Watching the peloton - Professional Road Racing thread 2026

He is hard to catch with that rapid fire. But sometimes I like to hear his 'story of the race, beat by beat' where I've only caught highlights. Good for spotting key moments and merciless on idiot decisions!
 
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Rás Cnoic said:
He is hard to catch with that rapid fire. But sometimes I like to hear his 'story of the race, beat by beat' where I've only caught highlights. Good for spotting key moments and merciless on idiot decisions!
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Speaking of highlights, why am I seeing only the last few km of any given race on YouTube now? Seems like a new trend since even last pro season.

Did some nefarious Bond villain buy up all the rights to earlier parts of pro races? Are timely true highlight reels that much more expensive to produce? Were all the editors let go to save money?
 
Jeremy McCreary said:
Speaking of highlights, why am I seeing only the last few km of any given race on YouTube now? Seems like a new trend since even last pro season.

Did some nefarious Bond villain buy up all the rights to earlier parts of pro races? Are timely true highlight reels that much more expensive to produce? Were all the editors let go to save money?
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Not sure what is available in US. In U.K. TNT/Discovery seem to release last few KMs and if an important race a brief 5 min highlights of the race both on YT. That's all you get for free. Live coverage usually starts halfway through the race if you have a $$$ subscription. And occasionally there will be not fully legal streaming on YT from other parties. The South Americans are fanatical about racing it seems and their commentary, if a Colombian rider (or now Mexican) is doing well gets very heated. With a VPN there are further options.
 
On the HBO Max/Peacock coverage, you get a race introduction, and the neutral to 0km. Then they go over the course, showing the features, and potential strategies that teams may use. Next, they may show some highlights (attacks, sprints, KOM, etc., and some lowlights (crashes, mishaps, etc.) before cutting into the live coverage with some amount of time remaining. It could be 80km, 60km, even 40km. Satellite time is expensive, so they try and time it to get the race finish, a podium, and an interview or two before signing off. If they get it wrong, the end is either rushed or drawn out. They pay for their satellite time in advance, so they try and use all of it.
 
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Jeremy McCreary said:
Strade Bianche this Saturday — Pogi's first race of the year!

Strade Bianche 2026 | Official website

Visit the official website of Strade Bianche 2026 and discover all the latest updates and info on the route, teams plus the latest news.
www.strade-bianche.it www.strade-bianche.it
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One of my favourite races of the year.

Startlist - will be constantly updated as we get closer - but so far Del Toro, Seixas, Van Aert (former winner), Ben Healy, Bernal, Pidcock (former winner), Pog and many more. Increasingly popular Classic despite only 20 years old, with calls for it to be made a Monument.

No sign yet of Remco, only 3 of Boro team listed, but he loathes gravel anyway, not his kind of race, probably doing Paris Nice or Tirreno-Adriatico both starting the next day and day after.

Startlist for Strade Bianche 2026

Competing teams and riders for Strade Bianche 2026. Top competitors are Tadej Pogačar, Isaac del Toro and Thomas Pidcock.
www.procyclingstats.com www.procyclingstats.com
 
Once again, Le Samyn (UCI 1.1, the second lowest category UCI road race) delivered. It's a long course, but it's by no means a climbers course. The terrain is rolling with a few short climbs, but the main features are narrow roads, dirt and short cobble sections (one right before the finish), concrete slab sections, and wind, of which there was none today. The pace was fast, and the break never got very far away. In the final KM's, Per Strand Hagenes of Visma got away solo. Meanwhile, behind him, Visma put on a clinic of covering and blocking, nobody more than Wout Van Aert. Hagenes was caught at 200m, with Jordi Meeus getting the win.

Ben Oliver was the last man standing for Modern Adventure. He was right where he needed to be at the red triangle, but being a solo rider on a new team, he got pushed and shoved and ridden into the barriers by the leadout trains, and ran out of gas in the last 50m, but finished 11th. MAPC is at the bottom of the UCI points rankings, because teams are ranked by the last 12 months before the season starts. This puts every new team at the bottom. Getting invitations to UWT races is very dependent on UCI points. They have to use their connections to get there.

The race was sponsored by Ename, one of the best Belgian ales that I have ever had.

Next up for the big guys is one of my favorite races, Strade Bianche. MAPC will be sending a primarily U23 team to the Porec Classic.
 
Watching the Strade and they are traversing the Monte Saint Marie gravel section over 9km of white Tuscan gravel, including 19% climbs, the clouds of white dust kicked up by the leading motos is crazy. In the drone age I wonder why they don't consign the TV bikes to the rear of the groups and cover the gravel sections just by drone and chopper? Too difficult to coordinate the bikes back onto the tarmac roads after the gravel I guess. There are at least 3 motorbikes just ahead of the leaders and the dust is crazy, why so many needed.
 
