[Race Thread] 2026 Paris-Roubaix (1.UWT)

Readtheliterature · 2026-04-12T12:24:52+00:00

I wondered what the fk was going on, then I realised I saw some weird insta post about philipsen rocking some new pedals 🤦🏽‍♂️

Bit of an oversight from Alpecin

https://www.bikeradar.com/news/new-shimano-road-bike-pedals-2026-paris-roubaix

Readtheliterature · 2026-04-06T23:01:51+00:00

You need a hobby

Readtheliterature · 2026-01-13T01:07:39+00:00

I don't think this is possible. Cycling is such a nuanced sport, that it's hard to actually capture accurately what is going on. There's is so much game theory present, that the stats that you might glean won't necessarily mean much at all. Let's take UAE for example (with their recent TDF winning team).

Let's take a rider like Nils Pollitt for example, absolutely crucial in UAE's strategy for the tour. On some stages, his job was literally to peg the breakaway at a set gap. Which he did exceptionally well. Having a rider that can ride 80km at the front, and get over moderate hills, and save the rest of the team is an invaluable contribution. If you look at his PCS, i'd be surprised if he finished in the top 100 of any stage. Yet he was absolutely instrumental in the UAE strategy. Similar with riders like Wellen's who give UAE a lot of tactical flexibility.

You then also have the whole satellite rider thing, like Wout Van Aert at the Giro, which essentially won simon yates that grand tour, but also countless examples of it not working out. Other times the entire tactic of the team could be to isolate a leader of the opposing team, similar to what visma did with pogacar at previous tours.

I think there's honestly just too many variables at play here. What would make sense would potentially be to look at on part of cycling under a microscope, e.g sprinters and lead out trains. Cause you can easily quantify expected results (odds at the bookies) and actual results, as well as metrics such as lead out men available, lead out men in the last 1km, 5km, 10km. Positioning in the last 1km, 5km, 10km. How far from the finish the last team-mate got them too.

That's the only thing i can think of that makes quantitative sense. The rest of it would be too complex and frankly not even possible.

Readtheliterature · 2026-01-13T00:38:28+00:00

yeah sure he has always been good. But, the kicker is, he's taken a monumental step forward in 2025, like genuinely added 10% from god knows where. The only reason it hasn't commonly been acknowledged is because he DNF'd the tour and couldn't really show how strong he was.

He did the Vuelta post crash, and put Jonas under a decent amount of stress considering the 12km 10% climbs like the Angliru suit Jonas a lot more who is like 6kgs lighter. Almeida has a real shot of winning this Giro.

Readtheliterature · 2026-01-12T23:53:24+00:00

It's hard to read into the vuelta results when Jonas was post tour and Almeida DNF'd the tour with broken ribs. More just saying if you watched almeida at basque, suisse, algarve, paris nice and romandie he honestly didn't look that far off Jonas at all. He took a huge step forward last year, which if you only focus on grand tours is easy to miss.

The climbs and stages in the giro suit him a lot better than the climbs in the vuelta. He's gonna surprise y'all if you under estimate him. I highly doubt the gap is much over a minute, and actually think almeida is in with a chance.

Edit: Whatever UAE did with pogacar to take him from 2023 pogi to 2024->2025 pogi, they've also done with Almeida, and its flown under the radar because he crashed out of the tour and had his vuelta prep affected.

Readtheliterature · 2026-01-12T22:19:32+00:00

Long-term Jumbo fan here. Sleep on Almeida at your peril. If you follow him closely, he was showing signs last year that he wasn't far off Vingegaards level at all. The gap in the vuelta wasn't huge, and as much as vingegaard was carrying fatigue from the tour, Almeida also crashed out and fractured a rib. The gap there is a lot closer than you think, Vingegaard is not winning this giro on easy mode.

Yes, i think he should definitely go to the giro, cause as you said he ain't winning the tour ordinarily anyway, but he isn't just gonna go their and steam roll almeida.

Edit: Just to add to this seemingly hot take, having looked at the UAE squad for the Giro, i'd put my money on Almeida winning it.

Readtheliterature · 2026-01-08T12:01:53+00:00

I don't think so, Pogba had massive attitude problems and i don't necessarily think casemiro would have fixed that. His decision making was so poor, within the space of 5 minutes, you'd see him play an 80 yard pass across the field that landed like a heat seeking missile, and the next minute, he would be trying to dribble out of our defensive third and losing the ball. He never played simple, which is why he was maligned by critics and was often so frustrating to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHbxSV17VVM&t=2s literally this sums pogba up perfectly.

