Spokey Dokey Blog

Today’s race of truth will give a very good indication of who’s not performing as we expect, who’s not got the watts for the mountain & who we can take out of contention for that podium place.

Pre TT musings…
Roglič looks like a spent force.
3rd place looks like a showdown between Evenepoel, Almeida, Skjelmose, Onley 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿, Lipowitz, Gall & Rodríguez, but Oscar Onley looks fantastic now, the run was so hard it destroyed VDP’s sprint, but Onley was right up there.

I’m going to make an assumption that there are going to be more withdrawals before the Tour, this latest illness has all the hallmarks of the latest COVID strain that’s sweeping Europe, gastro problems mixed with breathing issues. #letour

Get Mads Paterson on your Tour fantasy teams, he’s flying, has just won the Danish TT champs for the first time. That first week & bit is going to be his domain.

Rewatching yesterdays #Dauphine stage. Vingegaar is losing barely anything on the steady state parts of the climb, it’s the acceleration he can’t handle. But Pogacar doesn’t appear to have as strong a team & Visma still has a resurgent WVA to add for July. This isn’t as clear cut as we think.

Has the UCI just banned Factor's new aero bike before it was even released? Hoard of new rules include handlebar width, wheel depth and fork leg limits as Hope x Lotus track bike set to be banned

New UCI rules are becoming less relevant. Manufacturers are soon going to offer ‘better than pro’ bikes to amateurs, lighter than 6.8kg, more aero, as less & less riders take part in sanctioned races & they ‘compete’ in mass events & KOM’s. www.cyclingnews.com/news/has-the...

This re-emerging Wout Van Aert could help to level up the Tour GC, maybe not completely, but he could make it a closer fight & open up opportunities that may not exist without him. The Giro looks it may elevate WVA to the 2022 version, green jersey, 3 stages & helping team win GC.

That Paris stage in the Tour de France could change team selections significantly. More high profile puncheurs, possibly less high profile sprinters willing to drag their carcass to Paris, will smaller teams bring their sprinters to take advantage in week 1?
#TourDeFrance

Key points from today’s #Giro stage:
UAE very good
⚫️Roglic not at peak
⚫️Best we’ve seen Bernal for years, one to watch on high mountains
⚫️Ciccone may open the race up, willing to attack

That’s career changing for Mattias Skjelmose, beating Pogacar & Evenepoel at the top of their game in a three-up sprint, this kind of result changes riders, alters their self belief, I’m expecting much more from Skjelmose in 2025 now. #AmstelGoldRace

Great to see 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Sean Flynn @picnicpostnl & a rider who makes me feel old, because I knew his dad, Joshua Giddings @lottocycling_
#ParisRoubaix

Still thinking Pogacar & Van der Poel may destroy each other out front, but the chasing Visma (WVA, DVB, Brennan), Ineos (Ganna, Tarling, Swifts, Turner), Trek (Pedersen, Styven, Milan), Asgreen, Küng group will keep them in check without the w/kg hill advantage. #ParisRoubaix

The women’s Paris Roubaix tech showed what road bike tech we should all be riding to survive our badly surfaced & potholes roads, without riding at 40-50kmh to ‘float’ over the bumps, the men’s will reinforce that. Always interested in the tech. #Geek #ParisRoubaix

ParisRoubaix predictions:
The two 5⭐️ riders are going to ride away from everybody & collaborate until they repeatedly attack, or they’ll blow each other to pieces & the 4⭐️ riders will come through. Ganna, Pedersen, Wout van Aert. I’m going Ganna.
#parisroubaix2025

I don’t think Pogacar is going to win this, headwind to the finish with a group like that chasing. #Ronde_van_Vlaanderen

Wout’s still got that massive engine, from what I can see he’s just not yet got back that ability to ride at 800 to 1000 watts during a Pog/VDP assault. I don’t think he’s far away. Come July, I think we’ll see something. #Ronde_van_Vlaanderen

Sean Flynn in the break at Flanders 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇧🇪 #TourOfFlanders

Make a plan, ride your bike this weekend. If you’ve been put off by months of bad weather, start again now. You won’t regret it. 🚴‍♂️

What Dwars door Vlaanderen showed us, is that however much we think a result is predictable, in cycling anything can (and will) happen. Pogacar isn’t guaranteed a win in every race he starts, although it seems like it, Vinegaard won’t fall off one year, etc.

My thoughts on the 2027 Tour de France stage in Scotland.
spokeydokeyblog.wordpress.com/2025/03/28/t... @cyclingnews.com @cyclingweekly.com @roadcc.bsky.social

Oh………. Ganna, this is hopefully going to be a very good one. So many on form & for once a finish that doesn’t suit the strongest rider (you know who).

Not confident Pogacar can get a gap on Poggio after his team makes it brutal on the Cipressa, but if he does the only rider who can follow his attacks recently will be on his wheel, Pidcock, who’ll beat him in the sprint. So I’m going for Matthews, who’ll be on a favourites wheel until 200m to go.

Komoot Acquired: History Says This Won't End Well And now things start to make a bit more sense. Earlier this week I posted on the news that Komoot was changing to require a Premium subscription for users to sync routes to 3rd party devices like Garm...

Looks like Komoot is dead now. @dcrainmaker.com www.dcrainmaker.com/2025/03/komo...

Tirreno Adriatico now live on RAI Sport, last 22km. If in UK, Windscribe VPN gives you 3 countries for $3 a month. So if you have Belgium, France & Italy, then taking links from CyclingFans website for RAI etc, you’re pretty much covered.

Paris Nice now live on Sporza. If in UK, Windscribe VPN gives you 3 countries for $3 a month. So if you have Belgium, France & Italy, then taking links from CyclingFans website for RAI etc, you’re pretty much covered.

Ganna is absolute beast this year & he’s going to win Milan SanRemo or Paris Roubaix.

Full marks to Pidcock, he attacked then was able to follow Pogacar, now giving him a turn. #StradeBianche

I think we’re going to have the fastest ever Paris Roubaix again this year. #MVDP V #Pogacar

Wow, Søren Wærenskjold!!! 🇳🇴
#OHN25 #OHNmen

Magnier, Phillipsen, Van Aert???
#OHN25 #OHNmen