Puncheur

Tag: bike racing

  • Stages 10&11

    One incredibly boring day and one absolutely enthralling battle. Stage Ten: The peloton noodled along for over four hours with the brief exception of UAE attempting to split the peloton in an exposed section, which was never going to succeed due to low wind speed. Japser Philipsen finally got his sprint win, easily getting the…

  • Tour de France Week One Wrap-Up

    I’ll start this piece by covering the remaining stages from the first week, then analyze the week as a whole and how the top guys might be feeling. Stage Seven: The all-important wine trial (the French say the time trial is the race of truth, and of course the Romans had a saying “in vino,…

  • Opening Weekend Recap

    The Tour de France has begun. The opening weekend was full of heat, hills, surprises, and disappointment (for me). Stage One: The “hardest” opening stage in Tour de France history delivered strange racing. A strong-ish breakaway got away after a little under an hour of attacking. UAE seemed fairly interested in controlling it at first,…

  • Tour de France Team Preview

    Since yesterday was the teams presentation (an awkward and clunky affair) in Florence, I wanted to go through every team and analyze what their goals might be and whether their riders can get it done. I’ve already given a brief preview of the GC teams but I will discuss them again here in more depth.…

  • Surprise and/or Late Entrants in the Tour de France

    I threw up my preview a few days before every team had finished confirming their lineups for the biggest race in the world. So I’ll run through some names that are now in for better or worse. Lenny Martinez: The 20-year-old Frenchman has won five races this year, mostly farming on the French Cup circuit,…

  • Tour de France Preview

    Le Grand Boucle. It’s here. The most anticipated Tour de France in at least a decade, perhaps many decades, is upon us. The 2024 Tour de France kicks off in Florence, Italy, on June 29th. I started writing this preview on June 10th, to help ensure I got it done in time due to its…

  • Giro d’Italia Preview

    Welp, it’s time. The 2024 Giro kicks off on tomorrow Saturday, May 4 from Venaria Reale. This preview will differ from my normal Grand Tour Preview template, because I will not be bothering to preview the sprinters or breakaway artists. But I will mention the GC contenders, dissect the profile of every stage, give my…

  • Itzulia Basque Country Preview

    Can anybody stop Jonas Vingegaard? An absolutely stacked climbing line-up in one of cycling’s heartlands will try. Let’s discuss the parcours before the contenders and race dynamics. Stage One (ITT) (10km): A 10 kilometer individual time trial with some hills. This should be close. Stage Two (161km): With 2,312 meters of elevation gain, but only…

  • Weekly Recap

    Another week packed with action. I’m a little late getting this up, but enjoy nonetheless. The one-day action for the week commenced in Spain with the Clasica Jaen, a 158km hilly, gravel-y day in Southern Spain. Wout van Aert, Sepp Kuss, Juan Ayuso were some of the big hitters on the start list. But my…

  • Weekly Recap

    Mads Pedersen is on a farming spree this year, Remco did a Remco, a new UAE Team Emirates superstar? And much more. I don’t even know the word for the number of races that took place this week (there were six at .1 level or higher on the men’s side on Saturday alone plus the…