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.
