Post Ride Cafe

The Last Episode...

Episode Topics: Racing recap: Tour de France Stages and Tirreno Adriatico Finish, World Championships Preview

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Strava:

Aaron - https://www.strava.com/athletes/777347

Sam - https://www.strava.com/athletes/150453

Strava…..Stats of the week!

Sam: 22mi, 1900ft

Aaron: 94mi, 2700ft Bike; 18.3mi, 5200 ft Hike/Trail Run

Ride of the Week:

Sam - San Juan to Telegraph Pass

Aaron -

Pro Cycling New:

Muhlberger signs for Movistar

Ineos signs De Plus, Porte, Pidcock, and D Martinez wtf?

Cycling News:

Race Coverage:

World Championships Recap

Womens ITT: Chloe Dygart takes all the headlines. Nasty Crash ends her season for quite awhile. Needs to call WVAs doctor

Mens ITT: A pretty engaging time trial to be honest. The last 10 riders were mostly interesting to watch. The riders time gaps at the time check compared to how they finished was definitely interesting. In the end noone can stop Ganna. What a beast. WVA very impressive. Same for G.

Womens RR: Not much to say. These races are getting pretty boring to watch. It reminds me of the TdF sprints during Cavendish's early reign. You already know the result is going to be from 2-4 riders and just trying to figure out who does the solo attack and from how far. Impressive riding from Van Vleuten though to be there and help her teammate while being injured, then getting second.

Mens RR: I only caught the last 50km or so but it was pretty exciting. Pogacar attacks on the 2nd to last lap and it seems like he is maintaining his gap and could potentially take it all the way. He starts to look human and for no reason Tom Dom attacks to pull him back and then immediately fades as well. No clue what that was all about. Seemed like possible retribution for beating Roglic at the TdF but no clue. Dont get me wrong i was loving it as i thought maybe Domoulin was feeling really good and was gonna go solo to win. The final selection appeared when Nibali kicked off his very aggressive attack on the 2nd to last climb. Only a dozen or so riders make the selection but it is very high profile. At the last climb Alaphilippe puts in a blazing attack that noone can follow and the rest is history.

Take aways:

Alaphilippe was right in fearing WVA. What a vicious attack. Will be great to see him in rainbows all year and for 2 classics seasons. Sad for Pedersen to not get to ride with the jersey to finish out the season. What a rip. Valverde managed to get second in the peloton sprint just behind Matthews. Fuglsang looked mostly good until the very end. Don't think he was really hoping to win but great practice for the Giro.

Fleche Wallone Preview:

Contenders: Cavagna, Costa, Pogacar, Gorka Izagirre, Wellens, Kamna, Porte, Hirschi, Landa, Kuss, Doumoulin, Kwiatkowski, Dani Martinez

LBL Preview:

Contenders: https://www.procyclingstats.com/rider/alejandro-valverde (VALVERDE Alejandro)

https://www.procyclingstats.com/rider/philippe-gilbert (GILBERT Philippe)

https://www.procyclingstats.com/rider/greg-van-avermaet (VAN AVERMAET Greg)

https://www.procyclingstats.com/rider/dan-martin (MARTIN Dan)

https://www.procyclingstats.com/rider/rui-costa (COSTA Rui)

https://www.procyclingstats.com/rider/michal-kwiatkowski (KWIATKOWSKI Michał)

https://www.procyclingstats.com/rider/julian-alaphilippe (ALAPHILIPPE Julian)

https://www.procyclingstats.com/rider/primoz-roglic (ROGLIČ Primož)

https://www.procyclingstats.com/rider/tim-wellens (WELLENS Tim)

Pogacar

Giro d’Italia Preview.

Main Contenders: Fuglsang, Yates, Thomas, Campenaerts, Kruijswijk, Nibali, McNulty, Kelderman

Sprinters: Viviani, Sagan, Demare, Hodeg, Barbier, Matthews, Gaviria

Stage 1:...

