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EvilCartyen@lemmy.world

Deschanel2017@lemmings.world

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Deschanel2027@sh.itjust.works

2026 Minor Races Thread (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 month ago by EvilCartyen@lemmy.world to c/procycling@lemmy.world

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Ok, so we're not going to create a race thread for ALL races this year, especially since we're only about 10 people reading here :)

This thread is available for you to write about all the races which don't have a race thread.

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[–] Deschanel2017@lemmings.world 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

Le Samyn (Tuesday 3/3/2026)

It appears that Van Aert (🇧🇪 Visma) would finally start his season there, just a couple of days before going to the Strade Bianche.

It looks like he will be the only 'big name' on the race (or do we count Groves (🇦🇺 Alpecin) or Kubish (🇸🇰 Unibet) as big names?), but former winners Rex (🇧🇪 Soudal-QS) and Hofstetter (🇫🇷 NSN) should be present in the large peloton: 25 teams including 9 WT for a 1.1!

Official site (in French)

PCS page

[–] Deschanel2027@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

It appears that Van Aert (🇧🇪 Visma) would finally start his season there

Yeah, well, kinda.

He got a puncture 10 km from the line. He and a teammate dropped from the peloton waiting for their car. Except that the cars weren't behind the peloton. So they switched bikes, but as they didn't do it by stopping right behind the bunch, but dawdled for a long while, they were far behind the peloton when they finally stopped and switched... And then he stopped again to get his second bike from the car... So he never came back...

Next stop for him is Strade Bianche on Saturday. That should mean even more punctures, with his luck 😃

I didn't follow very accurately the race. I know that Hagenes (🇳🇴 Visma) stayed ahead of the peloton for around 30 km, never getting much gap, but still he wasn't caught up the last km. Cofidis accelerated on the last (?) cobbled section, they didn't quite break away but there was a split somewhere behind; unfortunately they stopped when they saw there were other riders in their backwheel, and so did those other riders, so that group was very soon caught up by the rest of the peloton; it could have been something, but no, a mass sprint finish was written.

[–] CarstenBoll@feddit.dk 2 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Do we know if Groves is ok after crashing on sunday? I also wonder if Decathlon considers adding Tobias Lund to the start list, he's clearly in great shape.

[–] Deschanel2027@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago

No Laporte (🇫🇷 Visma) today. Visma seems to specialise in illnesses.

[–] Deschanel2017@lemmings.world 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Do we know if Groves is ok after crashing on sunday?

Oh, I didn't know he was part of the crashes. I watched a bit of Kuurne-Bruxelles-K last night, but it may have happened earlier than the parts I watched.

At this time of the day, he hasn't been pulled off start lists yet.

edit: Are you positive he crashed? The only written bits I could find seem to lean toward the hypotheses that he didn't have the legs and just disappeared as Girmay did.