I actually thought the break had a chance until Amirail took the front, he’s clearly in great shape.

The chase was strange. Between -60 and -50 km, the peloton was speeding like maniacs; I remember a downhill false flat, were they were spinning pedals like crazy, the camera motorbike at the front was suffering, hitting 30 km/h speed bumps at an actual speed of perhaps 80 km/h… It was at that moment very different from a few past editions, where crashes would happen because the peloton would go very slowly for hours (close to 35 km/h) and the riders would lose their concentration.

Then there were times were they gave up 40 seconds for free. Climb were ridden on alternative current, sometimes the breakaway would go faster, sometimes slower.

Yes, after the gap had been oscillating around 1mn – 1mn15 for 40 km, it looked like the breakaway had done the hardest part, and yet that’s when they really started to lose time.

Stage 1

The punchy climbs in the circuit made zero difference. And nobody really tried, apparently, except Costiou in the final metres. I say ‘apparently’ because, like yesterday, the TV director didn’t show us the peloton in the climb 🙄

So it was an almost complete bunch for the finish. Combine this with the most idiotic last km design I have seen in a while, and of course there were 2 crashes at and a bit after the narrow curve, and the sprint was only disputed between the few riders who weren’t stopped by the crashes.

The final circuit in general was also one of the ugliest ones I ever saw. On top of this crappy, narrow, width-changing last km: industrial areas, roundabouts and traffic separators, road works, earth-moving areas, waste grounds, forsaken roads, scrapyards, gipsy camps and an unusual amount of gendarmes to make sure they don’t start driving up the road.

While EF are finally sticking their head out of the water, Picnic isn’t. Only their sprinters made it to the finish in the same time as the peloton; all other riders are several minutes behind: so much for GC…

Hopefully somebody can put up a fight against Pog and it’s not just a 60 km solo win. Weather looks

It wasn’t just a 60 km solo win, it was more like a 80 km solo win. 😆

A few notes of mine:

• After Pogatchar🇸🇮’s attack, Seixas🇫🇷 should have given up the chase as soon as Del Toro🇲🇽 caught up with him, and go back with Grégoire🇫🇷, Jorgenson🇺🇸, etc. which were going well just a few seconds behind. Instead, he pulled for the whole sector (which was still almost 10 km long) and more. When they finally regrouped, they had burned their energy.
• As chasing groups were regrouping, they were getting slower and slower.
• Each attack from the regrouped chasing group was reducing the gap with Pogatchar🇸🇮 by 15 seconds as quickly as in a few hundreds metres.
• The TV direction is atrocious: there were 2 things to show in the final climb, the Seixas🇫🇷/Del Toro🇲🇽 duo and the Pidcock🇬🇧 group. We didn’t see a bloody single inch of any of them! 🤬
• Seixas🇫🇷 would have been second best today, even if Del Toro🇲🇽 had beaten him in the end (or before the end), given the long efforts he did at least twice for miles and miles with Del Toro🇲🇽 staying on his rear wheel.
• Grégoire🇫🇷 was surprisingly good today. Even if he won in Drôme, he benefited on that day of the help of everyone’s best comrade, Jorgenson🇺🇸, and of favourable circumstances behind, otherwise he wasn’t great. Today, he was always at the front (or just behind it), he was consistently good, he didn’t only show up in the end to snatch a good place.
• BTW, the 2 groups of strong riders formed after Pogatchar🇸🇮’s attack, and later on after Seixas🇫🇷’s attack, were in the same order the two times, and almost exactly had the same composition.
• UAE teammates Del Toro🇲🇽 and Christen🇨🇭 played and used their role perfectly.
• Q. Simmons🇺🇸 is still struggling. He tries obviously, but hasn’t the legs for the racing he wishes to do. On the UAE/Pogatchar acceleration, when a micro-split starts to appear, it is hard for him but he is just ahead of the micro-split; but a moment later, when the actual split occurs, he is behind the split, he has cracked. Same as on previous races, and then again he doesn’t seem to recover and drifts away.
• The Vermeersch🇧🇪 from today is definitely not the same Vermeersch🇧🇪 we saw the other day on the Het Nieuwsblad. While Florian👼 (UAE) did help everybody in his groups last week, Gianni👿 from Bora played the stowaway today. Quite a contrast compared to other riders in those groups.

We may keep an eye on (among others):

• Ayuso🇪🇸 & Skjelmose🇩🇰 from Lidl-Trek;

Skjelmose🇩🇰 won’t start either because of some pain in a wrist.

I hadn’t listed him, but Poole (🇬🇧 Picnic) is also out.

If it goes on like this, we may award the victory to Vingegaard and save everyone one week of effort 😆

Oh, and this (minimal but existing) coverage allowed me to understand for the first time, when I recognised the Capo Mele name in the mouth of the Italian commentator, that this race was in fact located in the area near San Remo.