Episode Topics: Racing recap: Tour de France Stages and Tirreno Adriatico Finish, World Championships Preview

Social Media:

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Strava:

Aaron - https://www.strava.com/athletes/777347

Sam - https://www.strava.com/athletes/150453

Strava…..Stats of the week!

Sam: 0 Bike; 6mi 1,000 ft Hike

Aaron: 45mi, 1400ft Bike; 15.6mi, 2800 ft Hike/Trail Run

Ride of the Week:

Sam -

Aaron - New Sneaks 3.5 mi 600 ft (2min off my PR of a 1.66 mi effort climb from 2016)

Race Coverage:

Tirreno Adriatico

Stage 8: Ganna puts on a clinic in the ITT. S Yates does enough to maintain his lead and win Tirreno

Take aways: The Giro is starting to come together. Yates looks like a strong contender as does Thomas. Fuglsang looking like he may have already peaked earlier in this season but still a strong contender. With no Carapaz it seems even more wide open.

Tour De France Stage 16-21

Stage 16: Kamna takes the win by over minute over Carapaz. Back in the GC pack nothing really of note happens

Stage 17: Carapaz again looking good and so close to a stage victory. Lopez ends up victorious taking 15 seconds on Primoz and 30 seconds on Pogacar. Cool finale with the paving of the Col de la Loze

Stage 18: Hirschi and Carapaz in a fight for the Polka dots. Sadly Hirschi has a crash on a descent and Carapaz and Kwiatkowski go on to take the stage. WVA obviously leads the pack home for 3rd. Excellent to see Carapaz riding so hard for Polka Dots to try salvaging Ineos TdF

Stage 19: Soren Kragh Andersen takes another victory in a classics style stage. A lot of big classics guys getting ready for the big races coming in the next month. Sunweb having the best TdF of any team it seems.

Stage 20: What a TT. Not expecting that amount of a gap and the first we've seen Primoz suffer. Awesome effort by Pogacar and Porte to get the podium.

Stage 21: Champs - a bit messy but DQS handles the final leadout and Bennet wins

Take aways:

World Championships Preview:

ITT (46km): A pretty basic TT profile. Look for the strong TT riders to win this. Dennis, WVA, Ganna

Mens Elite Road Race: 250km. Lots of repeat climbing of one circuit.

Climb doesnt actually look as hard as i thought so some classics guys could still be in the mix. Not necessarily a climbing specialist to take this.

Next Week Preview: Recap UCI 2020 World Championships in Imola

Episode Topics: Racing recap: Tour de France Stages 10-15 Recap Tirreno Adriatico

Social Media:

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Strava:

Aaron - https://www.strava.com/athletes/777347

Sam - https://www.strava.com/athletes/150453

Strava…..Stats of the week!

Sam: 68 Miles, 1900 ft

Aaron: 212 Miles, 4,500 ft

Ride of the Week:

Sam - Castle 2

Aaron -

Pro Cycling News:

Bora adds another man(n) with Wilco Kelderman

UAE picks up Trentin, CCC has to be done at this point

Race Coverage:

Tirreno Adriatico

Stage 1: Where did Ackermann come from? Shows sprinters have some nerve to get through gaps and headwind makes such a difference.

Stage 2: MVDP makes a hard pull into the last 1KM and disrupts the leadout trains. Not much different for Ackermann though who takes another win with Gaviria in 2nd.

Stage 3: Good effort from the break getting caught on the last climb. Woods, the strongest of the bunch, drops the rest but majka comes back. The duo take it to the line with Woods winning the sprint. Gain 20 seconds on GC men

Stage 4: GC men come together on the final climb when that group splits and has Masnada and Hamilton going together on the flat. Hamilton takes the sprint and Woods does enough work to bring down the gap and finish 3rd for the time bonus extending his overall lead over some of the GC favorites.

