Elite TT on Sunday. Unfortunately only on FloSports in the US so I'll see what the Beeb puts on the wire for free with a remote IP.

There is a bit of profile to the 40.6km course.

If you give me 2 to 1 odds, I'll take Evenepoel for the TT win AND FDLR / M23 to Gaza up the road race at some point before Pogacar pulls it off.

TT winner was no surprise. But pleased to see J.V. on the podium.

And not that I have anything against him, but it's healthy that T.J. doesn't ALWAYS achieve his goals..

Oh yeah - van Wilder was not on my radar at all. Shows you how little I know, I guess.

Smoked it, but what about that "visor" he was running?!?!

Heck of a race… 30 out of 165 riders finishing.

Spoiler, but I'm guessing everyone knows already.

My take on the race from how I was able to "watch", or follow. I was mostly following on the UCI website - man the live tracking just flat out sucked. All I got was updates at each lap. Then I watched the Youtube clips afterwards, along with some 1/2 arsed pirated Youtube feeds.

Remco-
I think he flat out exploded on the mountain - I'm not buying that his seat slipped down at the exact moment that Pogi upped the pace. He was cooked, but the bike change allowed him to recover, and the flat sections on the following circuits allowed him to catch up and then attack. But - going from not being able to keep up, or even really ride for that matter - on two bikes that were not broken, then all the sudden being able to let it rip on his third bike... I dunno what was going on there.

Pogi-
He never really attacked (meaning full gas ballistic attack. He upped the pace on the mountain and just rode away from all but three riders. Never attacked again and Ayuso just dropped, then he nursed Del Toro along until he popped**.
-I got the lap by lap times/speed updates at every lap.
-All Pogi did was up the pace by 1/4-1/2 KPH every lap. And he did so for every lap until the end.
-Remco never matched any of his lap times.
-All but three other riders flat out exploded. And those three riders, including Remco, while working together, couldn't make any time on Pogs.

Pogs just rode away from everyone at a steady pace.

Just about everyone else either exploded or just quit.

Crazy.

**And all of the talk about Del Toro or Ayuso being able to ride with him - all of the scuttlebutt around Ayuso - Pogi just rode away from them. He even slowed down to keep them around for help on the flats... but they just couldn't do it.

My take on this race is a little different from Jughed's. I see Remco as having two challenges in the race. That climb where he blew up - I think that was part in Remco's head. He didn't have the deep classics style training for a race that hard and that long and wasn't ready (or able?) to go that hard that far from the finish. Remco has also shown in the past that little issues like the bike get into his head.

Now, a lot of Remco's apparent weakness/lack of prep was IMHO due to his focusing on the TT in his training, And that worked! Last week there was no one in the world who could touch him. Still, had Remco managed to stay attached yesterday on that hill, or at least say within 20 sec chase distance, he would not have wasted all those resources doing that long chase to get back on. And I could easily see him dropping the chase group with 10k to go and going 1:24 up the road. So race on with Pog. After all, that is what Remco does. He has afterburners for the late miles. No, he will not match Pog for a lap time on the hardest classics-style course ever. But being in the chase group, spending far less time in the wind, he wouldn't have to.

And as for that course! It should be the next monument! It is right up there with Paris-Roubaix and Strada Bianca for being spectacular, much harder than the hilly Flanders, is in a unique setting for a bike race, seems that the Rwandans played excellent hosts and large crowds turned up to watch. I hope UCI doesn't blow this.

100% agree, that course was spectacular.

I would think a few less laps would make it doable for an annual race. But it’s current distance just blew people apart.


Remco - I read an article where his mechanics say there was nothing wrong with any of the bikes. I think he gets into his own head a little too much…

Great ride by Ben Healy. And with Magdeleine Vallieres Mill's win, spectacular results in this World's for Team EF, men and women. EF (of which we are unabashed fans in this house) must have the highest ratio of wins/points/podium finishes to budget in the UCI.

