Well, those two stages are at least on the same day, although both are still ridiculously short.
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Browsing through old riders and races on PCS, I absolutely love semitappes despite never having watched one I believe. Wish ASO or RCS would do that again! Flat stages will finish in a sprint anyways, so why not just shorten one and bring in a 10-20 km ITT?
Not sure if these should go in the kits for '24 thread or here. But the inevitable one off jersey swaps for TdFF are coming in thick and fast.
Visma Lease a bike with an Oranje kit (at least it's not that godawful carpet renaissance one )
View: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-hpvJ3OPpW/
Human Powered Health with some Dutch art
View: https://www.instagram.com/p/C-dIUVJozIb/
And AGinsurance Soudal celebrating 200 years
View: https://www.instagram.com/p/C-crBFwMdsm/
Visma Lease a bike with an Oranje kit (at least it's not that godawful carpet renaissance one )
View: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-hpvJ3OPpW/
Human Powered Health with some Dutch art
View: https://www.instagram.com/p/C-dIUVJozIb/
And AGinsurance Soudal celebrating 200 years
View: https://www.instagram.com/p/C-crBFwMdsm/
Armchair Cyclist
Moderator
Stretching the definition of a national tour when 4 .5/8 stages are done before they enter the country. Still, so long as they can get some reflected glory by using the name.
And Faulkner has received a nice new bike.
View: https://x.com/EF_Oatly_Cdale/status/1822354887973466266
View: https://x.com/EF_Oatly_Cdale/status/1822354887973466266
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Hmm I can see Visma and St Michel are going to be tricky to separate from.the helicopter views 🤔
I did too especially as they did a photo shoot for it, though I guess it's stretching the Florence renaissance theme to Rotterdam. Or maybe they just didn't like it 🤣
And here's SDWorx with a new orange kit as well, I'm sensing a theme developing here...
View: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-iGWw0odfP/
View: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-iGWw0odfP/
Yep it's turning into the Tour de Hollande Femmes at this rate.
Dont for get Liv Alula Jayco are wearing the strip worn by the men in their RDF. It is ornage and yellow.
Kim Cadzow has tested positive for Covid, which is why EF only starts with 6 riders 
So half the peloton will be orange. Really turning into the Zwift theme. Gonna be strange tomorrow. When I’m used to the new jerseys the Tour will be over.
As an Australian I feel continually disappointed that I have to mildly pretend to like Jayco when they just pull their riders out of a hat for their biggest race of the year. Every other team makes sense then their team is just full of random riders 😅.
Posted earlier that it is a meh team and it continues their theme of not putting their best riders in the best races. Of course it was not helped by Manly, Baker and Paternoster having track commitments which made them unavaiable. Still at the same time, Paternoster has not ridden a GT in 2024. I would have selected Zigart who was good in the Giro and Gaskjenn.
I would have taken Zigart and Gaskjenn too but together with Manly they are all rumoured to be leaving which I don’t think Jayco are too happy about.
Just seems like a team with no focus and half of the riders have had very meh seasons.
Let's take a quick look at today's menu.
Stage 1: Rotterdam - Den Haag/Le Haye, 123 km
Start time: 12:45 CET
Expected finish time: Around 15:38
Temperatures: 28-32 °C, but it might feel hotter
Wind: 15-19 km/h from SEE. Gusts up to 32 km/h
As you can see, there's a nice day out on the Dutch roads in store for the peloton. It looks like a dead set bunch sprint, and we all know who's most likely to win in such a scenario. We can hope for 3 things on this stage: One is that the wind will be strong enough to cause splits and mayhem. However that will also require GC teams to be willing to work hard on the first day, and I don't know how likely that is to happen.
The second thing is that Lorena Wiebes and SD Worx will be challenged in the sprint. DSM with Charlotte Kool can do a better lead out on their best days, but that won't necessarily mean they'll be more likely to win than let's say Elisa Balsamo from Trek.
The final hope is that there won't be any major crashes, that will either influence the GC battle or severely injure riders. We've seen enough of that in other races.
Some riders will feel at home during this stage, and others will litterally be at home. Dutch champion and former World champion Chantal van den Broek-Blaak will probably be somewhere along the route or in the SDW team car, as she hasn't been selected for the race, but both former CX World champion Lucinda Brand, who hails from tomorrow's starting point in Dordrecht, and local flower girl Demi Vollering will both be able to enjoy the race first hand.
Stage 1: Rotterdam - Den Haag/Le Haye, 123 km
Start time: 12:45 CET
Expected finish time: Around 15:38
Temperatures: 28-32 °C, but it might feel hotter
Wind: 15-19 km/h from SEE. Gusts up to 32 km/h
As you can see, there's a nice day out on the Dutch roads in store for the peloton. It looks like a dead set bunch sprint, and we all know who's most likely to win in such a scenario. We can hope for 3 things on this stage: One is that the wind will be strong enough to cause splits and mayhem. However that will also require GC teams to be willing to work hard on the first day, and I don't know how likely that is to happen.
The second thing is that Lorena Wiebes and SD Worx will be challenged in the sprint. DSM with Charlotte Kool can do a better lead out on their best days, but that won't necessarily mean they'll be more likely to win than let's say Elisa Balsamo from Trek.
The final hope is that there won't be any major crashes, that will either influence the GC battle or severely injure riders. We've seen enough of that in other races.
Some riders will feel at home during this stage, and others will litterally be at home. Dutch champion and former World champion Chantal van den Broek-Blaak will probably be somewhere along the route or in the SDW team car, as she hasn't been selected for the race, but both former CX World champion Lucinda Brand, who hails from tomorrow's starting point in Dordrecht, and local flower girl Demi Vollering will both be able to enjoy the race first hand.
I still think the TDF Femmes should have been a week later as you have riders like Kopecky being forced to race. I am certain Liv Alula would have started Manly and Paternoster if not for the Olympics. Anyway, the mens team is having issues with riders being out of shape which has necessitated last minute changes in Poland and the Vuelta.
The whole set up has gotten quite embarrassing.
The problem is that the Vuelta starts next week but I think people are so oversaturated with sport that the ratings will be bad regardless.
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