RGT Pressroom

Written by Ned Bowen Pre-race Check the course and the players. It is always important to know who and where you are racing! On the start list for this event was a large Rasio Racing contingent Alex Pleger, Joris Schepers, Andrzej Krajewski, Ben Phillips, Nick Greenhalgh and Jørgen Vanbers. Other strong riders I saw were James Melville, Jan Deca, Wout Hartveld, Jan Linden, Ben Skinner, Bas Van schaayk. Also on the startlist were Sammut, Lister, Rowbottom and Navin, but I am not sure they made the race. As a dabbler in RGT racing, I am not familiar with everyone, but I knew with this strong group it would be a fun race.   The course for the event was the Playa Honda crit course (a Magic Road set in the Canaries), which I had not raced before. One nice thing about short courses and long races means you can really learn and perfect a new course over the 20 laps that were on the docket! The RGT load-in screen is not the most detailed course description, but I could clearl...

The Pedalers confirmed today that Matteo Zwaenepoel has been added to the team setup.  Matteo known to be pushing high numbers during mountain stages will be another big trump card to play for the team during the tours the team will participate in. Matteo Zwaenepoel achieved another podium spot arriving 2nd yesterday during the hard Cippo Carpegna, part of the Mountain Goat series. "We are happy Matteo wanted to join our team. With him on board we gain again more confidence going into hard, long mountain stages. Do we still have recruitment wishes? Would be great if we could still add another sprinter type of rider to our setup soon. Talks are already ongoing." Says Kenneth Vasina of the team. 

  Written by Will Usher A great turn out tonight with 145 sign ups, clearly you’re all gluttons for punishment with a tough race in prospect. Dartmoor is known for its unforgiving hills and roads. I personally didn’t get chance to recce this course as I normally do however I rode it back in 1998 and I remember one of the hills had a handrail on the pedestrians which is never that encouraging. There was a clear separation in tactics for tonight. With a slight downhill into a steep downhill there was a chance for the more powerful but potentially heavier riders to drop the hammer early and try and put some distance into the other riders before some aggressive climbing. Indeed some clearly read the race notes and a group of about 20 riders broke free out of the gate with some serious watts going down. The first hill proved something of a selection at 4.1km and averaging 6% it was a long time to cling to the back wheel of those making a move. The upside, it was predictable, the dow...

Written by our riding reporter Robert Gill First of all, a big thank you to 87 riders who signed up! The event is growing and I'm sure we'll crack 100 in the coming weeks! Thank you too to the 48 who made it to the top and conquered the Cippo Carpegna. In doing so we all celebrated the turbulent life of one of the greats of our sport - Il Pirata - Marco Pantani! He would have been 51 this month if not for his tragic death in 2004 and I chose the Carpegna as an ode to his memory. Pictured is some of the graffiti that lines the route. It translates to "This is the Pirate's sky". The race was won by Damien Roux in Pirata-esque time of 21:14. A brilliant ride and you certainly put the rest of us to the sword! Chapeau! Matteo Zwaenepoel and Michael Bauer had a titanic duel with Matteo taking 2nd by just 3 seconds. Bravo to both of you. A great ride! There were other great battles along the road with R.2cn taking 4th from Matthias Schilling and a little further behind A...

After breaking the news of the new team "The Pedalers" yesterday, RGT pressroom has managed to get a few comments from the team on their organization, goals, and future on RGT. "We got to know each other riding the same time slots quite often during TDM. We were often in the same group or breakaway and logically worked together to stay away or catch the others." The team says on how they initially met up. Like most teams on RGT, they did not know each other beforehand but met in the virtual environment on the platform. "This somehow created a connection which we re-inforced after TDM. As free riders, feeling the disadvantage during stage 11 of TDM, (which was a team time trial, that you had to ride as an individual if you were not participating with a team ed.) we thought it would make sense to team up. RGT is also very well suitable for teamwork during rides. This was the beginning of 'The Pedalers'." The Pedalers include as mentioned yesterday s...

 It has come to the attention of RGT Pressroom that a new team is in the making. Sponsordeal is arranged, and several riders have already been signed. The team sheet is so far   - Nate Fulcher  - Jurgen Janssens  - Henrik Mård  - Jez Read  - Kenneth Vansina Regular readers will be familiar with a few of these names, in particular Kenneth Vansina who just came out of the Tour de Monde with 4th place. Furthermore, Jurgen Janssens finished 8th and Nate Fulcher 30th. Nate Fulcher is however a heavier rider and should be judged on his performances on the flatter terrain where he just this weekend secured an impressive win over Rasio Racings Joris Schepers in the OTR Spanish for Improvers race.  Watch Fulcher's impressive timed sprint at 50:11 Swedish Henrik Mård did 11 out of 12 stages in the TdM, in a time of 12:21:52, which would have put him at 16th -17th in the overall GC, if he had completed the first stage at a reasonable pace. Mård is yet to hav...

Imagine this. After the usual start, where everyone sprints out the pen, you've made the front group. The pace is high, but you are confident in the draft. Within limits now. You start to notice who else is in the group. And when you start looking around, not one, not two, but five or six riders are in black jerseys with orange helmets. And you realize you've ended up in a group where half the riders are in the same team. Not only that, they are coordinated, they attack in turns, and try to play to each other's strength. This scenario is becoming more and more frequent on RGT and is the reason why Rasio Racing is so difficult to compete against.  All of the team members are capable of winning a race, none of them are afraid to work for each other. Together they are harder to beat, than most individual riders on RGT. With the addition of Andrzej Krajewski, who ended third in the Tour de Monde, the team also has a top, top climber, and seems like the Team Ineos of the RGT pla...

The following is an excerpt from Steve Taylor's blog , written about Steves's experience riding the Tour de Monde. Steve ended 5th in GC, won two stages, and the KOM - which was far above any expectations before the tour.  The Tour du Monde on RGT was the first stage race I’d ever done in my life. I had previously tried from the Highland March what it was like to flog your tired body day after day, but on a bike, this was a new experience. It’s also true that before RGT, or perhaps I should qualify that by saying - before the pandemic came along to refocus all of our lives - I’d only ever raced once on a bike. The Corrieyairick race from Fort Augustus to Kincraig in 2006, and I crashed in that, and in the process suffered a knee injury that finished my running career. The one thing that still bugs me is that because we were all on different equipment, there is no way of knowing whether my performance on the TDM was favourable because of the technology. But what I do know is th...