Watching the peloton - Professional Road Racing thread 2026

Amazing rides for both Tiberi and Del Toro. Two riders to keep an eye on this year.
Rás Cnoic said:
I haven't seen the highlights yet, just the top 15 finishers - Del Toro 2nd, NO REMCO in top 15, Yates all the way back in 12th minute and a half back! What happened, was it a breakaway? But with Del Toro second what happened Remco, did he blow up, or mechanical? And where is his much vaunted team to help him on the climbs, the main reason to leave Quick Step?
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It was a multi-step climb with lots of attacks. A group got away at about 7km out, Remco bridged, making it look easy. When they were caught, another counterattack went, and they rode Remco off of the back, while he was pounding his right quad. It looked like he cramped. The PCP had decided to allow feeding until 5km to go (normally 20km to go) so there was no excuse not to be hydrated. Del Toro was caught at the back of the group at 7km to go and had to work hard to get to the front. At 4km to go, Tiberi hit the gas in a group of four and rode away. Del Toro rode through them, but was not able to catch Tiberi.
 
Interesting. Chalk it down to a one off perhaps, early season first long climb. But not what Boro or public wanted to see.

Tiberi (5th in Giro last year, wasn't on my radar) Italian, age 24, looking good. Great win for him. Del Toro looking good for GC.
 
Finally got to see the last 6km of the climb. Van Elves finishing third- I never expect to see Lotto riders on big climbs! Luke Plapp did well, faded a bit when Del Toro caught him but still making the top ten. Remco as you said, banging his thigh. But the commentators even mentioned his lack of teammates. Bit odd that. Next Boro rider was over 3 mins back. Doesn't help that Van Wilder from Quickstep going past him to finish 9th. Del Toro had Yates pulling for him, good help that.
 
Rás Cnoic said:
You're going to love the higher slopes during races like the Giro when dangerous idiots set off pink flares, the entire road filling with noxious, carcinogenic pink smoke the gasping riders have to race through.
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Oh, I nearly threw something at the TV the first time I saw those flares! Why aren't they illegal and subject to arrest for assault?
 
Rás Cnoic said:
It just shows the infrastructure and budget needed to run a top pro team these days, early in the season yet, but today there are 3 stage races in three different countries, UAE, Portugal and Spain and some teams have riders competing in all three: That's a lot of air fares and hotels and vehicle rentals!
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There was a good article this week in INRNG about team costs.

"If you prefer data, the UCI collates all the team budgets and this leaked to La Gazzetta (€). The total for the 18 men’s World Tour teams went from €473 million in 2023 (average: €26m per team) to €663 million for 2026 but note this latter number is for 18 World Tour plus two more, presumably Tudor and Pinarello-Q36.5, (average: €33.1m per team). That’s 27% per team in four years, or 6.5% a year. 2023-2026 is not exceptional as high single digit and sometimes double-digit increases have been ordinary for the past 15 years."

UAE sponsorship is at the country level. Think about that.

As long as I've been involved in bike racing, sponsorship has been a rollercoaster. I got in 4 years before the 1984 Olympics in LA. The bike boom was crazy back then. Races paid big, the best regional riders had sponsorship, foreign domestiques were paid $2K-$5K plus travel to start (they didn't even have to finish) a regional criterium, and there were 2-4 races to choose from every weekend. Then came Festina, and that Texan prick next, and the bottom fell out. Bike racing was radioactive. Sponsors slammed the door. Covid messed everything up as well. It's just been tough. In my little world in New England, we have had benefactors step up the past few years to help jumpstart racing by underwriting race losses. This has helped a lot, but the same obstacles remain: high event costs (mainly police and medical), lack of volunteers for driving and safety, and a weak club structure that is not interested in road racing.

All of which has little to do with WorldTeam/ProTeam, but the struggles are similar at the appropriate levels.
 