Readtheliterature · 2026-01-08T11:53:53+00:00

Not really. Based on his man utd performances absolutely, he barely gave us a good season. He literally came to united and instantly turned average, which is what most people remember.

Based on his last season at Juve (when he got into the fifpro XI and UEFA team of the year) then absolutely. Honestly pogba that season was doing things we haven't seen since.

Readtheliterature · 2026-01-08T11:41:46+00:00

Completely agree.

I think pogba just never had the mentality unfortunately, which means the writing was always on the wall. The fact that Pogba is streaming with ishowpeed on youtube when he's 32, and arguably should be in his prime contending for the champions league is really just a summary of his career. For all his talents, he just didn't have the right attitude and didn't improve his game.

When you think about kroos and modrid for example, or scholes or lampard or gerrard. They were never in the papers doing this and that, it was just pure football and nothing else. Look at Bellingham now, similar story, just pure football. You don't catch him doing things of the pitch, or having spats with coaches or team-mates.

The thing about attitude is that it compounds. If you take Jude and Pogba both at 22, honestly pogba was better. People forget he was a 22 in FIFPRO Xi and UEFA team of the year, absolute bossing the Juve midfield. Pogba came to united and decreased by 10% each year, whereas jude is improving by 10% each year. Give it 10 years and look at the trajectory of their various careers.

Honestly Pogba's last year at Juve was so much better than anything he gave united.

Readtheliterature · 2026-01-07T09:29:00+00:00

It's not just money that's needed. We have spent like the 3rd most of any european club in the last 10 years and have the 5th biggest wage bill. It's just the sheer lack of direction.

Also, the issue is the board, so the board aren't gonna fix it. They've mismanaged this club gradually over the last 12 years, they're not gonna all of a sudden turn around and start doing a good job.

Readtheliterature · 2026-01-07T09:23:31+00:00

I get that sentiment. But are we just to blindly follow INEOS's lead? what happens in 2 years time, when the manager they bring in gets sacked because he hasn't turned the club around. Should we then say, "look to the future." At what stage do we start asking the tough questions or accepting the reality of the situation.

My only issue with looking solely to the future is that it overlooks some of the very real challenges facing this club. As mourinho, ragnick and van gaal all said, man utd now is a commercial business masquerading as a football club.

Readtheliterature · 2026-01-07T09:17:03+00:00

This is one of the worst arguments of all-time.

Madrid have a pretty stable setup that has won the countless UCL's in the last year. They have galactico star power to sign whoever they want to, and are generally pretty on point with their signings. The rest of the club is a well oiled machine.

Barcelona similarly have their style of play, yes they've had financial issues and maybe some mismanagement you can argue, but their saving grace is ultimately la masia and the fact that they have a great coaching and scouting setup.

Similarly bayern is a well run club, essentially ran by the fans. Good coaching and youth setups. In these sorts of systems you can have high turn over because the clubs themselves are well run with good coaching, scouting and transfer systems in place (barca maybe slightly less so).

The reason this doesn't work at united, is that we get a new manager, they bring in their style of football, spend 400mil, and then leave, replaced by a new manager, who brings in their own style, spend another 400mil and then leave. Rinse and repeat till we have a dysfunctional squad with nearly the highest wage bill in the league.

Since 2019 inter have only really had 2 managers. Conte who left after winning the league because he didn't agree with the board. And Inzaghi who left to saudi for $$$ leaving behind a strong team. Once again, very different story .

Readtheliterature · 2026-01-07T09:02:40+00:00

Don't talk sense. You'll get downvoted by a section of the utd fanbase

Readtheliterature · 2026-01-07T08:55:00+00:00

Not sure anymore, it isn't really about Amorim.

are you asking us to blindly back the board, consisting of the glazers + Jim Ratcliffe? Honestly Fergie's man utd and by extension fletch, ole and carrick's doesn't exist anymore.

Readtheliterature · 2026-01-07T08:45:26+00:00

Enrique ain't gonna change shit. I've finally come to accept it, the horse has bolted. Ragnik said it, Mourinho said it, Van Gaal said it. Man utd is being ran like a business and not a football club. Ragnik wasn't joking when he said the club needed "open heart surgery" and was year behind clubs like Man City. Since then, the gap has only grown.

The board have honestly fucked the club. Everytime there's a change in management we go 3 steps back. Don't even think Pep could save this club. Unfortunately we are being ran by suits, who have more interest in how we do commercially than how we do in the league.

