I LOVE THIS RACE. Simac Women Tour is the brand new title!

Screw Tre Valli Varesine! Simac Women Tour’s the place it’s at!

We at the moment are onto stage 3, which appears to be like like this (adopted by the profiles for stage 4-6). Maintain onto your hats becasue we’re going beneath sea degree:

Maybe some wind may make this spicy? Please? At t he second Zoe Backstedt is main the GC battle by seven seconds however it’s a must to assume a sprinter will overtake her primarily based on bonus seconds on the end. Wiebes received stage 2. And there’s varied different sprinters right here.

Stage 4: With luck I might recover from these hills. Not with this peloton in fact.

Stage 5 options what I believe is the steepest grade of the race nevertheless it doesn’t determine into the KOM comp. That’s simply improper.

And stage 6 is gonna decide the winner of the KOM competitors. And the GC winner too.

I like Wiebe for the GC.

Sure, I do know I mentioned I really like the ending of Emilia greater than life itself however for a whole at some point race I simply love the route of Tre Valli Varesine. Its selective however not overly so. Sure, sprinters needn’t apply and in addition in case you are a rider or DS that’s winding down from a protracted season you’re gonna get stomped right here. Which I like very a lot. But when your skillset is wherever from puncheur to climbing hellion and you might be in kind, you bought an actual likelihood right here.

It is also not as loopy arduous as Lombardy so the checklist of riders who’ve an actual likelihood is longer than ordinary. Final yr Ilan Van Wilder received (and he’s again to defend). In 2022 it was Pog. Going again a number of years we obtained

• 2021 Alessandro De Marchi
• 2020 (race cancelled for some purpose)
• 2019 Primoz Roglic
• 2018 Toms Skuijns in a small bunch dash with Pinot, Kennaugh, Woods, Frank, and Kelderman
• 2017 Alexandre Geniez, additionally in a small bunch spring with Pinot, Nibali, and Ulissi

See? Good assortment of Grand Tour riders, “domestiques”, and hilly basic specialists. Pog can clearly win it but additionally Benoot.

What in regards to the girls you ask? Right here’s the final two winners (the primary girls’s race was extra of an area affair):

• 2023 Liane Lipert
• 2022 Eliza Longo Borghini

So, typically like in Monument races, we see a solo winner/survivor however small bunch sprints are positively on the desk. The race isn’t overly lengthy, 136.3km for the ladies, and 200.33km for the boys which serves to make the race intense with the result not determined till the very finish. (Disclaimer: except you might be Pog this yr)

So who’s using this yr?

Males: Pog, Remco, and Roglic, Gaudu, Vlasov, and Cattaneo. Benoot, Kelderman, and Mas. Ulissi, Ayuso, and Piganzoli. Arensman, Pidcock, and Proper Yates. Poels, Buitrago, and Gregoire. Vine, Vermaerke, and Jorgenson. And Bardet, Majka, and Pozzovivo for us previous individuals. One enjoyable factor is Hirschi is NOT on this race. Loopy.

Ladies: it is a .Professional race and there’s a WWT stage race occurring. Nonetheless: Brown, Muzic, Lippert, Kraak, Garcia, Labous, Gasparrini and many others.

What in regards to the course? That is one more north of Milan race, mainly just a little to the west of yesterday’s Bernocchi course. It even begins within the city simply to the northwest of the place bernocchi began and like Bernocchi travels north. In contrast to Bernocchi nevertheless it goes a bit additional north to Varese and stays there for a bunch of loops round and outdoors of city. It is a prettier race throughout with the stunning hills and Lake Varese. And people beautiful hills make all of the distinction:

That’s ten occasions the races passes the end line and in any other case is continually going up and down. A lot of the race follows a decent 15k m circuit-until after the eighth time across the race veers off to twice occurring an extended 30km circuit, which options two very quick partitions, earlier than ending.

The ladies’s course is identical besides it doesn’t have the 2 ending longer circuits:

So who’s gonna win?

For the ladies, Jens likes (which as everyone knows means curses) Grace Brown

For the boys, do you actually need me to choose somebody apart from Pog? Okay Pogacar. Hmm. My keyboard retains writing Pogacar. Should be damaged. Let me strive writing an Ineos title…P O G A C A R. Sorry can’t enable you to out right here.

One factor from Bernocchi that was fascinating was Remco attacking from 80km out. Didn’t work in fact as he needed to do a Pog and go solo and different riders might sustain with him on that light course however at the very least he’s conscious that Pog will go from a protracted methods out. Hey! I’m searching for one thing, something right here. How about Roger Adria? Man’s in good kind.