It was a damn fine ride.
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Todor is going well this year. Its Storers 2nd top 10 in GC. I was more impressed with the work Alapjallippe did in stage four to set up the win and how he brought back Storer who was dropped early in stage five.
From a Jayco point of view impressive rides from Schmid and Obrien. While at TA Sutterlin and Reinders impressed. Groenewegen was terrible the last stage of TA. Watch the last km
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Hasnât looked anywhere near it this year.
Heâs actually looked OK but has struggled to get into a competitive position ( mainly his fault ) or if he is in position has delayed sprinting. Today was different because he was in 8th position with 500 metres to go when Reinders came past tapped him on the bum and said come on my wheel. Shockingly Groenewegen could not follow Reinders - Will say that in 2024 he looked shocking after the spring classics at Hungary and the Veenendall Classic but then got it together before the TDF. Hope he can turn it around.
Zac Marriage is riding for the Philippines Seven Eleven team which I am unsure will do much for his development.
MVDP out duels Ganna and Pogi in a 24km break from the Cipressa at Milano San Remo.
That was quite some finale.
Matthews the best of the bunch that followed in 4th.
Zack Marriage wins the Q-tour, but Jack Ward wins the Queen stage to ensure he stays atop the ProVelo league standings and will get the contract with Jaycoâs development team.
MSR was a fantastic race and good to see an attack on the Cipressa succeed. It was good to see Jayco riding a decent one day race with Zana and Schmid supporting Bling in the final. No surprise for me to see Groves finish 5th and he will do well this week in Catalunya. Bling will focus on the cobbled classics as he has fallen in love with Flanders. Reckon Jayco should go for Vine because he will never ride the TDF at UAE.
The womenâs race was ridden passively and was boring. Disaster day for Liv Alula Jayco. They expected Smulders, Garcia, Colonel and probably Paternoster to make the final. All of a sudden Smulders crashes, then 2kms later Paternoster crashes bringing down Colonel. So Jayco were left with one leader in Garcia who was with the first group and then punctured near the top of the Poggio. A day to forget.
Posted that I thought Jayco could do well in Denain and Kokrsjelde. Walscheid made the final group of eight and would have come first or second, except he punctured with 20kms ago, so race over. Then in Kokrsjede, jayco started with five riders including a conti rider. The race broke up in the hill zone halfway through the race., and it was touch and go if the break would survive. jayco had three riders including Groenewegen in the chase group, however, foolishly groenewegn rode at the back of the peleton, and got caught behind a crash with 6kms to go.
Gotta say that Matiilda Reynolds is an impressive commentator. She has a good tactical insight, knows the foibles of the rider and commentates with enthusiasm. She is an excellent foil for Keenan, who needs a co-commentator to add excitement towork off Keenanâs understated style. Reynolds would be a better off-sider than Bridie OâDonnell, however, this is SBS who broke up Keenan and McEwan.
Pro Velo Series. Ward is a worthy winner, however, I expect he will be snapped up by a WT team ( hopefully, Jayco ), while, Marriage would benefit more for the stagiare role at Jayco. The womenâs edition was won by Marr from Appleton, though this was team tactics at play. I suspect Appletonâs characteristics are more suited to the current WT, so hoping both get a gig at the Liv Alula conti team.
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Double with a super ride wins stage one of Coppa Bartoli. Spent some time on the front, chased down attacks and attacked with 4kms. The worry is that hatherly was nowehere.
Carnage at De Panne with three crashes in the last 3kms. Somehow, Groenewegen made the reduced front group but was disappointing in the final. Jayco had also planned to sprint with walscheid, however he was held up by the final crash.
Dull stage at Catalunya where Ayuso beat Roglic in a close finish. Better ride by OâConnor today.
Finally, Ewan demolished the field in stage one of Coppi Bartali after a monstrous lead out by Ineos.
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@yaco55 Where is Plapp at?
Heâs been missing in action since the RoadNats and his arm injury. Thatâs nearly 3 months.
Jacyo must be extremely frustrated with his output.
