Groenewegen quit the moment he realized he wasn’t going to be fast enough. It’s understandable that a guy with his level isn’t interested in fighting for minor stage places, but just stopping so suddenly is dangerous.
Philipsen is riding smarter than Halvorsen and Hodeg. Both sprints so far, Bennett has fought for Groenewegen’s wheel and Hodeg and Halvorsen have fought for Bennett’s wheel. The problem being that they have no chance of coming around Bennett (or Groenewegen if he holds Bennett off). Bennett has to go too early for that to work and he’s not going to do that when he’s on the back of the Jumbo train. Philipsen gave himself the chance to win today by getting the jump on the favourites.
Groenewegen hasn't got it at the moment. His form seemed to go off during the second half of the Tour. Bennett impressive again.
- Jun 7, 2011
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I've been saying that for months. Philipsen is very good at positioning and getting into the right spots at the right time. But he's still lacking in pure speed. Look at his year so far. He won a stage in TDU, because Ewan got relegated. Otherwise, he would probably be leading the competition of most top 10 finishes without a win. He's had dozens of top 10 finishes, but he's never able to finish it off. In Calicornia, he had 4 top 10 finishes i believe. Once he lost to Jakobsen by a noselength. While Jakobsen didn't manage to get into another top 10 all week.
EDIT: by my counting, he had 22 top 10 finishes (GC's not included) of which he won 1, but only due to Ewan DQF. If he can work on his speed, he'll win bucketloads. But i'm still not sure this is what he's evolving into.
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An interesting stat from twitter: Ackermann and Bennett are the only sprinters who have never been outside the top 5 in any sprint they’ve contested this year.
- Jul 25, 2012
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How do they define contested? Because Bennett came 6th in a UAE sprint. I suppose Scheldeprijs could be discounted for Ackermann as he got boxed in.
Yeah it seems like the word “contested” is doing a lot of work in that claim
- Feb 16, 2010
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- Jun 7, 2011
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- Feb 16, 2010
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- Jan 4, 2011
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Well, he's slower than Bennett and Groenewegen so it could be a conscious decision to launch early. If he waits, he has zero chance anyway. Though the headwind made it very difficult today.
What's up with EF's sprinters. They took their 3 fastest men and not even a top10 in any of the stages.
EDIT: Just two of them, didn't realise McLay is not there, I think he was on provisional startlist.
EDIT: Just two of them, didn't realise McLay is not there, I think he was on provisional startlist.
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There’s no way DQS would let the main opposition sprinter take their guy’s wheel three stages in a row without trying to outsmart him. When up against Bennett or a similar solo wheelsurfer, if they aren’t winning with a straight train tactic they mix things up. They pull tricks like putting Stybar on their sprinter’s wheel or having their sprinter sit up and the lead out sprint etc.
- Jul 27, 2009
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Groenenwegens stellar spring shape has completely stalled it seems!
Kinda weird, given how strong he was until his Tour de France crash!
Kinda weird, given how strong he was until his Tour de France crash!
- Nov 16, 2013
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Didn't he already have a previous crash that impeded him in the final ZLM Toer sprint?
- Jul 27, 2009
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If so, that certainly explains a thing or two!
Didn't watch Zeeland to be honest. Only Giro d'Italia - Dauphine - Switzerland ahead of the Tour de France!
He just came back from his second collarbone this season and the team used him for the early work so far.
- Jul 28, 2015
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Regarding Modolo during Adriatica Ionica or Tour de Pologne I've heard from the commentators that he was hampered in the last two seasons by some "infective mushrooms" (I don't have any idea about what could be but it's what they said) in the stomach and the team doctors weren't able to detect what was the problem until after the Giro this year so probably he isn't in good shape yet. Anyway he has lost some speed when he started to focus more on durability for the classics in 2016-2017 and I think he's supposed to lead out Hofland.
- May 5, 2010
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