OK, so Evenepoel has decided to crush the small Spanish 1.1s, like UAE's almost-winner of the Tour of Italy was doing last year on Spanish and Italian 1.1s, depriving small World Teams and all Pro Teams of any chance to compete for the win.

I truly hope that the teams categories and the races categories will be reformed one day, so that most 1.1 are protected from most World Teams, and Pro Team and Conti riders have a chance to battle.

That's the only sport I know where, all year long (and not only during a Cup event), 2^nd^ and 3^rd^ division players/riders have to face the top of the 1^st^ division in every match/race. Just imagine that you are a second division French or even Austrian football club, and you have to play and get a beating by Madrid, Munich and Liverpool every bloody week, without a local championship to play where you face other clubs of your level and win every other week on average. This is nuts.

[–] Deschanel2017@lemmings.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Professional cyclists are a refreshing bunch: it is 2026, and after the previous 2 days, you can still find a few riders who relay Evenepoel! 😆

Another easy win for him, after getting angry at the motorbikes, getting angry at a Movistar rider, and probably getting angry off camera too. He pretty much won in the same way as yesterday: breaking away in a descent, and then growing the gap on the flat against 8 riders... As he hadn't dropped Rondel yet, he climbed the last climb faster than anyone too (yesterday he went easy on the last one as he reached it with a 2 minutes gap), dropping him as soon as a couple of hundred metres after the climb started, as Rondel was burned by simply staying in the Belgian's wheel on the flat.

Tomorrow, Evenepoel won't take part in the last Majorcan race tomorrow; unfortunately, it is for sprinters.

[–] EvilCartyen@feddit.dk 2 points 1 month ago

I find it so incredibly boring to see a phoenomen ride alone for 30+ kms. Give me a good sprint any day.