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2019 UCI Road World Championships Men's Road Race : 284.5km

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One thing that I find very hard to comprehend is the amount of negativity and criticism on the riders’ decisions from users of this forum. “Italy/Trentin screwed up”, “Küng didnt ride to win” etc etc. As if it’s not possible to ride a great race and not come up with the win. Italy rode a fantastic race as a team and put their strongest rider in a sprint finish with only two other riders. If you had offered this scenario to the Italians this morning they would gladly have taken it, every day of the week. Also Küng tried with everything he could on the last climb and Pedersen was almost dropped but it was not quite enough.

Van der Poel cracking was a surprise, I believe it was mainly because of inexperience. He forgot to eat, whereas Küng and Pedersen was eating gels several times in the last 30 k. He will learn from this.
Van der Poel said in an interview his crack wasn't due to hunger. He was just finished, which I fully understand. Which made this race special for me, is that it was unpredictable and realistic. I don't want to see these bad weather WCs every year, but they definitely have their place.
 
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Sure you do.

In reality, they were shelled from the peloton because they couldn't keep up and then, obviously, they were not going to keep riding in those weather conditions. But surely that was not for fear of injuries...

Better weather they wouldn't have been in that situation in the first place. I do think the weather conditions do play a role in a fear or illness or injury, esp in a race they aren't being paid to be in. Valverde actually said after he walked away that the conditions were insane anyone still racing was a madman.
 
It was the most exciting WCh in years, with a lot of action from the beginning and full action in the final three laps. There were some big surprises and it's a surprise winner. The future will tell whether Pedersen is a worthy champion or just someone who occasionally has a good day.

MvdP looked like he had a cramp all of a sudden. He looked really strong in the penultimate lap, but suddenly stood still. Where were the other Dutch riders to support him in the final? He still had an impressive season in three different disciplines, but there's a limit for everyone.
 
Better weather they wouldn't have been in that situation in the first place. I do think the weather conditions do play a role in a fear or illness or injury, esp in a race they aren't being paid to be in. Valverde actually said after he walked away that the conditions were insane anyone still racing was a madman.
If Valverde knows he doesn't go well in this sort of weather and knowing it was gonna pi$$ down all day, why the hell did he take part. I'm sure he would have known at the start that he would have had no chance of regaining the Jersey today so maybe he should have stayed in bed.
 
So... looks like there's only one person here who thinks the weather was too bad to race in...
I think I've made it pretty clear on multiple occasions that I'm all for cancelling/shortening races if the riders' health is at risk, and... they did! They changed the route to avoid the dangerous bits. Not like it was snowing or anything.
 
Not racing in these insane horrible conditions. That is just stupidity and asking to be injured or get sick.
Oh, come on. You call these conditions insane? I've seen stages in the snow in Giro and TdF. L-B-L in 1980 in the snow won by Hinault was insane. The heat in the Vuelta can be insane. The wind gusts in Gent-Wevelgem in 2015 blew riders of their bikes. That was crazy.

This was just rain, but because it lasted all day, it wore the riders down. This kind of survival is the definition of heroism. I'm sure everyone recovered within a couple of hours.
 
Jeeeeeeesus Christ, it was just raining!!! No hurricane, no storm, just rain.

Nothing insane about it, just wet and uncomfortable.


Flooding, which we've seen all week is usually a sign of bad conditions. As for a hurricane, well unless you get something like Florence last year it's gone in a day so it's easy to just postpone stuff for one day. Heck I've seen thunderstorms worse than some hurricanes.
 
Oh, come on. You call these conditions insane? I've seen stages in the snow in Giro and TdF. L-B-L in 1980 in the snow won by Hinault was insane. The heat in the Vuelta can be insane. The wind gusts in Gent-Wevelgem in 2015 blew riders of their bikes. That was crazy.

This was just rain, but because it lasted all day, it wore the riders down. This kind of survival is the definition of heroism. I'm sure everyone recovered within a couple of hours.

Isn't that what the weather protocols are now supposed to prevent?
 
If Valverde knows he doesn't go well in this sort of weather and knowing it was gonna pi$$ down all day, why the hell did he take part. I'm sure he would have known at the start that he would have had no chance of regaining the Jersey today so maybe he should have stayed in bed.

Because he likely was going to try to help a teammate knowing he wasn't going to have any success in this kind of weather. Valverde did call the conditions insane when interviewed at his hotel after he walked away from the race. He said the race was for madmen and he had no intention of continuing. He also said something about being frozen and deciding he was better off abandoning and hoping he did it soon enough that he wouldn't get sick. With him actually saying that you can be sure there are many others who had the exact same line of thinking. His one teammate actually was sick. Cortina, said he wasn't feeling well and decided there was no point in continuing.
 
Flooding, which we've seen all week is usually a sign of bad conditions. As for a hurricane, well unless you get something like Florence last year it's gone in a day so it's easy to just postpone stuff for one day. Heck I've seen thunderstorms worse than some hurricanes.

There was one spot on the route, where they had to take it easy because of deep water.

Hardly traumatising for any rider.
 
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By those definitions the Tour should NOT have shortened their stage and this race should also NOT have been shortened. But because both were shortened then the weather today WAS a problem.

They shortened today's race because of flooding, and then they circumvented the flooded part. Then the remaining part of the course was not flooded and thus passable.

I can't believe this needs to be explained.

Would you have preferred there to not be any WCRR just because Valverde could not win?
 

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