Puncheur

Tag: tour-de-france

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Weekly Recap

    A tripleheader for most of the week. The first race to get going was the AlUla Tour in Saudi Arabia. This is the Saudis’ version of a national tour. As mentioned in my February Preview, it is a 2.1 race. Stage One was a bunch sprint surprisingly taken by Casper van Uden of DSM. Stage…

  • Challenge Mallorca Recap

    A series of five consecutive one-day races on the Spanish island of Mallorca sort-of kicked off the European cycling season (Spain hosted a few one-day races before Mallorca, won by Dylan Groenewegen and Michael Matthews, respectively). The first race of the series, called Trofeo Calvia, took place on January 24. This race was 150 kilometers…

  • Mathieu van der Poel in 2024

    The best Classics rider in the world had a spectacular, if not prolific, 2023 season. What can he do to back that up in 2024? Currently, MVDP is absolutely laying waste to the competition in the Cyclocross world, so far having won 11 out of 12 races, and the only defeat was the result of…

  • The Ludicrous Power of Oier Lazkano

    The Basque rider for Movistar is mashing some un-Godly watts this winter. He does not post all of his rides on Strava, but this week he did a session that absolutely blew my mind. I have never seen a professional cyclist push these numbers, let alone at his weight (similarly to what I wrote about…

  • 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)…

  • Arnaud De Lie’s Potential

    Let’s start by introducing the man: Arnaud De Lie is a 21-year-old Belgian riding for Lotto-Dstny. Weighing in at 78 kilograms, he looks to be a Classics rider/Grand Tour stage hunter in the making. De Lie has already won 19 races in two professional seasons, though only one was at WorldTour level. Strava nerds/wattage geeks/cycling…