Watching the peloton - Professional Road Racing thread 2026

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Jonas lost another 30 seconds today. He fought like hell to reduce it to 15 seconds, but blew up and lost more seconds at the line. Tadej was his usual complimentary self, minimizing the importance of the carnage he left behind him, but it was clear in my mind that he was going to make a statement to Jonas after he beat him on that stage two years ago. Afterwards, Jonas looked like hell, wearing a mask, his eyes dark and swollen, his face gaunt. Not a good look. He is doing his best to race for second. He did manage to put more time on Del Toro. Remco was dropped from the Jonas group but battled back well to win the sprint out of his group. Jonas needs to watch both of them, as well as Carapaz, who made his typical early flyer, which would have stuck if there was no Tadej. Visma in general gave Jonas no support when he needed it. This is not the way that you attract a new major sponsor. I am now very concerned about his team. Maybe things will get better on the long climbs, but the past says otherwise.
 
Just a flying visit while travelling. Thoughts

Tormalet sucked the air out.
It's fun seeing the Lipowitz Remco civil war. Very funny. Expect Suspect in the alps Lipo will drop Remco and maybe grab that third spot again and wouldn't be surprised if he seeks a new team then.
Lovely to see big ol' MVDP grab a stage in the heat - good on him!
Pidcock today - surprising crash. Gets back up catches group attacks and attacks and gains 3 spots on GC to make top ten. Brilliant ride.

That's all I can remember from snatched highlights so far.

Better luck next week when travelling stops.

Lastly Pog's words on the heat and changing calendar. When he says that, they should listen. Even his 5am start idea to avoid hottest part of the day has merit. Prudhomme said Non! Too difficult with logistics-he's more worried for sponsors at unsociable hours I'd say. Just bull. Other sports play early late often for TV coverage. Pro Riders union might need to man up if the heat continues and some long term planning would be sensible by everyone.
 
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stompandgo said:
...which would have stuck if there was no Tadej.
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Seemingly, the sad reality of every non-Tadej rider in the Tadej era. Must be pretty discouraging for all of them, not just Jonas.

But we can help them. Fans and media would do the sport a favor by showing more respect for — and making a bigger fuss over — 2nd and 3rd place winners and the non-GC jersey winners.

After all, Jonas also broke the Tourmalet climb record in this TdF, and by a good 2 min as I recall. That feat deserves more celebration than it got.
 
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Jeremy McCreary said:
Seemingly, the sad reality of every non-Tadej rider in the Tadej era. Must be pretty discouraging for all of them, not just Jonas.

But we can help them. Fans and media would do the sport a favor by showing more respect for — and making a bigger fuss over — 2nd and 3rd place winners and the non-GC jersey winners.

After all, Jonas also broke the Tourmalet climb record in this TdF, and by a good 2 min as I recall.
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Tadej was getting booed in the last km or so at the finish. I noticed that he put on a suffer face at that point. Supposedly, he had no radio communication with his DS at the time. My warped take is that he is feeling the heat about making it look too easy and he is putting on a show. He didn't gain any more time while his "suffering" was happening. Jonas suffered the whole way and was spent enough at the finish to lose a few more seconds that he really needed.
 
stompandgo said:
Because you are abusing technology to break the law.
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Is it law, or a marketing decision by corporations? I just finished reading Inshittification by Cory Doctorow. I had no idea how in cahoots major tech corporations are, and how they rig the systems by which we access the internet and communications.
 
Today's TdF Stage 14 left me with doubts about seeing Jonas on the final podium. Yes, there are 7 stages to go, some well-suited to Jonas. But he's 4:30 behind Tadej now, and del Toro and Seixas smoked him in the last few hundred meters today.
 
Plus Pidcock is a wild card. UAE race management is just head and shoulders above anyone else. However, Jonas still has time in hand. Let's see what he does with it.
 
Really enjoying The GCN Show lately. Former racer Dan Lloyd's a great anchor. This one starts with a look at current TdF power outputs.


My ebike's power meter, my first ever, put my rides in a whole new perspective. And I don't do training plans.

Point is, without that experience, I'd have no idea how bonkers those TdF power numbers really are.
 
