2022 season thread

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Unfortunately the 2022 season kicks off with some awful news about a serious crash for Egan Bernal. Currently in intensive care after hours of surgery, which sounds like it has been successful...but the injuries sound career altering at best.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/60113862

From an Ineos point of view, he was going to the Tour as their designated leader...now they'll probably have to shuffle some schedules around and maybe make Carapaz the leader for the Tour rather than the Giro?

[dummy_half]

Sounds like Bernal bashed himself up pretty badly - spinal surgery to stabilise a compression between vertebrae in his neck appears to have been successful in preventing damage to the spinal cord, so at least he's not paralysed. Fractured femur and knee cap plus some chest trauma. Sounds like it's bad but was inches away from being a lot worse.

[Azabache]

Oh dear-a nice start (not) to this year's thread.

When he won his first Tour many of us foresaw another long spell of dominance in the Grand Tours similar to Froome; back problems, Covid restrictions, then the emergence of those two Slovenians, checked that but he still put in some fair performances and, of course, won the Giro...some say "just".

I have some hope that he'll get over the injuries-after all he has access to the best treatment and support with Ineos-but that back concerns me.

There's no doubt that he's a tough nut (like Quintana); we can only hope for, and wish him, the best.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

On a slightly lighter note - I don't profess to follow all cycling news all the time, but the team previews that the Lanterne Rouge Cycling Podcast have been doing for the 2022 season have been super useful for a casual fan like myself.

I'm sure many of you already know about it, but if not the link to the channel is here - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1sTqWskIXqSItyojGhXPyQ

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Early success fot British cycling, with Tom Pidcock winning the world cyclocross title. Obviously made easier by the absence of Van Aert and van der Poel, but you can only beat what's in front of you, which he did very effectively.

[Azabache]

Paris-Nice is looking interesting after just 2 stages with Jumbo-Visma in awesome mode taking the first three places yesterday; and retaining these today after some classic, entertaining crosswind echelon panicking. Roglic seems near imperious yet again.

He's never been my favourite rider but I wish him well and hope this year that he avoids the bad luck of the two previous ones, particularly in the Tour....

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Caught some of Strade Bianche on Saturday, and Pogacar was in imperious form with a 50km solo victory. Helped no doubt by a horrendous crash in crosswinds for Alaphillipe, but still a great win for him…will he make a run at more spring classics? I think he is down to ride Flanders

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For all Pogacar is ridiculous, Flanders is surely a race he can't win - riders need to be bigger and bulkier to be able to put the power down on the cobbles. Have to go back to 1994 and Gianni Bugno to find the last Grand Tour winner to win there, and Merckx for the last Tour champion to win Flanders.

Obviously, Lieige-Bastogne-Liege is well within Pogacar's scope. Wonder if he could challenge Allaphilipe at Fleche Wallonne

[Lowlandbrit]

For all Pogacar is ridiculous, Flanders is surely a race he can't win - riders need to be bigger and bulkier to be able to put the power down on the cobbles.

Lost out to van der Poel in the end (good to see him back looking fit), but probably looked the best rider there. Scary.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Think if Pogacar was better positioned coming into the first Oude, he might've broken away from the group. He was going past people like it was a video game on that climb, but was attacking from quite far back going into the climb.

Great ride by MvDP - especially considering he only started racing again a few weeks ago. Fred Wright with a fantastic top 10 too.

A disaster classics season for Quickstep so far - going to need Alaphillipe to bag one of Liege/Amstel, or do better in Roubaix to salvage something from it

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For all Pogacar is ridiculous, Flanders is surely a race he can't win - riders need to be bigger and bulkier to be able to put the power down on the cobbles. Have to go back to 1994 and Gianni Bugno to find the last Grand Tour winner to win there, and Merckx for the last Tour champion to win Flanders.

Obviously, Lieige-Bastogne-Liege is well within Pogacar's scope. Wonder if he could challenge Allaphilipe at Fleche Wallonne

Well, that very nearly didn't age well - one of the two best on the day, but just didn't have the faith in his sprint in the end to beat MvdP and ended up getting pipped for the podium by the two guys closing from behind.