UAE Stage 4: lumpy with a flat finish. A four man break of DeBod (Modern Adventure), Gamper (Jayco), Steinhauser (EF), and Milesi (Movistar) put 2:30 on the field. With 1km to go, they still had 10 seconds, so DeBod attacked, but was caught at 250m (I know that feeling). Milan wins, Riley Pickrell from ME gets 8th. Matteo Milan, Jonathan's brother, gets 3rd. Fabio Jakobsen crashes (surprised?) when his front tire explodes. No changes on GC.

It's a long, flat stage tomorrow. Wind will be a factor.
 
stompandgo said:
UAE Stage 4: lumpy with a flat finish. A four man break of DeBod (Modern Adventure), Gamper (Jayco), Steinhauser (EF), and Milesi (Movistar) put 2:30 on the field.
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Thank god my name's not DeBod. The snickering at my physique would never end.

stompandgo said:
With 1km to go, they still had 10 seconds, so DeBod attacked, but was caught at 250m (I know that feeling).
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Seems like breakaways get caught in the last kilometer a lot more often that I'd expect by chance alone. Why is that?

Seems like everyone would be equally motivated at that point. So equal motivation in better riders in the chasing group?

stompandgo said:
Milan wins, Riley Pickrell from ME gets 8th. Matteo Milan, Jonathan's brother, gets 3rd.
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Very impressed with J. Milan. Must be some good cycling genes and family culture there with brother Matteo finishing so well.

stompandgo said:
Fabio Jakobsen crashes (surprised?) when his front tire explodes. No changes on GC.
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Is there any bigger bad-luck story in all of contemporary pro cycling than Jakobsen's? And yet, after all his truly horrific injuries, he never gives up. Amazing determination!
 
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Jeremy McCreary said:
Seems like breakaways get caught in the last kilometer a lot more often that I'd expect by chance alone. Why is that?

Seems like everyone would be equally motivated at that point. So equal motivation in better riders in the chasing group?
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My experience is with amateur racing, although pros were in the same field as me. In this situation, it's about tactics and the balance between risk and trust. If you spend energy chasing, will you make the catch? If you do, will you lose? If you sit back in the field and do nothing, do you trust that those doing the work will make the catch? If you are in the break, do you trust that your break companions will work equally hard? If one or more of them are sitting on doing little, are you confident that the rest of you can shake them off? Did you make a deal with the strongest riders, and will they honor it? The reason you see the cat and mouse in the break is because nobody trusts each other. In today's break, they all worked together until the end.

In UCI professional racing, you have radios and DS's in cars not far away. How you ride is dictated by them. Maybe your DS is happy with you getting sponsor exposure in the break and doesn't care where you finish. They want you to save it for tomorrow. Maybe they've cut a deal with another team to get points for their rider, and want both teams to negate the chase.
Jeremy McCreary said:
Is there any bigger bad-luck story in all of contemporary pro cycling than Jakobsen's? And yet, after all his truly horrific injuries, he never gives up. Amazing determination!
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He was at the back of the field when he crashed. Why was he back there? The finish was not that far away, and his competition was up front.
 
Jeremy McCreary said:
Thank god my name's not DeBod. The snickering at my physique would never end.



Seems like breakaways get caught in the last kilometer a lot more often that I'd expect by chance alone. Why is that?

Seems like everyone would be equally motivated at that point. So equal motivation in better riders in the chasing group?
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What Stomp said. But I'd add that on the big three week Tours, on the flat stages, the gamble of the peloton is how far ahead can they let a breakaway go before having to work (expend precious energy)to reel them back. If the breakaway offers no danger to GC it's up to the sprinter teams and occasionally local teams/riders (for local stage glory) to do the hard work. GC teams can more or less rest, keeping their star rider safe and out of the wind, a welcome day off in the middle of an exhausting 21 day race. The time gamble then is at what point mathematically do the sprint teams need to start chasing, relying on their bigger numbers of fresh powerful riders to gain time on the weakening breakaway. Nobody wants to chase for 100km if they can help it. As you say, more often than not they catch them and get their timing right. But many factors can affect this. Can all the Sprint teams cooperate to work in a chain gang smoothly together? One of the breakaway may be on a Sprinter's team for example so they won't work. What's the wind like? Is it flat all the way to the end? Or suddenly rolling or twisty, all of which disrupt this big motor of many riders helping each other to hunt them down. Maybe the breakaway has some powerful rouleurs working together to keep the speed up. When the peloton gets it wrong you can have some fantastic last KMs with everyone willing the desperate knackered breakaway to hold on and make it to the line as the huge mass of riders bears down on it.

