Lennert Van Eetvelt may still be young and learning his trade as a professional cyclist – but surely he knows by now that you never count your chickens, or raise your arms too early, when sprinting against Primož Roglič of all people on a mountain-top finish.
The 23-year-old Belgian, however, let youthful exuberance get the better of him within sight of the line on Pico Villuercas when, at the end of a blistering sprint 200m-long sprint, he lifted one hand off the bars to celebrate what would have been the biggest win of his short and impressive career so far – only for the wily old fox Roglič, a master of summit sprinting, to slip by on the outside.
That’s got to sting.
The naivety of Van Eetvelt’s finish-line faux-pas – adding his name to cycling’s illustrious list of premature celebrators – ironically came after the Lotto-Dstny rider produced a remarkably mature, composed ride on the savage 20 per cent slopes of the Pico Villuercas, the first GC rendezvous of this year’s Vuelta.
> Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory — when cycling celebrations go wrong
After Roglič’s Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team controlled the peloton in the almost 40-degree heat of central Spain for much of the day, the Vuelta as predicted blew apart in the final, concrete-surfaced six kilometres of the Pico Villuercas.
While three-time Vuelta winner Roglič – something of an unknown quantity at this year’s race following another injury-stricken Tour de France – was quick to assert his authority as the bunch veered onto the steep, grippy road, it was Decathlon AG2R’s spindly Austrian climber Felix Gall who exploded the race to bits with a strong, sustained acceleration.
By the time the race turned left and onto much more reasonable, but still pretty steep, tarmac, only Gall, Roglič, and Van Eetvelt remained. A brief period of reflection following the torment saw Enric Mas, Matthew Riccitello (another promising young climber in the midst of a breakthrough season), and João Almeida regain contact, while Mikel Landa would latch on in the final kilometre.
The rest were scattered down the mountain – Antonio Tiberi the best of the rest at 18 seconds, defending champion Sepp Kuss at 28, Adam Yates all the way back at 1.29.
In the final 500m, a touch of Landismo by Soudal Quick-Step’s mercurial climber lit the blue touch paper.
Van Eetvelt – already a summit finish conqueror at the UAE Tour this year – didn’t hesitate, nor did Roglič. On the approach to the finish, curiously located right on a bend, the Belgian smartly took the inside line. He then, not so smartly, couldn’t contain his glee for the last 10m, as the latest example of Roglificiation ensued in the most cruel way yet.
“I don’t know what to say,” Eurosport pundit and Roglič’s former Visma teammate Nathan Van Hooydonck said after the finish about Van Eetvelt’s grand tour stage-denying mistake.
“He’s such a young, talented rider, and he raised his arm and thought, ‘oh no, I still have to throw my bike!’ It’s a rookie mistake – and not so smart. You always have to sprint to the finish line.”
‘Drat!’
Not that Roglič, who moves into the red leader’s jersey, will complain about his young rival’s case of overexuberance.
“The team worked harder than myself. Winning wasn’t the main objective of today, but when you see the guys working hard in this heat, I’m happy to finish it off,” the typically nonchalant Slovenian said after Vuelta stage win No. 13 of his career.
However, when asked if he went into the stage confident in his abilities, following the back injury that scuppered his Tour de France, and therefore ordered his Red Bull-Bora team to the front, a clearly bemused Roglič said: “No, not really – nobody asked me! If they asked me, I wouldn’t say for them to go so hard and control it for the victory, but I had no option.”
For poor Lennert Van Eetvelt, it seems Roglič had no choice but to mug the prematurely celebrating Belgian at the line, too.
Don’t worry Lenny, judging by your ride today, I’m sure your time will come at this Vuelta.
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Sean Kelly's turn to emulate Kirby on Quest's Eurosport highlights tonight: "for the moment" and "at the moment" four times in one long sentence over the course of 11seconds! 👀
Eurosport (IMO) seem to go all out to give us the most irritating lead commentators they can. Carlton Kirby's inane drivel really gets on my nerves, along with his 'sucking in saliva' sound and regular use of the word 'indeed' which is indeed redundant more or less every time he indeed uses it. In the 20 or so minutes of highlights on Quest, I counted seven instances of 'indeed', including twice in one sentence, three seconds apart. 🙄
I wonder when we can expect Quest to fail to show the highlights on schedule for a second time this Vuelta, seeing as they have form for repeating the cock-up more than once in one Grand Tour.
