2024, 60th Tour de l'Avenir ***Spoilers***
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Blackmore is about to bridge to a leading group containing much of the top 10 on GC (but not Widar or Torres) that have a 40 second gap over the Spanish led peloton.
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The 24 man break includes the following:
3. Joseph BLACKMORE GREAT BRITAIN at 1'03"
4. Tijmen GRAAT NETHERLANDS at 1'27"
6. Léo BISIAUX FRANCE 1'48''
7. Florian Samuel KAJAMINI ITALY at 2'13"
8. Fernando Diego PESCADOR CASTRO COLOMBIA at 2'51"
9. Mats WENZEL LUXEMBOURG at 3'03"
They have over a minute on the Spanish led peloton. Torres only has 2 riders left to chase.
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Coverage is hilarious, the break now has nearly 3 minutes on Torres, but there's no word whatsoever of where the peloton (with 22nd placed onGC Widar) is.
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Ooooh we've got an unidentified G3 at 4'40"
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I don't think Widar was in any of the front three groups, think I saw him (white KoM jersey, Lotto-Dnsty helmet) at the back of a group which was well over 7 minutes behind at the finish.
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Confirmed, Widar loses 7:21 to the front group and drops to 7th on GC, 6:49 back on Blackmore. Torres, who won yesterday and was leading the race, drops to 6th on GC, 3:55 back.
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Blackmore going into the final Finisterre stage with 24" seconds on the GC 2nd is looking good for him, but it's a massive climb
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I know that the entry rules are what they are and Blackmore's riding a very focussed & efficient race, but his avenir is already secured plus he's already a regular winner in sub world tour events.
Should this race be open to riders of his palmares?
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Cake is just weakness entering the body0 -
The question is, although strictly speaking it doesn't apply to Blackmore, should the race allow World Tour riders to enter?
The whole point of it, in my opinion at least, is that it's a showcase for the very best u23 riders to improve their chances of turning pro. It seems incongruous that riders who have already got a contract at WT level can participate.
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The very best u23 riders are pro already. I'd argue that just as important as allowing non-pro youngsters to show their worth it's there to allow pro youngsters to take a lead role, allowing pro teams to develop their younger riders rather than just sticking them on domestique duties
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Not very happy to find out that there’s a lot more live coverage of the femmes finale than the hommes.
I am all in favour of equal shares, but I am not in favour of robbing Peter to over pay Pauline.
It’s not every day we get an intriguing battle up the Colle delle Finestre.
"Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.0 -
I can't see how you can end the women's coverage early to show the men's race, that would be incredibly disrespectful.
According to Discovery, we'll get almost two hours of coverage of the men's race, so will likely see the entire ascent of the Finestre.
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You wouldn’t need to end coverage of the woman’s race. It’s a different set of commentators for one thing and as we know, they have multiple feeds. (2 for the Vuelta, the Deutschland Tour and woman’s Plouay, today.)
My point wasn’t about taking time from a race, rather having the same amount of coverage. It’s not as if the hosts aren’t already up and running.
Yesterday, we missed all the crucial action. I hope that won’t be the case today.
"Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.0 -
On the race front: there’s a slight possibility of thunderstorms right about when the men’s race is due to finish.
Fingers crossed that the weather holds.
"Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.1 -
It's a classic hockey-stick stage, can't see a great deal happening pre-climb, there's just not really terrain to do it on
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There are plenty of chippers available for that.
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Anyway, my live coverage of the men's seem to start at CET 14:40, which is about the same as every other day, with racing starting 12:15
The women's coverage starts 12:15 CET with racing starting 9:45, on the precise same course.
I don't think anyone's getting robbed here, except some young women who are getting robbed of some sleep
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Is the gravel section technical enough to favour riders with cross skills?
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Well it's all steep uphill, and descents are normally the big test, but I guess there might be some value in being to put out power while seated
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Thanks. I struggle climbing on loose gravel for exactly that reason. Compacted gravel is less of an issue. For what it is worth, Blackmore has done a fair bit of cross in the past and Bisiaux is a former junior world champ.
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Apart from the 4km at 6.6%, second cat climb at the half way mark, you mean?
Given what happened yesterday, (what did happen yesterday, btw?) I wouldn’t be surprised there will be action on that climb.
"Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.0 -
The tv coverage is being done on a shoestring by the race organisers as I understand it. No helicopter, just a drone, and only two camera bikes, although there might have been a third yesterday towards the end of the stage. I don't know if they are using the same camera teams to cover both races, but it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if they are.
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That’s a fair point.
It seems that the budget they had for coverage of the weekend stages, may not have had much of an increase to cover all the stages of both races.
Some nice drone shots yesterday, though.
"Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.0 -
I think they are.
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With about 100km still to go Bisiaux got into a break with a bunch of other riders in the top 10 plus Louis Sutton and a couple of Dutch riders. About 20 km later, Graat bridged across swiftly followed by Blackmore. Sutton and the Dutch domestiques set a strong pace for their respective leaders and the front group was whittled down to 8. Meanwhile, the Spanish tried to chase for Torres but he'd only had three domestiques at the start of the day and they were losing time. Eventually, he was isolated and tried to bridge across but it was too late. He did make some inroads initially but the gap then started to go out quite quickly with the front group cooperating nicely save for the Belgian. I've no idea what happened to Widar.
Incidentally, I've been quite impressed by Sutton this race.
Edit: It seems that group 3 was that part of the initial break dropped by the leading 8 and that group 4 was what was left of the original peloton. Presumably Widar elected to rely on his Belgian team to try and control affairs.
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The women are just about to hit the final gravel section.
Lead group of 3. The yellow jersey is over a minute behind.
It’s very slow going on the beast.
"Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.0 -
Yellow jersey attacked, blew past the leaders and is now in front solo on the gravel
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Low signal again.
It’s a bit misty up top.
"Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.0 -
Convincing win for Marion Bunel. Been an eventful couple of weeks for a 19 yr old, finished 3rd in the white jersey in the Tour Femmes, couple of days off and destroys the field in l'Avenir
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It's got quite interesting as they've reached te gravel, though everyone is just riding their own race at the moment. Graat closing on Blackmore
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