There are fewer flat stages now as for long stretches on TV it can be pretty boring to watch* and race organisers are constantly trying to up the stakes to make it more interesting. So more rolling/twisty routes rather than traditional flat stages. The big lead out trains and straight forward sprint men have fewer and fewer straightforward races to aim for in the season.

*I might have mentioned him before but Eurosport used to employ a wonderful Brit who as well as a keen cyclist is an expert on local French cuisine and history who in the dull moments describes local dishes, points out old castles and the history and the correct local wines to have with lunch. Excellent and often very funny.
 
What Ras said. Most of the races I've won were won from the break or in a solo break. It happens more often in amateur racing because, no radios.

There's also the concept of "marking". If you are a "marked rider", nobody is going to let you get up the road. The yellow jersey is a good example. They are always marked. Early in a stage race, a lot of riders are marked, depending on the terrain and who has the jersey. Sometimes marked riders get away, and sometimes they win.
 
Many thanks @stompandgo and @Rás Cnoic ! No idea that racing strategy was that convoluted. Don't like the sound of back-room deals among teams, but I guess no surprise with all that's at stake at pro level.

So how do you "reel in" a breakaway other than by working together to catch up to them?
 
Jeremy McCreary said:
Many thanks @stompandgo and @Rás Cnoic ! No idea that racing strategy was that convoluted. Don't like the sound of back-room deals among teams, but I guess no surprise with all that's at stake at pro level.

So how do you "reel in" a breakaway other than by working together to catch up to them?
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They are not backroom deals as such, it's just bike racing. There have been ad hoc agreements from non sprinter teams to help a sprinter team who desperately wants the breakaway caught (chasing green jersey or tally of sprint stages) in return for favours later on. Back in the 80s before radios, there were some very crafty characters in the peloton organising deals. Plus leaders who when they wanted could get the entire peloton to stop attacking, say, look up the power of a rider like Bernard Hinault (The Badger) . You have 180+ riders, loads of politics shall we say! Not sure if things are less or more machavillian today with the DS's in the cars constantly screaming down the radios having more input.

And that's only the tip of the iceberg of tactics. To annoy sprinter's teams further, say on a rolling hill day you might have several different breakaways up ahead in total chaos and some of their team mates actively going to the front of the peloton and slowing down to disrupt the chase in a spoiling tactic. Plus the more riders from different teams up the road the harder it is to organise a chase as too many teams are already invested in breakaways. And as mentioned in other posts, severe cross winds in open country can wreck complete havoc. Who'd be a sprinter! Usain Bolt had to just sprint a hundred meters to win gold, Mark Cavendish had to navigate 140 or so miles, avoid crashing in the hectic 50mph last 6 or so miles dash, elbows out fighting bitterly for position and then win the sprint in the last 200 metres - against 180 other cyclists. Then to win Green jersey he has to race another 2 or 3 weeks over huge mountains coming last every day just to undergo the next flat 150 miles for another attempt at a sprint! Bonkers life. And after all that you may well lose by an inch on the line. Or some bozo slams on the brakes, a policeman steps into the road, a member of the public's handbag gets caught in handlebars and suddenly, feet from the line, you are underneath 20 other bikes and riders with a hospital trip beckoning.
 
