Round One, Match Nine: Eli Iserbyt V. Mads Pedersen

Round Two, Match Six: Simon Geschke v. Mattias Skjelmose

Simon Geschke Propaganda

Personal: Simon Geschke is an old man with a magnificent beard, born in East-Berlin (a soft pisces with a fiery aries moon, we stan a king) and despite living in the south of Germany for a while now he never lost his perfect accent and his dry pragmatic way of looking at the world. He is vegan and has a french bulldog (which...okay...), and his favorite hobby is fiddling with his Schwalbe, a vintage GDR scooter.

Professional: The son of a track cycling world champion probably learned to bike before he learned to walk. Now he rides for Cofidis as a mountain specialist and helper for Guillaume Martin. Biggest moment was gaining the polka dot jersey in the 2022 Tour de France. He held it for nine days and did a special and adorable video for KIKA, the kid's channel, where he counted all the dots on the jersey for the kids. There are 75 dots. Here is the video:

Mattias Skjelmose Propaganda (provided by poll-runner)

Personal: He’s a super lovely guy with an adorable smile, looks like an elf, likes a cheeky bit of gossip and has no filter, great friends with Mads Pedersen.

One time he crashed and fell 15m down a ravine, climbed back up himself and yelled “I’m fine, just give me a new bike” which is just. Insane to me

Professional: He’s had a really interesting journey as a rider. He was on top of the world as a junior, rivalling Remco Evenepoel, but was a total dick. Then he got banned for doping because he took some contaminated dietary supplements. Came back a year later and then signed to Trek-Segafredo (much to the irritation of Mads Pedersen, who knocked on Mattias’ hotel room door and asked him why he should believe he had changed, but found himself pleasantly surprised by the type of guy Mattias now was) and now he’s thirteenth on the individual UCI ranking. Rouleur did a great article on him:

Rouleur

Mattias Skjelmose never gives up

This article was originally published in Issue 117 of Rouleur magazine.  I first met Mattias Skjelmose in the spring of 2018. He was 17 year

The Bracket

Here is the official bracket for the Tumblr’s favourite cyclist poll. Round one will take place on Sunday. Apologies for the low quality, it’s more legible when you click on the image.

THE FINAL: Tadej Pogačar v. Jonas Vingegaard

All propaganda under the cut:

Tadej Pogačar Propaganda

Jonas Vingegaard Propaganda

He is CUTE, he is SMOL, he has a CUTE NOSE and FRECKLES and EYES AS BLUE AS THE ENDLESS SKY---

OK no but seriously, he's amazing. As absurd as it can sound since this is one of the best riders in the world, he's always the underdog in people's minds. Somehow, no one ever thinks "OK I think Jonas is going to win this stage today", and when he does, they're like "OK he won but he still wasn't out of this world, it's because the others were having a bad day", and when he has a stellar day they're like "HE'S DOPING FOR SURE". It's like nothing he ever does is good enough and YET he doesn't give a fuck and keeps performing despite the pressure.

Being consistently good when everyone expects you to win is talent, but being consistently good when everyone hopes you'll lose is something else too.

And he's an incredible human being to boot. He's kind, he's compassionate, he's sensitive, he doesn't have a mean bone in him, he's affectionate, thoughtful. Remember that time during TdF 2022 when he asked Grischa to tell him if he could slow down at the end of the TT to let Wout win the stage? Yeah. He's that kind of guy.

He's a crier. It's cute and it makes me want to hug him. He loves his family and he always has a good word for his rivals and he's humble and I relate so much to his introverted personality and he's a cinnamon roll and a cutie patootie. But when he puts on his sunglasses, he looks like A WAR MACHINE.

(but a cute one)

He got a lot of heat when he didn't wait for Sepp on the Angliru during this Vuelta, only the instructions of the team before that clusterfuck stage were to battle it out between them and he probably liked it even less than us because he wanted Sepp to win the Vuelta from the beginning.

And need I say anything about the absolute sportsmanship of this man? When he lost his balance in the Col of Spandelles, TdF 2022, Tadej didn't miss the opportunity and powered away from him, but when Tadej was the one who crashed two minutes later, he waited for him. HE WAITED FOR HIM.

And he made the sport all the better for it and gave us one of the finest images in cycling history.

if you like MvDP, consider that though in these days when van der Poel is showing up with a mullet, Jonas did long hair earlier and better.

though there has been a change of style

If you like WvA, consider that some of the BEST hug pictures only exist due to Jonas being the kind of teammate whom others want to hug AND eminently sized for hugs/lifts

(we've all seen this but we can look at it again)

He's got sportsmanship. He's got incredible skills. He's even a dad! Maybe he's not always good at smiling for the cameras but he can sure smile for his family

Most importantly, he's a TdF winner with the time trial of the year and he cannot ride his goddamn bike without hands without his body language screaming oh god someone help me

Third-Place Playoff: Matej Mohorič v. Wout van Aert

Matej Mohorič Propaganda

YouTube

Post-race interview - Stage 19 - Tour de France 2023

The Tour de France 2023 will hold its Grand Départ in the Basque Country, with a first stage in Bilbao on 1st July, and will finish in Paris

Wout van Aert Propaganda

muddy wout. you agree

Look how pretty he is. Look how dad-shaped he is. Don’t make him sad.