Is Djokovic riding an e-bike in that video?
Definitely, it's a Focus, can't quite see the model but the size of the bottom bracket and downtube and the control unit on the left-hand side of the handlebars are a giveaway.
We really need Road.cc to tell us whether things are Ireland, UK etc.
This RSA Safety High Blood Pressure Episode was a touch unnecessary for those of us not over there!
Eager for my points, is it Meatloaf, Out Of The Frying Pan? Luckily its not in my head at all...
I wonder what I can spend my points on?!?
Cycling UK “thrilled” by Transport Secretary Louise Haigh’s commitment to investing “unprecedented levels of funding” in cycling.
The Guardian article highlights that "Transport in Britain is devolved."
In Scotland, it's projected that "10% of the total transport budget will be allocated to active travel by 2024-25." However, it remains unclear if Labour will match this commitment in England, or offer only nebulous promises like “unprecedented levels of funding.”
It's also commendable to see Scotland's infrastructure, including Glasgow and Edinburgh, showcased in an bit really about England in both images here, but the coverage seems to omit the active travel initiatives under the old SNP/Greens collaboration for comparision.
For a more detailed look at the parties' promises for cycling and active travel, you might find older articles & analysis in road.cc insightful. Additionally, the more commited & ambitious plans for active travel in Scotland, from these articles, I think is aiming to spend nearly £60 per person per year. Let's have Labour match or beat that pl in England.
No. They say, 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating'.
I have never found documentary evidence in my apple crumble.
Must bake harder.
...and the fortune cookies tasted a bit ... papery also.
I've found wisdom, music* and sartorial advice*, but never proof.
(* pudding on my top hat)
The 84% proof is in the pudding.
[Edit - got my proof and ABV mixed up]
Could be a heavily laced Christmas pudding?
The proof is the yeast, which is why baked things "prove".
So the proof *is* in the pudding.
A real pedant writes: the phrase is first recorded in the 17th century (though probably much older) and referred to a sausage (as in black pudding et cetera), so proof in that context meant test or evidence.
Plausible, but this conjecture has a certain measure of rusk... you may look for your evidence there but find "not a sausage".
I feel the jury will be swayed by the "smoking bun" indicated by mattw or intoxicated by mdavidford's heady concoction.
Your confection of supposition will surely crumble when properly digested by the jury.
That's just the way the pudding crumbles, as they say...
The cinnamon level needs to be right and rolled oats in the crumble.
Whose idea was that '3D' Vuelta profile chart (with red on, er, a slightly different red)? Terrible design.
Yeah, until I saw the graph below it, I was looking for a key to interpret the two colors. Like one red was some other year's stage, or something.
The "3D" effect adds nothing even if done properly.
Victim blaming is deep in RSA's DNA. They are best known for years of campaigning for hiviz for *pedestrians* to keep them "safe". And then distributing warehouses of hiviz out to schools and others for free - €800,000 of it per annum (with some questions about how the procurement contracts are awarded *cough*). The Hiviz campaign is probably their largest activity (after excluding NCTs, which is contracted out, and driver licensing).
https://irishcycle.com/2022/03/08/rsa-questioned-on-spending-nearly-e1m-...
The same RSA also revealead to the PAC that it had _no_ actual road safety engineers on staff:
https://www.thejournal.ie/road-safety-public-accounts-6420316-Jun2024/
Absolute joke of an agency.
That Ireland Road Safety Authority thing is f-ing horrendous![surprise surprise](/sites/all/themes/rcc/images/smilies/14.gif)
It says 'footpaths', but I guess this probably means bridleways at risk too?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1k3719g0p4o
Sounds good - I'd watch that.
Oh. Well that's disappointing - I was envisaging something more like this.
Paging HP...
Unicycle tennis
That seems a bit contrived - the non unicycle player was hitting the ball towards the unicycle mounted one. I can envisage problems with trying to move quickly from one side of the court to the other as you'd build momentum and then be having to go the other direction. Team sports are more practical for unicycle mounted players.
On the plus side, his outfit is clearly a tribute to Timmy Mallett, so it's all good!
Guardian - Labour investment in cycling and walking will be unprecedented, says Louise Haigh
She's saying all the right things, I'm feeling cautiously optimistic for the first time in years.
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