Afternoon Post Giro Criterium in France 2025

[Gipfelstuermer]

Rest day 2. Time to post some thoughts on this edition.

GC: Luna dominating GC to an extent that the Donkey considers hunting stages (normal) and polka dot (uffff) is worrysome. And the other climbers never even really entered the GC game? That's actually a bit unfortunate, because more active riding from could them have challenged the Alpacas a bit more. Luna has strength in numbers, but some collaboration from other climbers could have worked on mountain stages. Be active in sending relais (even if not used in the end it challenges Alpacas). Be active in attacking (that's the hard part of course) and hope for followers etc. I mean, what can you lose? On the other hand, the route really plays into Alpacas cards, not because of the TT kilometers (pretty average for a TDF), but because of the line-up of mountain stages. The Col de Loze / La Plagne stages are the only two subsequent mountain stages, so Alpacas can almost always fire away with the whole team. If there were 3 hard stages in a row, he'd have to be a bit more careful with energy. Like this seems pretty difficult to challenge him in a serious way.

Stages: FL dominating both mass sprints and hilly stages is worrysome, too. Or should I say 'was' worrysome? It has faded a bit towards the end of week 2 and week 3 is also not 100% suited for him, although another 2 stage wins does not seem impossible. But ok, by now 8/14 teams have won a stage. SWP, Moja, Enneagon, Schappy, CreditPommes and Liberty missing. Hope some of them will still make it. But otherwise, hey, at least I won't be the only one with a stageless afternoon Grand Tour in 2025!

Gip performance: Much better than during the Giro. Well, the bar was set very low... but 2 stage wins is really more than expected in this field with 14 active teams. Well, more or less active, but at least all all 14 click 'refresh' a lot !! Financially, we are even #1 currently, not bad for a chronically bankrupt team like ours. But it will change at the end of course, especially as we have noone in GC and both polka dot and team classification seem out of reach despite a few successful escapes. The whole GC situation though makes me want to have a climber for next year. With some luck, I could get a 86-60-79 and a guy like that would be fun here... but two problems remain: 1) Don't have the money. Well, would have the money, but the Salary would destroy the whole team-build and 2) You really can't miss a stage if you seriously try for GC. Can't guarantee that at all for 2026. So we'll remain the 'climber team without climbers' !

[Falcor CC]

Thank you Gip for that lay-out I will shamelessly plagiarize for our thoughts on the edition:

GC: Really not much to do against this 2016 team Sky - I mean Alpacas. A well oiled machine that seems to even scare the Donkey out of attacking. Yesterday he tried on the classics stage, but with Luna in his wheel I guess the chasers behind were chasing Lachance more than they were chasing Luna, since she's uncatchable anyways. Zuk training to 86 is bad news for the Donkey too, since now he isn't the only one with 86MO guys anymore! Lachance early form might be struggling against Zuk and the 85's with later form, and even his own teammate Dixon! Fürst still clinging on to 2nd, but looks like he also had early form and will get a cold when Oper and Redrocks leave him behind in week 3! Since p1 is gone, an overview into the p2-3 podium candidates:
-Fürst: currently p2 with a significant gap to 4th place, but even then it seems like it'll be a long third week for him.
-Lachance: Actually in pole position for p2. Maybe peaked too early?
-Minenko: Looks like early week 3 form and my actual bet for p2 in the end. A Luna-Minenko-Lachance podium sounds believeable at this point. However there is one more big challenger:
-Oper: masked by the team tactics, where even the Donkey was convinced Redrocks was our actual leader... Going into week 3, Oper and Minenko seem to be the big challengers coming from behind for podium.
Then there's some outsiders:
Panahi, great tdf at only 23, looks like early form but who cares? He's awesome!
Redrocks, if he trained to 85 earlier he would have been leader, now only co-leader trying to hold onto his top 10.
Villaverde, no clue about form. Hope Enneagon stays until the end.
Caradhras helper, guess he will drop out of top 10.
Gerdes good, young, but probably a little light for the hard last week
Dixon & Zuk might jump into top 5 from outside the top 10 in week 3... Depends on how much Donkey wants to push Lachance's chances (pun intended) and how early Zuk's form was. The low TT-low reg combo seems to have cost her for a second GT in a row now

Stages: FL dominating so boring. At least Team RestOfTheField has more wins now. Gip at 2, Alpacas at 1.5, 5 more teams with 1 win. Last week stages seems like it'll be between the same teams that already took 1 + SWP and Schappy for sure. Moja, CP, Enneagon and Libby will need to come up with a crazy plan to take a stage!

