Earlier this week Tadej Pogacar almost short circuited every cycling journalist’s brain with his announcement about the Giro (see some links below), and we’ve enjoyed seeing the debate rage on about whether this year’s Tour will now be diminished without one of its key protagonists (an only true viable competitor to the current champion) and about whether a Giro-Tour double is accomplishable in this era of cycling. It’s been 25 years since Pantani accomplished such a feat. Our hot take on the matter was that we were excited by the news—primarily because it was so unexpected and so inline with Pogacar’s ability to keep us on our toes. We’re fairly confident some interesting narrative will arise during the Tour—the Tour tends to take care of itself. Now, the rest of the year is getting really interesting.

wheels we’re following

kit we’re eyeing

where we’re riding

café-stop reading

One of our most loosely guarded secrets is that we sometime prefer to ride our turbo trainer. Not necessarily because we want to avoid nasty weather or because it’s too dark—though, those can be reasons that enter our calculus for choosing how we want to complete our ride. The most common denominator of our choice to hop on the trainer is time. We can be on the trainer in minutes of realizing we have some time for a session on the bike, and we can be off the trainer if that time magically evaporates because of some unexpected change in daily routines. So, we love seeing articles, like this one in Rouleur, that provided us with a little confirmation bias that we are making smart choices about our cycling preparedness. Ignore the fact that it was sponsored by Zwift.

off the back of the newsletter

Tadej Pogacar is going to ride the Giro (and much more) in 2024. He will also ride the Tour, but a Giro-Tour double has not been accomplished since Pantani in 1998. He’s also the most recent guest on The Café with Matt Stevens and it is required viewing. Tom Pidcock won his first cyclocross race of the season. The Annual Mark Gunter Photo Awards are looking very impressive so far. The Vuelta route is out, and it will begin in Lisbon, Portugal, and in with a TT into Madrid.

If you are enjoying the OTB Cycling Digest