Sagan is racing Unbound

[sonjap]

@mailman

Does he race the Sagando? I always figured that was sort of a fun ride for him.

He did in 2018. I was there

[AJS914]

It seems like Sagan has been trapped in the orbit of his career. He looks a little bored. He’s got an entourage of like 10 people that have to be on any team with him. If he quits to do gravel or mountain biking they all lose their jobs.

[batwood14]

@Nicholas

Looks like Sagan was 52nd in the men’s field:

If you saw any of the Unbound Instagram account, he basically pulled into the checkpoints and was taking selfies and generally taking his time. He and Oss, it seems, raced into the first checkpoint … they were 3rd and 4th respectively, and then let the race go up the road.

That was the smart thing to do. Make the sponsors happy, get some riders a souvenir/selfie, get to the Tour de France in one piece. Mission accomplished

[Aplcr0331]

@batwood14

get to the Tour de France in one piece. Mission accomplished

You forgot stop off at the Tour de Suisse on the way to the TdF and show a master class in sprint positioning in the final few km’s against an admittedly lower level of sprinters and rack up another WT win.

Apparently mud selfies in the American Midwest are great tuneups for racing in Europe.

Should WvA be worried about Green at the tour, lol no.

I did see an interesting stat line though; 15% of Sagans WT wins are from the Tour de Suisse. 14.2% are from the Tour of California, lol.

Good to see the aging punchers slip in a jab or two as they slide into the dustbin of history.

[batwood14]

14% of his wins have come in grand tours. Not sure what your point is, I can do math too.

[Andrewbn42]

@QuittingBikes

Not sure. They do that for Ironman, but it makes more sense with the craziness of the swim.

With gravel, fast amateurs can hang on to lead/chase groups without getting in the way of the contenders, and that’s part of the appeal.

Watch me agree and disagree in the same sentence.
There are certainly amateurs close enough to the pros to be in the same race, but the free for all staging at unbound had people at the front who shouldn’t have been there and that caused a couple crashes when they got over their heads. It’s not comparable to the gap in swimming, and I did appreciate the ability to race with the pros, but I wouldn’t be surprised if as it gets more professional if some pros start to advocate for their own start.

[TooManyDogs]

@Andrewbn42

race, but the free for all staging at unbound had people at the front who shouldn’t have been there and that caused a couple crashes

That doesn’t surprise me at all. The swim self seeding at some Ironman events is a disaster as so many slow racers put them selves up front because they’re worried about missing cutoffs.

at unbound last year, they had the signs for projected finish time for the 200 so people would be spread out. I walked to the back and by the time I got to the 17 hour sign it was a ghost town and I was like “yeah. Just me and these 5 other people are the ONLY ones finishing over 17 hours. Everybody else is trying to beat the sun”

[Aplcr0331]

huh? Who said you couldn’t do math? My point was to share some interesting statistics I saw elsewhere it’s not my “math”. I just copied from the smarter person sitting next to me in 5th period.

See? Here’s what I said;

@Aplcr0331

I did see an interesting stat line though; 15% of Sagans WT wins are from the Tour de Suisse. 14.2% are from the Tour of California, lol.

Meaning I saw those stats posted by someone else.

I’ve no doubt your math FTP is way higher than mine. As evidenced by the imposing calculations you no doubt labored over in your analysis of Sagan’s GT win’s.

I’m significantly impressed.

Maybe I’ll tweet those out? With proper citation and credit to you of course.

[Power13]

Sagan tests positive for at least the third time for COVID…

Peter Sagan catches COVID in build toward Tour de France