Stage 5:

Stage 6: Messy sprint with Merlier coming out on top. Alpecien showing some depth.

Stage 7: Matteo Fabro goes solo to get caught in the last few hundred meters by an attacking MVDP

Take aways:

Tour De France Stage 10-15 Recap

Stage 10: Straightforward sprint day. Haven’t been many of these but Bennett takes his first TDF win and back the green jersey. Sagan looking better but has a fight on his hands. Bewely and Formolo crash out.

Stage 11: Sagan Relegated, rightfully so. His green jersey chase may be done. Ewan taking the win from basically a 4 up sprint beating Bennent and WVA.

Stage 12: Bora doing lots of work to drop the sprinters and catch the break. Unfortunately they made the catch too early with another group going including Hirschi who eventually goes clear for the solo win

Stage 13: Big climb day. I love the profile but the race was rather boring. Break wins the day with Bora pulling a Trek from Il Lombardia

Stage 14: Should be a break day but Bora is having none of that. Sagan really wants that green jersey but it may not be enough. Cant finish off sprints.

Stage 15: Big mountain day with an HC climb to finish things off. All climbs near the end, a lot of 10% + gradients. Big surprise is Bernal, losing over 7 minutes. TJV does what is expected. WVA and Tom Dom looked great.

Final Week Preview

Stage 16:

Sam: Alaphilippe

Aaron: De Gendt

Stage 17

Aaron: Roglic

Sam: Rolland

Stage 18:

Sam: Carapaz

Aaron: Hirschi

Stage 19

Aaron: GVA

Sam: Sagan

Stage 20

ITT

Sam: Tom Dom

Aaron: Roglic

Stage 21:

Sprint Finish

Aaron: Bennett

Sam: Bol

Next Week Preview: Recap of final week of the Tour, Final TT for Tirreno Adriatico, Start of Giro Preview

Episode Topics: Racing recap: Tour de France Stages 3-9 Recap . Stage 10-15 Preview, Tirreno Adriatico Preview

Social Media:

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Strava:

Aaron - https://www.strava.com/athletes/777347

Sam - https://www.strava.com/athletes/150453

Strava…..Stats of the week!

Sam: 55 Miles, 2100 ft

Aaron: 130 Miles, 4,400 ft

Ride of the Week:

Sam -

Aaron -

Pro Cycling News:

USA Cycling announce their WC team

Mens: Kuss, Powless, McNulty, Craddock

Womens: Dygert, Amber Neben, Leah Thomas, Coryn Rivera, Ruth Winder, Tayler Wiles and Lauren Stephens

Cycling News:

Race Coverage:

Tour De France Stage 3-9 Recap

Stage 3: Ewan living up to his nickname of the pocket rocket and blasting out of nowhere to take the win.

Stage 4: Our first Mountain test. A lot of what we thought with Jumbo Visma Bossing it with WVA being the jefe. Took the group much further than you’d expect and Kuss took over to setup the uphill sprint win by Roglic. They said he hit 50kph in the sprint. No big losers from a GC standpoint.

Stage 5: The jefe WVA said he was given a chance today by the team and took it. Slight uphill twisty finish and he positioned himself perfectly on the Sunweb train to take the win from Bol.

Stage 6: First major break of the tour. I did correctly call a break but my rider (Fraile) was no there. Really strong group including Powless on his 24th bday. Powless very aggressive but Lutsenko is the clear best rider and takes his first TdF stage victory. In the main peloton nothing too exciting happens and Alaphilippe gains 1 second

Stage 7: A really intense day of racing. Bora takes it to the sprinters right out of the gate over the first cat 3 that is 9km into the stage. Bora has clear sights on getting the green jersey back which they succeed. As predicted there is some wind echelons near the end of the race with some GC riders caught out and some with poor timing of technical issues. Those riders lost just over 1 minute while WVA wins a bit of a messy sprint with Boasson Hagen a close 2nd. Sagan and Alaphilippe both had technicals in the final sprint erasing their chances

