ION IZAGIRRE SOLED to victory at the end of an explosive stage 12 of the Tour de France to Belleville-en-Beaujolais.
Eleven days after Victor Lafay ended a 15-year wait for a stage win for the Cofidis team, Izagirre doubled up with a perfectly-timed attack from the breakaway.
The Basque rider, 34, went solo during the final climb, still with 31 kilometres remaining of the 169km stage through wine country from Roanne that was again raced at a ferocious pace.
The much-reduced peloton came in more than four minutes after Izagirre, with Jonas Vingegaard retaining his 17-second lead over Tadej Pogacar as the Alps loom this weekend, but only after putting a big effort in over the first part of the stage which could come with a price to pay in the days ahead.
The stage was always seen as one for the breakaway, but it was a war of attrition from the off as the peloton was quickly whittled down to a few dozen riders by a series of attacks.
With his Jumbo-Visma team-mates Wout Van Aert and and Tiesj Benoot seemingly determined to be in any move, Vingegaard was repeatedly left isolated in the yellow jersey, repeatedly forced to chase down moves as Jai Hindley, third overall, followed the wheels to protect his own position.
It was not until 85 kilometres to go that a 15-strong group got away, but even as a peloton by then reduced to just 39 sat up, their lead never ballooned, the efforts of the first half of the stage perhaps leaving them with little energy left to apply themselves.
Having taken half the stage to form, the break lasted less than 40km as a fighting force. Mathieu Van Der Poel attacked from that front group along with Andrey Amador on the penultimate climb of the Col de la Croix Montmain, soon leaving Amador behind to set out alone with 47km left.
But it was too much for the Dutchman, who was caught midway up the final climb of the Col de la Croix Rosier as the front group swelled to eight.
Izagirre had led the chase, but still had the power left to launch the stage-winning move as he arrived at the line 58 seconds clear Mathieu Burgaudeau and Matteo Jorgenson in second and third.
The Ineos Grenadiers had done much to pace the main contenders in the latter part of the stage, ensuring that Thibaut Pinot’s presence in the breakaway did not threaten Pidcock’s eighth place overall as the Frenchman moved up as far as 10th.
The Tour now heads into the Alps with Friday’s stage a 138km test that ends with the climb of the Grand Colombier.
Stupid idea to move minors to u17. Far too much of a gap between 17and 21 year olds. Would end up losing more players to other sports at the critical 18-20 age bracket. Minor championship is fantastic the way it is please don’t touch it.
RE plan for minor to be u17 whats happens to u16. Does this also mean that u21 is only open to those above 19.
I agree with nearly all their ideas.
Why not have the League Finals on St. Patrick’s Day?
Their reasoning for moving the Minor grade is sound. I would imagine they’ll move to an under 20 grade too, this would probably mean less clashes with senior games.
Why not play the Inter-Provincials around the time of the All-Ireland quarter finals or semi finals? With only a few counties still in the All-Ireland and club championships notoriously slow to get going there will be many inter county standard footballers willing to play top class competition.
Players just missing the cut in their home county should definitely be placed in a draft from which the weaker counties can pick. 4 players for Division 4 counties, 3 for Division 3 counties. After two seasons the players should be allowed reapply for their native county or else extend their draft period by another year.
A draft system similar to that in American sports is the obvious way to bolster the weaker counties. Keep the draft players within their native province to cut down travel times, I can’t see an issue with a couple of Dubs playing with Carlow for two years, Mayomen with Leitrim or Corkmen with Waterford. The players involved get to play in high quality competition and bring that experience back to their native counties, everybody’s a winner.
I’ll outline how the FRC could fix the Football Championships below. Eugene McGee could drop me a line and we’ll hammer out the finer details together!
The optimum system for the All-Ireland Football Championship should be:
A) Get rid of the January/February tournaments, move the League forward with the top 2 playing a League final in March.
B) The All-Ireland C’ship should be played like the World Cup. 33 teams in 7 groups of 4 and 1 group of 5. Seed the teams according to their finishing positions in the League, thereby linking the League and C’ship. Play the 3(4) round robin stage matches of the All-Ireland at neutral venues (except for New York and London who should play their matches at home) in April and May.
C) The 4 Provincial C’ships should be straight knock-out. They should be played in May/June, it may be necessary for the preliminary rounds of the Ulster and Leinster C’ships to overlap with the round robin stage of the All-Ireland. These titles remain a valid chance for meaningful silverware for all counties.
D) With the Provincial titles decided the All-Ireland C’ship Round of 16 takes place in late June, group winners getting the choice of home venue. Two weeks later the 1/4 Finals are held at neutral venues. Two weeks later the Semi Finals are held at Croke Park.
E) In mid August play the All-Ireland Football Final in glorious sunshine in Croke Park. All counties would have had at least 4 c’ship matches spread throughout the country. All counties would have had two shots at meaningful silverware. London and New York have a few home matches each year to spread the gospel of GAA. There are no dead rubbers.