procycling

Wout van Aert has signed a contract with Visma-Lease A Bike “for eternity”. He’s not alone as Chris Froome and Michael Woods are said to have “retirement contracts” meaning they can ride for their team as long as they wish. These are just some examples among several of long term contracts and they’re becoming increasingly common.

Race Info: https://gpcqm.ca/grand-prix-montreal/
Parcours/Profile: https://gpcqm.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/23185505/222297-GPCMTL-PARCOURS-Mtl_2024-CMYK.png?ver=1716483304000
Startlist: https://gpcqm.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/14201809/GPCQM_Startlist_Etape_1-5.pdf?ver=1726337888000
Live TV map: https://gpcqm.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/31175922/carte_telediffusion_2024.jpg?ver=1725119962000

Lotte Kopecky started her 2024 road season by winning the overall at the UAE Tour, and seven months later she has ended her current run in the rainbow jersey (at least in terms of WorldTour racing) by winning the overall at Tour de Romandie – bookending her rainbow year with WorldTour GC titles that started with the 2023 Simac Ladies Tour.

The Belgian finished second in the opening stage sprint, second on the mountaintop at the end of stage 2, and third behind a breakaway of two in the final stage. The three podium finishes secured her the overall victory, six seconds ahead of teammate Demi Vollering and 46 seconds ahead of Gaia Realini of Lidl-Trek.

“I came here to see how my form was at the moment, and I’m quite happy where I am with the World Championships coming,” Kopecky said after the third stage.

Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) won the opening sprint stage and Riejanne Markus (Visma-Lease a Bike) won the final stage after a day in the breakaway.

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How good was the 2024 Vuelta a España?

Record heat, a brutally hard course, and animated racing made it interesting, but was it good?

This rough-and-tumble Vuelta had a lot going for it.

Primož Roglič won a record-tying fourth crown that seemed all but inevitable even with a banged up back and a late-race bad tummy. With the other three of the “Big 4” sitting on the sidelines, who was going to beat him anyway?

Ben O’Connor at least made it interesting after pulling a “Kuss” on the exact same stage that Sepp Kuss sprung clear last year to win. The Australian finally buckled to Roglič’s incessant tapping in stage 19, but he didn’t fully crack, and hung on for a well-deserved first career podium.

Behind those two, this Vuelta was a bit of a mixed bag.

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As if riding the 3,261 kilometres of the 2024 Vuelta a España as his last race was not enough, Spanish veteran Luis Maté (Euskaltel-Euskadi) is celebrating his retirement by riding the 600 kilometres from the Vuelta finish in Madrid to his home in Marbella in the south of Spain.

Maté started his three-day return on Monday morning “without getting up too early” and will stay overnight in Puertollano, a town some 250 kilometres south of the Spanish capital.

He will then pedal on to Lucena, roughly 220 kilometres further south, before reaching his home in Marbella on the Andalusian coast after a shorter leg some time late on Wednesday afternoon.

Maté completed his twelfth and last ever Vuelta in 61st place overall, during a final season in which he also celebrated a final win, a stage in the Volta a Portugal.

“It’s partly to get used to the idea of leaving my pro career behind, but I’m going on being a bike rider, and this is like a transition, riding home from being a pro to riding a bike ‘for real’, " the 40-year-old told Cyclingnews.

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After the rest day, O'Connor still has an advantage of almost 4 minutes over his closest rival, Primoz Roglic, and he's looking good. Roglic apparently hasn't felt as strong, and hasn't struck on the typical climbs we would expect him to use to put time into O'Connor and other rivals. Joao Almeida is out of the race with COVID, and Adam Yates is now UAE's top GC man, ~ 5:30 back from O'Connor. Sepp Kuss does not seem to be in top form and will probably not defend his red jersey. Richard Carapaz, Enric Mas, and Mikel Landa are ~30 seconds away from Roglic after the first rest day.

Sepp Kuss may be a Grand Tour winner leading one of the world’s best teams as he attempts to defend his title at the Vuelta a España, but that doesn’t mean that he has forgotten who he was before he took hold of the red jersey a year ago. On Friday, he showed the world that he is still the same old Sepp Kuss who can be relied upon as one of the sport’s best teammates.

