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UAE Tour 2021, February 21 - February 27

Page 14 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Also, Tadej Pogacar is still the current Slovenian ITT national champion. And his bike reflects that, but he was wearing the young leader's jersey on behald of David Dekker (Almeida was wearing the points yersey)

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Strange. You are allowed to wear your national jersey instead of place-holding a classification jersey for someone else. I guess it's because the race has such a big significance to the team that he didn't go with the national jerseys.
 
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Also, Tadej Pogacar is still the current Slovenian ITT national champion. And his bike reflects that, but he was wearing the young leader's jersey on behald of David Dekker (Almeida was wearing the points yersey)

Eu2BBmIXEAEKHTf

I learned yesterday in the Tour du Var thread, that neck problems don't actually have to occur in your neck.
Now I'm wondering about where my nakheel is located.
 
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Strange. You are allowed to wear your national jersey instead of place-holding a classification jersey for someone else. I guess it's because the race has such a big significance to the team that he didn't go with the national jerseys.

What's even more strange is that he hasn't even worn it yet at all since he got it. The only other ITT he did last year was that now famous 20th stage of the Tour. And he was in the young leader's jersey there as well. :)
 
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What's even more strange is that he hasn't even worn it yet at all since he got it. The only other ITT he did last year was that now famous 20th stage of the Tour. And he was in the young leader's jersey there as well. :)

Maybe that's why he didn't wear it. If he's the supersticious type, he might have decided that wearing a young leader's jersey during an ITT clearly brings good luck! Or, more precisely; the leader of the whole damn thing jersey.
 
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It's a brand new cycle track, on a almost new island. Their motto being, if you build it, they will come.

"The Al Hudayriat Island project was a decade in the making, with the first phase of the beach and entertainment area officially opening in 2018. The island is part of a new city development that will include commercial attractions and housing for Emiratis.

Located at the end of the suspension, which is also jokingly referred to as the bridge that now leads to somewhere, the island has become a favourite tourist attraction and a great spot for residents to relax on weekends."

More:
 
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I'm actually hoping since a lot of people lost time in the crosswinds, that we see a large breakaway. I doubt the GC teams will want to chase it just for the sake of a stage win, and the sprint teams won't as well.

Also tomorrow will be a lot hotter, 30C and also about 20km/h wind from the north.

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Unless they allow a break to get far enough ahead that someone from the break wins the stage. It's very possible for a break that everyone is over 8 minutes down could get 4-5 minutes at the base of the last climb and if a good climber is in that break he could stay away and win.
This race is the least suited to breakaways in the history of stage races. You have two _ _ _ _ / stages (OK the 2nd one is not completely flat in the first part) and three flat stages left for sprinters. While I believe there is a small chance for a breakaway win on stage 5, I think the only successful breakaway we'll see is potentially like the one on stage 1, when the strongest group of riders got clear in the wind. For tomorrow I don't think INEOS and UAE will leave any room to the breakaway and rightfully so. That's way the decision of the chasing group to give up on chasing on stage 1 is as stupid as it gets.

Watch now Meintjes win from the breakaway tomorrow.
 
This race is the least suited to breakaways in the history of stage races. You have two _ _ _ _ / stages (OK the 2nd one is not completely flat in the first part) and three flat stages left for sprinters. While I believe there is a small chance for a breakaway win on stage 5, I think the only successful breakaway we'll see is potentially like the one on stage 1, when the strongest group of riders got clear in the wind. For tomorrow I don't think INEOS and UAE will leave any room to the breakaway and rightfully so. That's way the decision of the chasing group to give up on chasing on stage 1 is as stupid as it gets.

Watch now Meintjes win from the breakaway tomorrow.


Thus meaning that this is a 100% pointless race for virtually everyone who is at the race at this point and there will NOT be close to good racing at all because no one is going to care. Thank you for proving my point that this is a worthless race after stage one.
Movistar actually said today that we're just here for training and hoping to go home without any injuries. Sounds like a team with no motivation to being there. I expect most teams to have that line of thinking.
 
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Thus meaning that this is a 100% pointless race for virtually everyone who is at the race at this point and there will NOT be close to good racing at all because no one is going to care. Thank you for proving my point that this is a worthless race after stage one.
Movistar actually said today that we're just here for training and hoping to go home without any injuries. Sounds like a team with no motivation to being there. I expect most teams to have that line of thinking.

I don't know if they said it like that. If they said it - well, from one point of view which cannot be discussed here I agree, but to enter a WT race with seven stages without the motivation to do anything there sounds very negligent. A WT team shouldn't think like that.
 
I expected a bit more from Jonathan Milan, last season he put 58sec into Tiberi in a 25.6km long ITT in the U23 NC and he was up there with Leknessund in that really short ITT in Okolo Slovenska.
He might be one of those guys who take some time (and racing) to get into shape. He was kinda meh last year in San Juan as well.

BTW I don't think Tiberi was in particularly good shape during the U23 NC last year.
 
Thus meaning that this is a 100% pointless race for virtually everyone who is at the race at this point and there will NOT be close to good racing at all because no one is going to care. Thank you for proving my point that this is a worthless race after stage one.
Movistar actually said today that we're just here for training and hoping to go home without any injuries. Sounds like a team with no motivation to being there. I expect most teams to have that line of thinking.

I don't think any points were proven by one poster saying that the stages are not ideally designed for breakaways.

I don't remember you spewing this much hatred towards the race in 2018 or 2019. Wonder why.
 
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I don't know if they said it like that. If they said it - well, from one point of view which cannot be discussed here I agree, but to enter a WT race with seven stages without the motivation to do anything there sounds very negligent. A WT team shouldn't think like that.

Movistar's boss has flat out said if they weren't required to go to cobbled races they wouldn't. It's far from the first time they have gone to races they have no interest in doing anything at all on. The direct quote is "We're just here to gain racing pace". That really doesn't sound like any motivation to be there other than to get a payday from the organizers who pay teams and star riders appearance fees to show up.
 
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Thus meaning that this is a 100% pointless race for virtually everyone who is at the race at this point and there will NOT be close to good racing at all because no one is going to care. Thank you for proving my point that this is a worthless race after stage one.
Movistar actually said today that we're just here for training and hoping to go home without any injuries. Sounds like a team with no motivation to being there. I expect most teams to have that line of thinking.
I haven't proved your point at all. If you say it's worthless, it doesn't make it worthless. If it's worthless for Movistar, OK. But that doesn't make it worthless for Ganna, Yates, Bjerg, Dekker, Cattaneo, Almeida, Gaviria, Bennett, etc... It's a WT race, there are stage wins still up for grabs, there is still a GC win and top3 to be decided. Stage 1 is already a strong candidate for stage of the year. Now that this race doesn't have cycling history and same prestige as some older races, now that's another story. But that doesn't mean the racing has to be bad.
 
Movistar's boss has flat out said if they weren't required to go to cobbled races they wouldn't. It's far from the first time they have gone to races they have no interest in doing anything at all on. The direct quote is "We're just here to gain racing pace". That really doesn't sound like any motivation to be there other than to get a payday from the organizers who pay teams and star riders appearance fees to show up.

Wow. I mean, I would try to get some points if I were them, this season. Are they so confident?
 
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Movistar's boss has flat out said if they weren't required to go to cobbled races they wouldn't. It's far from the first time they have gone to races they have no interest in doing anything at all on. The direct quote is "We're just here to gain racing pace". That really doesn't sound like any motivation to be there other than to get a payday from the organizers who pay teams and star riders appearance fees to show up.
It represents all that is wrong with Movistar though.
 
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