Men's Tour Down Under '25, Stage 1: Sprinting for One Second

With the breakaway having sucked up the first two places in the intermediate sprint in Birdwood, the peloton was sprinting for third place and a single bonus second.  It looked like the French champion, Paul Lapiera (Decathlon-Ag2r-La Mondiale) was going to get the bonus, but it was Jhonathan Manuel Narvaez (UAE Team Emirates) who won the bunch sprint beautifully led out by his teammate Rui Oliveira.  Lukas Lerurkar (EF Education-EasyPost) who vied for sprint honors, but just didn't quite have the legs.

This is a small 4x6 inch original watercolor painting that is available through my website at greigleach.com or you can simply follow the direct link at the end of the post to purchase the painting above. Since it is an original work of art, it is a first come first served reality. The work sells for $95 USD including shipping, but, yes, international shipping is both available and extra. 

"Sprinting for One Second TDU25-19" (Original art by Greig Leach)

UCI Worlds, Zurich 2024, Elite Men's Road Race: Checking Everyone Out

As the home team rider, Silvan Dillier (Switzerland) swings off the front of the breakaway, he looks at each of his five companions in turn.  He had been chatting quite a bit with the second guy in line, Rui Oliveira (Portugal) for a number of kilometers.  I do think he was trying to judge if Oliviera, along with Luc Wirtgen (Luxembourg), Tobias Foss (Norway), Simon Geschke (Germany) and Piotr Pekala (Poland) have the legs to take this break deep into the race.  At this point they do have three minutes on the peloton, but they have 213 kilometers left to race.  They haven't gotten to the start of the seven-lap circuit in and around Zurich yet.  But as Dillier and Geschke both know, you have got to roll the dice and go in the break to have any chance of winning the day against the favorites of the men's peloton.

This is a small 4x6 inch original watercolor painting that is available through my website at greigleach.com or you can simply follow the direct link at the end of the post to purchase the painting above. Since it is an original work of art, it is a first come first served reality. The work sells for $95 USD including shipping, but, yes, international shipping is both available and extra.

"Checking Everyone Out Z24-7" (Original art by Greig Leach)

Amgen ToC, Final Stage, Dicey

It seems quite the dicey move to grab a bottle from the team car on the way down a mountain.  But yet that is what Rui Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates) was doing on the final descent of the Tour of California.  Bear in mind that these guys are hitting speeds of around 50 mph.  So taking a hand off of the handlebars to grab something from a speeding car mere feet away seems like a receipe for disaster.  Fortunately, that receipe was not made.

This is a small 4x6 inch original watercolor painting that is available though my website at www.greigleach.com, or you can simply follow the direct link at the end of this post.  Since it is an original it is first come first served.  The painting was created using Yarka St Petersburg watercolors from Richesonart.com. The work sells for $75 plus shipping. And yes, international shipping is available.

https://www.greigleach.com/large-multi-view/Tour%20of%20California/3333927-89-223355/Dicey%20%20ToC19-34.html