welcome back to the gcn racing news show coming up this week why did Primos rogl get a 20c penalty at lab Welter and was it Justified I'll be looking back at the incident and giving my own opinion on it I'll also wrap up the second week of that race and look back at the renew tour in which Lotto Destiny looked like a team that was not particularly cohesive this week in the world of race racing we learned that substitutions are now a thing in professional bike racing that was little turns making his professional debut we also learned that UAE team Emirates had a more unwelcome Podium guest at their team sign on at La Welter and finally we learned that Primos rogich is a little further from the lead of lab wter than he'd have hoped at the end of the second week of racing Ben o Conor crossed the line at the end of Stage 15 and as he did so it looked as though his lead was down to just 43 seconds but in the subsequent race communic it was revealed that the UCR had given rogl a 20 second penalty why for drafting behind his team car having changed his bike ahead of the summit finish nothing abnormal about that it happens all the time right but this was a little different so firstly rogl didn't change his bike due to any kind of problem with it he changed it because he wanted a different bike with different gear ratio for the Steep final climb so it was his own choice rather than through necessity secondly he drafted behind his own team car which for some strange reason is often frowned upon more than if you draft behind the vehicle of another team I should probably read the rule according to UCI rule 4.7 of article 212. 7 Sheltering behind or taking advantage of the slipstream of a vehicle in a world Tour stage race can result in a 200 Swiss frank fine a 20% penalty in the points and mountains classification and a Time penalty of between 20 seconds and 5 minutes so in this instance rogl along with teammates adrea and Martinez received a 200 Swiss frank fine they docked 15 points in the UCI classification Four Points in the mountains and Sprint at the Welter and most importantly for rogl he was given a 20 second penalty which is the minimum penalty in this instance now this can be very confusing because as I said before we see this happen blatantly all the time in road races so what's the difference here well the reason that a blind eyes is normally turned is because a rider is returning from a mechanical problem or from a crash you could say that was down to bad luck I guess you could also say it was down to Rider skill or equipment choice but I think that's a good thing that they turn a blind eye there why well I've said this many times before but if you puncture or have a mechanical problem in the first part part of a stage in which the peleton is flying along during Breakaway formation full gas you have no chance zero of getting back to the Pelon off your own steam maybe maybe if your entire team is sent back you can get back on but unless you're a big team leader that's not going to happen so if this rule was very strictly applied we'd see a lot of riders going outside the time limit through no fault of their own now for some reason it's deemed worse if you do it behind your own team car rather than others but because of that teams help each other out by helping Riders from rival teams get back to the group they were in after some bad luck but that is where this incident is different it wasn't bad luck it was a choice that was made to get an advantage a bike with different gear ratio to take on steep slopes of the final climb and that for me is a big difference I've said this many times before but if you make the choice to stop it's down to you and your team is to get you back maybe you can take a bit of shelter behind other team cars even that I don't agree with but you can't just get back on behind your own team car so I completely agree with the decision in this instance And Rog is actually lucky they went with the minimum time sanction and whilst I'm at it I'll reiterate my stance on this in hilly time Trails too if you choose to swap your bike because you think it'll give you an advantage you should not be allowed to have your mechanic push you back up to speed it's it's a choice that you and the team have made so that time trial should be done solely with the power in your legs not with assistance however small along the way if a rider didn't change bikes would it be acceptable to see a mechanic hop out during the steepest parts and give them a push of course not so why is it all right when you choose to change bikes end of rant but let me know what you think did the punishment fit the crime or was RL unfairly penalized get involved in the comments section below back to the race then for RIT The Climb to ctin negro didn't allow him to land The Knockout blow he' probably hoped for his team and especially lipitz did a fantastic job in setting him up for an attack but unlike the previous day he wasn't really able to push home his advantage in fact after opening up a really decent Gap from