2024 Team Jayco AlUla – La Vuelta line-up:
Alessandro De Marchi (ITA) – 6th appearance
Waley Hagos Berhe (ETH) – Debut appearance
Eddie Dunbar (IRL) – 2nd appearance
Felix Engelhardt (GER) – 2nd appearance
Chris Harper (AUS) – 2nd appearance
Mauro Schmid (SUI) – Debut appearance
Callum Scotson (AUS) – 4th appearance
Filippo Zana (ITA) – 2nd appearance
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It’s a good squad suited to the parcours on offer. The question is are all the riders in form? I would have made one change to the squad. Would have replaced Dunbar ( out of form ) with Foldager, however, Jayco are conservative with first year riders. Schmid is the pea in the pod to win stage/s.
It should be a great race. I have no idea who will GC! Teams have selected squads that suit the parcours, and I expect 8 to 10 breakaway victories.
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Tour of Poland a disaster for Jayco. Ewan backed out of the sprint in stage 4 when in prime position in the last kms. He definitely has an aversity to large bunch sprints, then in stage 5 he was brought down in a crash with 6kms. Pena who is trying to get a top 20, punctures in the last 2kms of the final. Vingegaard should win the GC.
TDF Femmes has been beset by crashes. Jayco with their limited squad have had little luck. Roseman-Gannon crashed in stage 2 and 5 and is out of the race. Garcia mechanical in the final of stage 4 and a crash in stage 5 has ruined her race. Ultimately, Jayco could have chosen a better team. Vollering has to ovecome a 1m and 15s deficit to Niewiadoma in today’s brutal stage to win GC. Gigante has looked really good in this race and she is making good progress.
McNulty wins the ITT in stage one of the Vuelta. Schmid for Jayco does an exceptional ITT which augurs well for the future. Expect VWA to be in the red after today’s stage.
L’Avenir starts today. The Aussie team is a far cry from the period 2012-2019. The two riders of interest are Tuckwell and Greenwood.
Edit; Elmar Reinders 14 second interview after the last stage of Poland is a cracker. Ewan disappeared in the small hills, they decided to sprint with Quick who then claimed he dropped his chain. The problem was that Quick could not hold Reinders wheel in the final. Reinders did a remarkable job to finish 7th.
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Jayco’s signings for 2025
O’Connor. Good signing
Mckenzie. Neo pro. Question mark.
Boumann. Good signing.
Double. Good signing.
Sutterlin. should be OK.
Gamper. don’t understand this signing
Out
Yates
Craddock.
I suspect there will be no Porter, Quick, Grondahl-Jansen and Hamilton. If they get the triathlete then they will let go of Pena or Scotson.
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SBS commentators going OTT pumping up Ben O’Connor in this Vuelta stage. Hope he doesn’t do an Essington fade-out in the last few km
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Doesn’t do an Essington, big win and takes the red jersey as well!
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That was incredible.
Got in the break and then put in a 27km solo to win, going away. 6 minutes on the GC group.
Roglic & his team really dropped the ball on that one.
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4:33 gap to second on the leg.
That’s a paddlin’.
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He has such a large lead now. I can’t believe he was just left to be able to create such a large gap. It’s almost unheard off in cycling these days.
O’Connor has one of those days when you are unbeatable. I doubt anyone in the peleton could have stayed with him. Bora’s mistake was they over-rated Lipowitz for GC, so they thought other teams would chase harder. Will say that if the peleton rode a more tactically savvy stage they would have only brought back 2 minutes on O’Connor who was so strong.
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The difference in physiques between O’Connor and WVA, height and weight. Interviewed after his second stage win, WVA emphasised how much it took for him, weighing less than 60 kg. I was amazed at his cool head, reviewing race tactics while pedalling down , obviously exhausted, but responding to the Qs in the post stage interview so soon after the stage finish.
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Rudy Porter back riding again after illiac artery surgery. Son saw him this morning on Beach Rd.
astana are looking at trying to buy caleb out of his contract
I wonder where Porter will be riding next season? For me he is a PCT level rider. The Ewan situation is interesting on a couple of fronts. Astana really need to rack up points in one day races which is not Ewan’s skill set. They should look at getting two or three B grade Dutch/Belgium riders who will cost the same. Anyway, Jayco is still on the precipe of the relegation fight, so i I doubt it is good business to sell him to Astana. In saying that, Ewan is allergic to flat sprints and he spat the dummy at Poland which pleased nooone. Anyway, expect groenewegen to again ask to ride the TDU if Plapp is gone.
Plapp will be back at Guangxi. I wish the TDU did more to support the local team by including an ITT which combined with Willunga Hill makes Plapp hard to beat.
I am not as confident about the team at the Vuelta. Schmid who is in excellent shape crashed in stage six which affected him in stage 7. Demarche is struggling with stomach issues, while Berhe and Scotson are off the pace. Englehardt is in good shape and it appears that Dunbar is getting better with each stage.
The results Vuelta has been up and down due to the extreme heat, although, it will settle down now that they have moved to Northern Spain. The race is wide open!
Jayco has not been performing up to my expectations so far. Some riders are not at the level they should be, however, they are still a chance to win a stage. Jayco is happy to entertain offers for Ewa, so ultimately it is his decision. Looking at the rest of the calendar the only races Ewan can do are the Cro Tour and Guangxi.
Finally, the sprint field at the Renewi is the strongest for the season.
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Dunbar gets a stage win in the Vuelta, sprinting from a large break. Some rewards for a very difficult season or two.
O’Connor loses some 30 seconds Roglic, which was kind of expected, Roglic so much superior on the super steep shorter ramps. Tonight, should be more to O’Connor’s liking, lets see how that goes.
In other news Merlier crashes into Groenewegen stage one Renewi, leaving Groenewegen with a broken collar bone and Merlier relegated. Pretty stupid act.
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As only a casual observer of matters cycling (I get into the Tour De France and then it’s more of a glance at the Giro and a blink at the Vuelta) I’m very impressed with what O’Connor’s done in the Vuelta given his struggles in last year’s Tour and dropping out for this year’s one. Looks like he’s in a good and happy place.
What’s the thinking about whether he can hold on for the general classification win?
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I think it will be difficult for him to hold on to win. Roglic so good on the short steep ramps, that predominate at the Vuelta. O’Connor is much better at those longer climbs at lesser gradients.
A podium is certainly on the cards, though.
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that would be an excellent outcome
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It was a stealth move by Dunbar and i have never seen him accelerate with such power.
Groenewegens injury is disappointong as he was slated to ride a series of one day races chasing UCI points.
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