And Laigueglia is simply the name of the coastal town just before that capo in Milan–San-Remo, here ridden in the opposite way inside the final circuit.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/MJa2HUFAuLFcF1iF9 (zoom out)

TV coverage is mandatory for a .Pro I think. It was planned but cancelled a few days before the race, perhaps due to the change of organiser. Yet there was some coverage: on the Youtube channel of the Lega, they showed the last 24 km or so, at 5 PM as pre-recorded (very slightly pre-recorded, broadcasted right as the race was finishing).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmSb23CMWnc

It is not the first time I watch an Italian race this way, on a Youtube channel of the League or of the Ministry of Sports. I can’t remember which one(s) exactly, perhaps one of the Autumn classics, perhaps the Settimana Internazionale C&B or the Tour of Abbruzo. Hmm, checking my old posts in French, it cannot be Abruzzo as that tour was shown on traditional TV in France. Anyway, I already watched a race or two this way 😀

Not in Italy, but I remember watching the Tour of Greece (Hellas) on Youtube too: https://www.youtube.com/@tourofhellas/streams I see that they uploaded a presentation of the (May) 2026 race: 1h45 with 5 minutes of interest and the rest of suits and ties’ speeches, apparently 😅

Gaudu🇫🇷 & Costiou🇫🇷 from FDJ, if you are French and masochist, or if they raise the level they showed lately;

Gaudu was dropped in a climb and DNF today on the Trofeo Laegi Legaigla Laigui Laigueglia🇮🇹. Not sure if he reached the circuit…

Do we know if Groves is ok after crashing on sunday?

Oh, I didn’t know he was part of the crashes. I watched a bit of Kuurne-Bruxelles-K last night, but it may have happened earlier than the parts I watched.

At this time of the day, he hasn’t been pulled off start lists yet.

edit: Are you positive he crashed? The only written bits I could find seem to lean toward the hypotheses that he didn’t have the legs and just disappeared as Girmay did.

Le Samyn (Tuesday 3/3/2026)

It appears that Van Aert (🇧🇪 Visma) would finally start his season there, just a couple of days before going to the Strade Bianche.

It looks like he will be the only ‘big name’ on the race (or do we count Groves (🇦🇺 Alpecin) or Kubish (🇸🇰 Unibet) as big names?), but former winners Rex (🇧🇪 Soudal-QS) and Hofstetter (🇫🇷 NSN) should be present in the large peloton: 25 teams including 9 WT for a 1.1!

Official site (in French)

PCS page

Only Décathlon made the big final push on the last 10 km. No one helped them, Q36.5 just showing up in the last mile, more for placement than helping. One may also reproach Décathlon for not helping the other teams before that…

Earlier, in the ‘mountain’ part of the race where Skjelmose🇩🇰 attacked, we also saw the sequence where Healy🇮🇪 (EF) was the only man leading the chase, and no one from any team would could come and help him. Behind him were seating 2 Visma and 1 Lidl-Trek, both teams having a man in Skjelmose🇩🇰’s trio; the teams which had interest in catching that breakaway were staying behind.

I’d say the major fact today is an ode to tactical stupidity, especially in the last 20 km.

Step 1. Everyone in the front group basically hit the breaks when Jorgensen🇺🇸 (Visma) + Grégoire🇫🇷 (FDJ) attack… There was no FDJ in that group and 2 (?) Visma, the numerous rest should have chased at least a bit. They are given a second chance when Q. Simmons🇺🇸 (Lidl-Trek) and Cepeda (Movistar) come back from a group behind. What do the riders do then? Nothing, they all watch the new duo take them over without a single rider even jumping on their wheel…

Step 2. Cosnefroy🇫🇷 (UAE) attacks and isolate himself in one of the last walls. Of course alone he would never catch up the front duo. The main consequence is that UAE does not help the peloton chase. There lie the missing seconds in the end. 10 times the missing seconds. If they had not had Cosnefroy🇫🇷 ahead, they would have relayed, and the front duo would have been caught way before the final wall. We can had to this that without *Cosnefroy🇫🇷’s attack, the peloton would have been less disturbed by that climb, and the chase would have started a bit earlier in an orderly manner. The worst is that Cosnefroy🇫🇷 had good chances to win on the last wall, considering what he showed before.

Step 3. Only Décathlon made the big final push on the last 10 km. No one helped them, Q36.5 just showing up in the last mile, more for placement than helping. One may also reproach Décathlon for not helping the other teams before that… Unusually, there was zero wind; Jorgensen🇺🇸 is good at TT and Grégoire🇫🇷 at climbing small walls: what the heck were all teams other than Visma and FDJ waiting for? It is not like we haven’t been knowing for a few years that with the aerodynamics changes that occurred in the last 5 years or so, a large group doesn’t benefit so much as it used to benefit of the group effect versus a solo/duo.

