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One of the breakout stars of the 2023 season has definitely been Oier Lazkano. The Basque rider has taken the world by storm with eye-catching performances on Argentine mountains, Flemish cobbles, French cotes, in the Swiss Alps and on Spanish muritos. He's not half bad at time trialing either. And he loves a good old breakaway, which has laid the foundation for most of his top results. As Spanish champion, there will be a bit pressure on his shoulders ahead of the Vuelta, but if given the chance, he seems to be able to deliver the goods. Both as a domestique for Mas and as a stage hunter, he could very well be on his way to a pretty successful home GT.

With Rod Ellingworth taking over as Team Principal on October 1st (a PR shield for Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Bahraini Sheikh who founded the team three years ago) time for a Clinic thread about the middle-eastern team with an F1 link ( co-owners McLaren will get second-spot in the team name in 2020). First, one of my favourite stories about Ellingworth , as told by the blessèd David Walsh, during his post-Armstrong victory tour. The road book here is the Tour's: "For Rod Ellingworth, Team Sky's master planner, the road book is the bible. So on the day he gets it, he riffles through the pages, checking the details that underpin his planning. He gets to page 46 with its photo of Virenque and it disgusts and confuses him. Ellingworth can be diplomatic, understated and restrained when talking about most things. Doping is different and in his eyes Virenque has stood for everything he despises about the sport. He stops at page 46, turns the page over to... Click to expand... Read more

This post, and the next 11, were moved from another thread: the OP for this thread is actually post 13 , but this previous discussion pre-emps it and seemed to me worth moving. Your help please, for a moderator who is aware of, but doesn't really get, this AI stuff. My apologies to them if my suspicions are misplaced, but the posts by josephews and now Noah147 seem somehow too inane and anodyne to seem quite human. {The rest of you can take that as a compliment: you are sufficiently objectionable for me to accept your humanity unquestioningly} Joseph has posted some links, but none that are obviously spamming, so I'm not sure what to make of them: what is the point of anyone sending bots here? (again: great apologies to Joe and Noah if you are breathing sentient beings). Is the intention that they will return and edit the posts to fill them with spam links (some have been here a while without that happening: there were some links in Joe's posts in the... Read more

With the World Championships in the books, the battle for European pride is upon us! While noticeably less brutal than the attrition fest we saw in Montréal, this European Championship course promises fast, dynamic, and tactical racing. Route Starting in Ljubljana, the race covers 196 kilometers with roughly 2,500 meters of elevation gain, making it significantly less climbing-heavy than the World Championship route. We start with a rolling, relatively gentle opening stretch of roughly 85 km gives early breakaways room to build a gap. This is then followed by the local circuit. The peloton will tackle 5 laps of a 22 km local loop, where the real damage will be done. The main judge of the race is the Mozjanca climb, a steep 2.1 km ascent averaging a stingy 10.2%. The field hits this ramp 5 times before a mostly downhill run toward a slightly rising finish straight that could favor a reduced sprint or a late soloist... Read more

Hey everyone, I’m looking for some insights from fellow mountain bikers who have experimented with extended fasting protocols. I've been doing intermittent fasting (16:8) for a while, but I'm considering trying an extended 40-hour fast on my recovery days to kickstart deeper autophagy and improve metabolic flexibility (teaching the body to burn fat more efficiently during long endurance rides). However, I’m quite nervous about how this might affect my energy levels and glycogen stores for the next high-intensity trail or cross-country session. I don't want to completely crash or lose hard-earned leg muscle. To the riders and coaches here: Have any of you attempted an extended fast (36-48 hours) during a training block? How did it impact your power output, stamina, and overall recovery when you got back on the bike? How do you properly ease back into eating (refeeding) so you don't shock your digestive system before a ride? Would love to hear some real-world experiences before I... Read more

Has anybody picked up any rumours about where or what this year's route(s) will look like? They are badged as being in Ljubljana, but I assume - given the Pog factor - we should expect something hillier than a city/glorified crit circuit.

What a week! After a relatively disappointing 2012 and first half of 2013 Bling got things back on track with two solid stage wins at the 2013 Vuelta. Now he's started this season with a real bang with stage wins at Pais Vasco and now the Giro. Started to get noticed in 2010 with an incredible U23 season with a U23 WC win, stages at Langkawi (2), Wellington, Ringerike GP (2), Tour of Japan, 2nd at U23 Flanders and GP della Liberazione. Then there was 8th at L'Avenir - when he only started riding for GC after his team leader abandoned after 2 stages. Is he finally cashing in on his obvious talent?

Junior World TT champion Finished 7th last year in ToC at age 20. Just got his first pro win today. 21 years old. Tomorrow is a big test in the Giro Sicilia, he leads the race by about a minute over the other climbers, will he hang on over 20km ascent of Etna? Will he be the next American to compete for GC in the the GTs?

​ The main event is here to wrap up the World Championships on Sunday, September 27th! The elite men tackle a brutal 273.7 km route featuring 3,803 meters of cumulative vertical gain. Starting across the St. Lawrence River in Brossard, the peloton will complete a flat 112 km opening stretch before crossing into Montréal to face 12 laps of the punishing Mount Royal circuit. With 12 ascents each of Voie Camillien-Houde, Côte de la Polytechnique, and Côte Pagnuelo, this is going to be an intense, attrition-heavy battle where endurance and race tactics will prove decisive. Route Startlist Startlist for World Championships ME - Road Race 2026 Competing teams and riders for World Championships ME - Road Race 2026. Top competitors are Remco Evenepoel, Isaac del Toro and Paul Seixas. www.procyclingstats.com Weather ... Read more

What about this guy? Did MTB before, switched to road, had a stellar year in the junior category and demolished the opposition in the worlds road race. And as latest news, he signed for Trek, immediately becoming professional next year and skipping the junior ranks. All jokes aside his year was nowhere near as good as good 'ol Remco's, but he was still very spectacular. I wonder what sort of races we can expect him in? He seems more of a classics type of guy to me, But still early days

What about this guy? Did MTB before, switched to road, had a stellar year in the junior category and demolished the opposition in the worlds road race. And as latest news, he signed for Trek, immediately becoming professional next year and skipping the junior ranks. All jokes aside his year was nowhere near as good as good 'ol Remco's, but he was still very spectacular. I wonder what sort of races we can expect him in? He seems more of a classics type of guy to me, But still early days

This guy will be a monster. He's got a lot of potential, physically he is a beast. He came from the same Portuguese team that João Almeida left. A small one, which produces high quality young talents in Portugal called CC de bairrada. The director of that team confided that Morgado produces better numbers than João Almeida at the same young age. Morgado's big dream is to win Grand Tours, specially the Tour. His goal this year is to test himself on the avenir tour, but he has shown a lot of talent in one-day events. I believe he will be a good cyclist in all types of races. He was the only one who managed to follow Pogacar in a UAE team training session last month!