U23 races and talents

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Yep, Ayoso seems like the real deal. Turns pro this summer, right?

 

[Bushman]

Yep, Ayoso seems like the real deal. Turns pro this summer, right?

Yes, with UAE.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Yes, with UAE.

Well, Pogacar had a nice run. Nothing lasts forever.

 

[Bushman]

Well, Pogacar had a nice run. Nothing lasts forever.

I mean he is getting old, UAE needs a replacement soon enough.
Is Ayuso seen as a gc prospect? Sure, he can definitely climb but I dont know him that well. Seems rather punchy judging by his results as a junior as well? Might also just be the case that he was one of the best as a junior, since the best riders in the junior category often dominate on every terrain.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

I mean he is getting old, UAE needs a replacement soon enough.
Is Ayuso seen as a gc prospect? Sure, he can definitely climb but I dont know him that well. Seems rather punchy judging by his results as a junior as well? Might also just be the case that he was one of the best as a junior, since the best riders in the junior category often dominate on every terrain.

I don't really know. Lots of international junior races got cancelled last year as well and he hasn't done too many of those.

 

[Mayomaniac]

I mean he is getting old, UAE needs a replacement soon enough.
Is Ayuso seen as a gc prospect? Sure, he can definitely climb but I dont know him that well. Seems rather punchy judging by his results as a junior as well? Might also just be the case that he was one of the best as a junior, since the best riders in the junior category often dominate on every terrain.

According to a recent interview he prefers longer climbs.
Source: https://www.tuttobiciweb.it/article/2021/04/04/1617554587/trofeo-piva-juan-ayuso-colpack-uae-emirate

 

[Mayomaniac]

21 year old Alex Tolio just won the Strade Bianche di Romagna after a 50km long solo attack.

1. TOLIO Alex Zalf Euromobil Désirée Fior

2. VERRE Alessandro Colpack Ballan 42"

3. LUCCA Riccardo General Store Essegibi F.lli Curia 50"

4. HELLEMOSE Asbjorn Den - Velo Club Mendrisio 58"

5. GAROFOLI Gianmarco Team DSM Development 1'02"

6. PUPPIO Antonio Qhubeka Assos CT 1'05"

7. GINESTRA Lorenzo Aran Cucine Vejus 1'21"

8. ROMANO Francesco Velo Racing Palazzago 1'51"

9. GARAVAGLIA Giacomo Wokr Service Marhiol Vega 2'20"

10. BOTTA Davide Velo Club Mendrisio 2'24"

Source: https://www.tuttobiciweb.it/article...3/strade-bianche-romagna-alex-tolio-zalf-fior

 

[Mayomaniac]

Ayuso turned him himself inside out to win the final stage and the gc of the Giro di Romagna per Dante Alighieri.

Stage results:

1. Juan Ayuso Pesquera (Team Colpack Ballan) 124,3 km in 3h19'22" alla media di 37,406 km/h
2. Paul Double (Mg K-Vis-Vpm) a 13”
3. Michele Corradini (Viris Vigevano) a 19”
4. Riccardo Ciuccarelli (Biesse Arvedi) a 27”
5. Edoardo Zambanini (Zalf Euromobil Désirée Fior) a 35”
6. Asbjorn Hellemose (Vc Mendrisio) a 35”
7. Francesco Romano (Velo Racing Palazzago) a 38”
8. Alessandro Verre (Team Colpack Ballan) a 40”
9. Sean Quinn (Nazionale Usa) a 44”
10. Giacomo Garavaglia (Work Service Group Dynatek Vega) a 46”

The final gc:

1. Juan Ayuso Pesquera (Team Colpack Ballan)
2. Paul Double (Mg K-Vis-Vpm) a 21”
3. Francesco Romano (Velo Racing Palazzago) a 31”
4. Asbjorn Hellemose (Vc Mendrisio) a 1’08”
5. Michele Corradini (Viris Vigevano) a 1’15”
6. Alessandro Verre (Team Colpack Ballan) a 1’25”
7. Andrea Pietrobon (CT Friuli) 1’28”
8. Riccardo Ciuccarelli (Biesse Arvedi) a 1’31”
9. Giacomo Garavaglia (Work Service Group Dynatek Vega) a 1’35”
10. Edoardo Zambanini (Zalf Euromobil Désirée Fior) 1’39”

Source: https://www.tuttobiciweb.it/article/2021/04/24/1619272016/giro-di-romagna-2021-ayuso-

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Let's hope they do a decent job guiding him.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Let's hope they do a decent job guiding him.

He's gonna leave Colpack in a few months, so I'm not that worried. I have more faith in UAE than I have in Colpack.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Last weekend there was also the GP Industria & Commercio, a race that wasn't won by Ayuso (he finished 13th, back in the 2nd group).
The race was won by Paul Lapreira in a really close sprint form a 6 men group ahead of Jacopo Menegrotto.

I have to say that the race has a really interesting route, over 180km long and with 5 laps in on a hilly circuit (after an easy first part of the race) with the hard Muro di Ca' del Poggio before 12km of flat after the circuit.