Step 4. (more disputable). Jorgensen🇺🇸 kept on passing long relays to Grégoire🇫🇷 until the last 500 m, in spite of the fact that he didn’t stand a chance on this type of finish. Depending on whether one thinks that a place of 2^nd is good, or that a team like Visma should only aim for victory, one may find that stupid or not. Still, it is strange that he attempted absolutely nothing to get rid of Grégoire🇫🇷 before the end, even if it meant restarting to relay in case it didn’t work.

L. Martinez🇫🇷 (Bahrain) showed his limits when he was following Skjelmose🇩🇰 (Lidl-Trek) in the Dane’s breakaway, yet he managed to recover enough after the breakaway was caught, so that he could win the peloton’s sprint!

They say on TV that after the top of St-Romain, he also did the fastest downhill ever made… 😲

In fact, that’s where the meat of his 1-minute advantage came from: he gained a little bit more on the descent than on the climb.

On Sunday we cross over the Rhône for race which is more for punchers and generally more open to varied profiles.

I don’t know what to think about tomorrow, after what we saw today.

• L. Martinez🇫🇷 and Christen🇨🇭 did a lot today; will they be tired tomorrow?
• Among riders who only finished 20-something today, we have Scaroni🇮🇹, Grégoire🇫🇷 and Healy🇮🇪. Was one of them rehearsing / saving energy for tomorrow? I am not sure.
  • Scaroni🇮🇹 has raced quite a lot already, he can be on an end of cycle, on a diminishing form.
  • Grégoire🇫🇷 couldn’t follow the top guys, and then blew up for good trying to follow non-top guys, and he wasn’t great either on the previous week. The climb are shorter tomorrow, and we know he can hurt himself a while on such efforts, but his present level is still worrying.
  • remains Healy🇮🇪, I haven’t followed his race at all today, so I don’t know what his 20^th place today means.
• Skjelmose🇩🇰 always did well in Drôme, and he finished well today. Perhaps tomorrow will be his day.
• I have a hard time believing that Lapeira🇫🇷 can win tomorrow. Anyhow, if he wants to have a chance, his team must not disappear 45 km away from the line, like they did today: he is no Tadeï Seixas.

Seixas🇫🇷 chose the Pogatchar option and pogatchared the race.

This is in fact exactly what happened, he climbed St-Romain de Lerps at the exact same speed as Pogatchar did at the European Championship last Autumn to drop everyone including Evenepoel:

Saturday we’ll have the Omloop Nieuwsblad for both men and women, the first cobbles of the year, and usually a fun race. A race which usually favours heavier cobble-specialists and flandriens, the new crop of semi-sprinters also stand a chance.

This year it will be hard to look past Mathieu van der Poel, Paul Magnier, and Tim Wellens who’ve shown excellent form. But others - like Brennan, Pidcock, van Aer, de Lie, Turner, and Philipsen - will surely also be in the mix.

The favourite won in his standard manner, but otherwise, it has been half cycling, half bowling game… (Van Aert was lucky not to come!) The Tudor rider who fell at the beginning of the cobblestone wall kept his hands on his bike instead of using them for protection, so he attempted to eat the cobbles with his face and left his teeth on the ground.

Kudos to Renard (Cofidis) who was part of the breakaway who was caught by Van der Poel and his 2 followers: after he and 2 other breakawaymen followed the VdP trio for a while, they were in big trouble when cobbled mounts came and they were dropped; and the Cofidis rider looked more in trouble than the others. Yet they all managed to stay in the group which caught them and Renard produce an honest sprint after 160 km at the front, which made him enter the top-10.

F. Vermeersch (UAE) is a good comrade, the Bora rider not quite. Vermeersch relayed everyone without complaining; does it explain his collection of podium places with (almost) no victory?

This race was a complete failure for many teams (due to crashes or not):

• first FDJ rider : 28^th,
• first Lidl-Trek rider : 36^th,
• first Ineos rider : 37^th,
• and several other teams with similarly crappy results.

The long awaited Prophecy is finally coming true! He is THE ONE!

While at the EC Pogatchar took off in the St-Romain de Lerps climb (IIRC), the rest of the classification was determined by accelerations in the successives ascensions of the Hell’s Vale or at its treacherous summit.

Seixas🇫🇷 chose the Pogatchar option and pogatchared the race.

The peloton delayed the race until that last climb of St-Romain de Lerps. With 95 km, there were already trains at the front of the peloton, but in fact they were riding like they sometime do on Belgian races: pushing on the flat before a climb, and then climbing very slowly. So everyone’s goal was to neutralise the race.

In the breakaway, there were a lot of misunderstanding and disagreements between the riders, perhaps even more with the two Total riders.