his initial acceleration roget was caught and then dropped by enck mass it wasn't a disaster he caught him again by the Finish possibly due to his better gear ratios but but it wasn't what he and the team would have expected or hoped for ok Conor conceded 38 seconds but take the penalty into account and that was just 18 seconds meaning that he takes a 1 minute 3 second Advantage overall glitch into the third final week of the race never incidentally has an Australian led a grand tour for more days in succession than Ben o Conor who's now held the red jersey for 10 days unfortunately for him it does seem that the writing is on the wall if we look at the second week of race so his lead has been slashed by 2 minutes and 50 seconds over the last six stages with six more stages to come including plenty of climbs and an individual time trial on the final day it does feel like it's ritch's race to lose but this is lab Welter where nothing is predictable and seemingly Anything Can Happen of all the grand Tours this season there's never been more to play for going into the final week this is how the general classification looks uh behind rogl Mass a further 1 minute 20 down in third carapaz is another 19 seconds behind that and Lander is only 21 seconds behind carapaz so they're certainly not out of the game either there's a bigger Gap from Lander to lipitz then in sixth but between him and COV in 10th there's only 41 seconds there's a lot that could change there too and it's not just the GC where there's a lot still to fight for the Youth classification is incredibly tight lipitz leads that now but Rodriguez is breathing down his neck at just 7 Seconds and a resurgent mat skill motor is at only 18 seconds again all to play for and it's the same with the mountains vanar and Vine are now locked together with 46 Points each but Casto who I'll get on to in a minute is closing in on them with 37 points and cair probably doesn't think he's out of the equation either the two classifications that do seem fairly settled are the teams in which UAE lead by half an hour and the points where vanar enjoys a 109 Point advantage over Caden Groves so you should definitely keep your eyee on L wela for the next 6 days there's going to be a lot of exciting racing still you can catch up on what you've missed if you've missed any on Discovery Plus or Max uh where indeed you can watch a full season of bike racing both live and On Demand Pablo Casto then what a week it's been for him and a keeper Kern farmer now I did give him a brief mention in our big Welter preview because he was seventh overall at the welta Burgos and has had a very consistent season but I certainly was not expecting him to take two stage wins both of them have come from breakaways the first of which came on stage 12 where he outwitted and outp powerered the likes of nav Solair and P to take the biggest win of his career to that point but it was yesterday's stage that was the most impressive and what was arguably the hardest climb of this Welter he got the better of two of the best climbers in the world now admittedly COV was riding more for GC than for the stage on the day but nevertheless he's been climbing really well in this race to get the better of vlassov though that was a true indication of how good castri is now the two of them have both been able to sit on civico for most of that final climb so they didn't get the better of him fair and square well that was some serious power going through the pedals it might not have been pretty but it was very very effective uh Groves is also up to two stage wins at the race now but I bet he didn't expect that one to come on Saturday which was a full on Mount Mountain stayed with a first category climb near the end admittedly they weren't the steepest gradients on that climb but nevertheless he and Alberton de kernik rode out of their skins to get the win that day now we all said that this wasn't a race for the sprinters this year but it just goes to show what's possible when you're climbing as well as Groves he got the better of w vanard that day who has also been the W vanard of old at this race he took a third stage win this time from a breakaway on day 10 and he's been active almost every single day if he can win the points and the K Jersey he'll be the first to do so at the welta since Jose Maria gimenez 23 years ago there was a big win for Jak alula on stage 11 Eddie Dunbar taking the biggest win of his career so far whilst Michael Woods was a very popular winner two days later on the Puerto anares that was the third Welter stage of his career and that wraps things up from a Welter point of view with a week remaining let me know your predictions down below I'm to play it safe and say Rog glitch for the win uh Mass second and Ben o Conor hanging on for third Vine for the mountains and skill motor for the best young Rider in fact if one of you can correctly predict the final top 10 of lab Welter in the correct order I'm going to personally send you this hoodie speaking of which you can buy this very