“In our team, it’s not only about winning but about performing as a team,” Wout van Aert said after Kuss helped him secure his second stage win of the 2024 Vuelta. “A part of that is that everybody dares to sacrifice himself for the others.”

Van Aert, hunting stages in his Vuelta debut, was the pre-race favorite for stage 7, which featured a punchy climb late in the day – perfect for jettisoning the less versatile sprinters from the pack and putting Van Aert in position to outkick the survivors. Everything seemed to be going according to plan for Van Aert and Visma-Lease a Bike until Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) soloed away from the thinned-out pack on the descent off of the climb.

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It doesn't take a wealth of big names to make a sprint compelling huh?

They seem to just not really be covering it. No highlights show that I can find tonight and the tour of Denmark and tour de l'avenir are more prominent on the website. What gives?

AMNÉVILLE, France (Velo) – Demi Vollering and the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift peloton won’t forget the race’s return to its native land in a hurry.

After avoiding a huge pile-up during four days of Benelux road furniture, a left hand bend after a roundabout outside Amnéville led to carnage at the end of stage 5.

A crash 20 riders from the front of a speeding peloton with 6km to go took down fifteen riders in a tangle of bodies and bikes and changed the course of the 2024 race.

Race leader Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx-Protime) and second-placed Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) both hit the deck. Pieterse was up quickly, despite cuts to her hip, knee, elbow, chin and back, only losing 28 seconds come the finish.

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Like a mini documentary focusing on EF Education's Richard Carapaz's win in stage 17. Inside the bus and so on.

Did anyone predict Primoz or Juan Ayuso dropping this year? :(

Yes.

We’re seeing several stages in the Tour de France when nobody attacks. In the past there was always a move hoping for some publicity and the chance of beating the odds. No more…

Normally we’ve seen an early breakaway go. The flag drops and a handful of plucky riders take a flier. Race director Thierry Gouvenou has branded them “4×4” moves, as in four riders go up the road and get four minutes. This blog has labelled them 4x4x4 as four riders get four minutes in a forlorn move. These moves almost never work.

The stage began without a rider that had finished the day before: Mads Pedersen. The Dane was suffering from injuries sustained on stage 5 and ultimately abandoned the race. During the stage we have seen crashes and small injuries for Warren Barguil and Sandy Dujardin. Oscar Onley and Soren Kragh Andersen also came down on the day.

Shame, that.

There’s a lot to master for neo-pros and Docker’s book is a manual for newcomers making their way in the peloton. This could mean a niche readership even if they’d do well to read it but reading the advice and anecdotes is of wider interest as it touches on tactics and other skills that sofa spectators can enjoy.

The first Time Trial of the Tour.

Evenepoel should be the main favorite, but Pogacar did some serious performances at the Giro, and Vingegaard on past Tours has dominated the discipline.

The difference between Pogacar and Vingegaard could shape the Tour. If the later is able to recover time, it will be interesting, but if Pogacar gains even more time, the Tour could be almost over.

Cicone starts at 16.44 and with two minutes between them until Pogacar starts at 17.00

Stage 6 of the Tour should be a calm day on the bike, with only 163 kilometers to race, mostly completely flat with a finale into Dijon. A small fourth category ascent early in the day, but after that it is just an old-school Tour day where there is nothing to keep an eye on besides the final sprint.

After the opening weekend's hilly stages and yesterday flat one, the race has today a hard mountain stage.

3900 meters of climbing and they will go above 2000m (they will climb up to 2627m on the Galibier).

Pogacar should test Vingegaard, and it could be too much climbing for Remco.

But, even with the precious climbing data, the slopes may not be hard enough to make differences. They should go full gas the whole climb and some riders can break when surpassing the 2000m mark.

I remember asking this years ago on r***** but I'll ask again because I think this is a fun topic. Every sport has them - what are the unwritten rules of pro cycling?

Any answer would be great, but I also want to ask about something I just saw. Is there a rule among cyclists about intermediate sprints that you can try for points, but not very hard? I see mid-range pushing at these things and I always wonder why at least one rider doesn't just go all out to get the points.