Not sure better positioning earlier would have made that much difference - van der Poel was very strong and managed to close the gap down on the Paterberg after losing ground on a bike handling error, and he was the only guy in the same ball park for strength.

If Pogacar continues with this form and this racing programme (i.e. taking on the big one day races, several of the shorter stage races and the Tour), we might have to re-think the current cycling philosophy of the specialists. Hasn't been anyone since at least Hinault, and probably Merckx who could be a serious challenger across such a range of road races. When does he start adding in some MTB and cyclo-cross to challenge van Aert, van der Poel and Pidcock across all disciplines?

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

The Giro starts on Friday in Hungary - looking at the stage profiles, it appears to be a little bit of an easier edition than usual, not many big GC stages until the final week. As such, plenty of sprinters in the field with Ewan, Cavendish, Demare headlining amongst many others

[Azabache]

Good to see Tom Dumoulin back.

[mountain man]

Can I ask are there many cyclists on here, by that I mean regular keen average joes who like to ride for fun etc.

[Azabache]

I've done 15 Etape du Tours, one Marmotte and a Maratona; am hoping to finish my final Etape this July, then am "retiring" from Continental sportives due to advanced age!

Have also ridden for "fun" all my life.

[Lowlandbrit]

A bad day for Yates, and suddenly it's all looking very open. Carapaz probably the favourite, but a bunch of 'nearly men' in with a real chance of making it to the top step too.

[Azabache]

Yeah-Landa and Bardet seem rejuvenated, but can they improve at this juncture from perennial "nearlies"?

[Lowlandbrit]

Jai Hindley was able to win enough time on the final climb to hold on for the win in the closing TT this time round, Landa adds a 'probably his best chance to win' podium to his palmares, and Nibali finishes his last Giro in a very creditable 4th place. What a career.

[Soul Requiem]

I've always been unsure on how to rate Nibali; four grand tour wins suggest a top tier talent but and it's only a small but they seemed to come when his biggest rivals were either absent or injured. The 2014 'Tour' is a good example of that.

[Azabache]

Well, he could only compete against those who were there!

He was some hard nut who-in that Tour you cite-won that early nasty, little UK stage to Sheffield; two mid race mountain stages; and the nasty Pau to Hautacam one.

Loads of other wins (Milan-San Remo!) and places.

Don't forget that awful crash he had in the 2016 Rio Olympics into one of those infamous drainage gullies that everyone was so concerned about beforehand.

Arrivederci Shark!

[alfie]

Jai Hindley was able to win enough time on the final climb to hold on for the win in the closing TT this time round, Landa adds a 'probably his best chance to win' podium to his palmares, and Nibali finishes his last Giro in a very creditable 4th place. What a career.

Nice to see Hindley making Australian cycling history with the Giro win , after he was pipped at the end a couple of years ago. Fair to say he's risen with a lot less publicity in this country by comparison with the likes of Evans and some of the sprinters. Obviously a wonderful climber : wonder what he can do in the future ?

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Congratulations to Hindley, showing that the COVID-affected 2nd place a couple of years ago was no fluke. A bit of luck that Bardet and Yates were compromised by illness and injury, but that's par for a Grand TOur, and he still got the better of a decent field.

As for Nibali, I think he ranks with the likes of Bugno from a couple of decades ago - very classy rider across tough one day races and stage races, in the echelon below the all time greats. Over-shadowed by the likes of Froome during his prime years, but has a palmares that all but the very best would tear your arm off for. Cycling equivalent of Andy Murray?

[Lowlandbrit]

Good to see Tom Dumoulin back.

Or not: retiring at the end of the season.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Cav won the British National Road Race title from a break yesterday - looks to be in top form, surely Quickstep will take him to the Tour, especially now they are sans Alaphillipe? Sure they have Jakobsen, but to deny Cav a shot at breaking the record would be cruel!

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Cav won the British National Road Race title from a break yesterday - looks to be in top form, surely Quickstep will take him to the Tour, especially now they are sans Alaphillipe? Sure they have Jakobsen, but to deny Cav a shot at breaking the record would be cruel!

