Tour Down Under 2025

[lone rider]

Thanks Michael. He aint happy there, it would appear he wants out. Prob explains poor results but don't know how that goes for his level of professionalism.

Read something else over the weekend that he wanted out of Jayco (reasons unknown) and being released was part of the rumoured Astana xfer, but when that fell through, Jayco refused to take him back. No details as to why he wanted out though.

Jayco are of the opinion he requested a leave of his contract which they were happy to grant, been a lot of issues since the Giro. Something fell through with Astana and Vino, Renshaw left, Cav never came into the DS/management ranks. Ineos have shown some interest, dunno why because he will get no leadout there, but not on anywhere near the money his Jayco deal was worth. So now lawyers will get a payday to decide whether he offically terminated his Jayco contract. He should have quit ties with his manager long ago.

[foo on patrol]

I wouldn't have taken him back neither, so good on Jayco for standing their ground. Managers have to much influence over the riders and their main goal is to suck as much money from the riders/players as they can for their own benifit.

If the rider has real a valid mistreatment point with a Team, then yeah, they should be able to get out but this crap of "he's not happy there garbage" because they can't get their own way all the time is "not" grounds for breaking a contract. They sign on for X amount of dollars and I suppose bonuses for different things but their base salary/wage would be paid. Deal with the ups n downs and show some balls and do your job, just like every other person in a work place.

Foo

[g-boaf]

With the riding I've been doing, have really noticed that being too fat and older, that steep climbs are really friggin hard .

I hear you! Often I imagine how Mr Purple would feel if he was climbing Cootha while wearing a backpack with a 30kg dumbbell in it

When I first started riding, hills were very hard, I was very unfit. I wasn't always my current weight - it took a lot of riding and effort to get rid of that weight. It wasn't just a couple of rides a week, it was daily riding. Tuesday/Thursday nights were usually 80-100km, similar on Saturday and Sunday mornings, smaller rides on other days.

[stevenaaus]

Great line up of lightweight punchers should make for a good race. Good luck to Plapp.

Womens stage 1 was another fizzer..... Are they there to win or for a holiday ? Credit to the winner and QOM jersey wearer though.

[AUbicycles]

INEOS lost a lot of riders and there has been a fair amount of publicity on this. I can see them interested in high profile riders but need to create the conditions.

[MichaelB]

Well, did the final training run yesterday for the 'Epic Course' (the 85km one) from Crafers onwards, and twas a bit toasty ending up at 32 degrees in the end.

Thankfully, the forecast on Thursday is looking better with partly cloudy and 25-26 degrees.

Did a PB on Knotts Hill : 16:08 (AT) 9.9km/hr, 273W and a VAM of 736m/h.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the fitness spectrum, the Strava record is held by Mike Woods 6:25 (AT) 22.6km/hr, 446W and a VAM of 1,790m/h, which he did 3 days ago. He beat Steven Williams by 1 second, and even the ITP's sprinter, Corbin Strong did the climb in 6:26. Jay Vine is as slow as a wet week with 6:56 as his best time .....

Jeepers !!!!

[AUbicycles]

Good to see your getting close to Jay... I think the sea salt is helping.


Women's 3 day race looked good, good crowds. Would be nice if they had more stages but I also get it is easier to say than do and they are planning these against a host of factors. None the less - travel to Australia for a 3 day stage race, a classic and Cadel Evans race is a big ask - though does mean a lot of quality training time and good vibes for the riders and team staff.

In the men's crit, there was a terrible high speed crash into the barriers with a rider flying over the top and seriously injuring a spectator. Quite uncommon that riders would go over the top so was not something to anticipate.

[MichaelB]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DE9k7fKP ... 3b1430494f

Spectator view of Crit Crash.

Ouch

[MichaelB]

Bugger for van Baarle, as he's broken a collarbone as a result of a crash in the closing km

Hopefully heals quick and has a better rest of the season !

[foo on patrol]

DD will be happy with how Sam Welsford is going. Today however may have way to much hurt for him to retain the Ocre Jersey though.

It's funny not in a way but how there are so many of our Trackies that can make the crossover to the road and do well.

Foo

[stevenaaus]

^^^^ Yesterday's win was incredible.

I was getting excited about today's stage after lantern rouge talked it up in preview, but meh.... panned out how I expected it beforehand.

And imho a dangerous stage. Super fast narrow winding descent in leadup to a deciding climb. Hmmm.

It was exciting I guess. And of course that's how Australian roads can be. Plapp again opting for a safe ride, and he sure has lots of climbing competition. Wilungas going to be a smack down

[MichaelB]

It was a cracker of a stage, and a deserved win (though the new Movistar jersey is rubbish).

Anyway, yesterday, I rode the 85km loop of the 'Epic' ride, and thankfully it was much cooler than the weekend before, and below are my details from the ride

And apart from finishing, staying upright and no mechanicals, I managed to improve my PB up Knotts Hill by 10 seconds and snuck in under the 16 min mark to 15;58. Mind you, then Luke Plapp took back the Knotts Hill KOM from Mike Woods and lowered it from 6:25 to 6:09 (twice) at an average of 23.6km/hr vs my 10.0






Re the comment on the 'narrow twisting roads' and them being dangerous, well, that's local back roads all over Australia and no different to the many twists and turns in any race like the TdF, Giro etc or the wet cobbles in France/Belgium or even the bike paths used.

[MichaelB]

I wouldn't have taken him back neither, so good on Jayco for standing their ground. Managers have to much influence over the riders and their main goal is to suck as much money from the riders/players as they can for their own benifit.

If the rider has real a valid mistreatment point with a Team, then yeah, they should be able to get out but this crap of "he's not happy there garbage" because they can't get their own way all the time is "not" grounds for breaking a contract. They sign on for X amount of dollars and I suppose bonuses for different things but their base salary/wage would be paid. Deal with the ups n downs and show some balls and do your job, just like every other person in a work place.

Foo

Ewan on a 1 year contract with Ineos

https://www.ineosgrenadiers.com/news/ca ... renadiers/

[foo on patrol]

Yeah I saw that at stupid o'clock this morning.

There was nothing wrong with those roads for racing on yesterday as you say.

Foo

[stevenaaus]

I heard (today) LR on his podcast mention many teams had complained about that windy descent / ascent prior to stage 3.

... Geez it'd be good to see Caleb winning again. Good luck mate.