Spring is upon us which means that this year's road cycling season is well underway, a season which holds many different stories and questions that we are waiting to get answered – and for new ones to be asked.

As has increasingly been the case over the past couple of years, the riders set to answer these questions are likely to be be quite young. While previously, cyclists often peaked at about the age of 30, over the past couple of years the youngins have taken over the world of cycling. This year is the 10-year anniversary for when Chris Horner on the Vuelta at the ripe age of 41, and last year, the only rider in the top 5 at the Tour born before '96 was Geraint Thomas - and he was leagues behind the two otherworldly riders, Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar.

While young men occupy the pinnacle of the world of cycling, old men are retiring – even the one I was beginning to suspect would ride until he died of old age. Alejandro Valverde deserves a mention in the opening post, a rider who’s been part of the peloton for as long as I can remember. One of the most successful and iconic riders of his generation (which spans multiple generations) has retired. Fitting the narrative of the new generation taking over, the final Grand Tour that Valverde participated in was won by Remco Evenepoel, who was presumably waddling (or pedaling) around at the age of two when Valverde turned professional in 2002.


One of the central questions in the world of cycling leading into last year’s season (and the topic of the title of last year’s thread) was who would could stop the all-devouring monster, Tadej Pogacar.
Whilst (spoiler alert) he did not win the GC at the Tour de France, he won an obscene number of races, and he does not look like he’s going to be any less dominant this season


But, as it turned out, he could be stopped by the most down to earth riders in the peloton from one of the flattest countries in the world, who somehow yet climbed like a mountain GOAT, Jonas Vingegod erghh Vingegaard. With the aid of an insanely strong team, Vingegaard did what nobody thought possible and dethroned Pogacar at the Tour de France, beating him with several minutes (ignoring the time lost on the final stage when Vingegaard and his team cruised the past km and lost some time). The undisputed captain for the Tour on the strongest team in the world, Vingegaard is setting out to defend his title against Pogacar, in what seems poised to become the GC rivalry in cycling in these years.

The big story line of this season will undoubtedly be the rematch between these two riders in July – but we’ll get an appetizer in the coming week, as both riders (after utterly dominating their season-opening races) face off in Paris-Nice.


Cycling is a young man's game and it seems like the main challenger to break the dominance of Pogagaard could be even younger Remco Evenepoel. He’s set to ride the Giro, however, and surely hoping to do better than in 2021 when he had a disappointing Grand Tour debut. Last year, though, he won the Vuelta in convincing fashion, although, beating guys like Mas (who, in fairness, has been on the rise recently) and Ayuso is a different gravy than facing the two behemoths. He also won Liege-Bastogne-Liege and, not least, the World Championship, meaning he will have the honor of the rainbow jersey this season. The future looks very bright for this young man, who had another honor, even greater than the rainbow jersey bestowed upon him in 2021, when he was the topic of that year’s thread title.
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Another Belgian must be mentioned when we discuss the main characters of the world of cycling. There seems to be no breaks on Wout van Aert, who just keeps on winning in dominant fashion, as well as being an invaluable assistant to Jumbo’s GC aspirations with his apparent ability to outpull the rest of the peloton if need be to close gaps.


Today’s race:
Last week the classics season began with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, which was won by recent addition to the already stacked Jumbo team, Dylan van Baarle. He won in convincing fashion by riding solo, with teammate Laporte taking 3rd. The following day, Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kurne was raced, and, not unexpectedly, Jumbo once again dominated, winning the race with Tiesj Benoot and van Hooydonck finishing 2nd.
Today, one of the most beautiful and dramatic races of the season will happen - Strade Bianche. It is an early highlight of the cycling season and definitely worth bailing your friends and family to follow. “Strade Bianche” means “white roads”, referring to the unpaved back roads of Tuscany landscape that is simply breathtakingly beautiful (copy pasted from last year's thread as I’m lazy). With Wout van Aert being absent, the race favorite is Mathieu van der Poel, who won the race two years ago, and fellow superstars Tom Pidcock and Julian Alaphilippe (who won in 2019).








We end this opening post with a GIF showing Javier Bardem blissfully watching a flat stage of cycling:

In for another season of GOATness, soon to be renamed WOUTness.

Time to check to see if there is any TV coverage of Paris-Nice. Seems like I caught the last two stages last year.

Also of note, it appears that Velonews has gone full paywall, which is going to cut my reading about cycling outside of this thread down by about 99%.

Totally unrelated question to the cyclists around here: I'm in the final stages of deciding between Canyon Ultimate CF SL and Cube Agree C62.

Which model exactly might also come down to availability in my size and since I don't mind the weight penalty too much, I don't necessarily want to pay the premium for Ultegra Di2 over 105 Di2 or Rival eTap.

What would you pick?

Peacock is your best bet in the US. You can get all the cycling live for $5 a month or $50 a year. Not that much considering the hours of content.

They frequently have pretty good deals. I got one year for $0.99/month on a BF deal.

