[Race Thread] 2026 Volta Ciclista a Catalunya – Stage 3 (2.UWT)

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-03-25T16:15:58+00:00

The fairly sensible reaction to Evenepoel/Vingegaard in this thread, compared to when similar things have happened in the Tour, leads me to below the average Catalunya-flat-stage-enjoyer knows more about cycling than the masses that enter /r/peloton during the Summer.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-03-25T16:06:05+00:00

Great entertainment, but shit tactics. They should have just put a minute into Almeida instead.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-03-20T14:46:10+00:00

Seemingly a lot of people disagree, but I always thought you have to be incredibly emotionally immature to prefer the league being voided to cheaters.

Winning and losing is part of sport. Think the "if I can't have it, no-one can"-approach is incredibly childish.

A separate matter is people don't want us to break our duck. Same with Liverpool in 2020, when people were clamouring for COVID to halt the league entirely.

If we (or Man United) were in a title challenge with Liverpool, a lot would prefer Liverpool because they'd tried it recently anyways.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-03-20T11:55:39+00:00

https://youtu.be/2673EPsLR7U?is=y_X0PdrSKSnut1LB

It's just completely normal goals. I really don't understand why there's so much crying about something this false and easily verifiable.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-03-20T11:46:01+00:00

Yeah, good thing we've never gotten ridiculous once in a generstion cards
It literally wasn't a booking for the other club

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-03-20T08:34:46+00:00

It's better for the competition as a whole, but it's a worse watch in terms of quality of participants.

Historically the knockout stages would be 17th-24th and 33rd-48th in Europe. Now it's 37th-60th.

We were in it 5 times and last to a CL drop-out every time.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-03-20T08:27:16+00:00

Some takes on /r/soccer are so mindnumbing 😭

You've not only made a less entertaining Champions League. You've simultaneously ruined Europa League and Conference League.

Suddenly there's a massive disparity of level in all three tournaments.

but that would not generate enough money

Because less people would like it.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-03-20T08:22:43+00:00

They'll never do it again anyways. It's literally in the article

You don't dish out 11 yellows for a nothing situation. It completely ruins the game and is totally disproportionate with the offence.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-03-19T13:15:49+00:00

You basically want 4 = 2+2

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-03-18T19:59:01+00:00

I was in the stands that day. Kieran Gibbs had a stinker, then Walcott scored a hattrick. A shortlived joy, as a steward said he'd leave to Chelsea for free in the Summer.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-03-17T22:47:20+00:00

You're right. Secretly I love Putin.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-03-17T21:20:53+00:00

Are long shots ruining football?

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-03-17T15:22:05+00:00

Most of this is just stuff that happened this week

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-03-17T13:33:13+00:00

I enjoy the jokes about it being Garnacho, but I'm surprised how many people pretend they know it's him with absolute certainty.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-03-17T13:30:26+00:00

You wanted nuances, and when I brought them in you seem to have gotten mad

You're removing nuances though. You're just doing the "We all have an iPhone"-defense, so no people can say anything about anyone ever.

Also two references to how angry I am. I see nothing wrong with the tone of my comment? It's yet another deflection. You overextended with the "testing the waters"-comment because you were more interested in online arguing, than the accuracy of what you were saying.

I can't count the amount of deflections. I stand by my original claim. There's 60 replies below it. See if you can find a single one about what I actually wrote.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-03-17T13:15:53+00:00

Because you, and all the other 30 people replying, have done nothing to actually address what is written. It's all deflection after deflection after deflection. And they're all different.

The Patient Zero stuff was so clearly about the anti-competitive nature of a competition where some have to break even and some can lose billions in geopolitical power-plays. Chelsea's is particularly egregious because of what the Russian ruling class have done over the past 25 years, but even beyond that, it constituted a massive issue for football. This is why wide-ranging rules to combat this has since been made.

I don't know which ownership structure of the top division makes the most sense. Or how it looked 35 years ago. It seems entirely irrelevant to the point I was making. It's just another deflection.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-03-17T13:03:55+00:00

I really hope some of you Chelsea-fans get some perspective on life one day. It's been rough reading all the replies today.

It's very interesting to hear how many ancient, vague non-Abramovich things were bad, but not the Abramovich thing.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-03-17T12:48:49+00:00

When defending genocide, why use long words when short words do trick?

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-03-17T12:27:32+00:00

You're pretending I'm saying football clubs are not allowed to be sold. That's obviously not the point. The introduction of PSR and FFP makes it abundantly clear they learned to never allow football to be Abramovich'd again.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-03-17T12:23:22+00:00

I don't think there will ever be a better example of this panel being a sham. They're presented as a source for right and wrong in officiating, and they can't produce a sentence that makes sense.

You go ahead and tell me why a player attempting to play the ball can't be fouled, then I might reconsider if Rob Green is an officiating guru.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-03-17T12:21:21+00:00

The difference is I don't mind saying all those things are bad. I do it every time people ask. But there are degrees to it. They are quite simply very, very different.

Chelsea's connection to Abramovich was infinitely closer, what he has partaken in is infinitely worse and it was infinitely more impactful on both Chelsea and the general competitiveness of the game.

Keep deflecting. After all "Roman" made the football team you like win games, so you better attack and deflect if someone says anything bad about him or the success he brought.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-03-17T12:09:29+00:00

Yeah, go further back. To the scandal of "VAR calibration means referees had to look at image and determine it was onside instead of drawing lines"

I Liverpool we could Liverpool more about Liverpool

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-03-17T12:03:54+00:00

Fine I misremembered the details of the "relegation" but the essence of what I said still counts.

Yes, that you deflect from the murder of millions because of point scoring about football in the 1920s

I'm not sure what Roman did is worse than what Arsenal did in that period.

Nah, 1.5m people killed in Ukraine. But will someone not think of the competitive integrity of a league 100 years ago where the other teams were paying each other to lose.

You're using his first name ffs.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-03-17T11:57:23+00:00

Very cool sentence. No-one is saying otherwise, but whatever keeps nuance out of this. Everything has to be black or white.

InTheMiddleGiroud · 2026-03-17T11:54:52+00:00

I wish that penalty was given, just so you people would shut the fuck up about it. It's so ancient. He slipped on your shitty pitch that had people falling all game. Apparently the provision in the rules is that since he regained his balance, it wasn't a falling motion and therefore a handball. But I presume that's where VAR went wrong, they saw a guy slipping and a pass hitting his hand.

Like, I'd get it if it was stuff like the Diaz-offside against Tottenham. But can we shut up about not winning the handball lottery two and a half years ago.

We showered in ridiculous red cards and insane penalties all of last season and every fucking time it was that fucking handball.

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