Kudos to Sepp Kuss for giving his all to Jonas yesterday. It kept him in the hunt. Unfortunately, he is all that Jonas had, and was forced to pull too hard for too long to keep Tadej in sight. He dropped Remco, though, keeping his gap on second intact. We shall see what happens today. Remco said that he has done this climb multiple times in training this year, so let's see if he can close the gap on Jonas.

To put the power numbers in perspective with normal real people, at the end of my amateur career, in my mid 50's, my FTP was 309W, and I was racing at 62kg, for 4.98W/kg. There were quite a few guys in my age group races that were well into the 5's. I frequently "raced up" in my age group, and in the Men's Elite races, where the high 5's and low 6's were common. The more interesting and significant number is how long the races were. UWT riders go stage after stage for 4,5,6 hours day after day. Their recovery capability is miles above any other category of rider in this sport. Gravel racers can do 200 miles in a day at high speed, but it's a one day race.
 
Another class-act interview after an eventful Stage 15. At the end, Evenepoel gets the ultimate compliment from Tadej: "He's a rocket. He's going to be a pain in the ass next week also."

 
I don't know. I went shellfishing this morning so I'm just getting caught up now.

Visma on the front was the right thing to do with Remco and Del Toro up the road. Whoever was in front misjudged the corner and went in too hot. That had a ripple effect back to Jonas, who corrected right over the crosswalk paint and washed out. It's a terrible way to end the race for him. Kudos to the leaders who let the break up the road in order to wait for Jonas, until they found out that he was in the medical car, then the race was back on.

Congrats to Remco for beating #1 and #2 UAE riders at the finish. He played it perfectly. Until the end of this race, Remco is my rider.
 
Just finished watching the stage. Very unfortunate. Jorgenson mentioned that the motorcycle took a poor line through the turn and Campenaerts followed that same line. Visma has just looked a little off the whole tour.

Another nice day for Simmons. Unfortunately, the days where he gets free rein to go for it are not likely to be suited for him to win. I have to say Lidl Trek is riding a good race. They've got Mads in position for the points jersey; they've kept Ayuso close; and they've still managed to provide opportunities for their other strong riders in breakaways even if it hasn't panned out yet.
 
BlackHand said:
Just finished watching the stage. Very unfortunate. Jorgenson mentioned that the motorcycle took a poor line through the turn and Campenaerts followed that same line. Visma has just looked a little off the whole tour.

Another nice day for Simmons. Unfortunately, the days where he gets free rein to go for it are not likely to be suited for him to win. I have to say Lidl Trek is riding a good race. They've got Mads in position for the points jersey; they've kept Ayuso close; and they've still managed to provide opportunities for their other strong riders in breakaways even if it hasn't panned out yet.
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I heard one comment that the group ahead of Visma went right around the obstacle instead of left. If the motor took a less-desirable path, and Visma followed, that's on them. I also heard that the motor checked up going into the turn and that had a ripple effect behind it. If so, that's on the driver. The whole 2am WADA test could have been a factor, but this was someone making a mistake at a very important point.

Ayuso isn't delivering what they expected, so I'm ok with Simmons getting free reign to get away. I just wish he was smarter about it. Fun to watch, though. Contrast Lidl-Trek to Bora, and Remco's almost total lack of support. He had to get a bottle from another team's car, for crying out loud. Where is his team?

Lance talking about doping control after the stage is high comedy. Wiggins and Hincapie had nothing. They just let him rant.
 
What an outstanding win for Jasper Phillipsen and Alpecin today. That team has been all out for him the whole race, but he hasn't delivered until today. MVDP's leadout was perfect. The pace was insane, around 30mph average, even with four categorized climbs. I guess I am going to have to get used to this. Sprinters aren't just sprinters anymore.

Mads still has a 7 point lead over Jasper for the points, but that's nothing. As long as Jasper can shadow Mads for the next two stages, it will come down to Paris. Barring an extraordinary event, Tadej has the yellow locked up. The rest of the podium is up for grabs, and that's interesting, but that doesn't come close to comparing to the possibility of the green jersey, the second most important jersey in the race, to come down to the finish in Paris. Talk about must see tv.

On the other hand, Mads has to try and drop Phillipsen over the next two stages by making the break, so that he can gather as many sprint points as possible. These are monster stages, so easier said than done.

Great racing ahead.
 
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