• The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

Rider schedules and targets for 2023 (also rumours and opinions allowed)

Page 6 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
This is the final nail in the coffin for Tibopino's GC ambitions. I really hope he can pull off a GT stage. But I'd also like to see him focus on classics from here on out, and train for them specifically.

Carapaz call is definitely a tricky one. He can certainly win the Giro again if Remco's climbing is not up to snuff, but if he only podiums, or worse, he'll likely be cooked for the Tour -- My call would be to do Tour-Vuelta for the exposure. If he utterly fails at the Tour, he can do something at the Vuelta. But a top 5 at the Tour means big TV time at least for the EF jersey in the leaders' group.

Not sure EF gets very much out of a stagehunting Carapaz at the Tour, especially since that's hardly a guaranteed win. As much as cycling fans and Italians love the Giro, in the wider world of marketing it's not significant. And he's already won the Giro...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan
The article also says, that Haig will do the tour, which would be new information, which I didn't find yet in another source. Could also be that they just mixed up Haig with Bilbao in the article..

There was an article on Feltet.dk recently about how Haig specifically doesn't want to do the Tour next year, after his... less-than-favourable encounters with the race the last two years.
 
  • Wow
Reactions: Sandisfan
Should be doing Het Nieuwsblad also, don't know why this race is more and more disrespected by riders.
A variety of reasons...
  • Very difficult to combine with a CX season, at least if you're doing the Worlds, which is a problem for this generation.
  • The new route has ripped the historical heart out of the race in an attempt to make a race that rarely finished in a sprint less sprinter-friendly... only to end up in a sprint in 2021 and almost in 2018 too. So the route is actually worse for the Flandrien types now.
  • It's no longer the biggest race in that part of the season because of the rise of Strade Bianche, so the punchier types will prioritize that. Which, in turn, helps the sprinters a little more.
IMO, the CX Worlds should be moved to the first half of January to accommodate this new, hybrid generation of riders so that both the Worlds itself and the first classics have the fields they deserve, and then for Omloop specifically the finish needs to return to Gent. What that won't change is that peaking for the monuments is and has always been very difficult to combine with being in winning form at Omloop, and that does seem to be weighing more heavily on the minds of riders in an era where the seemingly-endless trend of increasing specialization has been partially reversed and therefore the kind of rider that can win Omloop has more races to target than in the past, which makes it easier for such riders to skip Omloop.
 
Hindley is going to the Tour as a Leader. Buchmann will be his co Leader.

Vlasov is heading towards the Giro.
Would have also been my decision as team manager. Vlasov could be a real contender for Evenepoel, if he is in his top shape.

Buchmann pre-tour schedule also has been announced:

Mallorca Challenge, Oman, UAE, Tour Basque, Romandie, Dauphine and then Tour


In another article they are saying, that they want to go at the giro with a full GC focus and to the tour with a mix of GC and sprinter group. So Bennett and van Poppel are also planned for the tour.
Politt and Jungels scheduled for the spring classics. Jungels probably to the giro.

 
Last edited:
Would have also been my decision as team manager. Vlasov could be a real contender for Evenepoel, if he is in his top shape.

Buchmann pre-tour schedule also has been announced:

Mallorca Challenge, Oman, UAE, Tour Basque, Romandie, Dauphine and then Tour


In another article they are saying, that they want to go at the giro with a full GC focus and to the tour with a mix of GC and sprinter group. So Bennett and van Poppel are also planned for the tour.
Politt and Jungels scheduled for the spring classics. Jungels probably to the giro.

Seems like a pretty well thought out plan. Where does that leave Higuita and Schachmann?
 
  • Wow
Reactions: Sandisfan
Seems like a pretty well thought out plan. Where does that leave Higuita and Schachmann?
Higuita will have a similiar Race schedule than this year. Some hilly Classics, some one week Stage races. After the route is announced it ist possible that he will ride for the GC at the vuelta again.

If the route is not perfect for higuita (to many TT km) than it can be a good choice to go to the Tour as a Stage Hunter and a mountain domestique. But thats Just guessing.

Schachmann will do some Classics and more ist Not announced yet. I also think he can go to the Tour as a Stage Hunter and domestique. But the Most important thing for him is to get back in shape after all these set backs
 
Bora makes the right call. Vlasov can podium il Giro with the right support and given the parcours, while Hindley has "a perfect route" at France.

With so many ITT kms Vlasov could take a decent gap over the pure climbers and hold his own for the podium. Only Remco and Geraint Thomas are, on paper, best options than him (Roglic too if he finally targets it). Then you have a batch with Almeida, Vlasov, Caruso, Haig...

Regarding the classics, i would send Higuita, Vlasov and Schachmann as co-leaders. Can't think of much teams with a better possible line-up than Bora.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan
Nothing confirmed, but the more Roglic speaks, the more I'm drawing him on the TDF squad.
Doesn't it only make sense for Roglic to do the Tour again as part of the tag-team, and if all goes well (or not) the Vuelta again? Furthermore he just got surgery with months off the bike, so he'll be behind schedule if he'd be targeting the Giro and he wouldn't be a contender at the Tour after doing the Giro either (unless he'd do the Giro as some prep race, not for GC).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan

TRENDING THREADS