Haven't seen much cycling news recently, but are you sure Alaphillipe is missing the Tour? Was in the French national championship yesterday (which, if you can find the highlights on Eurosport, is well worth a watch). Daily Telegraph suggests he's part of the Quickstep likely (not confirmed) line up.

Problem for Cav was the Giro showed he doesn't have the edge in top end speed that he's had in the past, so wins are going to be hard to come by against the absolute elite level sprinters. He's still had a decent season with a semi-classic win, a Giro stage and the nationals.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Cav won the British National Road Race title from a break yesterday - looks to be in top form, surely Quickstep will take him to the Tour, especially now they are sans Alaphillipe? Sure they have Jakobsen, but to deny Cav a shot at breaking the record would be cruel!

Haven't seen much cycling news recently, but are you sure Alaphillipe is missing the Tour? Was in the French national championship yesterday (which, if you can find the highlights on Eurosport, is well worth a watch). Daily Telegraph suggests he's part of the Quickstep likely (not confirmed) line up.

Problem for Cav was the Giro showed he doesn't have the edge in top end speed that he's had in the past, so wins are going to be hard to come by against the absolute elite level sprinters. He's still had a decent season with a semi-classic win, a Giro stage and the nationals.

Seems to be confirmed in Belgian media this morning that Alaphillipe will miss out - we will find out later today anyways, when Quickstep officially confirms!

To be fair to Cav, he did beat Phillipsen in a spring in UAE Tour, and then obviously Ewan/Demare et al for his Giro stage. Only one he hasn't really gone up against is Dylan Groenewegen, but his form has been patchy (well that and obviously Jakobsen in his own team!). Quickstep have the best leadout of all those squads by a fair way I think, so I'd back him to pick off one of the week 1 stages...especially with the anticipated echelon issues in Denmark on stages 2 and 3 (he's fantastic at getting the right side of splits). I do hope they take him.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Confirmed no Alaphillipe or Cavendish for Quickstep - weirdly no Senechal for their sprint train either, taking along Bagioli and Honore bizarrely.

[Azabache]

1. I thought that Alaphillipe had an injury very recently?
2. Cav-I hope that "politics" wasn't a factor in the decision to leave him...

[Lowlandbrit]

Cav-I hope that "politics" wasn't a factor in the decision to leave him...

Vaguely remember some stories along the lines of Cav being over the 'just happy to have his career resuscitated' stage of the relationship, basically putting him on the other side of the dynamic that ended up getting him selected last year.

[Soul Requiem]

That's really poor from Pogacar, you cannot attack after one of your main rivals is involved in a crash.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

That's really poor from Pogacar, you cannot attack after one of your main rivals is involved in a crash.

Eh? Even half of Roglic's own team didn't wait for him and worked for Vingegaard instead. What exactly is Pogacar meant to do, sit up and nurse Roglic's cuts and bruises or something?

Edit: Roglic dislocated his shoulder in the crash apparently.

[Soul Requiem]

That's really poor from Pogacar, you cannot attack after one of your main rivals is involved in a crash.

Eh? Even half of Roglic's own team didn't wait for him and worked for Vingegaard instead. What exactly is Pogacar meant to do, sit up and nurse Roglic's cuts and bruises or something?

Edit: Roglic dislocated his shoulder in the crash apparently.

He's meant to not attack the peloton after a crash, it shows a real lack of class. It's not just those who crash that are affected.

[dummy_half]

Not a good way to make friends in the peloton. Also I'm not sure the effort was worth the very limited gain for Pogacar. - winning a Tour is in part about not expending unnecessary energy, and getting into an attack on the cobbles for only something like 13 seconds gain over several likely rivals in the mountains seems a little wasteful. Of course, Pogacar is very good and may well prove to be strong enough anyway

[Azabache]

Can't directly blame the Pavé as the crash was between sections; but a Curse seems to operate whenever these wretched cobbles are featured-too much of a lottery/freak show IMHO.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

That's really poor from Pogacar, you cannot attack after one of your main rivals is involved in a crash.

Eh? Even half of Roglic's own team didn't wait for him and worked for Vingegaard instead. What exactly is Pogacar meant to do, sit up and nurse Roglic's cuts and bruises or something?

