Pro Cycling 2023

RobinLFC

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Fecking hell, Nathan Van Hooydonck suffered a cardiac arrest in his car this morning; taken to the hospital in critical condition and apparently still with his life in danger at the moment.

Prayers up for him :(
 

Mike Smalling

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Fecking hell, Nathan Van Hooydonck suffered a cardiac arrest in his car this morning; taken to the hospital in critical condition and apparently still with his life in danger at the moment.

Prayers up for him :(
With his 8 months pregnant wife in the car as well, jeez!
 

Mike Smalling

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Feels like the Vuelta could be decided today with the insane finish up the Angliru. It looks like Vingegaard is back to his Tour form, so I wouldn't be surprised if he takes the red jersey after today. While I'd love to see Sepp Kuss win it, the GC win should go to the strongest rider - you can gift stage wins, but you don't gift Grand Tour victories.

Just hope I get a chance to watch it, but will probably be at work :(
 

RobinLFC

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Kuss losing the Vuelta on the Angliru. Vingegaard is simply the best rider in Spain even if he's not at his Tour level.

So incredibly harsh on Kuss after all the work he did in the Giro and Tour to help both of them win there. On the other hand, this is the Vuelta, one can't imagine gifting this away to an inferior teammate.

EDIT: deficit stays around ~15", so not all might be lost today it appears.
 

RobinLFC

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Class. He keeps the red jersey with an 8" bonus on Vingegaard now.
 

Mike Smalling

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GC Kuss keeps it!

Jumbo-Visma dominating everything this Vuelta. Five stages wins across three riders, and top three in GC.
 

Mike Smalling

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So r/peloton and several cycling pundits are losing their god damn minds over Vingegaard and Roglic "attacking" Sepp Kuss over the last two stages, instead of holding his hand across the finish line and gifting him the GC. The two traditional TJV captains are being called everything from disrespectful to disgraces. So, any thoughts on this?

Personally, I think it's manufactured drama, and that the three riders are each pretty clear in their interviews about their internal agreements and what they want. Vingegaard and Roglic are champions and don't want to be held back from riding their own races and getting stage wins. And it's not like they are doing anything to jeopardize the team winning the GC.

That being said, I think it would be best for Roglic to switch teams for next season, so he can ride the Tour as captain. I want to see a four-way battle between Vingegaard, Roglic, Pogacar and Evenepoel.
 

Kasper

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The drama is fun and what still keeps this Vuelta entertaining but it kinda just covers the massive issue that we have a team with clearly the 3 strongest guys in the race doing whatever they want, one of them doing the Tour-Vuelta double and another having done all 3 GTs this year.
State of the sport is a joke, hopefully something bigger comes out of the Heßmann story.
 

RobinLFC

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Looks/sounds like Vingegaard genuinely wants Kuss to win it, could also explain yesterday's tactics when he couldn't do anything but follow Roglic to be honest. I think Roglic wants to win for himself the most but is also the least deserving of the three.

Whoever wins, I'll like it. Vingegaard deserves it because he's the strongest one in the peloton, Kuss deserves it because of the likeability and the work he did for both of them during the Giro and Tour - and because it's likely his only shot at a GC win in the Giro, Tour or Vuelta as well.

Roglic won't win it because he can't drop Vingegaard.
 

RobinLFC

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Gained a lot of respect for Vingegaard this Vuelta. Of course it's bit easier giving up a big tour when you're a two-time Tour winner but even then, it's still the Vuelta. Think he's a whole lot better than Kuss right now but he just stays with the group for his teammate, class. He should of course also keep in mind that this will work wonders for the Tour next year if he grants Kuss a fecking GC :lol:

I think Roglic would've gone for his own luck, maybe as well because he knows he'll change teams more quickly than Vingegaard.
 

whitbyviking

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Class. He keeps the red jersey with an 8" bonus on Vingegaard now.
There was no way that was what Kuss said :lol:

The outrage is confected too though. At the end of the day if he can’t keep up with Jonas and Roglic when it matters then he shouldn’t win. Maybe they could gift him it, but I’m not against them winning it. They’re leaders for a reason.
 

NotThatSoph

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So r/peloton and several cycling pundits are losing their god damn minds over Vingegaard and Roglic "attacking" Sepp Kuss over the last two stages, instead of holding his hand across the finish line and gifting him the GC. The two traditional TJV captains are being called everything from disrespectful to disgraces. So, any thoughts on this?

Personally, I think it's manufactured drama, and that the three riders are each pretty clear in their interviews about their internal agreements and what they want. Vingegaard and Roglic are champions and don't want to be held back from riding their own races and getting stage wins. And it's not like they are doing anything to jeopardize the team winning the GC.

That being said, I think it would be best for Roglic to switch teams for next season, so he can ride the Tour as captain. I want to see a four-way battle between Vingegaard, Roglic, Pogacar and Evenepoel.
Vingegaard has come out basically agreeing with the criticism now.

He has said that going for the win would be both greedy and stabbing Kuss in the back. That he would have liked the team to ride defensively after the rest day, but leadership decided they should fight for it, and if Kuss and Roglic were going to duel then he wanted to be involved, too. At some point, but too late according to Vingegaard, this was called off.
 

Mike Smalling

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Vingegaard has come out basically agreeing with the criticism now.

He has said that going for the win would be both greedy and stabbing Kuss in the back. That he would have liked the team to ride defensively after the rest day, but leadership decided they should fight for it, and if Kuss and Roglic were going to duel then he wanted to be involved, too. At some point, but too late according to Vingegaard, this was called off.
Yeah, in hindsight it seems clear that Roglic rode away from Kuss on Angliru and Vingegaard just followed to make sure that if anyone take the red jersey off Kuss, it would be him. He didn't get ahead of Roglic once. On the prior stage that Vingegaard won, there was still a healthy gap between him and Kuss, and he wanted to win the stage for van Hooydonck.

Vingegaard is just a good egg it seems. Obviously just a quiet family guy, who has the heart in the right place.
 

Mike Smalling

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Nathan van Hooydonck retires after his heart episode. Apparently he has a condition. Sad news, but at least he’s alright - probably could have been a lot worse, if he continued riding.
 

Mike Smalling

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Apropos of nothing, Dylan van Baarle overtook me up Col de la Madone yesterday. Seeing up close and personal just how fast they are going, really brings to light how incredibly fit they are. He must have been going at least twice as fast as me :lol:
 

TMDaines

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Glad he’s reconsidered. He’a still got enough in the tank to do it.