Jeremy McCreary said:
Many thanks @stompandgo and @Rás Cnoic ! No idea that racing strategy was that convoluted. Don't like the sound of back-room deals among teams, but I guess no surprise with all that's at stake at pro level.
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At the amateur level, it's done out on the road between the riders themselves. You might agree to split primes (in-race prizes). You might agree to not lap the field, so that a fair sprint can happen between the break riders. These kinds of agreements are common, and enforced by the riders themselves. If anyone breaks an agreement, they may find themselves pinched down in a sprint, or elbowed into the crowd in a turn, out of sight.

Jeremy McCreary said:
So how do you "reel in" a breakaway other than by working together to catch up to them?
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First of all, the break has to be willing to fight for the win. Breaks are easy to catch if they are not riding hard. You have it right, though. The teams with strong sprinters want the break back by using as little effort as possible. That's why you'll see the leadout trains swap the front often towards the end of the race. They need to have enough left for the launch.
 
Rás Cnoic said:
To annoy sprinter's teams further, say on a rolling hill day you might have several different breakaways up ahead in total chaos and some of their team mates actively going to the front of the peloton and slowing down to disrupt the chase in a spoiling tactic.
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This is called "blocking". It's a dangerous tactic, but it can work for short periods. Most savvy riders can spot it a mile away and will yell out "they're blocking". This usually causes attacks from farther back, negating the effect.

Another tactic is called "covering". If a marked rider attacks, the "cover" sits on their wheel. If they get away, the cover rider takes soft pulls, short pulls, or does no work. If it's close to the end of the race, and the break is not in danger of being caught, the cover will join in the effort, but is fresher from expending less effort, and usually wins.

Rás Cnoic said:
Plus the more riders from different teams up the road the harder it is to organise a chase as too many teams are already invested in breakaways. And as mentioned in other posts, severe cross winds in open country can wreck complete havoc. Who'd be a sprinter! Usain Bolt had to just sprint a hundred meters to win gold, Mark Cavendish had to navigate 140 or so miles, avoid crashing in the hectic 50mph last 6 or so miles dash, elbows out fighting bitterly for position and then win the sprint in the last 200 metres - against 180 other cyclists. Then to win Green jersey he has to race another 2 or 3 weeks over huge mountains coming last every day just to undergo the next flat 150 miles for another attempt at a sprint!
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This is why there is always at least a commissaire car and a commissaire motorcycle back in the caravan, to watch for sprinters drafting or hanging onto cars.
 
stompandgo said:
Another tactic is called "covering". If a marked rider attacks, the "cover" sits on their wheel. If they get away, the cover rider takes soft pulls, short pulls, or does no work. If it's close to the end of the race, and the break is not in danger of being caught, the cover will join in the effort, but is fresher from expending less effort, and usually wins.
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Don't recall which recent race stage, but I remember a young newbie getting his first stage win by covering. Now I know what to call it.

You and @Rás Cnoic should write a book: How to watch pro cycling and know what's really going on
 
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Jeremy McCreary said:
Don't recall which recent race stage, but I remember a young newbie getting his first win stage by covering. Now I know what to call it.

You and @Rás Cnoic should write a book: How to watch pro cycling and know what's really going on
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There are some hair raising stories out there of dastardly deeds alright. Sprinters and Classic winners are the hard men of racing I think. I love hearing the stories. When the Greg Lemond and Sean Kelly generation raced in the 80s, it was still almost totally a European affair and local riders, outside the favourites, didn't travel too much- I mean Italians flocked the Giro, Spaniards the Vuelta, the Belgians and Dutch the Spring classics etc, and it had been this way for decades and it must have been tough for the English speakers to break in to that pretty closed shop culture. Kelly stayed with a family in northern French for instance, like a second son, and had zero French. So the first words he learnt was the French for Primes so he could yell it out to team mates on the road and find out when the intermediate Prime sprints were coming up - he needed the money to survive! (always cash prizes in cycling) I find all the old stories and characters really interesting.
 
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