Stage 8: Another day for the break. Powless again there and in the thick of it. Zakarin the best placed rider but Nans Peters takes it for AG2R. 2nd Pro victory with other stage being in the Giro so not bad for him. As for the GC riders we have a big surprise with Pinot being dropped on the HC climb Port de Bales and losing 18 minutes with some back issues. The GC battle picked up steam on the final climb of the day with Pogacar making a great solo attack to gaining 40 seconds of the time he lost the previous day due to a technical. It looked like Bernal was on the ropes at one point as well as Yates but they both clawed their way back onto the group and everyone finished safely in the group with Bardet sneaking away to grab 2 seconds. Nairo looks good as well as Roglic. The overall GC sees a big shift as multiple people lost time. Mas, Mollema and Carapaz all lost almost 40 seconds to the main group as well as Buchmann losing a minute. Higuita, Valverde and Domoulin all lost 2 mins.

Stage 9: Profile did not look like it would be a good day but going into a rest day is always interesting especially with the Covid testing tomorrow. Really hard to make a break stick and ended up being a solo break by Hirschi with 6-8 riders trying to catch him. Hirschi was bombing the descents in the rain slicked roads. Very dangerous. Rest of the chase and peloton not taking the same risks and he puts time on each descent culminating in a 4:30 minute gap.

Tour De France week 2 Preview Continued

Stage 10 (Tuesday)

Pancake flat and an obvious one for the sprinters. Too bad it isn't a...

Episode Topics: Racing recap: European Championships, Tour de France Stage 1 and 2 Recap . Stage 3-9 Preview,

Social Media:

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Strava:

Aaron - https://www.strava.com/athletes/777347

Sam - https://www.strava.com/athletes/150453

Strava…..Stats of the week!

Sam: 40 Miles, 2595 ft

Aaron: 150 Miles, 5,555 ft

Ride of the Week:

Sam - Somo, Easing into Bike Fit - 32 mi 2500 ft

Aaron - WVC, Rain in AZ - 59 mi 1,1175 ft

Pro Cycling News:

Matthews out at Sunweb

Tony Martin - Extends with Jumbo till 2022

Oomen official with Jumbo for 3 years

Bora and hansgrohe extend to 2024

AG2R-Citroen extend to 2025

Stybar out of the Tour with some knee pain.

Sad to see him out. Was really looking good since the restart.

Race Coverage:

Tour De France Stage 1 and 2 Recap

Stage 1: Crashes Crashes Crashes. Degenkolb and Gilbert out. Notable crashes, Roglic, Lopez, Sanchez, Pinot, Gaudu, Molard, Sivakov, Amador, Poels, Kamna, Uran, G Bennett

Stage 2: An early TDF climbing stage

Tour De France week 1 Preview Continued

Using the profiles from steephill.tv so if you wanted to follow along at home.

Stage 3 (Monday, Aug 31st)

Sam: Classic Breakaway stage. What happened yesterday will predict how this stage goes. If the break has no one in the hunt for yellow it will be let go. Just enough difficulty for De Gendt to show his stuff. Teams with GC ambition might not allow their hunters out into the break.

Aaron: Definitely a sprint stage. Someone who can do an uphill sprint

Contenders: Break: De Gendt, Formolo, GVA, Alaphillippe, Benoot, Calmejane, Gautier

Sprint: Pedersen, Sagan, Ewan, Bennett, Boasson Hagen, Kristoff, Stuyven

Aaron Pick: Sagan, DeGendt

Sam Pick: Benoot, Pedersen

Stage 4 (Tuesday, Sept 1st)

Sam: Im not sure if ive seen a cat 1 mountain stage finish this early in the tour in the past decade. I dont normally look for fireworks this early but it will be a great stage to put in a big attack. 7.1km @ 6.7% isnt going to be too tough but with a blistering tempo we could see some contenders lose their podium ambitions on this stage.

