2026 Races....Spoilers.

[No Ta Doctor]

Yesterday's stage at ABV was entertaining. Noval, having thinned the peloton to an elite group of favourites with an upping of the pace on the Col de Portes, somehow became detached on the descent from the group that included Aitor Martinez, Van Kerkhove amd Milo De La Mare. The group of favourites, who joined up with the 4 man early break that included Van Kerkhove's teammate (Sindre Orholm-Lonseth), worked well together whilst poor old Noval was left to tow a trio of stragglers to the line. Van Kerkhove attacked with about 4 km to go and only Martinez went with him. Martinez took the win and leads SVK by a minute. Milo De La Mare is up to third at 1:20 while Noval drops to 7th at 1:31.

Have you seen what the final stage of the AVB Yes Sir I Can Buggy Tour looks like? Am ITT up Co Du Grand Colombier is a little heavier than I'd expect in a Jnr race!

I'm interest to see how DK Jnr TT champion Julius Løvstrup Birkedal goes on that. His results suggest he's not allergic to gradients

 

[Dogtrousers]

I just clicked on the Valromey Tour Féminin, 73km women's junior one day race in the Jura. Of 119 riders there were just 56 finishers, with 42 OTL, 19 DNF and 2 (probably wisely) DNS.

I don't know if it was super hot or if the winners were exceptionally fast or what. Or maybe this kind of thing is common at that level.
https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/grand-prix-valromey-tour-feminin-ii/2026/result

 

[Archie from BR]

Have you seen what the final stage of the AVB Yes Sir I Can Buggy Tour looks like? Am ITT up Co Du Grand Colombier is a little heavier than I'd expect in a Jnr race!

View attachment 814821

I'm interest to see how DK Jnr TT champion Julius Løvstrup Birkedal goes on that. His results suggest he's not allergic to gradients

Yes it's a tough ITT alright, but just remember the JW are racing the same course in the morning

 

[Archie from BR]

I just clicked on the Valromey Tour Féminin, 73km women's junior one day race in the Jura. Of 119 riders there were just 56 finishers, with 42 OTL, 19 DNF and 2 (probably wisely) DNS.

I don't know if it was super hot or if the winners were exceptionally fast or what. Or maybe this kind of thing is common at that level.
https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/grand-prix-valromey-tour-feminin-ii/2026/result

It was all down to the silly 8% timelimit rule, the JM only did 30km more and had a 50% timelimit, as far as I know it's the difference between a stg race and the women doing 3 one day races.
Someone brainier than me may be able to explain it better.

 

[Dogtrousers]

It was all down to the silly 8% timelimit rule, the JM only did 30km more and had a 50% timelimit, as far as I know it's the difference between a stg race and the women doing 3 one day races.
Someone brainier than me may be able to explain it better.

Out of curiosity I watched it on youtube. My French isn't good enough to get more than the occasional sentence and various isolated words. I quite enjoyed the finish. One rider off the front was caught successively building to a group of about 5. Then two French girls from a local team arrived like a train and joined. One of those two was probably working hard pulling the other along, who then got the jump in the subsequent sprint.

There was no mention that I could understand of the mass elimination.

 

[DeadCalm]

Stage 4 of AVB was not easy to follow, not helped by my failure to twig until late in the race that Noval, SVK and Milo De La Mare were in the mountains, points and youth jerseys respectively. Martinez was eventually dropped from the group of favourites following concerted pressure from Noval. Herzog had attacked previously (I think) and was ahead of Noval, SVK and Michael Hettegger of Lidl Trek, who looked to be about to easily sail past him until they all suddenly decided to stop cooperating. Herzog took the win. SVK won the sprint for second with Hettegger taking third.

SVK leads the GC with Herzog second at 15", Noval is up to 4th at 40" and Martinez is at 5th at 1'03. Milo De La Mare drops to 7th overall but continues to lead the white jersey competition.

 

[Archie from BR]

Stage 4 of AVB was not easy to follow, not helped by my failure to twig until late in the race that Noval, SVK and Milo De La Mare were in the mountains, points and youth jerseys respectively. Martinez was eventually dropped from the group of favourites following concerted pressure from Noval. Herzog had attacked previously (I think) and was ahead of Noval, SVK and Michael Hettegger of Lidl Trek, who looked to be about to easily sail past him until they all suddenly decided to stop cooperating. Herzog took the win. SVK won the sprint for second with Hettegger taking third.

