NooraCycling

Man, he nearly gave me a heart attack with that negative split 😵‍💫
Great time in the end 🤩, best of the biggest GC favourites.

Great list 😁👍

Too flat ☹️😌

Primož is coming straight from altitude, like he often has done for PN/Tirreno. In the past he came from altitude in good form, let's see how it is this year 🤞🍀

Depends of his level of course. If he's still on good level I think he's likely team leader. But we'll see.

Red-Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team for Tirreno-Adriatico. Good luck to Roglič and team 🤞🤞🤞🍀🍀🍀🍀

Not here yet, we're still in full winter ❄️

Also Remco's interviews sounded like he was expecting more. But he hasn't been to altitude yet and is not in his ideal weight so it's kind of understandable (and has happened before in early season). I think the great start of the season maybe made them overestimate Remco's climbing shape.

Yes, I agree, early season is great. I don't understand why some people only start from Omloop. I also fear it will get pretty repetitive once the dominant riders start their season.

In my opinion February is a great month for watching cycling. Lot of races, but low stakes so not too much stress. And new narratives, who has progressed or bounced back, how do riders compare. No boredom to the same outcomes yet. Often more unpredictable than later on.

I'm not really surprised, it's only February after all. Remco on big climbs when not in top shape can be unpredictable.
Lipo was really consistent last year, but only started stage racing in March in PN.

Lipowitz was apparently sick in January (didn't do any other races in Mallorca after the TTT because of it). Maybe that affected his preparations a bit.

It's sometimes as bad in RR. Especially if there is a break they often miss key things in the GC group. Yesterday they missed the first attack by Ayoso and showed random riders dropping for ages instead 🙃

And following a rider, just showing them riding along does not actually tell anything. It's the intermediate and finish line when you get new information and can built the narrative. And a good director can skip the 'less interesting' riders. In some races they do it well, I don't know why it's hard

Not a very good production overall. Lile how hard is it to put a camera to the intermediate timing and show 15-20 s of footage of everyone crossing it? Annoying when you have to follow a live ticker too to be up to date.
And funny that they totally missed Lipo 😅

Apparently there are several disciplines in ski mountaneering, some of them quite long (1.5 h). But the olympics only have the sprint and mixed relay. Maybe they will add more in the future?

Mt finishes are of course great, but I love hilly TTs too, they can be fun to watch. I've watched the Olympic ITT from Tokyo sooo many times 🤩. That was actually the day I first started becoming a Roglič fan (I was just getting back to watching cycling after several years of not watching).

For me that was similar, 'oh yeah he's back' vibe, his first win at Bora.
And the first win at the Vuelta that year was also similar, not knowing his level after injury and then him just coming to the front, dropping rivals on the last climb🥹

For me a similar favourite (not top five but higher than on most peoples list) was Itzulia 2024 ITT win, which we didn't even get to see since he rode before the broadcast started. But I remember refreshing the live ticker worried and being so happy when he beat Remco, Jonas and the rest 😅

I also find that whether I like the riders (or their teams) winning/in vontention really affacts how I feel about the race. I guess that's just natural 😅

This is the type of long range attack I can get behind, exciting until the end 😁 (and not by the dominant rider/team)

I think Remco should be coming to Teide after UAE Tour. Maybe they will even share an apartment there, according to some news. Hopefully they can help get each other into top shape 🤞🍀

📸 from instagram by Ajona Diaz (@ ajonadiaz) and Primož Roglič

Primož Roglič at altitude training camp on Teide 🌋 preparing for his first race of the season at Tirreno-Adriatico
#roglic

A girl can dream 😉
(I actually think Remco will most likely win, but this is quite different to Mallorca and Valencia)

Or both 😁

Taiteilijaelämää YouTube video by Ismo Alanko - Topic

But at least Ismo Alanko is a cool dude (real bohemian artist/singer-songwriter with songs about substance abuse etc., although now he is old and less chaotic)
youtu.be/btmBgm-hR7I?...

Apparently it's a Finnish variant of a Hebrew name Ismael (per wikipedia)

Ismo is actually a Finnish name (boys name) 😁
There is for example a Finnish singer named Ismo Alanko