The last couple days have been crushing, man! 
Apparently Pogacar hasn’t been feeling well, and it showed bad today. Poor guy!
Jonas has been riding spectacularly indeed!
And at least I still have my boy Jasper Philipsen in green. It’s not nothing!
A most entertaining Tour this year. Now I’m thinking about how I’ve been following Pro Cycling long enough that I have seen some riders’ entire careers in the World Tour circuit. Cavendish, Sagan, Schleck, Nibali, and Contador are a few that come to mind. As always, a big salute to the Domestiques who do this year after year, sometimes all three Grand Tours.
I am still not 100% recovered from the men’s TDF. Overjoyed that Jasper Philipsen took that green jersey and that Pogacar had a fantastic rebound win on Stage 20, but woooo, that was an emotional roller coaster for sure! And I have no idea what I’m going to do with the roughly 200 pictures I have saved to my phone. 
Am currently watching the TdF Femmes, which has turned into a “What the heck is SD Worx DOING??” extravaganza. And I’m already getting wound up over the upcoming Vuelta and all that incoming drama.
Road riding for me continues a-pace…had two close calls with inattentive motorists this past week, but I’ve upped my riding to at least 4 days a week…might eventually jump to 5. When I’m getting up at 5-530am to ride, I’m always like, “Why am I doing this?”
Then I start pedaling and I remember why. 
First night in almost a month that I’m not watching a bicycle race. Strange feeling.
I was watching the Tour de Pologne last night and Tour d’Lain today. This is because I pay far too much for too many sports-related streaming services.
And World Champs start up this week…that Men’s road race on Sunday is going to be bonkers!
Just starting a cycling binge on the BBC, as they are covering track, road, mountain, arena, everything in the World Championships. Over 8,000 competitors in and around Glasgow for the largest event in the sport.
They’re even showing Cycleball!
I am literally watching some paracycling finals at the Hoy Velodrome right now!
Cycleball looks fantastic; if I can access some, I’ll definitely watch it.
And yes, I am planning on getting up at 4am on Sunday for the Elite Men’s RR. AAHHHH!
Just got my first introduction to a track “scratch race” and HOLY TOLEDO, that is chaos on the boards!
(I’ve been giving Google a workout today for track cycling terms…)
Wait 'til you see the Madison. That is the crazy one, although the Devil race can throw up some incidents too.
It’s like Fast-Track Speed Skating, only crazier somehow.
It’s a miracle that van der Poel’s bike survived that crash in the UCI Road Race. To see him get up and ride— wow.
I know, right?! And that crazy reverse remount right out of cyclocross. And then he just reaches down and pulls pieces off his shattered shoe. 
Look, I’m a huge Pogacar fangirl - and look at him, sprinting to third against Mads Pedersen!! - but nobody, and I mean nobody was beating MVDP on that day. He’d said that the Worlds was his priority, and it showed. Even if Pogi, Mads, and WVA knew that he’d crashed and worked harder to catch him, I still think MVDP would’ve won.
Good thing they didn’t have race radios, though…could you imagine being Alberto Bettiol and being told that you’re being chased by THAT 4-man group of riders??
Okay, new tubes arrived and I have a functional bicycle once more.
P.S. La Vuelta!!!
I’m having to replace my saddlebag because it’s too big and rubbing holes in my cycling leggings. 
And ACK! I am not ready for the Vuelta (GO PRIMOZ!)…I’m trying to catch up on the Deutschland Tour, the Renewi Tour (Jasper Philipsen’s stage 1 win was amazing!), and the Tour of Scandinavia. ACK!
Vuelta will be amazing though. The parcours is bonkers. No wonder all the sprinters hied themselves off to Germany and Belgium!
Finishing up the Vuelta Espana Stage 1. Wow, I’ve never seen a time trial run in the dark like that.
That was a MESS. My heart was in my throat the whole time, and I was in total agreement with Remco over how ridiculous it was. The rain and dark made it super dangerous and unfair to the teams that went later. 
Will be watching stage 2 this afternoon after the World Champs marathon.
They need to not do that again. And I’m not sure about the whole starting on the beach thing. Almost as silly as the time they brought everyone in by speedboat for the team presentation in Sicily.
Finished up Stage 13 of La Vuelta this morning. Team Jumbo-Visma is having a year for the history books. Interesting to note that Sepp Kuss was growing up in Durango when we lived nearby.
Yeah, Vuelta’s been Vuelta-ing! What Remco has been doing, what Sepp and Jumbo have been doing, it’s been a wild ride!
I have my suspicions over what Jumbo’s plan is, but I say Primoz Roglic is the key. He will be the deciding factor in this last week of the race. (And I can’t see anyone NOT in a Jumbo kit winning this one.)