Firstly after he damaged his wrist in a training crash prior to the TDU, the team sent him to Manchester for an operation. He had three weeks off the bike, then two weeks on the ergo and he has been back on the road for nearly four weeks. He spent two weeks training in Cyprus with Georgia who has just finished 4th at De Panne. Anyway he is riding the Tour of Hellas starting next week. Hopefully he will quickly return to form. Itâs then planned for him to ride Romandie and then the Giro. Gronewegen will also be at Hellas. OâConnor disappointing in the mountain top finish today at Catalunya, while Double collapsed in Coppi Bartali, however, De Pretto is 4th on GC. Will say that jayco have been disastrous when it comes to GC so far this year. The teams overall performance has been well below standard.
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Powless beats 3 Visma riders at Dwars door Vlaanderen, what a mighty screwup by Visma.
Moschetti outsprints Groenwegen at Hellas, and that tells you how well Groenwegen is going these days.
Groenewegen was left in front too early and he failed to close the door. While on the theme of close the door Lopez failed to do this in stage 2 giving Plapp the victory. Anyway stage three of Hellas will be a sprint.
On Ewan. Canât see him getting to the TDF even if in decent form because Ineos does not have the program to get him to the TDF, unless they do Hungary or Slovenia or ZLM Tour. His next race will be Romandie.
Bling is riding two GTS in 2025. Its a matter of which two because each GT has suitable stages for his characteristics.
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Moschetti beats Groewegen in the final stage of Hellas.
Groewegen is cooked.
I wonât say he is cooked. His form last year to this time was only slightly better and he managed to turn it around for the TDF. At the same time, Jayco are in the final 2 for Kooij which means no more Groenewegen. I am more worried about Plapp collapsing in the second mountain stage. This has happened to the team in the last 2 races for GC including Coppi Bartali where De Pretto collapsed on the last stage. The men had their best team performance for the Classics season in Flanders Field. they actually had five riders in the peleton with 40 or 50kms to go. Next year, Bling will either be at Jayco or UAE.
I was impressed by Paternosterâs ride in Flanders. She actually tried to win the race and pushed herself on kwaremont to go with the leading four, only to explode in the last 400 metres. She could have ridden conservatively and then she would have sprinted for fifth. I have been impressed with the womenâs team in 2025 in terms of teamwork and strategy, however, they need one higher class rider to finish off the job.
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Jayco womenâs team picked about the worst possible squad for PR. They could have included RRG,Smulders and even Colonel. Menâs team is as expected. Walscheid can get a top 10 if he gets the rub of the green. Menâs team disastrous in stage two of Pais vasco. Then Groenwegen should have finished better than twelth in Schedelpris, especially considering Moschettti who twice beat him in close finishes at Hellas finished 3rd. Menâs team has been awful.
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Ferrand Prevot breaks away to win PR, even though in a pre-race interview she said she was sick and had no chance. SD Worx stuffedup their tactics again, while Jayco picked the wrong team. Reckon Browning who has just joined the Jayco conti team is already their best rider. Lets see how Pogi goes in PR. Jayco need to get three or four riders in the break to get some kind of result.
Menâs PR went as expected for Jayco. Unfortunately, Walscheid was involved ina crash just before the first cobbled so race done. feel sorry for him because he joined Jayco to be the leader at PR and his race has been over by the first cobbled sector. The team has been focused on getting good results at the three GTâs which seems to have been deemed more importance than being good at the smaller races which keeps wins ticking over, morale high and staying away from relegation. It does not help that Bling has never ridden PR when he could easily top 10 and then Plapp refuses to try any one day Flemish races, even though he has a suitable power profile and has been encouraged by his coach and Jayco. Anyway they have the heavy hitters for Ardennes and they should get a good result in AG and LBL. Same goes for the womenâs team whose rider characteristics best suit the Ardennes.
Herald Sun Tour back in 2026 with McGrory as the menâs director and Brown as the womenâs director. Apparently there will be a shuffling of dates with the TDU, CEGORR and the Nationals. If the calendar is similar to 2025, Jayco will be in a world of pain with TDU, CEGORR, Herald SUN and Alula in a two or three week period. They will have to use devo riders for Herald Sun and Alula.