2024, 60th Tour de l'Avenir ***Spoilers***
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Torres out to 3'10" with 900m to go, this could be tight
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PCS wrong about the distance, just hitting flamme rouge now
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Amazing there's been no camera on Blackmore & Graat for ages now, like twenty minutes
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What an incredible stage. I wonder if the riders had more information than Jose did? Really didn’t think he had a chance with 300m to go. The cutting from overhead to ground shots that were at a different location got a bit confusing.
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Cant see an official confirmation, but JOse Been reckons Blackmore just scraped in there by about 12"
Great ride from Torres and a superb defence by Blackmore
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Torres certainly didn’t go down without a fight there. Much as I find Jose Been irritating to listen to she did a great job there without much to work with.
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They seemed to have stationary camera on a bend and just cut to riders coming past every now and again. Would have been great to see some of the battle between Blackmore and Graat, and to have some indication of time after Torres went over the line, but great race
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I wonder if Graat ever actually got back to Blackmore. The last we see down the mountain he was 10” down and closing fast so I assume so. At that point I thought he catch him and ride away.
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PCS had them together for ages, which I presume they took from race radio &/or GPS? (Not actually sure how they run their stuff).
Also, I know José Been isn't everyone's favourite flavour of commentator, but bloody hell that was a decent effort solo with virtually no info - and expressed perfectly the frustrations of fans with some cycling producers TV shot choices.
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Torres 3 and a half minutes quicker up the Finestre than Froome in 2018.
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Froome’s time was the slowest of all pros though.
Torres did set a new record.
2 minutes quicker than Landa in 2015
1 and a half minutes quicker than Colombians Rujano and Humberto in 2011.
"Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.0 -
Well strictly speaking, not all pros, as quite a few were behind him... It was stage 19ish, the first climb with 60ish km from the top to the finish inc 2 big climbs to go. But this is what happens when we get climb timbs out of context - Torres ends up looking like a freak (and people inevitably raise eyebrows), because we assume Froome destroyed all records
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I enjoyed it despite the less than stellar TV coverage.
The decision by Torres not to cover Blackmore's attack on the penultimate stage likely cost the young Spaniard a comfortable win. He'll probably be back next year though, as he's said he plans to do another year in the U23s. Hopefully, we'll get to see Paul Seixas too, who will be stepping up from the juniors.
Speaking of next year, there's talk of switching to trade teams. One of the best U23s, Jørgen Nordhagen, was unable to take part this year as Norway didn't have the budget to send a team and this has prompted a review of the current national team based start list.
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Trade teams would be a massive mistake imo, there are plenty of races for dev teams already and it would make it literally impossible for young riders on non-dev trade teams to ride. I guess you could do a mix if there were enough places.
It's also useful for national teams to work with their youngsters, Denmark have always been good at that
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I only watched the final stage which I enjoyed but the U23 format does feel odd at a time when GTs have been getting won by riders of the same age and some of the riders already have WT contracts.
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I think we need to normalise the idea that young pyros are the exception, not the norm. We've currently got riders that are still eligible for youth jerseys being written off as has-beens. Yes, there will be exceptional early twenties riders that are competing at the very top level, but there are plenty that still need a little while longer to mature
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