Competitive Cycling

[Nickslikk2112]

The Pog, The Pog, he's at it again. Again.

Stage 1 of the Tour de Suisse and already he's got two minutes on second place.

Took off with 70km to go and only Carapaz tried to go after him, then Roberto Bagioli was the only one to take after Carapaz. Pogi may as well use his unicycle for the rest of the tour.

[Nickslikk2112]

Also today:

Femke de Vries pipped Lauren Dickson in stage 1 of the Women's Tour de Suisse

Biniam Girmay won stage 1 of the Baloise Belgium Tour

Laurence Pithie won the opening stage of the Tour of Slovenia

Matteo Fiorin won stage 4 of the Giro Nexy Gen.

Stuff the World Cup, I'll enable the evil UCI instead of the EVIL FIFA

[dom]

Which is worse as an evil organisation?

[Nickslikk2112]

FIFA.

The UCI isn't in cahoots with Trump. It's somewhere in Switzerland...

[David L]

Which is worse as an evil organisation?

Well, FIFA is run by The Hood.

"Curse International Rescue!"

[Thenop]

FIFA.

The UCI isn't in cahoots with Trump. It's somewhere in Switzerland...

Next to UEFA HQ..

[dom]

I asked Deepseek and it agrees, its conclusion is as follows...


Ultimately, both organizations have been hugely problematic. But FIFA's scandals involved a level of global criminality that directly impacted the integrity of the world's biggest sporting event, arguably placing it in a category of its own

[Nickslikk2112]

Failure from Pogi today, came in 8th. Romain Grégoire took the stage win for the breakaway. Plucky Brit Finlay Pickering came in 5th.

In the women's Tour de Suisse Elisa Longo Borghini took the stage win and leader's jersey. Marlen Reusser and Kasia Nieuwiadoma managed to take a wrong turn near the end, not that it made a difference, but glad it happened to the big "I am" Nieuwiadoma.

[Nickslikk2112]

I asked Deepseek and it agrees, its conclusion is as follows...


Ultimately, both organizations have been hugely problematic. But FIFA's scandals involved a level of global criminality that directly impacted the integrity of the world's biggest sporting event, arguably placing it in a category of its own

You don't need AI for that. Or maybe I spend too much time reading random shit - the joys of retirement - but the UCI is a hot bed of low-level corruption, nit-picking and incompetemce, FIFA should just be spelt CORRUPT

[Nickslikk2112]

And in the rest of today's cycling, there's an awful lot at the end of this week, great for World Cup avoidance, then next week nothing. I'll be at a loose end.

Tim Merlier won the stage and took the lead in the Baloise Tour of Belgium

Thibau Gruel won the opening stage of the Route Occitanie

Dusan Rajovic won stage 2 of the Tour of Slovenia

Matisse Van Kerckhove won stage 5 of the Giro Next Gen and took the Maglia Rosa

[Nickslikk2112]

So far today;

Zoe Backstedt won the Tour de Suisse stage. Bad crash for second overall on GC Lauren Dickson, but luckily for her she was in the last 5km safety zone.

Laurence Pithie got his second stage win of the Tour of Slovenia.

Pogi's girlfriend broke her jaw in a crash yesterday. Thought he was looking a bit subdued in the stage and he shooed away photographers when he as on his phone warming down after the stage.

[Nickslikk2112]

Pictures were lost at the end of the Men's Tour de Suisse, so I missed seeing Jhonatan Narvaez hang on to win from the breakawy from Xandro Meurisse his breakaway partner.

MvdP who nobody had even seen in the Peleton got 4th.

[Nickslikk2112]

And further results today:

Ronan Augé took the win on the second stage of the Route Occitanie after Noa Isidore was relegated for elbowing. Surprised a French rider would get relegated in France but he was elbowing a French rider and it let a French rider win.

In the women's Volta a Catalunya Nienke Veenhoven took the win.

[Nickslikk2112]

And finally:

In the Baloise Belgium Tour Alex Aranbaru won the stage and took the GC lead, just denying plucky Brit Lewis Askey the same thing. Askey derserves it - losing - as he's come out as Scottish despite being born in the oh so English Cannock (All because he's a ginger...)

In the Giro Next Gen half man of steel Lorenzo Finn (his dad's from Sheffield) took the stage and race lead. Can we not get him to do a Max Sciandri and declare for GB?

[Nickslikk2112]

Marlen Reusser denied Zoe Backstedt a second successive stage win in the TT today. But then she is the World Champion, Zoe is the U23 world champion. Would have been nice if Megan Arens the junior World TT champion had come in third.

Florian Lipowitz won the stage to Kranjska Gora in Slovenia, thereby picking up the race lead. If he'd let Giulio Pelizzari win he would have been the leader.