Contenders: All the GC guys

Sam Pick: Roglic

Aaron Pick: Roglic

Stage 5 (Wednesday, Sept 2nd)

This is a weird transition stage. A lot of nothing going to go on here i think. I expect a small break away to form but not really get a long leash. Just not anywhere for it to happen. Not sure what the weather will be like but wind could be the only thing i can see happening here to have an effect. If it wasnt for his role this would be a great stage for WVA. As it stands the finale doesnt seem too hard but it will eliminate the pure sprinters.

Contenders: Break: De Gendt, Formolo, GVA, Alaphillippe, Benoot, Calmejane, Gautier

Sprint: Pedersen, Sagan, Ewan, Bennett, Boasson Hagen, Kristoff, Stuyven

Aaron Pick: Ewan

Sam Pick: Stuyven

Stage 6 (Thursday Sept 3rd)

A tale of two halves this stage. Pancake Flat for the first 155km and then a Cat 1 (11km @ 7.3%) at 25km to go. I expect the domestiques have their work cut out for them on the Col de la Lusette. Possible satellite riders up ahead for GC guys to win the stage. I imagine a breakaway having their day here. Just not tough enough for TJV or Ineos to let anyone get away.

Contenders: GC riders, Break: Izaguirre bros, Gautier, De Gendt, Alaphillippe, Latour, Bilbao, Formolo, Pozzovivo, Nieve

Sam Pick: Fraile

Aaron Pick: Pinot

Stage 7 - Friday Sept 4th

Really tough stage to pick. Sprint or Breakaway? 40km of roughly flat in the finale seems like a sprint stage to me.

Contenders: Kristoff, Sagan, Bennett, Pedersen, Bol, Ewan, Viviani

Sam Pick: Ewan

Aaron Pick: Bennett...

Episode Topics: Racing recap: Tour de Wallonie. Transfer news, Tour de France Week 1 Preview

Social Media:

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Strava:

Aaron - https://www.strava.com/athletes/777347

Sam - https://www.strava.com/athletes/150453

Strava…..Stats of the week!

Sam: 0 Miles, 0 ft

Aaron: 40 Miles, 2,700 ft

Ride of the Week:

Sam - New Bike Fit

Aaron - Hot Rocks

Pro Cycling News:

AG2R shockingly leads the transfer season

Bob Jungels, Matteo Trentin and Lillian Calmejane join AG2R. Building quite a classics squad

Adam Yates signs for Ineos for 2 years

Simon Yates stays with Michelton-Scott

Tanel Kangert signs for Michelton-Scott

Race Coverage:

Tour de Wallonie

Stage 1: Ewan wins stage 1. Commentators wouldnt shut up about Cavendish

Stage 2: Demare takes it over Ewan.

Stage 3: Bennett wins in a 3 up sprint against Demare and Degenkolb

GVA and Gilbert are looking good for the tour

Stage 4: Demare wins the stage and the overall

Takeaways: Demare looks in great form, too bad he is not going to the TdF. Classics riders are looking in good form ahead of the Tour. Keep an eye out for them

Tour De France Preview:

Sprinters / Green Jersey

Sprint Contenders: Viviani, Sagan, Trentin, Bennett, Greipel, Hofstetter, Ewan, Mezgec, Nizzolo, Bol, Arndt, Colbrelli, Stuyven, Kristoff, Coquard, Pedersen, Boassan Hagen

Missing: Jakobsen and Groenewegen

Ewan, Bennett and Viviani are the men to beat but the 2nd tier is pretty strong with Mezgec, Bol, Colbrelli etc

Green Jersey Contenders: Sagan…… Dark Horses: Van Aert, Stuyven, Pedersen

Polka Dot Jersey: Lame that no one targets it anymore. Left to gc guys who faded

Stage 1:

Contenders: Sagan, Gallopin, Bennett, Pedersen, Trentin, Viviani, Kristoff, Ewan, Mezgec, Greipel, Boasson Hagen, Coquard, Nizzolo, Bol

Sam Pick: Ewan

Aaron Pick: Bennett

Stage 2

Seems like a perfect stage for Alaphillippe to take yellow. Look for Quickstep to keep any break pretty tight. Look to some puncheurs like Gilbert, Sagan, GVA and Alaphillippe to make the final selection

Contenders: Gilbert, Sagan, GVA, Alaphillippe, Kristoff, Trentin, Benoot, Calmejane, Degenkolb, Stuyven, Bettiol

Sam Pick: Gilbert

Aaron Pick: Calmejane

Next Week: Stage 1 and 2 recap, Breakdown next Weeks Stages

Episode Topics: Racing recap: Il Lombardia, Criterium du Dauphine, Tour GC Contenders Form

Social Media:

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Strava:

Aaron - https://www.strava.com/athletes/777347

Sam - https://www.strava.com/athletes/150453

Strava…..Stats of the week!

Sam: 99.8 Miles, 1700 ft

Aaron: 140 Miles, 4,500 ft

Ride of the Week:

Sam - WVC - Muy Caliente

Aaron - West Valley - Too hot for this

Pro Cycling News:

Cycling News:

Jack Haig signs with Bahrain McLaren over Ineos

Race Coverage:

Il Lombardia:

Dangerous Descents are the theme of the day. Evenepoel has a nasty crash similar to previous editions and reminiscent of Gilberts crash a few years back. Schachmann crashes into stray car?!

The break crushes the peloton with Trek heavily in the drivers seat based on numbers. They lack the strength as Fuglsang and Bennett are the clear strongest. Fuglsang drops Bennett on final climb and easily takes his 2nd monument

Takeaway: Dangerous Descents and Rider Safety. Why no netting on known areas? Fuglsang seems to be taking to these classics races. Close in Strade Bianche again and now a 2nd monument in a few short years. Could probably win Amstel Gold and Bianche before he is done but not sure about the others.

Criterium du Dauphine

Stage 1: TJV pulls an Ineos train and lead WVA out for the win

Stage 2: Repeat Stage 1 except trade for Roglic. Pinot and Buchmann round out podium. Bernal 10th.

Stage 3: Formolo has a crazy 50km attack and solos to victory. Roglic easily takes 2nd place in the bunch. Pinot and Buchmann again behind. Bernal loses 9 more seconds

Stage 4: Bernal abandons. Roglic crashes. Buchmann and Kruswskjdfk both crash on unsafe descent and abandon . Breakaway wins the day as no one really wants to pull them back. Lenny Kamna takes the day. Pinot pips Roglic at the line but Roglic just happy to finish.

Stage 5: Roglic did not take the start. Race is wide open as there are 9 riders within 1 min of new leader Pinot.

Takeaways: Ineos still doesn’t look like they’ve improved from last week. Definitely concerning but TJV have taken their licks in this race as well with Roglics crash and Krusuwkjwks as well. Does Pinot have the opportunity to swoop in for a victory?

Tour de France Contenders:

Ineos: Bernal, G, Froome?

Current Form: Bernal - Dropped out of Dauphine, G - 37th Dauphine, Froome 71st Dauphine

Supported by: Bernal, G, Froome, Kwiatkowski, Sivakov, Castoviejo, Rowe

Question Mark will be: Who is the leader? Will they be the Ineos/Sky of old?

Team Jumbo Visma: Roglic, Dumoulin

Current Form: Roglic - Was winning Dauphine before crash, Dumoulin 7th Dauphine

Supported by: Kuss, Roglic, Dumoulin, WVA, T Martin, Bennett, Gesink

Question Mark will be: Peaking too early, team leader?

