#bahrain 2024 day unknown

[ummick]

"Wrapping up a the WEC season at the finale! Grateful for all the memories on and off the track. Thank you @.alpine_endurance_team but especially a big thank you to @.nico_lapierre and @.matt_vaxiviere , it was great to have had the experience of sharing a car with you guys." - november 3, 2024 📷 @.mickschumacher / instagram

[umlewis]

📷 @.giuliatoninelli_ / instagram

[umgeorge]

"⏪️ Re-e-e-e-e-e-wind, when the crowd say bo selection 😉 🔵 𝗚𝗥𝟲𝟯, #𝗕𝗮𝗵𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗚𝗣 𝗘𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 📸" - march 13, 2024 📷 @.sebkawka / instagram

[umseb]

"Bahrain GP (1st Race): 4th place (Bahrain International Circuit) – Narrowly missing the podium." - april 8, 2024 📷 @.sebastianvettel / instagram

[presdestigatto]

i need to hear all your thoughts on the situation because i’m currently shitting myself

hey hello!! did you sleep through the chaos 👀 never in my wildest dreams did i imagine this would happen, we were talking about alex and yuki and ollie and now we have lewis hamilton 😭 we found out it was an option and within a day it became official!! i’ve never gone through so many emotions in my LIFE

Before Skysports put out their confirmation I did a small doom post here (and then they announced it and my brother sent me the screenshot of the Skysports post and i had the most fevered five hours of my life). I think my thoughts remain mainly the same 12h after the official announcements? I think we’re all concerned about how this is going to affect team dynamics. My thoughts on this are:

-We’re free from the Sainz clan and the Spanish media 😭😭 Worst fucking experience of my life.

-I’m not too worried about incidents on track because Lewis and Charles are both really clean racers. I know we all have some lingering shadow from the Sebchal era, but I think (and I may be wrong) that Lewis has only had Spain 2016 against him in this regard. I think the racing will be exciting and I’m looking forward to it.

My primary concern is that apparently Lewis reached out to Elkann 3 weeks ago. Now this is giving me stress ulcers because:

-It sounds like Ferrari did not put too much thought into how they’re going to manage two no.1 drivers. It sounds like Elkann jumped at the opportunity to sign Lewis Hamilton.

-Looking at that multi-year contract, I am 99% sure Lewis has been promised equal treatment. A 2+1 contract is not some pre-retirement fun. And kudos to them both for believing they can beat each other but I will be very!! stressed!!

-How does this factor into Fred’s restructuring because I doubt he was planning to sign a driver of Lewis’ calibre. Ultimately though it’s good for Ferrari as a team- if the car is good we’re going to witness some real racing and maybe even end RB’s domination before the new regs (haha.)

But as a 1644 enjoyer I think 2025-2028 (if neither of them utilise their exit clauses) will be a fun ride and I hope one way or another the title is coming back to Maranello. (In my delusion I think Charles can take 2024, 2025 and Lewis can have 2026) Honestly? I hope Charles bags the wdc this year so twitter is a bit less of a hellhole going into 2025. There are so many unknowns right now, the press conference in Bahrain will be so juicy and I can’t wait.

I think we just have to look at the positives and have faith in Charles as a driver. I’m just going to enjoy this season first and hope Seb’s returning in 2025 🥹 lmklmklmk what u think too!!

[johnsellph]

Monday Shorts

The racing is back and it’s been majestic to see the peloton crossing the landscape in real races instead of riders bobbing around on their balconies for virtual competitions. The blog is back too and time for a quick spin through some current topics before some more detailed pieces in the coming days…

Small races are suddenly a big deal. Normally at Vuelta a Burgos and the Route d’Occitanie you look for two things: form ahead of the Vuelta and Tour de France, and to see some young riders given their chance (remember Pierre “Roger” Latour battling it out with Alberto Contador and Nairo Quintana?). Now these races are feasts after the lockdown famine. They’re further enhanced by more World Tour teams than usual, each bringing their best riders: starlists instead of startlists. With little time until the Tour de France and other big races every day counts.

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Still Remco Evenepoel managed to be both the young rider to watch and the star name in Burgos. He passes each test he’s set. Turn pro aged 19? Win a time trial? Win a summit finish? Win a stage race? He’d done all that by February. Now he’s won atop the Picon Blanco in Burgos, a longer summit finish compared to February’s Alto de Fóia and he dropped some of the best climbers in the world like George Bennett, Esteban Chaves, Simon Yates and Mikel Landa. It earned him a headline in the evening’s TV bulletin in Belgium, alongside the bankruptcy of a big Belgian retailer, the Coronavirus and Donald Trump. The next test is a longer climb, say, 40 minutes and then coping with several climbs in a stage, then doing this deep into a grand tour. You wouldn’t bet against him.

  Saturday’s Strade Bianche saw two convincing winners. Annemiek van Vleuten’s was the obvious favourite before the start but her victory wasn’t obvious until late in the race, she seemed out of contention only to surge past the chase group solo and hunt down lone leader Mavi Garcia. Then even the finish wasn’t obvious, perhaps van Vleuten would pay for the intense chase and cramp? Of course not. In the men’s race Wout van Aert went solo too. Watching the race he seemed the problem for the other riders, who would want to take him to the finish given his power and sprint? Only he turned this around, dropping the climbers on the Tolfe climb to go solo.

