Word: these two races begin at the very same time at 10pm pacific TODAY! (6am Euro time? I’m confused with daylight financial savings time ending on completely different dates.)
Usually in multi-day Rock live shows the final act is of a lesser stature so at the least among the viewers leaves early and makes the site visitors just a little bit simpler to deal with. That is the place we’re at: the top of the highway biking season. Lombardy simply completed. Individuals are going house. However we nonetheless have a couple of races left this week.
This publish will probably be for the three Chinese language races, all World Tour occasions, two of them the final two ladies’s races of the yr whereas on the boys’s aspect. We even have a few Italian races, each named Veneto and the all the time surprisingly enjoyable Japan Cup that we’ll have separate threads for. However let’s forged our eyes in the direction of China and first two WT stage races there.
Two ideas on the ladies’s Tour of Chongming Island
- Bear in mind the Simac Girls Tour? Completed simply final Sunday. Bear in mind how flat it was? In comparison with the Tour of Chongming Island, Simac was freaking mountainous. Tourmalet, adopted by Zoncolan, adopted by Angrilu on each stage. Chongming Island is an, sure, an island on the mouth of the Yangtze river because it empties into the East China Sea. Simply north of Shanghai. The bike Tour does have three what they name cat 4 climbs one every for every stage initially of every stage. These are bridges. In any other case it’s dash metropolis.
- Who’s gonna win? There are 4 WT groups right here plus an assortment of lesser groups. Daria Pikulik is right here, she’s obtained a dash, and I say she cleans up. Any questions?
Three ideas on the mens Gree Tour of Guangxi.
- 16 WT groups are right here with simply Alpecin and FDJ absent. As for the riders current, they’re largely both D-listers on their workforce and everybody else on their workforce begged off to start out their holidays early, or they’re transferring to a brand new workforce and their obnoxious DS’s are making them race one final time, midway world wide. There are additionally some riders who appear completely happy to be right here. Pavel Sivakov is reportedly considered one of them.
- The result’s kinda attention-grabbing as you by no means know which riders are literally excited about racing. Final yr Milan Vader, then of Jumbo Visma received the GC, which nobody anticipated, so surprises are doable. Usually although the blokes with the perfect pedigrees have a tendency to complete on prime. Final yr all however one of many phases resulted in a bunch dash and the winners had been Viviani (the great one), Johnny Milan, Kooij, Molano, and Kooij once more. GC winners have normally been greater named riders like Mass or Wellens.
- Bear in mind how Guangxi is normally flat with one stage having a brief hill that determines the GC winner? There’s that one quick stage once more however in any other case this race is kinda hilly however in any other case the opposite phases are additionally hilly, although not a lot that actual separation will occur most likely they usually all finish in flat runs to the road. What this implies is that the sprinters who most like flat phases aren’t right here this yr. No Milans or Kooijs and so on. As an alternative look. for sprinters who can deal with just a little little bit of climbing. Riders like Lamperti, Garcia Cortina, Max Kanter, Mick Van Dijke, David Dekker, and so on. Oh and Fabio Jakobsen too.
So who’s gonna win? How about…
Pavel Plapp. Or perhaps Lennert Narvaez. Look out for for Alexey Wellens or presumably Esteban Baudin. Quinn Hirt will probably be harmful. Possibly Chris Froome.
(I’ll add a blurb on the ladies’s sooner or later Gunagxi race later within the week.)