hoodie great segue or the T-shirt I'm wearing over at shop. Global cycling network.com there there are a heap of different designs to choose from over there and it's also where you're going to find our Spanish themed GC and Camelback water bottles which are also available for purchase uh in limited quantities at this point they are by far in a way the best bottles I've ever used Camelback so they come highly recommended by me on to the reny tour then and I'll start with the final stage because that's freshest in my mind going into it Alex cigar or Lotto Destiny was leading by 7 Seconds over Magnus Sheffield curtesy the belgians win in the individual time trial the final day of that race is generally the hardest though and so it was always going to be a difficult task to defend that lead particularly with Tim wellin at just 16 seconds a man who'd won that race three times before but it's even harder to defend your lead when one of your teammates is effectively working against you I would pay good money to know what the team strategy was before and during that final stage it was almost like they'd resigned poor cigar to not having the ability to defend his lead and just told him to do what he could to defend himself meanwhile his teammate Belgian Champion ano Dee was not just following loads of moves but actively contributing to the PACE setting despite his teammate being behind I don't know about anyone else but I thought that was a bit bizarre a because cigar was in the lead of Jersey and B because even if the Lee was only looking after his own Ambitions surely having the leader of the race behind you as a a teammate gives you the perfect excuse to sit on and not work on this occasion it kind of paid off for them dele took the stage win and cigar held on for second overall behind wellin and given that there was 40 seconds between them in the end it is unlikely he'd have held his overall lead even with the health didly but anyway I thought their tactics were curious should we say the other three stages were all bunt Sprints and in the first two of those Jonathan Milan asserted his pedigree as one of if not the best Sprinter in the world right now on both occasions he slipped in between Vanderpool and philipson and on neither occasion could philipson get around the Italian Stallion philipsson did get his stage win on day four though where it looked like Milan just ran out of legs we didn't really get to see much of Tim malier and Dylan Kagan in the Sprints mainly because malier took gunan out on a really stupid throw to the line on the first of those Sprint stages so malier had sort of sat up and stopped pedling but then seemed to decide he didn't want grun Megan come past so he veered slightly and then lunged to the line they had a coming together which resulted in both of them hitting the deck an incident which left the Dutchman with a broken collarbone so he of course left the race Malia abandoned the race soon after as well and just a quick word on pan haers who was third overall in that race his ride on the final day was exceptional in the break for the whole day and then still strong enough to hang in with the big guns when they rode across I'm telling you that guy is as strong as the nox I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him win one of the big Belgian Classics next year some transfer updates for you now and the 2025 Leal Trek women's Squad was completed last week with the signing of NE Fisher black the 24 year-old New Zealander won a big stage at the jro women's this season and spent the last few years with SD Works Lizzie Dagan has also extended with leel Trek for one more season Yan hit is set to join Israel Premier Tech on a 2-year deal which i' say is a blow to Remco aipo if he stays at sudal quickstep I say if as there are rumors that he's looking to leave that team ahead of his contract ending with a speculation this year being a move to Red Bull Bor hands grower aan have been one of the busiest teams in the transfer market over the last couple of weeks and their latest recruit is the veteran Italian Diego ulissi 35-year-old has won at least one Pro Race every season since 2010 and we spend the next two years with a St sh B will also be moving on from UAE team Emirates he'll be at q36.5 next year D vano transfers from Total energies to Su our quickstep while Jakob alula snapped up 22-year-old Brit Robert donton who was second at Parry rube Sr this year in other news zwift have extended their sponsorship of the tour to France fam for another year which will take them up to five in total uh many people say the race wouldn't have got off the ground in the first place were it not for their backing of it so well done to zwift on giving a leg up to the most important race in women's cycling it's been a resounding success already and will only go from strength to strength I'm sure right then that is all for this week's race and new show don't forget to get involved in the RLS discussion below and let me know your top 10 predictions for lab Welter I'll see you next week