When Décathlon’s last teammate stopped after a mile or so in the climb (45 km from the line), I thought Seixas🇫🇷 was going to be in trouble for the rest of the race, as there were teams like Visma with a strong presence. But the young Frenchman simply took the lead of the peloton and pressed the pedals. And little by little, riders dropped like flies at the back, and then there was no back, just 10 riders, and then 4, and then there was only Jorgenson🇺🇸 with him, and then, as L. Martinez🇫🇷 and the UAE loony🇨🇭 were closing the gap, Seixas🇫🇷 accelerated again and dropped the American. There were 40 km to go solo at that time.

But winds were favourable, terrain was favourable to the EC bronze medallist, and gaps between groups only increased.

Last animation on the race was Mariault🇫🇷 and Pacher🇫🇷 insulting each other during the sprint for 10^th place 😆

Yes, Pacher🇫🇷 was the first FDJ, Grégoire🇫🇷 having disappeared after blowing up while trying to stay with the last group of 6? 8? riders when Seixas climbed St-Romain de Lerps.

Seixas🇫🇷 and Riccitello🇺🇸 for Decathlon;

Nope, no Riccitello🇺🇸 this week-end, his presence was cancelled.

I don’t know about Van Aert and Philipsen: the first one will only be coming back after his new cyclocross injury 2 months ago (after being beaten on each CX race he rode before the crash), and the second one didn’t have a good start last week.

Stage 4 (10/2/2026)

Damien Touzé (🇫🇷 Cofidis) crashed on that day. I didn’t see it. However, he suffered internal injuries, and as a result he won’t ride again this year, and this may also be the end of his pro carrier. 😨

I couldn’t watch it

And that was a pity, for it was some good racing yesterday, the complete opposite of the Var race the day before. The last 50-60 km were ridden like a good classic, I’d say.

There was an attempt on the ‘flat’ before the Gourdon climb by 4 riders who managed to break away after a few failures. One of them, Chamberlain (🇦🇺 Décathlon) tried to avoid the climb by staying on the valley road 😆 instead of turning right towards Gourdon. He was soon caught up as they had never created much of a gap, a strong pursuit lead by Asatan made sure of it.

Meanwhile, Barguil (🇫🇷 Picnic) managed to crash inside the peloton in the beginning of the climb, in a weird manner: it looked like his bike was 20 yards up the road compared to the location he was lying, like the bike had kept on climbing, carried away by other riders. Broken collarbone, apparently? Another rider went to the ground at the same time.

Strangely, attacks didn’t happen in the first, hardest part of the climb (BTW, it was ridden in the opposite direction from last year). The main, decisive attack was by L. Martinez (🇫🇷 Bahrain) with 3 other riders: Brenner (🇩🇪 Tudor), Costiou (🇫🇷 FDJ) and A. Paret-Peintre (🇫🇷 Decathlon). Q. Simmons (🇺🇸 Lidl-Trek) had caught up the previous attempt, but when he tried to join this group just a few dozen yards before the front of the peloton, he blew up and then couldn’t even stay with the first group of the peloton.

L. Martinez🇫🇷 and Brenner🇩🇪 were pushing too hard for the other two which were dropped after a while.

Their gap never grew much, perhaps 45 seconds top (?). At no point did they fool around, but the pursuit group behind them wasn’t either. They did the climb, the descent, and the following 25 km (I slept trough some of this part) of rolling terrain ahead, but they were caught by the small group of chaser something like 1 mile from the line. They still managed to finish 4^th and 5^th and Brenner even attempted an attack from that group: they were really going strong on that Sunday.

Lapeira (🇫🇷 Decathlon) managed to attack and beat Scaroni (🇮🇹 Astana), followed a surprisingly reborn S. Carr (🇬🇧 Cofidis) (well, I think –but I ain’t sure–, that he wasn’t participating in the chase) and the aforementioned Brenner🇩🇪.

Champoussin (🇫🇷 Astana) worked hard for Scaroni🇮🇹 but he had the strange idea to finish his work by an attack which may have taken part in Scaroni🇮🇹’s defeat.

I note that A. Mifsud (🇲🇹🇫🇷 Polti) was once more in that group for victory. He’s really having a good early season! Same for the Conti rider A. Mariault (🇫🇷 CIC)!

FDJ had been active earlier in the day, but in the end, only Costiou🇫🇷 managed to stay in the group and finish 6^th. See, even him was dropped by the 🇫🇷🇩🇪 duo in the climb, and in the finish again, despite those two guys having ridden 40 km alone ahead. G. Martin🇫🇷 is still out of shape.

Hirshi (🇨🇭 Tudor) didn’t do well, pretty much like Q. Simmons🇺🇸, perhaps without even attempting like the American.