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2012 Road World Championships, Mens Road Race Maastricht - Valkenburg 267 km 23/09/12

Page 49 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Descender said:
Did you read Valverde's and Freire's words?

Yes, i know Valverde was supposed to babysit Freire, but you were suggesting that the reason why Valverde started the cauberg ascent so far back was because he was babysitting Freire. Which he wasn't, since he was way back (on his own) and oscarito actually was the only well-placed Spaniard at the foot.
 
Kolobnev criticized Hagen and Valverde in russian press:). He said they could catch Gilbert after Cauberg if they worked well with him, but they decided to race only for second place. He also mentioned that he is still feeling pain in his leg and that's why he can't sprint in the finish as it was 2-3 years ago
 
CraZyCaLL said:
Kolobnev criticized Hagen and Valverde in russian press:). He said they could catch Gilbert after Cauberg if they worked well with him, but they decided to race only for second place. He also mentioned that he is still feeling pain in his leg and that's why he can't sprint in the finish as it was 2-3 years ago
Well, Hagen said the exact same thing...
 
movingtarget said:
The other teams had to make the race harder, earlier. They just played into the hands of the Belgians. The Spanish or Italians were never going to outsprint Gilbert on that climb. It made no tactical sense. The French did the right thing and I was surprised that Voeckler did not try something serious with a couple of laps to go. Nibali tried but needed to get the gap earlier with a few good riders with him. Of course, you need luck and the right riders to go with you. I also hope the Belgians buy the Germans a beer or two. Although they were obviously confident that Degenkolb could do it. Aussies came to the front with the Germans but Gerrans did not have the legs at the finish. Davis surprised me to finish sixth to add to his third at Geelong in 2010. Difficult to see any hard luck stories at the finish. It was a pretty clinical display by Gilbert.

The Germans would have been happy with a medal, which was a realistic goal, and they had no one in the breakaway, so it makes sense that they did the chasing.
 
Mar 31, 2010
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The Hitch said:
What the **** were germany doing ?

Belgium has the clear favorite, and they decide to do all the work for him, so that he can power away from them on the final climb and deprive their leader from getting a chance with his sprint.

I don't get it :confused:

degenkolb... :facepalm:
 
The Hitch said:
Yeah he finished 4t, not actually anywhere near the victory. :rolleyes:

The break was never actually going to go away as Belgium would have had to bring it back, at considerable effort. Then Germany have extra men with Degenkolb and the real favorites have less men.

But for some reason they decided to do all of the work (with the exception of some truly bizzare behaviour from Colombia at first).

Its like trying to beat cav in a sprint by leading him out with 800 to go, then justifying it as a good tactic because you came 4th.

I know you expected a Gilbert victory, but did you expect it to be so dominant because until he powered away a sprint still seemed possible.
 
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Panda Claws said:
I know you expected a Gilbert victory, but did you expect it to be so dominant because until he powered away a sprint still seemed possible.

Why not? After the Vuelta where he more or less did the same, I don't see why anyone would expect anything else.
 
Flamin said:
Yes, i know Valverde was supposed to babysit Freire, but you were suggesting that the reason why Valverde started the cauberg ascent so far back was because he was babysitting Freire. Which he wasn't, since he was way back (on his own) and oscarito actually was the only well-placed Spaniard at the foot.

From what I read, Valverde said he started the climb making sure he was close to Freire since his job was to babysit him, but when he realised Gilbert was riding away and Freire was not responding, he tried to save the day by going for it himself.
 
Descender said:
From what I read, Valverde said he started the climb making sure he was close to Freire since his job was to babysit him, but when he realised Gilbert was riding away and Freire was not responding, he tried to save the day by going for it himself.

Weird. Valverde was like 15 places behind Freire at the foot.
 
I thought it was a decent race perhaps a bit too predictable. Really happy with the Gilbert win as i've been saying for weeks its his to lose and and made some profit backing him. :D

Very happy with the way G.B performed even though i knew we wouldn't win it. Cav honoured the jersey with a massive turn on the front over the first half of the stage. Both Swift and Rowe rode well and Stannard was a beast as usual. Great to see JTL in the lead bunch at the end too, a massive step-up in class for him but he is a big talent.
 
Angliru said:
No, Hagen said that the only one that made an effort was Valverde on his sole dig and after that there was no unity in the three to reel Gilbert in. At least that's what I thought I read from Hagen.

Too many of them were badly positioned at the bottom of the climb. They needed to be right up on Gilbert's shoulder. It was obvious what the Belgians were going to do. The only rider well positioned was Nibali and he had no hope in the sprint. Not saying the result would have been any different.
 
cineteq said:
Interesting choice of words.

Please don't even think about it. That was the last thing I was thinking. Even though Gilbert had a good win in the Vuelta with some help from Rodriguez, I did not expect this performance even though he was looking much better than early in the season. Tactically the race panned out perfectly for him. Could not have been better.
 
movingtarget said:
Please don't even think about it. That was the last thing I was thinking. Even though Gilbert had a good win in the Vuelta with some help from Rodriguez, I did not expect this performance even though he was looking much better than early in the season. Tactically the race panned out perfectly for him. Could not have been better.

I think anyone of his rivals that could've been on his wheel would've blown up trying to stay there. Once he exploded up the climb it was over and everyone was racing for second. He coasted across the line, such was his dominance. Not like Vos but still quite impressive. He just had a much larger group in his wake while Vos had her opponents scattered across the road like she had dropped a bomb.:cool:
 
I'm very happy with the Norwegian silver. I think EBH was hoping the big group would catch up to help chase down Gilbert. They were very close, but not close enough. Perhaps EBH could have chased after Phil leaving Kolobnev and Valverde behind. But he could have blown up doing that and get nothing. Or he could have towed the two others up to Phil. But then perhaps Phil could have slowed down and waited for Boonen in the big group.

Had LPN and EBH been positioned better at the bottom perhaps they could have been two in the chase group. But it was difficult without Rasch who was held up by the big crash with a technical problem.

In a perfect race without any problems for anyone on the team, perhaps things might have worked out better, or perhaps not.

Nah, I think this was an excellent result. Belgium had Gilbert and Boonen for the one-two, and the team to back them up. They were the best, and earned their victory.

As for sour grapes from Freire, he was probably a bit emotional. Had Valverde not pressed ahead I don't think they would have gotten a medal at all.


I hope and think that in the future Norway will have bigger teams in the WC, and the quality to fill them.

Does anyone know the course for next year?
 
Angliru said:
I think anyone of his rivals that could've been on his wheel would've blown up trying to stay there. Once he exploded up the climb it was over and everyone was racing for second. He coasted across the line, such was his dominance. Not like Vos but still quite impressive. He just had a much larger group in his wake while Vos had her opponents scattered across the road like she had dropped a bomb.:cool:

Yes, very similar wins but Vos was even more impressive like you mentioned, by riding across to the break and doing what she did.
 
Angliru said:
No, Hagen said that the only one that made an effort was Valverde on his sole dig and after that there was no unity in the three to reel Gilbert in. At least that's what I thought I read from Hagen.
He said:

"Gilbert føk av gårde, og jeg visste det var langt og medvind. Jeg måtte bare satse på at de sammen med meg hjalp til og dro, og det gjorde de vel bare sånn halvveis."

Which, roughly, translates to (I'm Danish, not Norwegian):

"Gilbert flew off and I knew there was far [to the finish line] and tailwind. I just had to rely on them helping, which I guess they only did partly."
 

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