I’m gonna be honest with you, I don’t think he’s pretty. But he’s human. He’s fierce. He never gives up. He comes back from having a rag stuck in his chain to freaking winning races. He comes back from giving it his all in pulling to… pull again and leave all of his leader’s adversaries behind. He may not have won much this year, but he still gave 125% and it was a joy to see.

And

Most importantly

He’s kind!

He has kind eyes. He is friend-shaped. He is generous with his teammates. You can tell that, while he’s focused on himself (as every and all athletes), he never forgets that he is not alone in this, and he honors the other cyclists both from his team and the peloton as a whole. He doesn’t leave people behind. He passes on victories to reward the efforts they put in for him in past races.

He has honor and courage and class and panache. So so much panache.

He is, truly, my favourite cyclist.

Thibaut Pinot is through!

Round Two, Match Eight: Remco Evenepoel v. Thibaut Pinot

Remco Evenepoel Propaganda

No propaganda submitted.

Thibaut Pinot Propaganda

No propaganda submitted.

Round One, Match Two: Mathieu van der Poel v. Michael Vanthourenhout

Mathieu van der Poel Propaganda

No propaganda submitted.

Michael Vanthourenhout Propaganda

Tall and super blonde, he is Eli Iserbyt's knight in a shiny armor and won the cyclocross European Championship twice so his jersey can match his role.

I just love Eli and Michael, and watch them race together in cross. They bring team tactics in cyclocross races and it works.

Mathieu van der Poel is through to round two!

Round One, Match Two: Mathieu van der Poel v. Michael Vanthourenhout

Mathieu van der Poel Propaganda

No propaganda submitted.

Michael Vanthourenhout Propaganda

Tall and super blonde, he is Eli Iserbyt's knight in a shiny armor and won the cyclocross European Championship twice so his jersey can match his role.

I just love Eli and Michael, and watch them race together in cross. They bring team tactics in cyclocross races and it works.

Mattias Skjelmose is through!

Round Two, Match Six: Simon Geschke v. Mattias Skjelmose

Simon Geschke Propaganda

Personal: Simon Geschke is an old man with a magnificent beard, born in East-Berlin (a soft pisces with a fiery aries moon, we stan a king) and despite living in the south of Germany for a while now he never lost his perfect accent and his dry pragmatic way of looking at the world. He is vegan and has a french bulldog (which...okay...), and his favorite hobby is fiddling with his Schwalbe, a vintage GDR scooter.

Professional: The son of a track cycling world champion probably learned to bike before he learned to walk. Now he rides for Cofidis as a mountain specialist and helper for Guillaume Martin. Biggest moment was gaining the polka dot jersey in the 2022 Tour de France. He held it for nine days and did a special and adorable video for KIKA, the kid's channel, where he counted all the dots on the jersey for the kids. There are 75 dots. Here is the video:

Mattias Skjelmose Propaganda (provided by poll-runner)

Personal: He’s a super lovely guy with an adorable smile, looks like an elf, likes a cheeky bit of gossip and has no filter, great friends with Mads Pedersen.

One time he crashed and fell 15m down a ravine, climbed back up himself and yelled “I’m fine, just give me a new bike” which is just. Insane to me

Professional: He’s had a really interesting journey as a rider. He was on top of the world as a junior, rivalling Remco Evenepoel, but was a total dick. Then he got banned for doping because he took some contaminated dietary supplements. Came back a year later and then signed to Trek-Segafredo (much to the irritation of Mads Pedersen, who knocked on Mattias’ hotel room door and asked him why he should believe he had changed, but found himself pleasantly surprised by the type of guy Mattias now was) and now he’s thirteenth on the individual UCI ranking. Rouleur did a great article on him:

Rouleur

Mattias Skjelmose never gives up

This article was originally published in Issue 117 of Rouleur magazine.  I first met Mattias Skjelmose in the spring of 2018. He was 17 year

Round One, Match Twelve: Mattias Skjelmose v. João Almeida

Mattias Skjelmose Propaganda

No propaganda submitted.

João Almeida Propaganda

No propaganda submitted.

Quarter-Finals, Match Two: Primož Roglič v. Tadej Pogačar

Primož Roglič Propaganda

No propaganda submitted.

Tadej Pogačar Propaganda

No propaganda submitted.