Falcor performance: overall way better than it looks. Third in prize money, but only 10th in profit. Kozo with some p2's and p3's behind a dominant Alex, though Kozo may have been robbed of a win due to a sprint bug on the day where the form difference was the biggest in his favor... Took us until the last stage of week 2 to win a stage, which was probably one of the stages where I least expected it. 70MO Jensen got siebed early, guess Wolf would have had the same fate if he weren't in the break. Never expected to beat Kopmann in the sprint, thought he had at least 150 energy more than Wolf (who started the stage under reg and rode/helped during the stage), but apparently not... Oper p5, Redrocks p7 and a double top 10 seems realistic at this point, Oper can even push for podium! Him training to an 85 at 30 last month sure helped, and Redrocks training to 85 yesterday was a gift from God before these hard mountains that are coming up!

[drei.zehn]

…and Redrocks training to 85 yesterday was a gift from God before these hard mountains that are coming up!

Leave God out of the Falcor performance! This man has suffered enough!

[Let's Go]

It's rumoured that Falcor CC team is making Oper lose time on stages he shouldn't to prioritise Redrocks. This seems to be generating a lot of tension between the two riders as Oper is starting to blame the manager and Redrocks from not being closer to the podium! We would like the manager to address this claims.

[drei.zehn]

It's rumoured that Falcor CC team is making Oper lose time on stages he shouldn't to prioritise Redrocks. This seems to be generating a lot of tension between the two riders as Oper is starting to blame the manager and Redrocks from not being closer to the podium! We would like the manager to address this claims.

Due to intern sources this can be confirmed!

[Falcor CC]

At this moment, Falcor CC does not want to make a statement about the rumour leaked to the press that Redrocks and Oper are not getting along because they both think they should be the GC leader. The team would like to reassure their fans that we're doing everything within our power to achieve the best possible result, whether that is with Enno, Mike or both.

[Falcor CC]

The team would like to add that claims by small teams like Dreizehn are not taken serious!

[schappy]

Zuk, with a big friendship to Redrocks since the Giro (they trained together a lot too), says to the reporters on the Rest Day, it is very clear to see, Michael is the real and only leader in this Falcor Team, This Oper maybe can sing better, but not riding a Bike.

[Robyklebt]

Stage 15: Ideal GC stage. After the 3 Pyrenees days, where Alpacas with his 3+3 lineup is virtually unbeatable, unless he gets me as a sitter of course, the middle mountain stage seemed the best chance. Of the whole Tour. So the rough plan was clear from early on, see the the teams inscribed, see the lineups, ok, stage 15 it is for the big GC attack

And it all worked perfectly, well almost all, one small detail. Luna with Lachance...
The rest? Worked better than these things ever work.
-Alpacas seemed to ride his 3 classics under reg on stage 14. Stage 15 then IMO confirmed that he did.
-Big early group, 2 teams with 3 riders. Perfect, can keep both of my guys fit.
-After a while in the back somebody, CC, starts to control, keeping it around 8' Ideal. With 20' I'd never get the waiting right.
-2nd hill, sieb, Lüthi as expected in front of the Alpacas-classics. Alpacas doesn't even react fast, ride with Galatis to come back, might work due to Lüthi's flat weakeness. Or not even with his last classic, it was Moja with Klein or something like that who rode. So advantage much bigger than it should be. Into the last climb with almost 30" advantage.
- First attack, Luna follows, as expected.
-Second attack the next km, Luna doesn't follow. As hoped. He took following off? Was surprised it was off it seems, but turned out to be the correct decision. Second attack for slightly weaker followers is often the problem, not the first one.
-Third km. He's back. Dammit, after km 2 I was already celebrating. Got him, now he's in trouble.

