Pro cyclings

hopefully gcn+ race coverage would just be spun off into another vpn-friendly platform? some of the gcn originals are kind of cool but i could take it or leave it tbh

outside fucking sucks tho

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It does… but if I’m already paying them for maps I wouldn’t mind getting bike stuff too.

Fuck. Good shit today.
Spain- good riding, timing/gaps constantly lacking.

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Brilliant work by Jumbo. It’s clear that the original goal was just “win all three tours”

Now it’s

Win all three tours
Sweep podium
Win with three different riders

The internet saying they are attacking Sepp are just overlooking the increasing gaps between the 3rd and the rest of the race. Padding that gap is clearly goal #1 right now and it totally makes sense. Now literally all three would have to completely flop for Jumbo to not make good on the original goal of winning all three tours.

I want to see Sepp win too, but this is brilliant.

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This is, very clearly, not one of their goals. If it were, Vingegaard would’ve stayed with Kuss when Roglic attacked today.

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The Kuss is Loose!

I’m in this camp.

Roglic clearly showing good legs and getting his chance to attack and grab a stage win makes sense…Increases the gap to 4th and the likelihood of sweeping the podium.

Jonas riding up the road with Roglic just makes them look like dicks.

I’m curious what Kuss said on the radio when they started riding off

Option A: “slow the pace”
→ dicks. They left him.

Option B: “go ahead without me”
→ still dicks imo. They left him. Same team, he’s in red, everyone else dropped by that point. Didn’t Kuss tow Roglic up the same climb a few years ago when roglic didn’t have it?

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Reports are saying that it was this, but it could be spin. And yeah, still a bit of a dick move even if Kuss was cheering them on.

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A friend on the cross team’s slack made this:

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GC Kuss!

Yesterday was so close… I wonder if there was a sort of “if you can hold it today you can have it” memo?

There was a comment on Reddit that kind of makes sense too. Kuss wants to win. Primoz wants to fight it out and win. But Vingegaard would most like Kuss to win, otherwise he would want to win. When Primoz attacks Vingegaard follows to say, “Regardless of what happens you aren’t gonna win this thing, either we ride for Kuss or you get second to me.” Primoz has no hope of beating Vingegaard so, might as well ride for Kuss right?

In any case it feels like TJV should’ve made a clearer decision about who they were riding for a long time ago.

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And yet…

I’d say it’s been clear all week what the priorities were.

Jumbo had nothing to gain and everything to lose if they did NOT push JV and PR as close to Sepp as possible.

Stage 17 Roglic was gassing it all the way to the line and Jonas ended up less than ten seconds behind… had Kuss not outsprinted Landa for bonus seconds he would’ve been all of four seconds ahead on GC. What was TJV gaining by pushing him that close to Kuss? If Kuss was even marginally slower up the final slopes he could’ve lost the jersey, and there’s no way with the high pace to the line they knew Kuss would stay in red. If they wanted three different riders for three different grand tours then why push it like that?

“Everything to lose” seems sort of dramatic. Are they that afraid of Mikel Landa? Barring a horrible crash they were never in danger.

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When they started consolidating the podium the gaps back to the rest were tighter. If they simply worked for Kuss and he had a bad day this week they would be firmly on the back foot with regards to the goal of sweeping or possibly even winning if something wild went down. What would be the point of NOT making sure there are 4+ minutes between the three and the rest? What would be the point of leaving anything to chance if they can avoid it? Today Auyso is only 3 minutes back from Primoz. A comfortable gap but not one that was utterly insurmountable. Landa and Mas are by no means on the same level as the Jumbo three, but both are very experienced and never to be discounted as a threat.

I agree the chances of anyone bouncing back today were slim, but going into the weekend, it was not nearly as certain. After two days of consolidating their sweep, they were able to then back off and re-prioritize Kuss.

I think Primoz wants his shot at the TdF and is acting out and Jumbo PR is trying hard to spin it.

We need Primoz to move to Lidl.

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There was no one within 2 minutes of any of them and they still could’ve gained time on rivals while also waiting for Kuss and still gotten (another) stage win.

They rode today like guys who had been told in no uncertain terms to wait for Kuss no matter what. Which is what the team should’ve done 3 days ago. But whatever, GC is sealed up now, PR damage has been done, TJV are now a team that doesn’t support their support riders (at least in the public eye)

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2 minutes was not huge a week ago. If Sepp cracked and the others were not hovering near that same time they were before moving closer, they would have been taking a chance that they could lose out on the gc win. Unlikely, but no director sportif in the world would intentionally risk winning a grand tour to support a domestique who has never been this close to winning a race like this before, optics be dammed.

They literally gifted Remco a stage win to support Kuss now that the podium was sufficiently locked down.

They can now crow about how they wanted to win as a TEAM first and foremost and how wonderful and amazing was to be able to repay their top worker in the process.

Even if Kuss cracked, there were still two very strong Roglics and Vingegaards that would also have to crack (which clearly wasn’t going to happen). There just wasn’t a risk of them losing, even if it meant not sweeping the entire podium. Not to mention that no one on the team, management or otherwise, have pointed to this as reasoning for their ‘strategy.’ You don’t attack your teammate when they’re in the leader’s jersey, its pretty simple.

All this makes up for an otherwise boring GC battle, for sure, though. I’ll give them that.