Weekly Recap

It was another jam-packed week with a WorldTour stage race and a season opener for one of the Big Four. This will be brief due to its tardiness and the imperative of getting Strade Bianchi, Paris-Nice, and Tirreno-Adriatico previews up in short order.

In the UAE Tour, there were four pan-flat sprint stages, three won by Tim Merlier and one taken by Olav Kooij. The flat time trial was won by Brandon McNulty, second went to Jay Vine, and third to Mikkel Bjerg in a UAE podium sweep. Jebel Jais was won in a heist by Decathlon AG2R’s Ben O’Connor as McNulty lost the leader’s jersey and looked weak. Vine took the lead heading into the final stage. Jebel Hafeet would decide the GC with O’Connor and Vine the favorites to win. McNulty and Vine both dropped early, likely sick, and were out of the game as Decathlon pushed the pace for O’Connor. But it was young Lennert Van Eetfelt of Lotto Dstny that attacked late in the climb and rampaged to the finish, eventually gaining just enough time to win the stage and steal the GC from O’Connor by two seconds. It was an impressive performance from the 22-year-old Belgian and a big disappointment for O’Connor and the UAE team.

McNulty really let me down; but with illness it’s neither his fault nor a reflection of his form. I expect that he will be back strong for Paris-Nice. Oh, and Adam Yates crashed out on the Jebel Jais stage. Hopefully he recovers from his concussion; the crash was one of the ugliest I have ever seen.

Over in Northern Spain, O Gran Camino took place with a stacked field and excellent route for a 2.1 race. Jonas Vingegaard likes to start his season here, as last year he cleaned the race and won all three stages that weren’t neutralized in addition to the obvious GC title. But with Egan Bernal, David Gaudu, Lenny Martinez, Richard Carapaz, Neilson Powless, Cian *I cannot spell his last name* and others, it had the potential to be great spectacle. The first time trial was neutralized for GC due to high winds, so Jonas took it easy and Josh Tarling took the win. On each of the next three stages, Jonas absolutely ruined everybody, soloing to the finish and solidifying his GC position. He would win the title by nearly two minutes over Martinez and Bernal.

This was all expected, but quite impressive nonethless; he looks at least as strong as he was in February of 2023. It’s just a shame he doesn’t do one-day races; I think he could be really good at the Ardennes, Strade, the Italian Classics, and possibly even RVV. His next appointment in his quest to three-peat the Tour de France is Tirreno-Adriatico (ducking Roglic and Remco at Paris-Nice, which is also a shame. Vingegaard’s calendar is the most disappointing of any of the top riders’).

Concurrent to the Opening Weekend in Flanders are two French semi-classics, which UAE sent Juan Ayuso and Marc Hirschi to. They did their duty and split the titles. They are both looking good early this year.

That’s it for the major racing action last week. Things are about to really heat up starting this weekend with Strade, the unofficial *biggest one-day race aside from Worlds and the Monuments*. Then there is the Paris-Nice/Tirreno week, after which the peloton will be all-in for Milano-Sanremo, before late March is dominated by Flemish cobbled classics in the run-in to RVV and Paris-Roubaix.

There is a lot of bike riding for the warriors to do, and a lot to be written.

I’m up for it.