If he hadn't come back.. Alpacas would have been in big trouble. Ok, lots of teams in the back with reason to chase? Not really. Lots of teams in the back with reason to profit from the situation, where Alpacas forgot to put on his underpants and now is standing naked in the street. FL for yellow, SWP has Karafiat with Lachance (and had no interest to drop him of course) plus Minenko for GC in the back, attack for Minenko. A bit more difficult for Falcor, Wolf in the escape but Oper-REdrocks not sure to follow possible attacks my FL etc. Of course tempo by some, all of them in the peloton, for later attacks could have happened too, but The most sensible thing really would have been: Full on attack for Fürst-Minenko-etc etc. Run behind the Donkey, with Luna and Dixon the 2 guys most unlikely to be able to follow anything, having already used energy.
And if others go, Alpacas can lose lots of time. His classics were 3' back in the end... go early enough, Fürst can even take yellow. Lachance be fairly close.
But well, Luna came back, and that was it. For me.
For others of course the door now was wide open. Alpacas still naked. So the Donkey first kept riding with Roy as long as possible, give me time to think what to do. Do I ride for Alpacas (and Lachance and his podium chances) or do I do the maybe right thing, and admit defeat, let Alpacas and FL/SWP and co fight it out? In the end decided to close the door. (After all I was the one that opened it as well). Lanfredini joins the chase against Minenko. I'm not completely happy about it, but well, with others that will ride after escapes to gain 2 places in a sprint (best for my team) yeah, ok, I now ride to protect my worthless temporary 3rd place on the podium. Otherwise quite a bit could still have happened, probably not enough anymore to really risk losing yellow for Alpacas, (that wasn't a given if my attack works, the longer in the back groups don't go, the less in trouble Alpacas would be)

Anyway, everything worked, except the dropping Luna part, too bad, but well, was clearly the best chance to attack Luna until now at least, tried, failed. Don't think there's really another stage tht is as inviting for anti-Alpacas stuff, but let's see if there's a sudden opening at some point.

[team fl]

Team FL currently in vacation mode again, hence not much action in this thread. Anyway, stage 17 was the last chance for the sprinters, but they missed it by 1 sec after a huge late attack initiated by Team-Mojabahs. But they real fight starts today with stage 18 and 2 consecutive hard stages, followed by a hilly stage, followed by the last stage to Paris with hilly pavé. Ufff... Good news for Team FL though despite missing the 7th stage win: Green looks practically save, although technically there are still enough points to grab. Other than that, it will be chill mobile FL for the rest of the Tour. See you on the road.

[team fl]

Who's the rider of week 3 so far? Ruck Zuk!

... Ehm sir, Kamila sir!

But thats not a riders name, is it?

Sir, it's 2025 sir!

Well then... So who's leading the GC?

... Ehm sir, Alessandra sir!

Ah for fucks sake....

[Falcor CC]

Nice try to distract everyone from the fact that ENNO OPER AND MICHAEL REDROCKS HAVE OVERTAKEN THE FÜRST IN THE GC

[team fl]

Nice try to distract everyone from the fact that ENNO OPER AND MICHAEL REDROCKS HAVE OVERTAKEN THE FÜRST IN THE GC

Panem et Circenses. The Fürst knows how to keep the plebs in check. Others get a carrot, Oper and Redrocks some GC placements.

[Robyklebt]

Argh. Dancing not on 2 but on 3 weddings (doesn't translate to English all that well, especially since the only wedding dancer is FL, he seems to have made his home-dancing his weekend job now) doesn't work well..

3 weddings: Mountain jersey-second place in GC-stage wins. Lachance-Lachance-Dixon.
Yesterday went well basically. Early group, Expected the Moja-express to come back on the Glandon already, then I try to get some points with Lachance. It didn't, group ahead, nobody scores GPM points, ok for me too, helps for GC second place, no energy loss. Thanks to being in the group have 3 helpers, so 2-1 helping, fine. Madeleine, looks like peloton together, Gipfel attacks, gets the 20 points, I check, oh, 10 left, Lachance tempo, gets it, I'm happy, now GPM looks good. The lone helper now goes to Dixon. But changed it to Lachance at some point, then back to Dixon, or something like that. Anyway, all looks fine for GPM, 20 left at the finish. Danger Luna-Zuk-Batistella. Batistella after not taking the first GPM (would have been easy and the question why triggered his manager for some reason) and having the second one stolen by Liberty Sartène (who really should be out if he's out) now less of a danger. (And as long as Moja keeps riding the mountains (for white it seems) difficult to win it with an escaper, but not impossible) Luna a bigger cushion and Zuk not scoring a danger, can't take it today. I thought. Dumb Donkey. Last mountain HCC, so 40 points. Completely missed that, thought I was safe for the stage and on the last climb just hung on Luna assuming he hangs on me, so minimize the points he gains back due to his better sprint. And deal with Zuk, who I expected to score high (high meaning 20 points max though) and come closer tomorrow, that is today. But no, it's 40 points. Maybe if I had attacked in the last km, with Luna NOT hanging on me I would have gotten away and taken 4 points more. Argh.
Stage didn't work either, Minenko as strong as me, so even if Zuk hadn't gotten away with the clever early attack (I was thinking about it only, but on +6 my climbers are weaklings....so decided to wait) I wouldn't have won the stage, Minenko would, he would have sprinted if it was for the win. Should have even like this, if I remember correctly it costs 50 for sprinting which he started, then 10 for every 50 meters you actually sprint and are not just on follow, and for second place I wasn't even going to try with Dixon.. Ok for me, 2" bigger cushion for Lachance vs Minenko in GC

