Author: cyclingmole

Kaposvár > Balatonfüred 201.1km A stage for the fast men. Weather Cloudy, with a small risk of rain. Finale Looks easy, but it isn’t. The road for much of the finale isn’t the widest. We’re talking about a standard two-lane road, but I’ve seen wider, especially considering we’re going to get a bunch sprint. It’s...

Budapest 9.2km ITT The second stage is a relatively short TT. Route We have 8km of flat, followed by 1.2km at 5.1%. The flat section is technical, it contains lots of corners, but not is all what it seems. Most of the roads are incredibly wide, which means the corners are also wide and can...

Budapest > Visegrád 195.4km Who’s going to be good enough to wear the pink jersey? We have a standard looking stage to get the race off and running, but it does have a sting in the tail. An old-fashioned battle between the sprinters and puncheurs is ahead of us. Weather Cloudy, but still warm, with...

The fight for the Maglia Ciclamino is always a hard one. We have sprinters here who plan to leave during the second week, we have some who’ll try to say until the end but won’t make it through the mountains, and we have those warriors who’ll manage to haul their arses all the way to...

The fight for the Maglia Azzurra, the blue jersey, should keep us interested deep into the final week. Here’s a breakdown of the point structure: Cima Coppi – Passo Pordoi Stage 20 – 50, 30, 20, 14, 10, 6, 4, 2, 1 points Cat 1 – Stages 4, 7, 9×2, 15×2, 16×3, 17×2, 19, 20×2 – 40, 18, 12,...

Strap yourselves in, the first grand tour of the year is about to begin, it’s Giro time! Stage 1 The race begins with three stages in Hungary, the first of which ends with a climb of 4km at 4.9%. This will make it too hard for almost all of the sprinters, and a certain Mathieu...

Aigle > Villars 15.7km ITT The rarely spotted mountain TT. We start with 6km of flat, then the mountain begins. The climb is 9.8km at 7.9%, it’s a proper alpine test. We were here back in 2018, with Egan Bernal beating Primož Roglič by just 4 seconds. That day the route didn’t contain the 6km...

Aigle > Zinal 180.1km The big GC day, especially if a mountain TT isn’t your thing. We have four cat 1 climbs and 2 cat 2s, overall, it’s 4060m of climbing. The finish might not look that hard, but after a demanding day in the saddle, we’re likely to see big gaps on GC. Three...

Valbroye > Valbroye 165km It’s not hard enough to be a proper GC day, but the finale of the stage is tough enough to see some gaps between the top riders. We’re not talking anything hugely significant, but enough to hurt someone’s GC ambitions. I’m hoping for lots of attacks in the final 20km. Weather...

Echallens > Echallens 168.8km A rare easy day in Romandie. Just one categorised climb, and 2500m of ascension, this is about as easy as it gets in this race. We don’t have many sprinters here, but with QuickStep, Ineos and UAE happy if we get a sprint, that’s what we’re likely to get. Weather Another...