Congratulations to Ineos rider the 19 year old Magnus Sheffield of the USA on his second win of the year, this one the Brabantse Pijl, a major Belgian Spring classic race, as he rode away while Ineos colleagues covered the attack! Masterful team tactics, but he was in the right place at the right time and rode away with it.
With Neilsen Powless' victory last year at Clasica de San Sebastian, and Quinn Simmons' potential (limited this Spring due to illness), the USA has a really great, strong group of young riders, finally recovering from the Lance Armstrong debacle. Add them to Brandon McNulty, who made a very good showing at last year's Olympic road race, and I don't think World Tour domestique Lawson Craddock is going to be riding the 2024 Olympic road race in Paris.
The Ineos Grenadiers have had a great month, with overall victory at the Basque Country 1-week stage race by Daniel Martinez (as well as 2 stage victories, one by Martinez and the other by Carlos Rodriguez), Sheffield's win, and the victory of Michael Kwiatkowski at Amstel Gold. At Basque Country, they beat Roglic, and at Amstel Gold they beat Pogacar, the two Slovenian riders who have consistently dominated them over the past year or two. If Adam Yates, Richard Carapaz, Egan Bernal, Richie Porte, Tom Pidcock, Teo Geoghegan Hart, Geraint Thomas, Ethan Hayter, and others start to win races.
Postscript -- Ineos has done it again, winning Paris-Roubaix. But it was none of the stars or up-and-comers I named above, it was Dylan van Baarle, who got second recently at the Tour of Flanders, and last year was second at the World's Road Race, as well as winning Dwars door Vlaanderen, another Belgian classic. And as with Sheffield at Brabantse Pijl, the team tactics leading up to the final portion of the race put him in a great position. Amazing to have a team where cyclists like van Baarle and Kwiatkowski, and now even Tour winner Geraint Thomas, usually serve as domestiques.
MOB's reaction to the Paris-Roubaix victory:
ReplyDeleteTotal inspiriert von Paris-Roubaix setzte ich mich auf ein Gravelrad und fühlte ich wie Dylan van Baarle. Nach zwei Stunde Fühlte ich mich wieder wie ich.
Or in English:
Totally inspired by Paris-Roubaix, I sat on a gravel bike and felt like Dylan van Baarle. After two hours I felt like me again.
Ineos' strong Spring has fizzled a bit with the Giro d'Italia. True, Richard Carapaz did get second place, but that does not look like a success. He was in the lead most of the final week until he had a big fade on the final climb of stage 20, not able to match Jai Hindley (Australian; Bora Hansgrohe) on the very steep last 3-4 kms of the last climb to a mountain top finish. Hindley had trailed Carapaz by only 3 seconds, and ended the stage leading him by something close to 90 seconds ... a lead that he maintained in the final time trial in Verona. Second place is not too shabby, but if you are the Olympic RR champion, you won the Giro in 2019, and were ahead going into stage 20 (similar to the way Primoz Roglic has beaten him at the Vuelta on a late mountain top stage), this is not a success. Also, 29 yr old Carapaz' contract is up at the end of the year. Ineos will look very different next year.
ReplyDeleteIn the Tour of Norway, Ineos got 3rd, 5th, and 6th places (Plapp age 21, Hart age 27, Sheffield age 19, and Hayter age 23). Tao Hart actually won the "Covid version" of the Giro d'Italia, in 2020, but is in a domestique role. Plapp, Sheffield, and Hayter, all have potential. But as a team they could not compete with Remco Evenepoel.
One more young US rider to watch: Sean Quinn of EF Education.
ReplyDeleteHe just got 3rd in the first stage of the Dauphiné, racing a field that included many of the best riders in the world. Wout van Aert and Ethan Hayter just beat him in a sprint at the end of a very challenging hilly 190km stage. That might have gotten him a slot on EF Education's Tour de France team?
https://www.efprocycling.com/our-team/sean-quinn/
Add to the list 22 yr old Californian Matteo Jorgensen who rides for Team Movistar, now in fifth place GC after 3 stages of the Dauphiné. He was 8th in the GC last year at Paris-Nice at age 21.
ReplyDeleteAmerican riders are off to a fast start in 2023. Neilsen Powless just one a 5 day stage race, the Etoile de Besseges, by a single second, over a strong field. He won a one day race earlier in January. Magnus Sheffield took 4th place and the young riders’ Jersey at the Tour down Under, despite crashes on the early stages, stitches at his knee, and controversy with another rider. He ended up leading Eneos over G Thomas and E Hayter, who had been expected to outperform. Brandon McNulty, after 2 crash/dnfs in Mallorca, has had a number of top ten finishes at a stage race the Volta Comunitat Valencia, ending up in 8th overall and 2nd among young riders.
ReplyDeleteone -> won!
ReplyDelete... and Matteo Jorgensen of the USA/Team Movistar has won the Tour of Oman, a 5-day stage race. He prevailed by one second, after a victory in Stage 3 by riding away from the field at the top of the final climb to get the stage win and overall lead, and holding on through stages 4 and 5.
ReplyDeleteSo Neilsen Powless, Magnus Sheffield, Matteo Jorgensen, Brandon McNulty, Quinn Simmons, and Sean Quinn are all U.S. riders to watch in 2023.
Lance Armstrong, Tyler Hamilton, Floyd Landis, George Hincapie ... are all fading as dots in the rearview mirror.
Add to that list ... Sepp Kuss (such a fixture I forgot to include him), Larry Warbasse (AG2R), and youngster Matthew Riccitello (Israel Premiertech) who just did the Giro and finished just outside the top ten in the final mountain time trial. ... very talented and very young climber.
ReplyDelete