In this episode Patrick and Benji recap the previous stages of the 2026 Giro d’Italia Women.
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🇦🇺 Patrick Broe – Host: https://www.youtube.com/@LanterneRougeCycling & https://www.instagram.com/the_lanterne_rouge_/ & https://www.twitter.com/lanternerougeyt
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35 Comments
Trinca-Colonel learnt today that cyclismo only works if you are much better than the rest and it also affects your GC.
2025 tdff, FDJ sent demi, berthet, muzic, chabbey, kraak, le net, wollaston. With the rise of Koch and Dickson, who are they replacing on 2026 line up?
I really enjoyed that TT, all the different setups and pacing. Reuser with a normal bike and a really strong finish, Vollering on her TT bike but not in TT position on the climb, cracking a bit at the end and AvdB in the TT position start to finish was incredible to watch.
What if they weigh Weibes bike 5 times, and the weights are 6.78, 6.73, 6.74, 6. 75 and 6.77. Will u complain why does it says different weight, therefore, this is invalid
I just find the discourse surrounding this DSQ atrocious. A: UCI has to be way more transparent, and the outdated and archaic SOPs have to be amended. B: People generally do not understand statistics, which derails all coherent discourse. C: The output by various journalists have been obscene. Sporza and GCN in particular posting rumours as facts without verifying anything.
Nono the 50gr difference was compared to the 6,78kg, they said the other measurement was 6,83kg that's why they said the weighing was bad.
The pronunciation of Chladonova – Ch is pronounced the same way as Dutch G. Benji said the rest of the name pretty well.
While the UCI process probably isn’t very scientific and it should be more transparent, it’s hard to feel bad for SDWorx. The UCI has presumably used this process to weight countless bikes and none of them have ever weight issues. SDWorx messed up and Wiebes was forced to pay the price because of how the rules is written
Great pod.
Lads, where can we see the womens climbing performance w/kg numbers?!
What if it was the opposite and Van der breggen lost vuelta due to the gearing and is now on another level with no shenanigans 🤷🏻
I couldn't watch it, there was no stream😢. Women's cycling needs to be made more accessible
– Would the punishment be the same if her socks were too high? Which is legit a bigger gain than 20 grams.
– Would the punishment be the same if the clear second for three stages isn't Italian?
– Do we know the UCI as a fair, non-corrupt organization that doesn't bend or apply the rules in a way that fits their lobbies?
– Would this even make sense as cheating for SDWorx knowing Wiebes will win with a 98% certainty and thus her bike will get weight?
I get four times no…
Also, that rule is from 2000 so that number makes no sense today. It only hinders innovation and disproportionately hurts lighter riders.
It's not about women's bike vs men's bikes. It was and should be about safety to prevent cutting corners etc. About preventing a frame too crack when you hit a pothole at 70kph.
She cheated. Goodbye baby. Team must be completely stupid allowing it to happen in the first place.
I can understand the lighter the bike, the better on climbing, but sprinting, I would of thought a heavier bike, the more the speed the larger muscle group to push.
seems like she lost a weight ballast piece in stage. given how light everything is. they add the needed grams to the ideal balance point. the limit does need to come down. nobody's bike breaks because of strength sacrificing for weight. they were forcing demi on the front. she almost had to put a foot down and had to go all the way to the back to get off the front. they had to drop the pace to walking for dickson to come back between reps of the finish. demi isn't in top form for whatever reason. the entire group treated demi like the men should do pogi.
When you are pushing the limits, inevitably, you will eventually go over it. Coming from a Formula One background, there is nothing controversial about this.
calibrating the scale to where you are in the world is a legit concern at 20g of difference.
weibes should have deeper wheels if her bike is that light
FINALLY!
I weigh 41kg, 6.8kg is 1/6th my body weight… like the handle bar width rule, imo there should be some sort of sliding scale… I also think airplane seat pricing should be based on your combined luggage and body weight 😂 small person grudges!!
anyone with half a brain would have all the bikes at +100 gram to account for scale variations. only sdw's stupidity and hubris would go to the limit at 6.8 Kg. any continental and pro team would have done this, let alone a wwt. sdw deserved and had ask for this. sdw put everyone under such pressure.
yay urska
If the bike is not heavy enough according to the rules. its a dq! simple
everybody knows the rules and its his own responsibility to comply with them.
I come from kart racing and there you have minimum weight for kart plus driver and its weighted after the race/session and there are the same clowns aswell which always complain.
But in reality its pretty simple. what matters is what the scale of the officialls tell. Everybodys own scale is the right one otherwise xD.
Theres one solution, to have some safety cushion.
And anyways, to be so close with the weight is kinda a joke, especially considering its a flat stage and the physiological build of wiebes.
the risk their taking is so unecessary, to play then a victim…. kinda unecessary
in other words, unecessary risks taken, cause unecessary drama that hurts the sport and especially the women cycling more then anything.
cause for casuals, the newsline they read is just : winner dq d cause bike to light….
It’s called Alpe d’HuZes for a reason Patrick 😉
Also, you guys gonna talk about Grischa leaving TVL?
For the team, it should be a matter of weighing up the risks. As a team, you have to ask yourselves whether it really makes sense to push the weight right down to the lower limit. Does this slight weight saving really offer such a significant advantage compared to the risk of falling below the minimum weight during a weighing? I don’t think so. It makes much more sense to leave a small buffer to rule out the risk of being disqualified. An excess weight of 100 grams certainly has almost no impact, especially not for a sprinter. Regardless of tolerances of the weighing, the team must definitely look to themselves for the blame here.
as soon as the uci dq's pogacar, seixas, remco, matty vdp, van aert at the tour for 20g on the bike, well, then, you can argue that they're just following rules.
Hi, finally something I do know about. The weighing protocol should be available, including requirement for calibration and therefore a calibration certificate from an external calibration body which is certified by an international body (ISO). Each weight, including your tomatoes from the grocer, should be traceable back to the international definition of a kilogram through laws and certification bodies. Metrology is the term to search. Cheers!
Were i sdworx i would be scrutinising that weighing process. Show us the calibration ticket of the scale, the setup, more repeats of weighing (2 times doesn't even give an average). The whole process seems scientifically unjustifiable. Ive worked in commercial labs and if i weighed something and got a 50 gram variance over 7ish kg i would have been recalibrating the scale and taking more readings. If i submitted that report to a supervisor they would throw it back at my face and tell me to run it again.
It's straight up not accurate enough to make such huge decisions like dq's
It should just be weight proportional to height of the rider gender does not matter. Simple math then multiple height of rider by constant get weight limit.
Great pod
I really miss the 7 minute daily recaps LR used to do. Summarized the stages so well.
Do you think an Italian in the pink jersey was the motivation with all the benefits that has for the race organizers? I hope they sue the UCI
Really enjoying this race Demi has to attack on every mountain stage if she wants to win.
Why are we talking women's vs men's frame weights because the riders have a different weight in general? The rule isn't about competition, it's about safety.
Like the minimum car weight in F1. To prevent cutting corners. To prevent a frame disintegrating when you hit a pothole at 70kph.
If the weights go down, it's a smaller part of the total for everyone thus still decreasing the relative punishment for lighter riders.
Any serious organization would have a formula or steps from the start to gradually reduce that limit.