SVK leads the GC with Herzog second at 15", Noval is up to 4th at 40" and Martinez is at 5th at 1'03. Milo De La Mare drops to 7th overall but continues to lead the white jersey competition.

It was hard to follow with all there picture freeze, hope it's sorted for today.

 

[Dogtrousers]

The junior women rode up the Grand Colombier this morning. Not As an ITT as far as I can tell from PCS but a 15km race. Winner was just over an hour (so roughly twice as fast as me 2 years ago). Last placed rider appeared to be at +30m but wasn't listed as OTL despite it saying "Timelimit:8%, or 1:05:21 (+0:04:50)"
Hmmm.

The very last riders had negative times. Oh well, the world is full of things I don't understand. One more won't make any difference.

https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/valromey-tour-feminin-iii/2026/result

Edit: If they had applied that 8%/ 4:50 cutoff there would have been 24 finishers and 86 OTL I think.

Edit: It's been tidied up on PCS. The time limit has been deleted and the riders with negative times set to DNF

Maybe they had second thoughts about the time limit after the mass elimination earlier in the week

 

[No Ta Doctor]

The junior women rode up the Grand Colombier this morning. Not As an ITT as far as I can tell from PCS but a 15km race. Winner was just over an hour (so roughly twice as fast as me 2 years ago). Last placed rider appeared to be at +30m but wasn't listed as OTL despite it saying "Timelimit:8%, or 1:05:21 (+0:04:50)"
Hmmm.

The very last riders had negative times. Oh well, the world is full of things I don't understand. One more won't make any difference.

https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/valromey-tour-feminin-iii/2026/result

Edit: If they had applied that 8%/ 4:50 cutoff there would have been 24 finishers and 86 OTL I think.

If it wasn't a TT by intention it appears to have become one by accident - out of the hundred and ten finishers only six "groups" are noted as coming in on the same time. Five are groups of two and one is a group of three....

Have you seen what the final stage of the AVB Yes Sir I Can Buggy Tour looks like? Am ITT up Co Du Grand Colombier is a little heavier than I'd expect in a Jnr race!

View attachment 814821

I'm interest to see how DK Jnr TT champion Julius Løvstrup Birkedal goes on that. His results suggest he's not allergic to gradients

The answer appears to be "not very well"
Came in 43rd over five minutes down

 

[mididoctors]

Tao managed to.finidh tour of Austria

 

[rich p]

Tao managed to.finidh tour of Austria

👍
I've only just caught up with the GC. Tao way down south sadly but 3 other Brits in the top 10.
2 almost invisible Ineos riders 4th and 6th, Carlos Rod and young Andrew August.
Muhlberger was riding for the Austrian national team rather than Decathlon.

 

[Archie from BR]

Talking of Ain Bugey Valromey, does anyone know what's going on with last year's winner, Noah Lindholm? I'm expecting big things from him, but he's barely raced this year.

I missed this yesterday but Noah Lindholm rode stg 1 of Giro Ciclistico della Valle d'Aosta- Mont Blanc which was a 10.5km ITT, he finished 23rd at 2.09. Today is a 147.5km stg with some lovely climbing in it

 

[Archie from BR]

I missed this yesterday but Noah Lindholm rode stg 1 of Giro Ciclistico della Valle d'Aosta- Mont Blanc which was a 10.5km ITT, he finished 23rd at 2.09. Today is a 147.5km stg with some lovely climbing in it

Stg 2 saw Noah Lindholm finish 13th at 5.19, this moved him up to16th on GC.
After 2 stages it looks to be a three way battle between Bravo, Bock and Ramirez.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Zoe Backstedt currently leading the Baloise ladies tour after three stages. But that's not surprising because there have been two ITTs (a prologue and a split stage)

 

[No Ta Doctor]

Zoe Backstedt currently leading the Baloise ladies tour after three stages. But that's not surprising because there have been two ITTs (a prologue and a split stage)

It'll make a nice change for to not be riding in GB stripes (both road and TT)