So the only thing working is GC second place... the least exciting thing really, don't really care about second places, but since I'm there and like money, want it...

Today then more of the same. 3 goals!

-Get the polka dot jersey back. Not easy if Zuk wants it. Unless I sacrify Dixon as helper, Zuk will simply have more energy. Same mountain, more sprint, will score more points at the finish. So even with Dixon as helper.. normally he just is stronger at the finish. And he can do 1 km tempo on top of the climbs as well as I can... Bah. Should have checked the profile better, HCC! Not H.C.! Then maybe would have gone in red 2 km on the Madeleine, with 20 in the end 10 there seemed ok., with 40... needed more.
-Win the stage with Dixon. Or Lachance, but Dixon seems likelier.
-Keep second place in GC. With Minenko and his fitness that looks kind of most doable, but will need to keep Oper under control too, quite far back, but not 100% out. It just needs a Luna attack that he can follow and Lachance weakened by GPM riding can't, and that's it...

Brrr...

[team fl]

The statistics (written thing may follow, or not):

Stage 16: Kamila Zuk (Schappy)
Stage 17: Wojciech Grygorczuk (Liberty Sarténe*)
Stage 18: Kamila Zuk (Schappy)
Stage 19: Enno Oper (Falcor CC)
Stage 20: Camille Roy (Big Donkey)
Stage 21: Spiros Galatis (Alpacas)

General classement:

01. 00:00:00 Alessandra Luna (Alpacas)
02. 00:03:10 Émile Lachance (Big Donkey)
03. 00:03:23 Enno Oper (Falcor CC)
04. 00:03:28 Volodymyr Minenko (SouthWest Packers)
05. 00:04:29 Santiago Villaverde (Enneagon)
06. 00:04:30 Michael Redrocks (Falcor CC)
07. 00:04:42 Kamila Zuk (Schappy)
08. 00:05:12 Alex Dixon (Big Donkey)
09. 00:06:23 Caden Caradhras (Alpacas)
10. 00:06:51 Aurora Aguilar (Alpacas)

Team classement: Alpacas
Youth classement: Thorben Gerdes (Team-Mojabahs)
Points classement: Alex Alailefaleula (Team FL)
Mountain Jersey: Émile Lachance (Big Donkey)

Red Lantern

- Maximiliano Hernandez (Alpacas)

Stage wins by riders:

4 - Alex Alailefaleula (Team FL)
2 - Fürchtegott Fürst (Team FL)
2 - Alessandra Luna (Alpacas)
2 - Kamila Zuk (Schappy)
1 - Adrian Baranowski (Radomiak)
1 - Ivan Batistella (Gipfelstuermer)
1 - Leo Eef (CreditPommes)
1 - Spiros Galatis (Alpacas)
1 - Wojciech Grygorczuk (Liberty Sartene*)
1 - Émile Lachance (Big Donkey)
1 - Kyriakos Manesiotis (CircleCycle)
1 - Lucas Papillon (Gipfelstuermer)
1 - Camille Roy (Big Donkey)
1 - Enno Oper (Falcor CC)
1 - Pierre Wolf (Falcor CC)

Stage wins by teams:

6 - Team FL
3 - Alpacas
2 - Big Donkey
2 - Falcor CC
2 - Gipfelstuermer
2 - Schappy
1 - Liberty Sartene*
1 - Circle Cycle
1 - CreditPommes
1 - Radomiak
0 - Enneagon
0 - Kreatif
0 - SouthWest Packers
0 - Team-Mojabahs

Days in Yellow

18- Alessandra Luna (Alpacas)
3 - Kyriakos Manesiotis (CircleCycle)
1 - Alex Alailefaleula (Team FL)
[/quote]

* Convicted for multi accounting during the Tour de France.