Pogacar:

Current Form: 4th Overall Dauphine

Supported by: Aru, Formolo, De La Cruz, Polanc

Question Mark will be: Youth, Team Support

Pinot:

Current Form: 2nd Overall Dauphine

Supported by: Kung, Molard, Gaudu, Reichenbach

Question Mark will be: Team strength, form and consistency

Buchmann:

Current Form: Crashed out of Dauphine (looked strong prior)

Supported by: Muhlberger, Postlberger, Kamna, Grosschartner, Shachmann?

Question Mark will be: His condition from the crash and of Shachmann

Landa:

Current Form: 18th Dauphine

Supported by: Poel, Bilbao, Teuns, Mohoric

Question Mark will be: Consistency

Lopez:

Current Form: 5th Overall Dauphine

Supported by: Izagirre Brothers, Lutsenko

Question Mark will be: Consistency

Nairo: Stage of Paris Nice, Overall Tour of Alps and Tour de la Provence

Supported by: Barguil, Anaconda, Rosa

Question Mark will be:...

Episode Topics: Racing recap, Milano Torino, Milan San Remo, Tour of Poland and Tour de l’Ain

Social Media:

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Strava:

Aaron - https://www.strava.com/athletes/777347

Sam - https://www.strava.com/athletes/150453

Strava…..Stats of the week!

Sam: 80 Miles, 3300 ft

Aaron: 180 Miles, 6,500 ft

Ride of the Week:

Sam - Heart Asplode SoMo

Aaron - WV Somo

Pro Cycling News:

Cycling News:

Stan Dewulf and Gijs Van Hoecke sign to Ag2r - Continuing to restructure as a Classics team to support Naesen and possibly GVA

Sean Quinn joins Quickstep as Stagiaire

Impey to sign to ISN to support Froome as a road captain

Race Coverage:

Milano Torino

Sagan goes early finishing 4th and Demare sprints to a clean win. Crash just before the end (seemed to be caused by Sagan avoiding touching wheels). Ewan 2nd, WVA 3rd.

Takeaways: Getting back to racing is causing nerves in these sprint stages that typically they would be over at this point in the season. All the sprinters seem to be on top form and WVA continues to impress.

Milan San Remo

Mont Ventoux Challenge

Martin and Latour pull some moves like I would needlessly attacking each other rather than working together which I think cost them both some energy. Vlaslov makes the move and is not seen again with a TT style up in speed. Porte attempts to pull him back but falls short.

Takeaways: Vlaslov is in some super form winning this and coming in 3rd in GC behind Bernal and Sivakov at La Route d’Occitanie. Porte looks to be going well and Nairo doesn’t look to be yet back to his early season form after the accident.

Tour of Poland

Stage 1 - Why are they talking about Cavendish so much towards the end when there are real sprinters racing? Just a terrible crash caused by Groenewegen forcing Jakobsen into the barriers; commentators are speechless.

Stage 2 - A welcome straightforward sprint won by Pedersen. He held on just long enough and Ackermann never seemed to be in position - bad leadout. I think yesterday had lingering effects on riders willingness to risk themselves

Stage 3 - Ineos seemingly oddly riding in the front even after the last 3k but Carapaz has a go early on the uphill sprint and holds off the rest

Stage 4 - Evenepoel dominates with a long 50km attack and solos to finish and the yellow

Stage 5 - Tightly contested sprint won by Ballerini ahead of Ackermann

Takeaways:

All aboard the Remco Hype Train. Ackermann also not looking to be at his best currently

Tour de l’Ain:

Stage 1: Bagioli steals stage 1 from Roglic

Stage 2: Roglics revenge ahead of Bernal

Stage 3: Roglic and TJV dominate the finale again with Roglic making chump change of Bernal

Takeaway: Ineos seems like they have a lot to work on. Bernal is looking good but is not getting the help he is used to from his domestiques.

