Jens Hagström

Weird name. Aren't all races GP Poggiana these days?

Previous generations may also not have been as sensitive to the fact that they are a humongous pain in the ass to pick and do anything with.

If only more humans could be saved from the horrors of sour ale as well.

Swe: "We're having spaghetti bolognese for dinner."
Ita: "Well, that's ok"
Swe: "We're putting lots of ketchup on it!"
Ita:

Let´s just say that it's a good thing for Sweden that Italy does not have access to nuclear weapons.

Yup. A runaway/whatever 5-6 months old who showed up at my neighbors a few weeks ago and now lives with me.

Sure, I'm working on windows but that is super helpful.

Most interesting "likely" duo would be Vacek and Mohoric. Both fit the classic QS profile, Vacek a big engine talent and Mohoric a test if the old QS "revive an older rider" mojo still works.

Brennan would be the kind of rider they could build an old style QS team around if they could get him.

Find someone who loves you as much as the Tour of Poland loves advertising inflatables.

Same reason people would go to Quick Step back in the day. You might not be the guy getting to be the leader on paper every race but being a part of that machine maybe gave you the best chances of actually winning monuments and big classics.

If I was RBBH I would see keeping him as their best shot at winning the Tour.
I don't think either Lipo or Remco as sole leaders can win over both Pogi and Jonas but a double leader approach with Lipo&Remco, like Jumbo in 2022 could be their best shot.
I doubt they can sell Lipo on the idea though.

Gotta be at least a little bit interesting for Ineos with Lipowitz? Must be the most interesting potential GC winner available.

They have a shit ton of support riders already, and a few raw talents. But unless they start producing spectacularly right away then the full weight falls on Merlier's shoulders.

Remco at RedBull is a pretty meh story to me.

What happens at Quick Step the next 2-3 years is fascinating to me though. A massive challenge in terms of recruitment and re-building and I'm not entirely sure they have the competence in-house to do it now that Lefevere is no longer there.

No. :-)

Good job with putting the full-blown psychopath in charge of everything.

Vollering has done it. When she won the TdF she was significantly slimmer than this year. She looked vanvleutenesque then.
I think she knows it's not long term sustainable for her though judging by her comments.

As someone with a lot of cynicism when it comes to modern athlete PR messaging I'm more weary.
Sounds terrific but I suspect the reality behind pretty words could just as well be "I stopped eating in May on advice from my local horse doctor and by some stroke of luck it worked out super this time!"

Significant weight loss without power loss is a big common denominator in many recent success stories , especially in women's cycling.
Whether it is made possible through advances in nutrition management or some more "old school" methods is really the most interesting current question.

It feels like a bit of a glass-half-full interpretation. To me the whole curious handling of Roglic, his GC schedule and his baffling attitude and approach is another huge question mark around their performance and DS staff.

It takes some amazing confluence of events for a classics team of that magnitude to be completely absent from the first day to the last, that cannot be just bad luck. And numbers aside, I can't imagine anyone seeing their GC performance as on par with the nvestment they made, Lipowitz aside.

Team management can't have been too pleased with performances in 2025 so far regardless of Remco arriving.

I don't think we'll see CUL back on the level she once had. She's fading into a helper role. And Canyon is eternally slightly underwhelming. I worry a little that the Germans Niedermayer & Bauernfiend will be stuck in the doldrums there.

My read is Kasia was same level as last year and this is what it looks like when she rides a conservative GC focus. Solid but just a bit off the pace of the best climber(s). Same race as last year except things didn't play as much in her favor.

Damn, she's even beating Demi in the crying game today.
#nogifts

In the end they really did the work to defend their spots. Well earned.

Le Detonation!

She's pushing though....

FFS not Longo again.
#nodino

Really hope Wlodarczyk and Fisher-Black can't ride this cozy train to a top 5 ahead of Gigante but I doubt she has energy left fo a final push.