Watching the peloton - Professional Road Racing thread 2026

stompandgo said:
The Vuelta is coming up, and who will be riding it is still up in the air, but another race that runs in parallel with it is the Tour L'Avenir (Tour of the Future). It's usually 7 or 8 stages, mostly in France. Tadej won it in 2018, Del Toro in 2023, and Seixas in 2025. This is the biggest development team race in the world. Other countries have big development stage races but this is the one that every UWT team manager will be watching, looking for talent. It's on HBO Max and starts on 8/20.
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L'Avenir always worth a watch. Couple of years ago the young star was Cian Ujtebroeks and a bidding war ensued. If memory serves he went to Boro for big money then in a messy messy acrimonious divorce jumped ship to Visma less then a year later. But it never worked out and he was quietly sold on to Moviestar. He's good but not the Pog challenger everyone was hoping. At that young age the numbers are only part of the story.

Speaking of Pog, he's riding the Vuelta - cue a collective groan from every Basque, Catalonian and Spanish stage hunter!
 
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Rás Cnoic said:
L'Avenir always worth a watch. Couple of years ago the young star was Cian Ujtebroeks and a bidding war ensued. If memory serves he went to Boro for big money then in a messy messy acrimonious divorce jumped ship to Visma less then a year later. But it never worked out and he was quietly sold on to Moviestar. He's good but not the Pog challenger everyone was hoping. At that young age the numbers are only part of the story.

Speaking of Pog, he's riding the Vuelta - cue a collective groan from every Basque, Catalonian and Spanish stage hunter!
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In horse racing where weight is everything, apprentice jockeys (under 23) get to ride with reduced weights to encourage trainers to give them a shot in races. But for a number of them who don't shine in that period and build a winning reputation, they face a very uncertain future once they hit 23 and the lead weights are back on. The young riders at the baby Giro and L'Avenir remind me of that. Especially since Pog came along. Now even juniors (under 18) are practically pros. Lot of pressure.
 
Strong stage hunting team here...

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Yes, that is a good team for that race. I'd like to see Wout in yellow for a while. UAE is giving the "1" to Almeida, even though Tadej is racing. It may not mean anything, or maybe they will work for him for any number of reasons.
 
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stompandgo said:
Yes, that is a good team for that race. I'd like to see Wout in yellow for a while. UAE is giving the "1" to Almeida, even though Tadej is racing. It may not mean anything, or maybe they will work for him for any number of reasons.
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Be great to see Kuss let off the leash and see what he can do. And young Brennan in the sprints, probably combining with Van Aert so they won't know who to watch. Visma got into doing that bait and switch on the Tour of Britain for a couple of years.
 
From what I have seen so far, there are maybe four sprint stages in the race. These days, though, the best sprinters can climb, so we shall see. Mads is on the start list. Visma must think that Fabio isn't ready yet, as I don't see him on the start list.
 
Interesting article about Netcompany INEOS after their worst TdF since 2011 and how high the stakes are going into the Vuelta. After Onley's crash ruled him out of the Tour and tore apart their GC ambitions, be interesting to see how he does in Spain for them. Lot to prove.

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Netcompany-Ineos reboot faces high stakes at Vuelta after anonymous Tour

Injury forced Oscar Onley to miss the Tour de France and Netcompany-Ineos endured a low-key July in the absence of their Grand Tour figure. The Scot…
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Netcompany just lost American rider Andrew August to Pinarello/Q36.5. Visma was offering, but lost. 3 year deal. Not quite Seixas money, but a lot for a 20 year old fresh off winning the Czech Tour. Mauro Schmid also joined the team. Q36.5 is the top ranked ProTeam, already getting automatic invitations to World Tour events, but clearly making a push for WorldTour team status.
 
Vuelta fever's setting in already. This preview didn't help.


