UAE Tour 2024, February 19-25

[yaco]

Is there a greatest fluke of all time thread? Foss deserves one.

Meeus winning on the Champs Elysee after he was nowhere in the previous sprints.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Has Foss ever won another TT? I seriously think there must've been issues with the timer at the WC.

Norwegian championships.

He won the WCC by 3 seconds to Küng and 9 seconds to Evenepoel. The circuit was one with a few technical high speed corners. Foss was doing recons on the circuit a week before Küng got there and even longer before Evenepoel. It's obvious Foss won that WCC because he knew the corners better.

 

[Samamba]

McNulty
Vine +2
Foss +14
Kepplinger +16
Van Wilder +17
Bilbao +19
Armirail +20
Romeo +21
O Connor +22
Poole +27
Yates +28
Carr +32
Valter +35
Rodriguez +36
Storer +37
Rivera +38
Lemmen +42
Van Eetvelt +43
Quinn +48
Konrad +48
Sanchez +50
Tejada +50
Lopez +52
Vanhoucke +56
Vansevenant +57
Traeen +59
Lopez JP +59
Riccitello +1'02
Buchmann +1'03
Fernandez +1'11
Hirt +1'12
Benett +1'16
Rubio +1'19
Meintjes +1'20
Faure Prost +1'30
Pena 1'36
Elissonde 1'38

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

How much of an issue to a rider's recovery is it to be kept on the hot seat for hours? The corollary to that is, how overstated is the importance of warm down riding and post-event massage?

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

McNulty
Vine +2
Foss +14
Kepplinger +16
Van Wilder +17
Bilbao +19
Armirail +20
Romeo +21
O Connor +22
Poole +27
Yates +28
Carr +32
Valter +35
Rodriguez +36
Storer +37
Rivera +38
Lemmen +42
Van Eetvelt +43
Quinn +48
Konrad +48
Sanchez +50
Tejada +50
Lopez +52
Vanhoucke +56
Vansevenant +57
Traeen +59
Lopez JP +59
Riccitello +1'02
Buchmann +1'03
Fernandez +1'11
Hirt +1'12
Benett +1'16
Rubio +1'19
Meintjes +1'20
Faure Prost +1'30
Pena 1'36
Elissonde 1'38

If we take UAE's early season focus on this race into account, and the fact that McNulty likely had the best conditions of the top 10, Van Wilder's result in retrospect looks actually quite good after all. I think he is not in good enough form yet for Jebel Hafeet to take on Yates & co, but i think he has a good chance to win on Jebel Jais tbh. Sprint of a small group, he certainly has a shot.

 

[Samamba]

If we take UAE's early season focus on this race into account, and the fact that McNulty likely had the best conditions of the top 10, Van Wilder's result in retrospect looks actually quite good after all. I think he is not in good enough form yet for Jebel Hafeet to take on Yates & co, but i think he has a good chance to win on Jebel Jais tbh. Sprint of a small group, he certainly has a shot.

Yeah he's honestly my favorite if it's a sprint tomorrow.

 

[JosefK]

Nice ride by McNulty. First world tour TT win, yes? He always seems to be very good at time trials, but not quite at the elite level.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Nice ride by McNulty. First world tour TT win, yes? He always seems to be very good at time trials, but not quite at the elite level.

Giro and Paris Nice.

Yeah he's honestly my favorite if it's a sprint tomorrow.

Actually... Van Eetvelt could be there as well.

 

[JosefK]

Giro and Paris Nice.


Actually... Van Eetvelt could be there as well.

Those were great road-stage wins, for sure (at the 2023 Giro and in 2022 at Paris-Nice).

 

[Rob5091]

1,2 & 3 for UAE - chapeau!
https://cyclinguptodate.com/cycling...ontinues-impressive-start-to-2024-at-uae-tour

"We went out early because we saw that the wind was going to be less damaging at the start and we put our three best guys at the start (they didn't go out in reverse order of the standings, but one rider per team, so they could choose the order ed.)," McNulty explained post-stage.

 

[proffate]

Well it's the UAE Tour.

Perhaps the organizers paid a non-appearance fee to all the usual TT specialists

 

[scribers]

Crossed my mind!

 

[search]

"We went out early because we saw that the wind was going to be less damaging at the start and we put our three best guys at the start (they didn't go out in reverse order of the standings, but one rider per team, so they could choose the order ed.)," McNulty explained post-stage.

here's the result with split times:

The riders highlighted started in the 2nd half of the time trial, and the position from 17/20 of those in the 2nd column improved compared to their 1st split time.

So I guess it's fair to say that there was a bit of condition change indeed, but not sure how much of a difference it really made in the end.

 

[Cookster15]

Great ride by McKnulty and UAE taking the top three positions. Does this mean UAE have a better TT bike this year? Those wheels look wild? But not sure you could risk using that front wheel with possible strong side winds?

Also a good ride by Ben O'Conner to finish 11th @22'. O'Conner isn't known for having a good TT and also started in the 2nd half of the time trial. Hopefully Ben can hit his potential this season after two mediocre years. He will know more in another week.

 

[KZD]

Great performance from the UAE riders but curiously the one of their main riders that didn't have a particularly strong TT was Yates so its going to be interesting to see how they will handle the two MTF finishes. Kepplinger with a really good time too.

Foss once again showing that he is nothing more than a good time trialist.

 

[Lequack]

I can't believe that UAE finally have a great national champs jersey? I am shocked.

 

[joseph89]

Does this mean UAE have a better TT bike this year?

It's the same setup as last year albeit with new enve TT bars.

 

[tobydawq]

I can't believe that UAE finally have a great national champs jersey? I am shocked.

Still missing the opportunity of painting the disc wheel as Captain America's shield.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

BYR (not to be confused with BIR)

 

[Samamba]

Hmm looks like mostly cross and headwind on Jebel Jais I think?

So i guess I can't even hope something interestings happens. Well it's a lot of wind, maybe a super small chance some teams tries some echelon action earlier in the stage.

 

[search]

when I checked earlier on, it looked very calm to me, but with mostly a tailwind on the climb.

So basically the complete opposite?!

edit: more cross than tail on the climb, according to Windy, but still not too bad, I'd say

 

[Oldermanish]

How much of an issue to a rider's recovery is it to be kept on the hot seat for hours? The corollary to that is, how overstated is the importance of warm down riding and post-event massage?

If he was an overall contender it's likely his handlers got him hydrated and he did enough stretching to be all good. He can hop on his trainer for an hour and undo the legs. It's not like he finished a 6 hour stage in the 2nd week of a GT.

 

[Oldermanish]

It's the same setup as last year albeit with new enve TT bars.

His position looks pretty relaxed.

PS: except for where he's sitting on the saddle. Ow!

 

[proffate]

Great ride by McKnulty and UAE taking the top three positions. Does this mean UAE have a better TT bike this year? Those wheels look wild? But not sure you could risk using that front wheel with possible strong side winds?

The rules must have changed as that fairing between the bottom of the downtube and the seattube would not have been allowed a couple years back.

 

[Lequack]

Einer Rubio will win tomorrow, just like he did last year, ahead of Remco.