people complained about the french teams being grouped together last season lol. this is a sad state of affairs great french riders are held back by these 🐕💩 french teams
@@guppsterguppsteryeah the cycling Dane covered it but they’re podcast quality is so booty cheeks. The guy looks like he’s been hibernating for the past 10 years and their camera and voice quality sounds like a microwave
B Cosnefroy was sick at critical times during his season. With more luck he will reiterate good results in Ardennes for instance - because he likes these races and wants to perform there.
Pollefliet is a really good signing! I rode some races with him in junior categories and he has a really strong sprint. He was competing a lot with Arnaud De Lie in these races.
This team are dangerously close to doing a classic Movistar and forgetting that the UCI award points for sprints too. A look at 2023 UCI points : Sarreau + Venturini = 147 + 539. Pollefliet + Bennett = 160 + 315. Most of Venturini's points were 5th places at the likes of Boucles de l'Aulne - Châteaulin (?!). Sam wasn't good last year, but I have to think he can bounce back and podium/win some Coupe de France races and the team can farm UCI points that way (although Arkea will be going hard for that too). They need to. It's a weird team - in Gall, Lafay and O’Connor, they have some top class puncheurs/climbers who can win a TdF stage. And maybe Benoit if he's on a good day. They have some serious quality, just all in the one area.
Here's a suggestion just for promotional purposes for AG2R. For reach race expected to end in a bunch sprint, all the riders on the team can do "rock, paper, scissors" before the race/stage begins and, of course, whoever loses first gets to be last man, losing second gets you second-man, etc.
Re: smaller teams winning WT stages in 1 week races from breaks. I believe Zimmermann in the Dauphine was the first time it happened this year? June. David De La Cruz having a go at Pogacar on the last stage of Paris-Nice spoke volumes.
As per your early discussion, I have always found it curious when non-consumer brands sponsor sports teams. Like, such a small proportion of people you are reaching are even able to buy anything from some of the companies, and why would those who are in the market for a payroll software package are basing their selection on how well Wout Van Aert rides a bike?
You have to remember that a company like Visma delivers an affordable and very much needed service to companies comprised of as little as one person and up -- that is a huge market on a European scale.
DeBondt said in an interview he wants to go for his own chances in the Belgium semi-classics like Dwars door Vlaanderen and other Chat-GPT specials and not be a helper for Van der Poel and Philipsen and that's why he chose Decathlon-AG2R. So he didn't go there because they offered him a boatload of cash.
On other unrelated topics: what’s going on with Migel Angel Lopez’s suspension? There’s a report he had out of competition testing while on a family vacation at Disney World, despite being suspended! Is there a chance the ITA evidence might not be as strong as they hoped?
This is actually an interesting team with good components. The team management and culture are probably not the best. They should get better results next year.
I'd bet 100€ Lafay is not going to do anything ever again, and Benett will be long drawn out underwhelment. This feels like Naesen / GVA type signings again.
