Round One, Match Thirteen: Alessandro Covi V. Jonas Vingegaard

Quarter-Finals, Match One: Mathieu van der Poel v. Wout van Aert

Mathieu van der Poel Propaganda

As much as I hate the white bib shorts, Mathieu can definitely pull them off. Hate to admit it but he *does* look good in white.

Wout van Aert Propaganda

No propaganda submitted.

Hello everyone, little update:

We’ve had submissions open for a week now and 17 of the 32 slots have been filled. I will keep the submissions open for another week until next Sunday, and if we still don’t have enough we’ll go from there.

So if you have any cyclists you want to submit, shoot me a message on this account and we’ll get them in!

Primož Roglič is through!

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.

Round One, Match Eleven: Michael Mørkøv v. Simon Geschke

Michael Mørkøv Propaganda

Incredible leadout man whom I saw forced to try and explain the mechanics of a leadout + sprint on TV using toy cars this last tdf. Was the lanterne rouge after his sprinter abandoned which earns him my sympathies especially as he remained grounded in his expectations yet slightly optimistic in the face of adversity. Danish nickname "Svanen fra banen" - "The swan from the track", which doesn't rhyme as well because we mustn't let road racing results distract from how he's been world champion on track. He is on the older side and a capital-D Dad, but we may see him sprint with Cavendish next year and I for one am excited about the possibility.

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:

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.

Round Two, Match Seven: Jonas Vingegaard v. Marc Soler

Jonas Vingegaard Propaganda

No propaganda submitted.

Marc Soler Propaganda

He may be ranked #130 in the UCI rankings but he is #1 in my heart ❤️

More propaganda under the cut.

As you may know, Marc Soler moved to UAE Team Emirates in 2022 and has since been one of Tadej Pogačar's most valuable mountain domestiques – pulling the peloton for kilometres on end, being there in the final group before Tadej and Jonas start attacking each other. Then there's stage 17 this year; his infamous ‘scary eyes’ and comforting hand, pulling his leader up the Col de la Loze and helping maintain his podium place.

However! There is much more to Marc Soler than that! Before 2022, his entire professional career was spent with Movistar – that blue-clad stalwart of Spanish cycling hopes. With them, he was again an invaluable domestique to the likes of Enric Mas, Alejandro Valverde, Nairo Quintana, and Richard Carapaz. In the intra-team ~drama~ that plagued Movistar’s 2019/2020 seasons, he remained if not neutral, but relatively uninvolved. This is well-documented in their documentary ‘Movistar: The Least Expected Day’, the series that first endeared him to me.

In 2018, he had his day as a GC challenger – a week, really, swooping to victory at Paris-Nice to take the overall win with a fantastic attack on the final stage to make up more than a minute on Simon Yates

Now let me discuss stage 5 of the Vuelta 2022: Marc’s second stage win at this race – the first being in 2020. There was a battle for the breakaway, and Marc missed out! Never fear – the intrepid Spaniard did what he does best; launch a seemingly futile attempt to bridge, riding solo or in a small group for 50km+ that never really gets anywhere. Not today, though! He joined them, when Stewart attacked he countered brilliantly and rode solo for the final 15km. Brilliant stuff. This won him the stage, the combativity award, and later actions brought him the overall super-combative award, all while supporting Juan Ayuso to the podium.

Oh yeah, did I mention the mullet?? And the earring??

Outside of racing, he comes across as a genuinely nice guy – though I have yet to come across an interview in English, translations of Spanish-language seem cheerful and respectful, having fun in UAE’s social media videos!

He recovered brilliantly from having to abandon in both the Giro and the Tour in 2021 – breaking both of his arms in a crash in the latter, yet soldiering on and completing the stage.

Soler in his natural habitats; pulling the peloton up some steep, steep slopes, or breaking away for a hail-Mary attack that’s seemingly done only for the sheer joy of doing so. He’s a valuable domestique, brilliant rider, and most certainly embodies the spirit of ciclismo!

Thus concludes my Soler propaganda.

Vamos, Marc!

Quarter-Finals, Match Four: Jonas Vingegaard v. Thibaut Pinot

Jonas Vingegaard Propaganda

No propaganda submitted.

Thibaut Pinot Propaganda

how can you not vote for absolute cycling legend Tibo. The small documentary they made at the end of the season? Fucking broke me man.

Chala-la-lala-lala TIIIBOOO PINOOOOO

Please accept Thibaut age 7 in his cycling gear as additional propaganda (x)

He was full of dreams, and already he wanted to be “Champion of the Tour de France”.

Semi-Finals, Match Two: Matej Mohorič v. Jonas Vingegaard

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

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.

More under the cut:

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

Tadej Pogačar is through!

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

Primož Roglič Propaganda

No propaganda submitted.

Tadej Pogačar Propaganda

No propaganda submitted.

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.