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Race thread: ๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฎ road European Championship 2026, Oct 2โ€“7 (lemmy.world)
submitted 5 days ago by [M] to c/procycling@lemmy.world
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We haven't recovered yet from the World Championship the European Championship already starts on Friday in Slovenia.

The same 22-km circuit, which comprises a steep 2-km climb, is used for everything: all mass start events, as well as all Time Trials.

There's no warm up, the mass start races precede the TTs, and the program is condensed:

  • Friday 2:
    • 9:00, women U23
    • 13:30, men U23
  • Saturday 3:
    • 9:00, men junior
    • 13:30, women
  • Sunday 4:
    • 9:00, women junior
    • 12:30, men
  • Tuesday 6:
    • 11:00, mixed relay junior
    • 15:30, mixed relay
  • Wednesday 7:
    • 9:15, ITT women junior
    • 10:10, ITT men junior
    • 11:30, ITT women U23
    • 12:20, ITT men U23
    • 14:30, ITT women
    • 16:15, ITT men

All TTs are a single 22-km lap.

Here is the circuit:

Junior men and women, U23 women mass start races only take place on the circuit. In other 3 races, there is a pretty flat section coming from the small capital Ljubljana which varies a bit but generally looks like this:

The number of circuit laps varies (in a non-intuitive way, because of the presence/absence of the flat section before) : 2 for elite women, 3 for U23 men and junior women, 4 for U23 women, 5 for junior men and elite men.

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[โ€“] [S] 1 point 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

At least 2 other teams (Italy and Poland) copied our tactic later! They've got no respect for creativity and innovation ๐Ÿ˜„

I don't know what can happen with tomorrow's race and its 5 laps, but so far the races on this circuit were rather uninteresting. Today, the riders entered the circuit fresh as daisies since the inline section is devoid of any difficulty (some had a difficult wake up after 2 hours of strolling). There is only one climb per lap, therefore a single style of climb too, so options are limited. There is the plateau after the climb, but of course it you were dropped in the climb, you can't use it to try anything (but attempt to join back the front rider(s)). No wind is expected tomorrow, so the flat sections will just be flat sections; a bit of tactic is possible there, but it all depends on available manpower for teams: if others do have manpower, a single or a few riders cannot hope to create much of a gap before next climb.

Basically, my feeling is that the circuit was designed so that Pogatchar could win it without needing to tire himself out.

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