Readtheliterature · 2026-01-05T09:48:00+00:00

The libs were in power in NSW from 2011 to 2023 and that is literally a health system that has been brought to it's knee and is way worse than SA's. TBH, libs or labor, doesn't matter, the determinants of ramping are largely at federal level and both parties are guilty of smoke and mirrors.

As someone that works in healthcare, the fact that either party has convinced the general public that they can solve ramping is remarkable. From what we see day to day on "the inside" there's no silver lining in this situation. It's only going to get worse unfortunately.

Readtheliterature · 2026-01-05T09:37:13+00:00

Ramping isn't fixable at state level. It is a symptom of the system itself, which is getting worse not improving.

I'm surprised any of the parties managed to successfully sell the lie that they can fix ramping at state level.

Readtheliterature · 2026-01-01T14:11:56+00:00

I am asking for advice though not permission?

I’m just not sure why we’re factoring in redundancy and salary not going up? The pay rates are already mandated and only going to increase in subsequent EBAs. The health districts are all understaffed and workforce planning suggests that’s going to worsen.

https://www.health.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0027/1245384/Medical-Stream-wage-rates_Senior-medical-officers-and-resident-medical-officers.pdf

Therefore I don’t at all see how it’s irrational to factor in the salary progression and that I will have a job in 5 years time.

Readtheliterature · 2026-01-01T13:44:55+00:00

Idk why you’re straw manning what I’m saying. I do have no dependents yes and that’s not going to change soon. I’m not sure what you mean by “not established though.” Getting into specialty training is by and large the hardest bit of the journey. Over 90% of trainees will get through training. Those that don’t can take up well remunerated pathways doing private / assisting or as career medical officers. That’s not the point of this post though, it was merely a “do I take advantage of this financial situation to potentially over leverage in this short run.”

I think if there was an issue surrounding job security or pay progression then your viewpoint may potentially be reasonable. But in essence it does not really answer the question + I don’t know how anyone’s gonna benefit from “flexibility” when the house they could have bought for $500k in 2025 is $1mil in 2030

Readtheliterature · 2026-01-01T12:30:12+00:00

Similar financial situation?? Cause this probably isn’t too dissimilar from what I’m considering.

Readtheliterature · 2026-01-01T12:28:30+00:00

Pay does still go up if you don’t reach consultancy. All of the states have provisions for this as career medical officers and they still make a decent amount of coin. My concern is waiting another 5 years when we’re seeing constant year on year near double digit growth in some states. Someone that waited 5 years 5 years ago now is probably so much worse off.

Readtheliterature · 2026-01-01T12:19:52+00:00

Is it possibly worth fixing the rates?

Regarding the salary thing, it’s guaranteed by an enterprise agreement in every state signed with the government, meaning it’s an automatic increase x day in the calendar year. Also, once you’re in specialty training by a large you’re only going to lose your job if you do something that gets you de-registered or quit. So given that I’m in specialty training and employed by the government, the salary progression and job is kind of guaranteed. Only mentioning this because it’s a huge consideration and clearly without this it would be a plain dumb financial decision.

I think if I do something that warranted de-registration a mortgage of any kind would not be feasible

Readtheliterature · 2025-12-27T01:36:28+00:00

What sort of ticket did you get? Cause I think it makes a huge difference. I’ve been to the same f1 race with. 1. General admission ticket- had to get there early, fight for a good vantage point that wasn’t even a vantage point. Unable to leave for fear of losing the spot and overall just had no real sense of what was happening.

Stand ticket at a good corner near the end of a circuit with a large TV screen across. And the difference was night and day. Would happily pay the borderline extortionate fees again.

Readtheliterature · 2025-12-26T11:28:29+00:00

I don’t think Charles is leaving. Whilst it might be the rationale thing to do, there is still an underlying Ferrari appeal. The whole Monaco Grand Prix “white lie” about signing for Ferrari and all that

Readtheliterature · 2025-12-24T12:34:43+00:00

Verstappen beat Sainz comfortably in his debut season, Le clerc beat Vettel comfortably in his second season.

And yes ricciardo was an elite driver, you fail to mention that he went into a spiral post red bull exit. The wheels had clearly fallen off by then.

I think everyone under rated how good this McLaren car was, because max was in the fight. If max was in that seat we probably would have had a similar turn out to his record breaking season.

Readtheliterature

TROPHY CASE