Watching the peloton - Professional Road Racing thread 2026

4km to go, Jonas at 0:55 over a group with Bernal, Hindley, Gall, and Arensman. Storer +1:15, Eulalio at 2:05. Rain at the summit.
 
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1km to go. Hindley on the front of the chase trying to drop Gall. Arensman hanging on. Piganzoli and Bernal dropped. Gee catches the group. Eulalio at 2:50.
 
Jonas was going super hard in the last 1km and finishes clear. Gall, Hindley, Arensman, Gee, Piganzoli, Bernal. The gap from Jonas to Gall was up to 1:30 but dropped back to 1:09 at the finish.
 
Gall going steady eddie on these mountains and good to see. Pellizarri blows up and is back out at 19th GC dropping 13 places. He must be ill. Arensman & Hindley up to 3rd and 4th. Eulalio slips to 5th but still climbing well. Bernal claws way back into top ten, O'Connor not climbing at his best, still just inside top ten.
 
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Jonas really worked hard for today's big CG time gain. One commentator brought up stage greed toward the end. Pogi's faced the same criticism many times.

But Matt made 2 points that really resonated with me:

1. This is pro racing. If you can win a stage — and it make sense to burn the energy and take the attending risks — you should go for it.

2. The Giro is famous for surprises in the final week, and 2 minutes can easily be lost in one ill-timed mechanical.

Personally, I think Jonas should go for the biggest CG win and as many Giro stages as he can get — if for no other reason, to build his own confidence for the TdF.
 
A win is a win. A Grand Tour stage win is no small thing. Commentators have too much time to fill on air and talk bollox to fill the space. Used be in France or Italy if you won a single stage of TdF or Giro it was your ticket to open a bar or a restaurant when you retired, stick your bike on the wall, frame the jersey hang that beside it. It brought local fame, because it's a bloody big deal. - 180 or so riders start, how many ever get a stage win? And cycling - comparatively - is a poor sport, it's also been one where traditionally even as an amateur you always get hard cash prizes for winning. In my area of rural Munster (bottom part of Ireland) when there were the succession of summer crits - the v popular 'round-the-houses' races in the '80s, often a van with bikes would pull up having driven down from one of the big Dublin clubs with sharp fast riders here to swoop up all the prize money- £70-£120 for a win in old Irish punts - a lot back in the 80s. They'd even pop up at remote Wednesday evening crits if there was the sniff of money. My late father who had been a champion middle distance runner was sniffy about cash prizes in amateur sport - but I used point out the cabinets chock full of silver cutlery in the good room that he had won running! In short winning is winning and money is money in such a tough unforgiving sport and you grab it while you can.
 
@Rás Cnoic you are bringing back great memories. The 80's was when I started my racing career and at the pro-am level (pros racing in the same field as top ranked amateurs), fields at the big races were full, there were thousands of dollars up for grabs, and the racing was insanely fast. Most of the guys that were in the field raced for a meager living, as you described. I was a full time engineer, which was unusual. What was not unusual was coming home with hundreds of dollars in prize money. It paid for nice wheels, expensive silk tubulars, and replacements for shredded clothing. The biggest National Calendar races were front loaded with European domestiques who would spend weeks here living the van life. They would get paid a thousand or so dollars each in start money just to line up and to give the announcer something to crow about. Brits, Irish, Danes, and French were popular imports. Some of the Irish stayed, and a few of them became friends.
 
Today's stage is a 200km slog on a basically uphill course. Three category 3 climbs are the features. Narvaez has a great shot to get his 4th stage win. Will he be labeled "greedy"? We shall see.
 
24km to go. Four out front including Christen with a large group including Narvaez 25s back. The peloton is 6:12 back. Looks like another UAE win.
 
I had to switch to Multiscreen because it was getting so confusing about who was where. Three lead groups are within 1m of each other. Rubio and Valgren in the lead. Christen in a group of four 9s back. Narvaez in a chase group with teams up the road now 45s back. The peloton is 5:56 back. Narvaez and Movistar are clearly blocking in Chase 3.
 
Valgren pulling hard, but Rubio looks stronger. Arietta breaks free of Chase 1 and catches the leaders. Chase 1 with Christen is 54s back, Chase 2 with Narvaez is 1:58 back. 2km to go.
 
Now Chase 1 has caught the leaders minus Christen. 6 riders going for the stage win. Valgren attacks with 1km to go. Leknessund chasing.
 
Valgren wins it clear. In his pre-race interview, he said that he was going for it. Leknessund 2nd, not sure about 3rd. Narvaez wins the chase group sprint about 1:40 down.

Absolutely outstanding racing today. There's more than Visma and UAE in this race.
 
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stompandgo said:
Valgren wins it clear. In his pre-race interview, he said that he was going for it. Leknessund 2nd, not sure about 3rd. Narvaez wins the chase group sprint about 1:40 down.

Absolutely outstanding racing today. There's more than Visma and UAE in this race.
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Nice to see a smalll team get the honours and great for Valgren.
 
Today is another opportunity for Narvaez and those marking him. 168km, mainly flat to rolling, with one category 3 and one category 4 climb. The thing is, the category 4 climb is basically a wall, 1km at 12% right before the finish. The bigger guys like Ganna and Milan can't sag climb it, as they will never catch the leaders before the finish. The Giro is known for unique stages, and this one is one of them.

Two riders up the road with 25s at 150km to go.
 
Eulalio crashes in the feed zone on his already injured arm. He's back up and running. It looks like the loop on his musette got caught in his right shifter. He is with a group 3:00 back.
 
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