Milan-Sanremo will get a preview here soon. It was impossible to do one for the Strade Bianche because form is so unknown but now we’re beginning to see the riders in action. The big twist with Sanremo is the route change, local mayors along the coast have vetoed the race’s visit so it spends more time inland, crossing the arid Ligurian Alps before reaching the coast just in time for the Cipressa, it’s more olive oil than gelato now. There’s more climbing and this comes later in the race but it’s mostly on a big road that’s well engineered with a series of viaducts and tunnels. It’s a slight tilt away from the pure sprinters but otherwise similar, the big difference will be the feel of the race without the procession along the coast, the familiar towns.

On the subject of route changes, it’s official now that the Tour de France will start in Copenhagen in 2022 rather than as planned next year. This means re-routing the plan for 2021 and a start in France, with Brittany tipped by a local newspaper as the most likely option. The city of Saint Etienne has been cropping up again and again on the route of Paris-Nice and the Dauphiné and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Tour start there, but if not 2021 then perhaps 2023?

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Today’s challenge is more whether the Tour de France starts in 2020 as planned. Probably, hopefully, but it’s not certain. It’s great to see the racing back over the weekend but meanwhile events are still being cancelled – the Tour de l’Avenir is the latest – so enjoy what you can. The resumption of sport isn’t a return to normality, you only have to look at the images of riders wearing masks on the startline or podium protocols complete with hand sanitiser pumps on stage. At best cycling has to find ways to manage the risks but rightly the decisions are not down to the sport, it’s national governments and local health agencies. With pro cycling restricted to Europe now (the Canadian World Tour races cancelled, the Japan Cup is off, we’ll see for the Tour of Thailand… and the Tour of Guangxi has vanished off the UCI calendar), case numbers are rising in some countries including France and travel restrictions and conditions are being reimposed. Belgium has just imposed a quarantine on the part of Switzerland where the Worlds will take place so in theory if someone wins the time trial or road race they’re out of the Binck Bank Tour, Liège-Bastogne-Liège etc.

Some cheer for the long term now as Ag2r La Mondiale will become Ag2r Citroën in 2021 as the team gets a co-sponsor. It’s a big deal, literally as it’s bringing millions in extra budget, and from a large company people have actually heard of rather than an unknown foundation. The team has a deal already with Levis for leisure wear where riders must wear their garments, now one or two riders might be worried they’ll have to drive a Citroën for travel to races. As Vincent Lavenu told L’Equipe, it’ll propel the team back towards the front group of teams in terms of budget and crucially it all looks very stable, something the likes of Astana or Bahrain-McLaren can’t offer. We know the team budget is around €18 million, now it’ll be closer to €25 million and secure too with blue-chip backers as Ag2r La Mondiale is on board until at least 2024. Despite the money it still looks like Romain Bardet is leaving which is perhaps best for both sides, it’ll force the team to rebuild, more so since Pierre Latour is leaving too. There are strong hints Greg Van Avermaet will join and the team will have BMC bikes, “GVA” owns a big BMC store in Nazareth but the team need a headliner for the Tour de France as well.

Maybe GVA’s noticed it in his showroom, e-bike sales are surging in Europe. You can read about 23% sales increases and even 60% production surges… or you can visit the Alps and Pyrenees. Many holiday makers in July seemed to have sensible swapped crowded beaches for spacious Alpine pastures and brought e-bikes with them. You see a few senior types on race bikes, like those Pinarellos with the downtube the diameter of a drainpipe, plenty of e-MTBs but for the most part it’s people on ordinary town bikes now scaling hitherto unreachable mountain passes, all in that distinctive low cadence. It’s a lifeline for the precious cafés and restaurants at the top of mountain passes who now get a new clientele.

Reaching a summit by bike can be cause for celebration and commemoration whether you’ve done it under your own steam or with some assistance but someone’s gone too far in their quest for a souvenir: the summit sign at the top of Mont Ventoux was stolen over the weekend. It’s not the first time either.

Monday Shorts published first on https://motocrossnationweb.weebly.com/

[ummick]

📷 @.alpine_endurance_team / instagram

[umlewis]

"😎🆒🆒🆒 🟡🟣 𝗟𝗛𝟰𝟰, #𝗕𝗮𝗵𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗚𝗣 𝗘𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 📸" - march 14, 2024 📷 @.sebkawka / instagram

[umlewis]

📷 @.taidgher / instagram

[umlewis]

via lewis' ig story - march 3, 2024

[umlewis]

"We move 🇧🇭" - march 3, 2024 📷 @.lewishamilton / instagram

[umgeorge]

"The first Grand Prix of the season was a bit of a rollercoaster for @.mercedesamgf1 with strong overtakes but also high engine temperatures which prevented both drivers from unfolding the full potential of the W15. Many learnings for the team as we already head to Jeddah for the #SaudiArabianGP." - march 3, 2024 📷 @.mercedesamgmotorsport / instagram

[umlewis]

📷 @.jerryandrephotography / instagram

[umgeorge]

📷 @.khalifa_alabdan / instagram

[umlewis]

📷 @.f1experiences / instagram

[umgeorge]

📷 @.mercedesamgf1 / instagram