Edit: Roglic dislocated his shoulder in the crash apparently.

He's meant to not attack the peloton after a crash, it shows a real lack of class. It's not just those who crash that are affected.

Hmm don’t agree myself - I’m sure if he crashes on a descent in the Alps, Jumbo/Ineos wouldn’t sit up and wait (well they shouldn’t!).

[Soul Requiem]

That's really poor from Pogacar, you cannot attack after one of your main rivals is involved in a crash.

Eh? Even half of Roglic's own team didn't wait for him and worked for Vingegaard instead. What exactly is Pogacar meant to do, sit up and nurse Roglic's cuts and bruises or something?

Edit: Roglic dislocated his shoulder in the crash apparently.

He's meant to not attack the peloton after a crash, it shows a real lack of class. It's not just those who crash that are affected.

Hmm don’t agree myself - I’m sure if he crashes on a descent in the Alps, Jumbo/Ineos wouldn’t sit up and wait (well they shouldn’t!).

The situations aren't at all similar. It isn't about attacking Roglic, it's about attacking off the front of the peloton after a crash, it isn't the done thing.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Pogacar rinses the field in an uphill sprint - Tour is basically over after the first week bar a crash

[Soul Requiem]

Pogacar rinses the field in an uphill sprint - Tour is basically over after the first week bar a crash

He gained a few bonus seconds but aside from that today has changed nothing. When it comes to the mountains he'll have Ineos' power quartet to contend with, they'll be able to attack him non stop alternating stage after stage so it's far from over.

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Pogacar rinses the field in an uphill sprint - Tour is basically over after the first week bar a crash

Saw someone saying the same after Simon Yates won the early ITT in the Giro. The rest of the race didn't exactly work out like that...

Admittedly, the last couple of days suggest Pogacar is very strong, but we haven't reached any mountains yet.

[Big]

Pogacar rinses the field in an uphill sprint - Tour is basically over after the first week bar a crash

Saw someone saying the same after Simon Yates won the early ITT in the Giro. The rest of the race didn't exactly work out like that...

Admittedly, the last couple of days suggest Pogacar is very strong, but we haven't reached any mountains yet.

Yates doesn't exactly have Pogacar's track record for dominating all 3 weeks of a Grand Tour... and even if he did, he did drop out as a result of ongoing knee issues after a crash so I'm not sure it contradicts the point. I'd love to be wrong and see a competitive fight for the GC, but I'm with Olly here and I'm not enough of a sadist to hope for a crash to spice things up.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Pogacar rinses the field in an uphill sprint - Tour is basically over after the first week bar a crash

He gained a few bonus seconds but aside from that today has changed nothing. When it comes to the mountains he'll have Ineos' power quartet to contend with, they'll be able to attack him non stop alternating stage after stage so it's far from over.

There's no way Thomas can live with him in the high mountains. Maybe if Martinez/Yates have a good day they can, but even then Pogacar can gain minutes on them in the time trial, and Martinez can't descend.
Ineos weren't even contributing to Jumbo's chase yesterday, they're looking for stages and a podium I fancy.

Only hope is Jumbo get fully behind Vingegaard now - who did drop Pog on Ventoux last year, and has shown good form. Issue is, they've already blown an opportunity to gain seconds on stage 4, and even today Roglic wasn't working for Jonas (randomly giving a great leadout to Pogacar instead!)

UAE's team will also come more into their own in the mountains in support, than these early first week stages - Soler, Bennett, Majka who've been useless so far, won't be come weeks 2 and 3.

I hope I'm wrong...but I really can't see it happening on tactics/form alone. Needs some sort of mechanical/crash unfortunately

[Lowlandbrit]

Admittedly, the last couple of days suggest Pogacar is very strong

You could also have gone with 'months' or 'years' there.

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Three week Tour's are difficult to win though - avoiding illness, injury and just being in the wrong place at the wrong time (e.g. getting the wrong side of a split in the peloton) all take a bit of luck. I accept that at the moment Pogacar looks the most likely winner based on both pedigree and form shown to date, but it's too early to crown him the winner.

