Puncheur

Tag: sports

  • Olympic Games Road Cycling Preview

    This is an event that happened three years ago that happens once every four years. Okay, now that I’ve got my punchline out of the way, let’s discuss the second-best part (behind Athletics) of the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad in Paris, France. The Olympic Games for road cycling consists of two one-day races: a…

  • Tour de France Reflections

    I’m not sure where to start. What a race! This post will be a little bit different from what I normally write after Grand Tours. But this was a special race, so it deserves a special essay. And to be honest, I’m looking to change things up with this blog. I haven’t been getting the…

  • Week Three

    The 2024 Tour de France has reached its conclusion. I’m sad that it has to end, but happy with the result. Stage 16: A sprint stage won by Jasper Philipsen. Biniam Girmay crashed in the final kilometer and limped to the finish; I thought his green jersey dreams were over. Stage 17: With crosswinds and…

  • THE PYRENEES

    A dream I don’t want to wake from. At the same time, I’m still in shock. Today is the second rest day of the 2024 Tour de France, and I feel like I need it just as much as the riders do, except the guy who didn’t seem tired after yesterday’s race (he won it).…

  • 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…

  • Mid-Week One

    Stage Three: An incredibly boring 5-and-a-half hour sprint stage that couldn’t incentivize anybody to go into a breakaway until the stage was more than half over. In the crash-marred finale, Biniam Girmay took a surprising win from the bunch ahead of Fernando Gaviria and Arnaud De Lie. That’s not a top three that anybody would…

  • A Different Level

    Is the professional peloton getting faster, and if so, why? Yes. The Monuments are rewriting the record books and making us rethink how fast 250km+bike races can be ridden. The first three Monuments of 2024 set records for average speed. RVV and RBX broke the record which was set last year. MSR broke a 30+year…

  • 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…

  • How did Brandon McNulty win the Volta a la Communitat Valenciana?

    American cyclists winning GC titles in European professional bike races are few and far between. So Brandon McNulty taking the Tour of Valencia – a hotly-contested (with a field including a Grand Tour winner in Jai Hindley) 2.Pro race at the beginning of the season – is a feat that needs to be analyzed. In…

  • American Riders in 2024 and Beyond

    2023 was a banner year for American cycling with a Grand Tour victory from Sepp Kuss in the Vuelta a Espana. Notable other results included a fifth place in the Tour of Flanders from Neilson Powless, a stage win the Giro d’Italia from Brandon McNulty, and Matteo Jorgensen winning his first race (and GC title)…