[Robyklebt]

Roy!
Got a stage with Roy. Camille had been much more quiet than during the Giro, but in the end it's here that he gets his first win for Big Donkey. Clear escape stage, Donkey, who isn't sure if he just stays back and does nothing, protect his precious mountain jersey, his precious second place or if he wants to join the attack, comes 1 km late, group gone, bye bye. Ah ok. Alpacas does 2-3 km more tempo, so Donkey with more time to think comes to the conclusion, that after all attacking is more fun. Roy needs to be fit for Paris, Lanfredini with 100 form isn't fit, and wants Paris fitness, Lüthi too strong... Onkelinx. Tempo with TAiaroa, to keep close, on the 6% that starts the longish but not very steep climb attack with Onkelinx. While Taiaroa stays in tempo..

Now this confused some immensely it seems, what what what? Why? How, You don't really want to join the escape!!!!So just for those confused souls let me explain: I plan to go with 1 rider, no puller. Will the front wait? I probably wouldn't, a guy more in the escape that rides for the win, but no puller, so just a parasite coming. Group was going to go through, with or without extra puller, so ok, waiting doesn't hurt from that point of view, increases the chances of the group to go through, one potential tempo guy in the peloton less. On the other hand, group chances at 80% anyway, up to 85%, well... not such an increase. And if you come late, at least bring the escape some actual help=puller. So don't know what they will do, so keep my options open. If they don't wait, then I can try to simply catch them with Dixon. Which I then tried but failed miserably... Other option would be to go with 2, drop back the puller after I'm in the group. Won't help me make friends in the escape, is a bit of "verarschung", prefer it my way. Go, ride red with the guy who wants to join the escape, go a slow green with the guy in the peloton. To still not be too far back if people don't wait. Clear? Got it, all you confused people?

Dixon failed, gave up, realized it was almost all downhill till the next hill, went back in immediately with Onkelinx, decided to use Roy for the escape. Roy then goes, rides up, everybody happy. Group goes, nothing happens on the steep climb, nothing on hte 6 6 20+ km from the end, all pullers, some take breaks. Donkey thinks everybody on CC with his master escaper Manesiotis, 85 flat, risks being dropped by attacks on +5, so going "early" (it really was already incredibly late actually), nobody thinks I go before the 5, where Roy should be one of the strongest... so I go there. Manesiotis on me. Ah well. Let's try on 5. Nobody blocks, nobody hangs on me, Kane is 1" behind, unlike in my youth were I was stupid and waited for Thuilliez, now I might still be stupid, but don't wait for Kane. Easy solo win. Pure luck, I was happy being in the escape for plax 5-7 really, just not too much minus. And then none of the lower mountain guys blocks? None of the guys with some mountain thinks to try and follow Kane or Roy? Very weird, but ok, I like lucky wins

Paris then, after thinking the whole thing over came to the conclusion that classics like Bougault, Lüthi (back at 1000 too) Galatis were the stage favorites and joined the tempo, Sprint of these plus Jensen (less mountain, but with the * more likely to follow the sieb) Galatis won, Lüthi second, which is ok.

Anyway, all in all an ok Tour, Alpacas just too strong to make it interesting in GC, my 1,5 tries went nowhere. But liked how Alpacas rode it, always taking his responsabilities and riding to help control in non GC stages. Ok, sometimes maybe in the end could stop it, then it's really the sprinters work, but no problem either. Donkey.. Dixon as leader failed badly. Late form, so TT was even worse than usual, Lachance clear leader until the end of the pyrenees, clear leader meaning guy for stages. Won one, with Dixon being used as helper, so then Lachance was in podium position, GPM jersey again, so when Dixon finally got in form... he wasn't clear and only leader who gets perfect protection. Lachance coming that far wanted to protect his second place (ok, more me than him, and mostly for the money and points) and the GPM jersey (that making it a Giro-Tour double makes it more worthwhile) So Dixon was the victim of Lachance's success. At the Giro he was the beneficiary of Lachance's wasting of energy for the mountain jersey, this time the opposite happened.
Winning a stage with Lachance, nice (despite having the only 2 86 at the start of the Tour, with their sprint it's far from certain that they'll get the win) Seemed few climbers had pyrenees form? Failed with Dixon, Roy made up for that with an unexpected win in Pontarlier. So all good.