After A Very Closely-fought Battle, Tadej Pogačar Is Through To The Final!

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.

Welcome to the Tumblr’s Favourite Cyclist tournament!

This tournament is focused on the men’s peloton. If there’s demand for it and if I have the time, I’ll do poll for the women’s peloton after this.

You can submit a cyclist for the tournament by messaging this account with the cyclist you’d like to submit, and some propaganda for them too. For a cyclist to be eligible for submission, they have to have been active this year. Cyclists who retired at some point this year are permitted. You can submit anywhere up to five cyclists, but you do not have to submit that many if you don’t want to.

There will be 32 slots overall, but 6 of these slots will be filled by The Big Six (Pogačar, Vingegaard, Evenepoel, Roglič, van Aert and van Der Poel) who will get in automatically. That leaves 26 free slots for any other cyclists, no matter how obscure, who you may like to submit.

Submissions will initially be open for a week, but if we do not have enough cyclists by then I’ll keep them open longer and people who’ve submitted the maximum amount will be allowed more.

If there are more than 26 cyclists submitted, ones with the most submissions will get in. If there are ties for number of submissions that means that it is still unclear, we will run prelims.

In the tournament, each poll will last one week.

This tournament is run by @arriere-du-peloton.

Round One, Match Five: Neilson Powless v. Fabio Jakobsen

Neilson Powless Propaganda

I mean just look at how happy he was starting that many days in the polkadot jersey in the tour this year

Fabio Jakobsen Propaganda

how can you not love a man getting back to such a good level after that harrowing crash. The drama of the 16 sec he had left in one of the mountain stages in the tour of 2022 was *chef's kiss*

Tadej Pogačar is through!

Round Two, Match Four: Magnus Cort v. Tadej Pogačar

Magnus Cort Propaganda

No propaganda submitted.

Tadej Pogačar Propaganda

No propaganda submitted.

Tom Pidcock is through!

Round One, Match Four: Tom Pidcock v. Julius Johansen

Tom Pidcock Propaganda

Just look at the instagram profile for his dogs. That's all. Yes I suppose he races sometimes too, but more importantly, dogs.

Julius Johansen Propaganda

my Vuelta 2023 randomly assigned little guy to cheer for when we did that in the discord. It was memorable when he got to GC position 113 with a time of 13 hours and the start number 134: the number 13 is fitting because he is not a lucky guy. He got covid. He got to be in the Weird Vuelta we had this year. He's on Intermaché so he had to ride for Rui Costa. He crashes in weird ways such as in the latest Post Danmark Rundt, which he began by breaking his bike in half, forcing him to use his spare training bike for the rest. He then crashed into a family's lunch table and a haybale, drove into a curb, stuff like that. Maybe some of it is less bad luck and more a skill issue, but nevertheless he keeps being optimistic about his chances. He's currently without a contract for next year, but personally I think anybody should be glad to have him solely because he consistently has THE best hair in the peloton.

Submissions are officially closed. The official bracket will be out shortly and Round 1 will begin next Sunday.

Round Two, Match Three: Neilson Powless vs. Primož Roglič

Neilson Powless Propaganda

I mean just look at how happy he was starting that many days in the polkadot jersey in the tour this year

Primož Roglič Propaganda

No propaganda submitted.

Marc Soler is through!

Round One, Match Fourteen: Lennard Kämna v. Marc Soler

Lennard Kämna Propaganda

No propaganda submitted.

Marc Soler Propaganda

No propaganda submitted.

Quarter-Finals, Match Three: Matej Mohorič v. Mattias Skjelmose

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

Mattias Skjelmose Propaganda (submitted 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 friendship 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

Sepp Kuss is through to Round Two!

Round One, Match One: Jasper Philipsen v. Sepp Kuss

Jasper Philipsen Propaganda:

I have a soft spot for a somewhat cocky, pretty sprinter

Sepp Kuss Propaganda:

Vuelta 2023, need I say more. And he even brought his dog there with its little special pass.

you absolutely cannot forget world's greatest domestique and 2023 Vuelta winner (GC Kuss!!!!)

The little domestique that could! He has been steadily working for tjv, been integral in their victories, just participated in all 3 grand tours, helped lead the team to victory, and won one himself. He's also cute af, married a spanish woman and speaks the language well. Oh, and he has an adorable puppy. He is an adorable puppy