Watching the peloton - Professional Road Racing thread 2026

Fun fact
Together, Stages 6-8 involve about 35,000 ft of climbing over a total distance of 271 mi. That's 139 ft/mi on average, or 24.3 m/km.
 
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Jeremy McCreary said:
Sounds like we have some exciting watching ahead!

Tour de Suisse is June 17-21, streaming on FloBikes in the US. Does anybody ever race the Dauphine, Tour de Suisse, and TdF in one season?
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The Dauphine and the Tour, yes. The Tour de Suisse too? I don't think so. Remember that the Tour de France used to start at the end of June, when the Tour de Suisse wasn't in their current time slot. The UCI calendar is managed by the UCI. They do their best to prevent overlap of races, but that's impossible. So they make sure that the top Pro and UWT races are not overlapping and let the rest exist whenever the organizer wants.
 
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Jeremy McCreary said:
Watching Peacock's Stage 5 post-race coverage now.

1. Roll and CVV both giving Boudin a 50-50 chance to keep the jersey tomorrow.

2. Pre-race, they hung TONS of crepe around WVA's chances — not just in Stage 5, but for the rest of the Dauphine, and for the entire TdF, too! On and on they went.

But post-race, they were total WVA fanboys.* Typical Wout, they said, to come back from his recent crash and early drop in the Stage 3 TTT and win 2 stages later.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that there are 2 different WVAs in this race.

* OK, OK, I'm kind of a WVA fanboy, too. But I kept the faith.
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There's a shred of truth in their Tadej-fanboi biased banter. Wout has always struggled mentally. When he was at the top in cyclocross, before MVDP dominated, he was in his element. He won a ton of big races. He was young, cocky, and good. He wasn't as dominant on the road, but he could win multiple flat stages often. I believe that in his head, he still thinks he can dominate races. He wants his DS to create opportunities for him. He feels that he deserves it. When things don't go his way, he pouts. Those are the two sides of Wout that I see, and what I think they were talking about.
 
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After Stage 6, per ProCyclingStats,

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What does this mean for tomorrow?
 
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Interesting developments all over the shop. Ineos boys nowhere, did Onley crash? Commentator wasn't sure. Everyone else except Del Toro out the back, but Del Toro looks good so far. Jorgenson cracked but not far off by end.

And a new young climber from Oz, Luke Tuckwell. He's a good climber clearly, but will he be a great climber? A 3 min plus climber? to hold off Seixas and Del Toro and the rest. He's 21 been a quite a few 1 weekers this year with ok results. So lets see. All Boro needs is another GC contender...

Lot of very disappointed teams tonight at their GC climbers not cutting the mustard with July weeks away. And Seixas didn't attack out of the saddle just steadily wound up the pace.
 
From the other room, thought I heard that WVA didn't start today. Maybe yesterday's effort aggravated his injuries.

Is it kosher to quit a stage race after achieving some goal just to save yourself for an upcoming race?
 
Jeremy McCreary said:
From the other room, thought I heard that WVA didn't start today. Maybe yesterday's effort aggravated his injuries.

Is it kosher to quit a stage race after achieving some goal just to save yourself for an upcoming race?
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With this one yes, especially if saving himself for next month plus he's not a climber. On a grand tour bit different, most try and finish and as we saw with Van Aert in the mountains at last year's Giro, he can be very very handy!.
 
I read that WVA's elbow was visibly swollen last night and not responding to treatment, so they pulled the cord. No sense in further aggravating an injury just so he can get some miles in on stages he has no shot of winning.

@Rás Cnoic yes, I guess Onley went down on a descent and finished 28 minutes back. Magnus Sheffield Josh Tarling crashed out too.

Del Toro always looks so relaxed on the bike.
 
BlackHand said:
I read that WVA's elbow was visibly swollen last night and not responding to treatment, so they pulled the cord. No sense in further aggravating an injury just so he can get some miles in on stages he has no shot of winning.

@Rás Cnoic yes, I guess Onley went down on a descent and finished 28 minutes back. Magnus Sheffield Josh Tarling crashed out too.

Del Toro always looks so relaxed on the bike.
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Good to know. Well not good. Was surprised and pleased to see Del Toro stay with Seixas. And the day after Mexico easily beat South Africa in the opening game World Cup.
 
Stage 6 power
At 1.0 km out — after some 130 km of racing and over 10,000 ft of climbing — the 3 stage leaders (van Gils et al.) were climbing a 9% grade at 22 km/h. Out of curiosity, I put these and other plausible parameters into the www.gribble.org power calculator.

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Over 450W! And these guys pulled similar numbers for most of the 8.5 km final climb. So did Seixas and del Torro nearly 4 minutes behind them.
 
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CVV said that Onley went over a barrier and crashed hard.

Today's stage second half features a category 1, followed by a category 2, with the finish on the hors category Columbier. GC is up for grabs. Amirail +1:12 and Jorgenson +2:34 for Visma are the closest contenders to Tuckwell. Seixas +3:06, Ayuso and Skjelmose +3:15, Del Toro +3:22. Vauquelin +3:50.
 
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Coverage started at 62km to go, and Roll is reporting that Seixas crashed hard and is currently over 2 minutes back and closing on the peloton. Paret-Peintre is pacing him back. The peloton is not waiting. A group of 11 including Simmons is out front with 20s on the peloton.
 
Seixas comes from 4 minutes back to return to the peloton with 33km to go. This kid is unreal. I hope he has no lasting issues from his injuries and the chase.

There may be some controversy, as he was pacing behind his team car for at least two minutes. On his side of the argument, riders were dropping back in front of him on a very narrow climb, and his team car struggled to give him room to pass.
 
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Ayuso out front alone, but Del Toro just dropped Jorgenson and is closing. Seixas 38s back. Tutwell still in yellow.
 
Del Toro catches Ayuso and attacks Ayuso. Del Toro clear. Seixas and Skjelmose 1:15 back.

Del Toro wins it. Ayuso +25s. Jorgenson +40s. Skjelmose +1:17. Seixas +1:21. Tutwell +2:33 and keeps the jersey with about 40s.
 
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stompandgo said:
Del Toro catches Ayuso and attacks Ayuso. Del Toro clear. Seixas and Skjelmose 1:15 back.

Del Toro wins it. Ayuso +25s. Jorgenson +40s. Skjelmose +1:17. Seixas +1:21. Tutwell +2:33 and keeps the jersey with about 40s.
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Amazing recovery. Tuckwell has about 40secs lead going into final stages with 4 climbs and another big final climb, he won't make it but the battle behind is intriging.

Think he should be ok re the cars. Commentator mentioned the narrow road and basically a slow traffic jab so little advantage there.
 
Seixas should withdraw. He said that he could barely hold onto the bars in the last km. His team worked very hard for him, and he can probably win it, but why? He needs to heal. Maybe decide tomorrow on course.
 
stompandgo said:
Seixas should withdraw. He said that he could barely hold onto the bars in the last km. His team worked very hard for him, and he can probably win it, but why? He needs to heal. Maybe decide tomorrow on course.
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Saw him collapse at finish but that was oxygen debt from final climb effort, didn't realise he was still suffering from crash aftermath. You're right. Loads abandoned today for that reason, July is very close. Josh Tarling having collarbone surgery today, Geraint Thomas was saying that a week rest is probably good for him anyway, expects him to make Tour team!
 
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