The chase group, including some big names, are not working together - at all. It's deeply frustrating.

Just watching them after a gravel section, all watching one another, no leadership, no urgency with 43kms and a gap under 2mins and they've given up and never had a coherent chase. Not the first time either.
 
A team of astronomers working with the James Webb Space Telescope has just identified Pogi's home planet. It's Zargon IV, where riding away from Earthlings at 78 km out is just what one does.

He's becoming quite the showman, and I'm all for it. A genuinely likable guy.

Announcers keep saying that fans will get bored with Pogi winning so many races from so far out. Same refrain from the TNT announcers covering the Strade Bianche today.

Then the callers and fans on the scene all went nuts as Pogi climbed the last km with a beaming smile and no one else in sight. I did, too.

Boring my ass!
 
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It is boring. But not because of Pog. It's boring because the other riders are not working together to bring him back despite the fact he is at this point taunting them by texting the very section and hill he will attack. 6 or 7 riders of this calibre working together over 45km+ distance can rein back in Pog but they won't work together. I'm finding it very frustrating to be honest because it spoils the last 40 mins of racing when the winner is a foregone conclusion like this. The well signposted moment he jumped, he also got lucky. Pidcock was watching him like a hawk but got 2 mechanicals in a row. Two chain drops it looked like, terrible timing. Last year he was the only one who could stay with him. Van Aert is not in form after ankle injury early in season, Del Toro couldn't keep up, but as a team mate I don't know what his orders were anyway. Ben Healy was there with teammates on the tarmac hill before the corner into the Monte Saint Marie gravel section, then the helicopter shot showed him at least 40 riders back and he completely missed Pog's move, whatever happened him. Wonderkid Seixas was INCREDIBLE. 19 years old, and he was half a wheel back matching Pog's attack until finally he blew up, ALMOST made his slipstream, but was the only one who had a chance of staying with him. Glad he got second. But Decathlon tactics - with three rider up front, why not work together for Seixas more? I know Del Toro sitting on kills the enthusiasm but 10k later the 3 chasing groups combined on the road with all the heavy hitters of the day there together around a min 40 back and still with time to reel Pog in. But instead they looked at each other! Crazy. If a Hinault or Kelly was there an organised chase would have been whipped into action - the offer would be obvious- we can f*ck around here attacking each other for a lousy second spot or work together now, catch him and fight it out on the steep streets of Siena. Should be bloody obvious.
 
Rás Cnoic said:
It is boring. But not because of Pog. It's boring because the other riders are not working together to bring him back despite the fact he is at this point taunting them by texting the very section and hill he will attack. 6 or 7 riders of this calibre working together over 45km+ distance can rein back in Pog but they won't work together.
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But think of all the time you got to shake your fist at the screen and scream, "Get it together, guys!". That's pretty exciting, too.
;^}
 
It's just bad racing. Maybe it's impossible to make so many egos work together today but attacking individually seems to me a recipe for failure and it is happening every race when Pog does this. Perhaps it's the terrain, the gravel, rolling country & strung out nature of broken groups as opposed to a solo attack and a complete peloton to organise the hunt efficiently, I dunno.
 
The Tadej Bianche finished up as predicted, with him getting his 4th win, the first time it has been done in it's 20 year history.

Yawn.

I also was yelling at the TV (while renovating Mrs. Stomp's closet) for the chase to get together and stop attacking each other, but there a) wasn't enough firepower without a healthy Wout and Healy, and b) nobody should underestimate the strategy and tactics that UAE employed to get Pogi off the front alone. They attacked early, way out (60km?), with Cristen softening up the contenders. Del Toro was the cover man, marking anything that moved, and did that successfully. As to why they wouldn't work together and drag Del Toro along, it's because everybody hates a wheelsucker and cover man in the group. They want to drop them and get about their business. It's not about racing for second place, with a chance for the win. They do not want another UAE rider on the podium that did nothing to get there. Just like a teammate should not, in most instances, chase a teammate down, you don't let a wheelsucker onto the podium. He still got there, but not second. You will never convince me that Seixas and Del Toro did not made a deal for that position. Never. You will see payback at some point. Mark my words.

Paris-Nice starts tomorrow. Jonas with no Tadej.

pogi (Custom).jpg


For you wattheads on the forum. This is on the flats with 7.4km to go.

That Colnago he was riding was gorgeous. We just got one in after an 18 month wait. Only a dozen of them came to the US.
 
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stompandgo said:
pogi (Custom).jpg


For you wattheads on the forum. This is on the flats with 7.4km to go.
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Gee, thanks! Just when I was patting myself on the back for spending maybe a quarter of today's 15-mile ride at around 200W — not all at once, of course. At here he was cruising at 463W after a brutal 200 km.
 
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