Criterium du Dauphine Preview

Riders to Watch: Bardet, Lopez, Landa, Buchmann, Uran, Pinot, Mas, Ineos, TJV, Porte, Pogacar, Quintana

Every stage is an uphill

How will Ineos look after Tour de l' Ain

Il Lombardia:

243km in length. Small climb, 10% with 4km to go. Descent into the finish.

Riders to Watch: Evenepoel, Bettiol, Wellens, Fuglsang, Oliveira, Mollema, MvdP, Pogacar

Next Week Preview:

Il Lombardia Recap, Criterium du Dauphine Recap, Tour de France Week 1 Preview

Episode Topics: Strade Bianche Race Review, Vuelta Burgos

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Strava:

Aaron - https://www.strava.com/athletes/777347

Sam - https://www.strava.com/athletes/150453

Strava…..Stats of the week!

Sam: 35 Miles, 3400 ft

Aaron: 165 Miles, 14,000 ft

Ride of the Week:

Sam - The Half SaulTM

Aaron - Lookout + Red Rocks

Pro Cycling News:

Dylan Teuns extends for two years at Bahrain McLaren

LaPorte signs with TDE

Cycling News:

Race Coverage:

Vuelta Burgos

Stage 1 - Grosschartner seems to catch everyone on a late surprise uphill attack and holds it. Almeida, Valverde, Aranburu and Landa come in after

Stage 2 - Gaviria dominant in the sprint win ahead of Demare and Bennett

Stage 3 - Evenepoel attacks with 2km as they catch the last of the breakaway and isn’t seen again. Bennet, Landa and Chaves come in after

Stage 4 - Low speed crash around a tight corner with 1km to go. Bennett takes advantage

Stage 5 - Peloton catches break 10k to go. 4k Landa and Kuss pull ahead, good practice for some of the domestiques. Landa goes at 3.5k. Remco and Landa trading blows just over 1k out while Sosa hangs on their wheels. Sosa attacks for the win with Landa in 2nd an Remco in 3rd

Takeaways: Gaviria and Evenepoel continue to crush 2020

Strade Bianche Womens

Van Vleuten comes out of nowhere and attacks the chase group and the solo rider Garcia. Leah Thomas looking strong with an unfortunate mechanical on a dirt section. Van Vlueten makes her final attack on the steep section to sienna with Garcia holding on to 2nd and Thomas in 3rd. Other big name riders seem to have came out of nowhere to finish behind the lead group; van der breggen and Longo borghini.

Strade Bianche Mens

Warm edition with temps over 35 degrees C.

Takeaways - Unique edition due to season restart but Strade Bianche continues to deliver exciting races. Both races were highlighted by strong showings from caliber riders. Bettiol is showing Flanders was not a fluke. WVA shows he has mastered the white roads of Italy. Formolo

Milan San Remo Preview:

Completely revamped profile after the Ligurian coast refuses to permit the MSR to come through. New route goes inland before returning to the traditional routes coastline with 35km to go.

Team sizes reduced to 6 riders to create space for 2 more wild cards, Bardiani-CSF and Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec.

Key Riders: Sagan, Gilbert, Nibali, GVA, Viviani, MvdP, D Teuns, Alaphilippe, Bettiol, Boasson Hagen, Kwiatkowski, Matthews, WVA, Gaviria

Tour de Pologne:

Stage 1: Sprint finish but small rise from 2km to 1km then a descent into the finish

Stage 2: Sprint finish

Stage 3: Transition Stage - 3 short laps into the finish. Lumpy rolly finally with a small uphill finish. Not too steep

Stage 4: Mtn Stage - 6 Cat 1s with an uphill finish. 2.2km @ 6.8%

Stage 5: A few mtns in the beginning but should be another sprint finish

Key Sprinters: Cavendish, Ackermann, Jakobsen, Barbier, Degenkolb, Groenewegen, Philpsen + McNulty

Next Week Preview:

MSR Recap, Tour of Poland Recap, Criterium du Dauphine and Il Lombardia Preview