts do something similar where they have a specific WT team (for the women, Fenix-Deceuninck) and multiple specific cyclocross teams. In cyclocross Puck Pieterse rides for Fenix, but Alvarado rides for Alpecin. On social media this is especially confusing since even though they're basically on the same team, Pieterse's wins don't get a mention on the Alpecin account but Alvarado's wins do. When Alvarado rides on the road however, she rides for Fenix as well.

well Alvarado is registered for the Alpecin cyclocross team, whilst Puck isnt, even though Alvarado rides for the same Fenix road team, but thats why Puck rides for Fenix and Alvarado rides for Alpecin in cyclocross

and youll probably find Alvarado is only registered for Alpecin cyclocross, to meet the UCI cyclocross team rules they must have one female rider for the team, in future Puck may end up being registered as well for Alpecin.

but there are probably also rules the UCI focus on between teams like Alpecin & Fenix to ensure they keep themselves as distinct entities, hence no cross promotion between the two brands whilst competing, even though they share servicing I think.
 
well Alvarado is registered for the Alpecin cyclocross team, whilst Puck isnt, even though Alvarado rides for the same Fenix road team, but thats why Puck rides for Fenix and Alvarado rides for Alpecin in cyclocross

and youll probably find Alvarado is only registered for Alpecin cyclocross, to meet the UCI cyclocross team rules they must have one female rider for the team, in future Puck may end up being registered as well for Alpecin.

but there are probably also rules the UCI focus on between teams like Alpecin & Fenix to ensure they keep themselves as distinct entities, hence no cross promotion between the two brands whilst competing, even though they share servicing I think.
Puck actually used to be registered for Alpecin, for this season she's switched to Fenix. It all seems to be quite random. With the Roodhoofts I'm surprised they're able to keep track themselves.