The top 10:
1 LAPEIRA Paul Fra - Ag2r Citroen U23

2 MENEGOTTO Jacopo General Store Essegibi F.lli Curia

3 PETRUCCI Mattia Colpack Ballan

4 BENEDETTI Gabriele Zalf Euromobil Fior

5 HOCEVAR Krijstian Slo – Adria Mobil

6 MAIRE Adrien Fra – AVC Aix en Provence

7 RETAILLEAU Valentin Fra - Ag2r Citroen U23 - a 20"

8 GUZZO Federico Zalf Euromobil Désirée Fior

9 TOLIO Alex Zalf Euromobil Désirée Fior

10 BAUDIN Alex Fra - Ag2r Citroen U23

Full result:
https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/gp-industria-e-commercio2/2021

 

[batigol]

The final gc:

1. Juan Ayuso Pesquera (Team Colpack Ballan)

Not quite yet. There is still another stage tomorrow.

https://www.extragiro.it/tappa-4-2021/

 

[Mayomaniac]

Not quite yet. There is still another stage tomorrow.

https://www.extragiro.it/tappa-4-2021/

My bad, I messed up.

 

[LosBrolin]

It was a flat stage so GC remained pretty much the same. But here is the final GC of Giro di Romagna : https://firstcycling.com/race.php?r=15371&y=2021&l=1

Colpack is winning everywhere right now.

 

[Mayomaniac]

It was a flat stage so GC remained pretty much the same. But here is the final GC of Giro di Romagna : https://firstcycling.com/race.php?r=15371&y=2021&l=1

Colpack is winning everywhere right now.

It's mainly Ayuso, otherwise they aren't that much better than the other big teams on the Italian scene.

 

[Mayomaniac]

So the route of the U23 Giro has been released last week:

Stage 1: Cesenatico – Riccione (144 Km); a flat stage

Stage 2: Riccione – Imola (138,3 Km); a hilly stage with the final climb of the last WC before the finish

Stage 3: Cesenatico – Cesenatico (132,5 km); a Nove Colli stage, but not that hard

Stage 4: Sorbolo Mezzani – Guastalla ITT ( 25,4 km); a flat ITT

Stage 5: Fanano – Sestola (142 km); a medium mountain stage with the same finishing climb (4km at 10%) that tops with 2.5km to go as stage 4 of the "real" Giro

Stage 6: Bonferraro di Sorgà - San Pellegrino Terme (176 km); a downhill finish after the Selvino

Stage 7: Sondrio – Lago di Campo Moro (119,4 km); a MTF on this climb minus the first 2.6km:

Stage 8: Aprica – Andalo (115,5 km); an Andalo MTF (not that hard) with the Tonale from Ponte di Legno early on.

Stage 9: Cavalese – Nevegal (167,1 km); a mountain stage with the underrated Passo Valles right at the start before a double Nevegal ascent from the easier side

Stage 10: San Vito al Tagliamento – Castelfranco Veneto (162,7 km); the final stage, there is the Muro di Ca' del Poggio in the middle of the stage, but it's one for the sprinters.

You can find all the stages on La Flamme Rouge:
https://www.la-flamme-rouge.eu/maps/races/view/2021/184

 

[kingjr]

Meanwhile in Austria

 

[BlueRoads]

Meanwhile in Austria

Please let Luis-Joe Lührs never become a big one. That name is a tongue twister. Or I will just call him Lü.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Please let Luis-Joe Lührs never become a big one. That name is a tongue twister. Or I will just call him Lü.

I'm already hoping that we get a "Luis-Joe Lührsis the new Joe Louis" thread.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

I'm already hoping that we get a "Luis-Joe Lührsis the new Joe Louis" thread.

Luis-Joe Lührs is the Jerry Lee Lewis of cycling!

 

[Mayomaniac]

The route of the Tour de l'Avenir has been revealed.

Prologue	Friday 13 August	Charleville-Mézières Charleville-Mézières	iTT	5 km
Stage 1	Saturday 14 August	Charleville-Mézières Soissons	Flat	161 km
Stage 2	Sunday 15 August	Laon Laon	TTT	27 km
Stage 3	Monday 16 August	Château-Thierry Donnemarie-Dontilly	Flat	152 km
Stage 4	Tuesday 17 August	Provins Bar-le-Duc	Flat	186 km
Stage 5	Wednesday 18 August	Tomblaine Bar-sur-Aube	Flat	151 km
Stage 6	Thursday 19 August	Champagnole Septmoncel	Hilly	138 km
Stage 7	Friday 20 August	Saint-Vulbas Anglefort - Grand Colombier	Hilly	98 km
Stage 8	Saturday 21 August	La Tour-en-Maurienne Saint Jean d’Arves	Mountain	71 km
Stage 9	Sunday 22 August	La Toussuire Séez - Col du Petit Saint-Bernard	Mountain	154 km

Once again they have a stupid TTT in a race with national teams, that's really unfair towards the smaller nations, replace it with an ITT and I'm fine with it.
I'm also not a fan of having all those short mountain stages, but I have to say that the final of stage 8 is actually pretty good, if a harder, longer stage had a finish like that I'd be all for it.
Stage 9 is also the final chance for the climbers who lost time tim the TTT to go on a long range attack to crawl back some time.
Source: https://tourdelavenir.com/en/the-race/

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Is the descent from La Toussuire going to be the neutral zone on stage 9?

 

[Mayomaniac]

Is the descent from La Toussuire going to be the neutral zone on stage 9?

Apparently yes, La Toussuire is probably paying some money for that.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

TTTs are going extinct except for in the one race they really have no place.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Apparently yes, La Toussuire is probably paying some money for that.

I see that they were meant to have had a MTF on La Toussuire last year, and that all the stages seem to incorporate a lot of the 2020 route. La Toussuire would have featured at the end of what is now stage 8, so they might have been obligated to find a place for it somehow.