I only saw highlights, I admit, but I still don't quite get how Remco recovered from all that lost time and still finished 2nd. Sure, he's not happy with the result because he wanted rainbow, but what an amazing race it might have been if he hadn't lost all that time?

Yea, if we take Remco’s race travails at face value (i.e. it was mechanicals that he was dealing with), he did amazingly well - and between the TT and the race arguably had a better World’s than anyone, although he may not feel that way.. It was great to see the Pogacar/del Toro/Ayuso battle.

Teammates, team cars… drafted back into the main group.

Where he was able to then draft and recover a bit.

Made his way to the front, formed a trio… they rotated with Remco doing the bulk of the work… but they made no gains on what was a solo Pogi.

Remco attacked the trio, made a few seconds on Pogi, but then the gap widened and continued to widen.

Remco never matched Pogi’s pace. Pogs kept 1/4-1/2 k faster on each lap than Remco.

And after the initial dropping of the main climb - Pogi got the first gap but eased up with Del Toro.

I don’t think Remco had any chance, even without whatever problems he had.

Pogs won simply by attrition.

In the women's RR, I was surprised the favorites were pretty much snoozing the whole race. Congrats to the medalists who were willing to risk it out front.

On Remco, the gist of what I've seen across several articles from various talking heads is:

Unlucky first mechanical. Legit (broken saddle) but he may have bled less if he had soldiered on for a bit rather than wait 40 sec on the side of the road.

Second bike change was all in his head.

Cian Uijtesomething riding past him rather than waiting to tow him up probably increased the stress.

Truly extraordinary 2nd place, partly because he made it even harder on himself physically by some of those actions. But Pog had an extra gear and wasn't going to lose even if Remco made better choices.

I did not see enough of it to weigh in. Neither confirm nor deny.

Meanwhile, here's the last turn of Strade Bianchi in a happy snappy from yesterday in Siena. Finish in Piazza del Campo is to the half left.

So were some of the favorites. I've seen pointed comments from some (Demi Vollering, Elisa Longo Borghini, et al) owning their fail and giving credit to the gals who took the bull by the horns.

Even if Remco had no problems, Pog would have dropped him. They were both in time trial mode and Remco made no gains on him. If they were together, I'm sure Pog could have attacked a climb and dropped him.

More on the second bike change
"He himself said he shouldn't have stopped" – Belgian coach opens up on the costly moment that denied Evenepoel gold https://share.google/4KPfuVKnyemGlgAAN

C'est la guerre.

On to the Euro championships

P.S. another less gentle spin on the "mechanicals" - https://cyclinguptodate.com/cycling/...y-dutch-pundit

Meanwhile, no dust settling on the golden Space Balls helmet. Chapeau young man.

. Overly dramatic title. Pog denied him the gold.

^^

denied him a chance at gold. Maybe.

Pogi already flew the coop - and eased up to stay with his (UAE) teammates. Knowing that Remco popped, then threw a tantrum, and that everyone else was blown. Pogi had time to ease up.

It was the second unnecessary, ill timed bike change that took 40 seconds. That bike was fine by all accounts, and he could have waited for the team car to catch up - but he didn’t. He stopped and threw a fit.

Pogs never even launched that backbreaking attack, he just upped the pace and exploded the field.

The only chance Remco had was to get on, and try to stay on, Pog’s wheel. And that wasn’t happening after he got dropped on the mountain.

18-year-old Harry Hudson made history as the first-ever male British winner of the junior world road race in Kigali Rwanda.



This is also the first time the winner is riding a Chinese bike, "Panda" (although many frames from well known bike companies are probably made in China?)

Also a first for the US, with Ashlin Barry winning silver in the junior men’s time trial, first US medal in Rwanda!

Sensationalism and little click-baity? Sure, OK. They're media.

But who else was between Remco and gold? So critique all you want but there's not much hard fact to split, just one little tufty hair.