World Tour-wise, it's the final frontier for Pogi, Jay Vine's back from injury — and best of all, WVA and Pedersen will be battling for stages and points! TJ called the WVA-Pedersen match-up "must-see TV".
 
stompandgo said:
Netcompany just lost American rider Andrew August to Pinarello/Q36.5. Visma was offering, but lost. 3 year deal. Not quite Seixas money, but a lot for a 20 year old fresh off winning the Czech Tour. Mauro Schmid also joined the team. Q36.5 is the top ranked ProTeam, already getting automatic invitations to World Tour events, but clearly making a push for WorldTour team status.
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There is a lot of hustling right now between teams I notice. Bora, let's be honest, the king of disfunctional management are on non speaking terms with Roglic who is (rumoured) to be heading out the door to Lotto, odd choice of destination but let's see. The Remco transfer still making waves. All adds to interesting stories ahead of the Vuelta.
 
Jeremy McCreary said:
Vuelta fever's setting in already. This preview didn't help.


World Tour-wise, it's the final frontier for Pogi, Jay Vine's back from injury — and best of all, WVA and Pedersen will be battling for stages and points! TJ called the WVA-Pedersen match-up "must-see TV".
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Like I was saying above it's the behind the scenes I'm finding fascinating as we head to the race. I mean on paper it's Pog all the way but the competitive nature and desperation of the other teams to get stages and podium places - last chance saloon to show financiers/sponsors something in this season bar the one day races. (2 Quebec races, world champs & Race of the Falling Leaves).

Incidentally there's a terrific match up between Pidcock & MVDP at Les Gets France World Cup XC race on the 23rd this month. That'll be fun to watch!
 
What did I say earlier?! Its the Visma 1-2 they honed in successive Tour of Britains; a hilly finish and Van Aert and Brennan do the one two with the 21 year old claiming his first Grand Tour stage! Brilliant stuff. In the end Brennan just powered away from them. Impressive.
 
That was an exciting finish. Tadej staying up front to keep the red jersey. Visma letting Hayter get the bonus points but keeping the heat on to catch the break. Wout would have had the win if Tadej wasn't on his wheel, so he sets up Brennan, who is starting to look like a young, but more disciplined, Jasper Phillipsen. Time will tell. Brennan said in the post race that they executed exactly to plan. I can't remember a grand tour that had a GC battle on stage 2, but you could say that this one did.

Tomorrow may be where Tadej opens a gap on everyone else and turns this race into a snooze fest.
 
Roll and CVV were both totally fixated on Hayter when I came in at ~80 km to go and stayed that way till maybe 10-20 km out. Not sure why.

I've only been watching pro racing in earnest for 3 years now, and I know nothing compared to them. But aside from crashes and Pogi just riding away, I don't recall many times when what was going on at 80 or even 50 km had much bearing on the finish.
 
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Jeremy McCreary said:
Roll and CVV were both totally fixated on Hayter when I came in at ~80 km to go and stayed that way till maybe 10-20 km out. Not sure why.

I"ve only been watching pro racing in earnest for 3 years now, and I know nothing compared to them. But aside from crashes and Pogi just riding away, I don't recall many times when what was going on at 80 or even 50 km had much bearing on the finish.
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Well he missed out on the prologue yesterday by an agonising 0.09 seconds to Pog and today was in the breakaway, got away from them, TTed to the inter sprint, gained 6 seconds (and Vuelta race leader's red jersey) but couldn't stay with lead group to finish same time as Pog and by the end finishing 80th, 31 seconds down. Worth a try!
 
^^^ Perfect description.

That's what I meant by a GC battle on stage 2. Hayter was close enough to Tadej on GC and got in the break. Visma wanted Wout to win with Brennan as the backup. When Hayter was caught, and Tadej caught Wout, Visma went with Plan B and won. It's been a while since I've seen Visma execute like that.
 
stompandgo said:
^^^ Perfect description.

That's what I meant by a GC battle on stage 2. Hayter was close enough to Tadej on GC and got in the break. Visma wanted Wout to win with Brennan as the backup. When Hayter was caught, and Tadej caught Wout, Visma went with Plan B and won. It's been a while since I've seen Visma execute like that.
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Bet they'll try again- who do you watch Wout or Brennan? Brennan or Wout? Where's the danger coming from?
 
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