Watched the finish of the stage today. Looked like Vingegaard bonked hard, very surprised Pogacar took him for 45 seconds in the end. Pogacar also took over yellow.

Looks like just stage 8 on Sunday on CNBC. TBD if I want to add yet another subscription to get more.

Pogacar is simply untouchable in a finish such as the one today.

Just saw OP. Holy **** cycling ages you

Mathieu van der Poel wins in Sanremo - what a finish, dropping Pogacar, van Aert and Ganna on Poggio, unbelievable.

MSR always deliver some of the best finales and this was no exception.

Happy Paris-Roubaix to those who celebrate.

What a beast. MvdP crushing it.

Yeah he has somehow gotten even better than he already was. He was by far the most attacking rider in the front group and still had so much in the tank toward the end. If it wasn't for Pogacar being an alien on Kwaremont, MvdP would've won all three monuments by riding solo which is incredible given the quality of the other riders.

Gotta feel a bit for WvA tho, without that puncture he'd have had a very good chance (and the final between the two of them would've been the cherry on top of a great race). I feel for Degenkolb too, I doubt he'd have won but he was racing brilliantly all day.

Oh nice, CNBC dished up both Liege-Bastogne-Liege and La Fleche Wallonne today.

Evenepoel just ate Pidcock's soul in LBL. Incredible.

Disaster has struck as Evenepoel is forced to abandon the Giro while in the lead due to covid after winning today's ITT. People were talking about how Remco winning the TT with such a small margin was surprising given how big of a favorite he was, but if he's sick it makes more sense (I was beginning to worry that my prediction that he'd win by 5+ mins would look silly).

Fingers crossed he'll go to the Tour instead to face Vingegaard and Pogacar. But no matter what it really sucks that this has happened.

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He certainly tested positive for something.

Damn. RIP Gino Mader.

RIP. A likable rider and, far more importantly, seemingly a good human being, who was apparently very into social work and creating awareness about social problems in Africa (he turned pro on Team Dimension Data who were from South Africa). It is a tragedy that casts a shadow on what should be one of the best times of the year for cycling fans.





The Danish national road race Championship was hosted in my local city, so I went to see it. The race was won by the latest very talented Danish rider of this golden generation, Mattias Skjelmose, who has really had a breakthrough week, first winning Tour de Suisse, then finishing second in the national championship TT (despite having to change bike), and now winning the road race in dominant fashion. It will be very interesting to see how he fares in the Tour, he could be an outsider for the podium although it's still a bit of a long shot as he has not been super durable in the past and three weeks is a long time.

I noticed he did not take a single sip of the champagne - he is clearly fully focused on the next month. Caught a few photos (including one of Mads Pedersen with the former World Champion stripes.

My untrained eye and a 5 minute look but the route profile looks pretty shitty this year for TdF. Hope I'm completely wrong and we get a great race again this year

I think there are ups and downs to it. I think it suits the type of riders present very well, because Vingegaard and especially Pogacar loves to attack and do it early, as opposed to waiting with GC action until the second half of the race. I would not be surprised to see GC action on the very first stage, as the final climb is a nasty one that should suit Pogacar's punch excellently. Spreading the GC action out more allows for more surprises and unpredictability, as I think Pogacar could likely be strongest in the first half of the race (especially on punchier climbs), while Vingegaard could be stronger in the final week and on the more gruelling stages.

There's also other brilliant attackers well-suited for the early stages, van der Poel, Alaphilippe if in form, and Girmay (and undoubtedly van Aert, but it's possible he will be more focused on fully helping Vingegaard than last year). At this point we might dub having such a stage within the first three the "Alaphilippe rule", as I suspect the primary reason they keep returning is that, if he's in form, Alaphilippe is all but guaranteed to win it and take yellow, which ASO obviously want - and which he did three years in a row from '19-21.

Another notable features is the very few TT kms, and the ones that are there are climb-y, presumably to even out the playing field a bit when the two favorites are both excellent time trialists.

We're also getting the stage (17) with the most vertical meters of any Tour stage in a decade, which very likely could decide the Tour.

That said, I would not have minded if the following three stages were a bit more difficult, only the 20th stage is anything to write home about (for the GC guys, anyways) and even that is a relatively managable stage. But I suppose we can only put these poor souls through so much suffering before someone contacts the Human Rights Watch...

Finished Unchained a few weeks ago and now am primed for July 1. Still don't always get the strat of these races but hype to watch this year

Without having looked at the profile yet I think it will be hard for the Tour to be shitty as long as Pogacar and Vingegaard are both in form.

Froome is done. Left out of the squad. My guess will retire now at the end of the season. World cycling has moved on from his style of racing anyway - it simply does not work for more than a few prime years.

One of the interesting side stories is for Cavendish finally back at the tour and perhaps for the last time and whether he can get the all time number of stage wins

He's announced during the Giro that he'll retire after this season.