Watching the peloton - Professional Road Racing thread 2026

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The break is caught. A solo rider is dangling off the front. Lidl, Visma, NSN driving the front. 20km to go. Where is Ganna?
 
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The climb is about to start. INEOS, Unibet, Lidl, driving. Now on the climb.

Eulalio attacks and is clear. Kuss pacing Jonas. Narvaez and Milan still near the front.
 
Jonas attacks 200m from the summit and takes the KOM. He is staying in the top three. About a dozen riders have opened a gap of 10 seconds. Milan, Narvaez, and Magnier in the field. Bernal, Gall, and Hindley next to Jonas.
 
Eulalio attacks to bridge. Rain at the finish. Gap at 15s. 4.5km to go. Eulalio rides through the leaders to take the lead with another rider. Gap to 7s.
 
Magnier with the win after Milan checked up behind Magnier's last leadout man. Absolutely perfect execution. Magnier 3 wins, Milan zero.
 
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That was clinical. Only caught the last 5km will try and see proper highlights later. So 2 big juicy mountain days to go then Rome and maybe Magnier will make it 4 at the colusseum!
 
Love it! Had to leave at 10 km out. At that time, the commentators were saying that Magnier had little chance on the final wall.

As with weather forecasters, I've learned to put no stock in their predictions. But I do admire their perseverance.
 
Today is the queen stage, which is typically the most difficult stage near the end of the race that will decide the GC winner. A category 1 climb after a long run uphill, followed by four category 2 climbs, one at the finish. I am working today, so no race reporting after 09:00. I will try and put it on in the shop.
 
The peloton has split on the first category 1 climb. A number of GC contenders are up the road, along with Kuss, with the rest of Visma leading the main group at 1:16. No threat yet to GC.
 
It was quite busy at the shop today, but I was able to watch bits and pieces of the last 25km. Once I read the post-race interviews, it all made sense. Jonas was not the only Visma rider doing the Giro with a mission. Sepp Kuss has won one or more stages in the TdF and the Vuelta, but not the Giro. He wanted the stage victory trilogy. Kudos to Visma to let Sepp do his thing with the leaders and have the rest of the team support Jonas to defend the GC lead. Both situations worked perfectly. Sepp won the stage completely clear, and Jonas and his team fended off multiple attacks by Bora and Decathlon to keep his GC lead intact. That was a UAE style move, even though the pundits are crowing about how Tadej won six stages in his last Giro. Sorry for being abrasive, but STFU.

Speaking of UAE, Narvaez crashed solo on his way to sign-in today. Supposedly, he was hurting enough to withdraw. He accomplished what he was going to do, so good on him. Heal up for the Tour, we want to see you there.
 
stompandgo said:
Kudos to Visma to let Sepp do his thing with the leaders and have the rest of the team support Jonas to defend the GC lead. Both situations worked perfectly. Sepp won the stage completely clear, and Jonas and his team fended off multiple attacks by Bora and Decathlon to keep his GC lead intact.
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Thanks, I'll keep an eye out for that action when I watch the replay tonight.

stompandgo said:
Speaking of UAE, Narvaez crashed solo on his way to sign-in today. Supposedly, he was hurting enough to withdraw. He accomplished what he was going to do, so good on him. Heal up for the Tour, we want to see you there.
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Man, if Narvaez didn't have bad luck, he wouldn't have any luck at all!

This is his 3rd crash in 2026! The January crash in the UAE Tour, also solo, resulted in multiple vertebral compression fractures. As a retired MD, I recommend avoiding these.
;^}
 
Yes I've been busy with family (half term) so have only caught the short YT highlights which never tells the full story & all the excitement is drained out of it. Very pleased that Sepp K gets a reward for all his climbing dom work. A stage in all 3 tours is no mean feat plus his Vuelta GC win. I do still wonder how high he could have got as a protected rider, say as a team leader on a different team? He doesn't have the TT chops but being team leader can help that focus and there was only the one TT this time. He would surely have climbed into a podium spot. Visma have played a safe but professional game in this race, banking on Jonas having the form, which he has. I don't think Adam Yates would have matched him here, probably would have also been fighting for a podium spot with the rest. Is Felix Gall riding the Tour? and will he be ok about taking the role of mountain dom to the wunderkid Seixas?! Just looked up his program and no Tour listed, but he is going for the Vuelta, pretty good move, he'll have a chance there if he keeps this form & depending who else turns up. Jai Hindley battled back brilliantly and is poised to take third. He is riding the Tour in a top heavy Boro with Remco and Lipowitz- makes for interesting musical chairs there. Arensman has also had a good tour, if he can keep 4th today then that's his best result, twice 6th and with no great help from Ineos really, though once Bernal blew his chances, he did help and is facing 10th spot if he can hang on. Top 10 in any grand tour is a career highlight.

Eulalio is on 6th just losing a 5th position yesterday but again if he can keep climbing & fighting like he has is pretty guaranteed a top ten spot - a fantastic result and who knows he might today reclaim 5th spot anything can and does happen.

The 2 climbs today look enormous and especially with the tired legs, knackered brains, going to be a lot of desperate efforts to hang onto GC positions or try and do better, one final push. Sprinters will be cursing it in the slow slog of the grupetto, their minds on Rome.
 
I had the best seat in the house when Sepp Kuss won the Tour of Utah. His descending speed into Park City hit 73mph. Being a top rider on a top team is a blessing and a curse. He spoke a bit about how important that win was to him, because he keeps getting faster, but so does everybody else. Like Jonas, he is towards the end of his career.

There's talk about letting Piganzoli go today to try and take the climber's jersey away from Eulalio. Today's course is a bit unique in that they climb the category 1 Piancavallo twice, with the second time being the finish.

I am volunteering as a mechanic today for the Boston Best Buddies ride, but I will have my hotspot phone and tablet to watch as much of the race as I can. This should be a very interesting stage.
 
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