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- One way or the other - he did a great job. He started from far position and put a lot of effort to catch a front group, then Vanthourenhout did what he usually do (delayed some riders when Iserbyt was in front) and again WvA needed to catch front group. So in the and 4th place is great. Of course podium would be nice but still WvA is super human.
- Please would it be possible to write team names next to riders mentioned in the previews? Thanks
- I think the UCI should require at least one +50km TT and a TTT for every Grand Tour. A circuit race stage should also be required.
- Yeah, this is a tough one. On one hand, this is the World Championship, not the African championship. It's super-cool that Rwanda is so cycling-crazy, and that they know how to put together such an event. On the other hand, the course is insanely hard. It would be nice if Girmay could be competitive. He is such a terrific personality: supremely talented, quietly confident, and yet always humble. What a great example for Africans--and all the rest of us.
- There is nothing wrong in what you or others have said but there are slsonotger factors and actors to consider and we have to first take a step back from our preconceived lens for permanently looking at things.
Firstly, we always tend to speak of Africa a bit loosely as some rather uniform place (kind of competing together against other regions). Africa is probably genetically, culturally and mentally more diverse than Europe including Russia or the Middle East including Israel, Palestine, SA, Iran, Qatar, Yemen etc. You only have to remember sone of the wars, religions, tribes and settlers plus the thoughtless colonial border definitions imposed on tribal lands to remember how complex things can get. Asking Rwanda to consider a course for Biniam is like asking Russia or Norway to create one for Alaphilippe, Valter or Almeida.
It is Rwandas WC not Africa’s, Rwanda will obviously try to use it for their benefit more than for helping other African nations progress in cycling in future. They invested a ton in reaching this opportunity over a long period, it was not done for then getting tokd what others would prefer them to do. Other than that, sorry, it is a very mountainous place, it wound actually not be so easy to create another type of course, if Denmark or the Netherlands were hosts, would anyone be asking them to make a course more suitable to climbers? Rwanda 2025 was in the works long before anyone could have guessed Biniam would attain the level he has, should they have taken the WC away from them due to that change in situation? It’s just unfortunate for him and some but cycling is like that and sometimes some cyclists show themselves as a bit spoilt. Every year 90% of riders participate knowing they have practically zero chance. Imagine if they’d all decide it wasn’t worth participating, in fact, in how many other major sports events (WC, Olympics, Commonwealth etc. do those with less chance stay away? Most would sacrifice a whole load to participate and are pretty down when they don’t qualify because for many the chance just to participate still means something. Anyway, let them stay home, it will just leaves more space for new faces to discover and new talent to prove itself which is just as important.
- But Jonas does use carbon monoxide, he has 'admitted' to it, to use the same term as for other teams here. So his statement is a bit strange.
- Good to see Chloe breaking this race, after all she's been through. Looks like she's extremely strong, riding off like that by herself.
- Yes he can!
- It's easy for me to say something from the couch, but TTs are often the most entertaining. I would like to see them a bit longer. But I'm also very aware of the pain the riders go through.
- Absolutely, he has no idea whatsoever. The Côte du Haut Pichot is only 1k long but at 10% he would be out the back.
Barney19-01-2025