Could be that someone else shows exceptional form in the high mountains (for example, the perpetually unlucky Pinot) and actually puts some pressure on him, or a tactical mistake is made and some middling GC contender gets 5 or 10 minutes in a break and changes the whole dynamic of the race. OR it might just go as you are expecting and Pogacar wins the first couple of high mountain stages, established a 3 minute lead and just cruises to an easy victory.

[Soul Requiem]

Pogacar rinses the field in an uphill sprint - Tour is basically over after the first week bar a crash

He gained a few bonus seconds but aside from that today has changed nothing. When it comes to the mountains he'll have Ineos' power quartet to contend with, they'll be able to attack him non stop alternating stage after stage so it's far from over.

There's no way Thomas can live with him in the high mountains. Maybe if Martinez/Yates have a good day they can, but even then Pogacar can gain minutes on them in the time trial, and Martinez can't descend.
Ineos weren't even contributing to Jumbo's chase yesterday, they're looking for stages and a podium I fancy.

Only hope is Jumbo get fully behind Vingegaard now - who did drop Pog on Ventoux last year, and has shown good form. Issue is, they've already blown an opportunity to gain seconds on stage 4, and even today Roglic wasn't working for Jonas (randomly giving a great leadout to Pogacar instead!)

UAE's team will also come more into their own in the mountains in support, than these early first week stages - Soler, Bennett, Majka who've been useless so far, won't be come weeks 2 and 3.

I hope I'm wrong...but I really can't see it happening on tactics/form alone. Needs some sort of mechanical/crash unfortunately

Thomas doesn't have to live with him in the high mountains, he just needs to contribute in a quartet with the aim of breaking him. If your team is outgunned it doesn't matter how good you are as an individual. It's far too early in the tour for Ineos to be contributing to a chase when we're talking about a 30 second gain. The team isn't set up to control for a change.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Who is the 4th Ineos guy you're talking about Soul? Only have Thomas/Yates/Martinez who are any threat for GC?

[Soul Requiem]

I'd throw Pidcock into the mix, remains to be seen how he performs but he could be a factor in the mountains.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

I can't see Pogacar/UAE taking him seriously as a GC threat personally - but never know!

[dummy_half]

I'd throw Pidcock into the mix, remains to be seen how he performs but he could be a factor in the mountains.

Pidcock isn't there to chase any sort of GC position - Ineos will want him for some domestique duties (probably the seocond-last or last helper on the mountain stages along with G, before Yates and Martinez are left to race on their own) and for some attacks and challenges for stage wins, likely in mid-mountain stages. They're also testing him to see how well he recovers between stages and last the 3 weeks, to see if he does have a future as a major stage race rider, or if he's going to end up a Classics specialist.

[Soul Requiem]

I'd throw Pidcock into the mix, remains to be seen how he performs but he could be a factor in the mountains.

Pidcock isn't there to chase any sort of GC position - Ineos will want him for some domestique duties (probably the seocond-last or last helper on the mountain stages along with G, before Yates and Martinez are left to race on their own) and for some attacks and challenges for stage wins, likely in mid-mountain stages. They're also testing him to see how well he recovers between stages and last the 3 weeks, to see if he does have a future as a major stage race rider, or if he's going to end up a Classics specialist.

I think people are misinterpreting what i'm saying. Ineos have a quartet of riders designed to break Pogacar in the high mountains, I didn't mean they had selected four GC contenders.

[dummy_half]

Anyway, will be interesting to see what happens today - two third cat climbs and then a first cat summit finish on a (relatively) short but very punchy climb. Could be a day for Van Aert or Pidcock to attack, as I suspect Pogacar wouldn't mind giving the jersey away for another couple of days, to let his team save energy for next week - there will though be some re-shuffling of the GC pack, it's just I suspect it might occur a couple of minutes down the road from a break-away winner.
Saturday's stage is moderately hard - definite break-away day, while Sunday is the sort of 'can't win the GC, but could lose it' day that will likely see a group of the top half dozen GC riders come in together. Tuesday is a bit easier so likey a break won by a second rank climber, but Wednesday and Thursday are brutal, and will likely be the decisive stages of the whole race. Pyrenees stages are still tough, but decidedly less so.

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