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.
 
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?
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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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.
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.
 
After Stage 6, per ProCyclingStats,

Screenshot_20260612_095406_Chrome.jpg


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?
 
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?
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.
 
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.
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.
 
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