Yep this thread
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Bike Exchange team for Saudi Tour is Groenewegen, Craddock, Hepburn, Konychev, Mezgec, Edmondson and Maas. Hope to get a stage win with Groenewegen, however he is facing Ewan and S.Bennett
Team for Valeniciana is Hamilton, Grmay, Juue-Jensen, Bewley, Howson, Smith and Bauer - Interested to see how Hamilton performs as his 2021 was good until he fell ill at Tour De Suisse.
Apparently, Groves will have O’Brien and Stewart as his sprint lieutenants.
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Ewan wins stage 1 of the Tour of Saudi.
Groenewegen finished 10th after being hopelessly out of position.
Rather easy in the end.
Meanwhile:
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Ewan’s win was probably the easiest he’ll get all season - Got to only watch the last 150 metres because the live coverage failed because of issues with the plane - Obviously BEX stuffed up the final - Reading between the lines of DS Hoffman’s post match comments and Groenewegen’s post race tweet would have made for an interesting debrief.
Late changes for Valenciana - Out Bewley and Bauer - Bewley has struggled with complications from his broken wrist suffered at the 2020 TDF - The rider in is Groves - This is interesting as he will have opportunities but with limited support.
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Groenewegen bumped into one of the Lotto guys and that was his sprint done.
Look, it’s is first hitout with the squad, so there was every chance it would go wrong.
Think the Saudi GC is one for Rui Costa - Today’s stage has a kick at the end and is open for a few riders. First stage of Valenciana today - They are shouting Remco, however this should go to Valverde.
The more I think about the calendar the more convinced I’m that Matthews should go to the Giro which has got stages he can target.
Evenepoel crushed it today at Valenciana.
BEX riders very disappointing. Hamilton was 3 minutes down. Howson was better but only a bit.
Ewan 7th in the punchy finish in Saudi. An outstanding ride, for this time of the year.
Hamilton again was very disappointing - Interested to see how Groves goes in stage 2 - It is punchy which could lead to a reduced bunch finish and Groves was climbing well at the back end of 2021 - Ewan could have finished 3rd in that stage but eased over the line in 6th place - BEX was riding for Mezgec who unfortunately got a puncture with 20kms to go - Groenewegen will get a good chance today in stage 3 of the Saudi Tour.
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Groves absolutely stunk it up in Valenciana, one of the last over the line. Jakobsen smoked all comers.
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BEX has withdrawn from Valenciana after two riders tested positive to COVID. This will happen all season long.
Was this a factor in Groves ride yesterday?
i have no idea who are the two riders. There was a crash with 5kms to go which could have involved Groves.
Edit ; Mezgec finishes 2nd in the Queen Stage at the Saudi Tour - Thought he had a good chance in stage 2 but unfortunately he suffered a mechanical in the last 20km - The positives in Valenciana will disrupt the team for the Tour of Oman and the Ruta Del Sol with riders forced to isolate until Feb 10.
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Team for Oman is Konychev, Groves, Stewart, Meyer, O’Brien, Scotson and Colleoni. This was the original team for this race so Groves did not get COVID at Valencia.
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You have to wonder about Gigantes commitment to living in Europe which she will need to have a successful career. After returning to Oz in October, she then attended a Movistar camp in Europe in January, but has now returned to Oz for further training and will compete in 2 NRS races in February. Surely she would have been better to stay in Europe after the training camp. It could be she is too immature at this stage to commit to Europe.
I don’t think there will be any issues with Gigante.
Movistar are very happy with her approach.
Daniel Benson who is a quality journalist has switched from Cycling News to Velo News - Anyway he has already written his first Transfer Mechanics article for 2023 - My understanding is that Dumoulin still has an open offer to join BEX - The reason it did not occur is because Dumoulin did not want to break a contract for the second time - What BEX does with Matthews and S.Yates will be fascinating - Both will probably want to stay but if Dumoulin joins one will have to leave unless more funding comes on board - In saying that, there may be more Aussie support coming on board.
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Vine was a DNF on the Tour of Antalya stage 1. Lasted only 20km
"Gutted in both the physical sense and the metaphorical. Woke up this morning vomiting my gutts up 
The team gave me what they could to help my stomach, and I lined up to the start hoping I could just push through and bank on it being an easier day for the GC contenders. You know me, I’ll try and push through anything I can. But unfortunately, Gastro and bike racing just don’t work together. Sure enough, I got about 20kms in before I had to abandon the race. Team doc had taken a look at me and given me some stuff to try and lower the fever, and I’m just going to be trying to sleep it off. Disappointed is an under statement, after how I was feeling at Bessèges, I was really looking forward to see what we as a team could do at Antalya, but I guess I’ll have to save that for another day.
Really great to see the boys pulling off a podium for today’s sprint finish. Awesome work."
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