2020 World Championships - now confirmed for Imola, Italy.

[Leinster]

Have you seen the course?

Dutch girls should be held for a lap.
... seems to be the only way to level up the field a bit with Vleuty allowed to start.

To me, it looks like the decisive move can happen at any point of the course, which makes it tactical on top of physically selective.

Expecting exciting races.

I hope you’re right about the course. I’m a little concerned that maybe the last climb is a little too hard, and it’ll be be impossible to make a break stick attacking any time sooner.

 

[SafeBet]

Well a lot less precipitation than predicted when I posted wednesday in this thread.
Very light rain starting from 11 hours and max rain of about 2,7 mm precipitation between 1600-1700 hours.
Temps starting at ~16°C and dropping to ~13°C. And light winds 2-6 m/s.
A lot better than predicted four days ago.
Yes, roads will be wet, but that's about it.

It's still very windy. Things can change again before the start, could be completely dry or much wetter than it's forecasted now.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Good group away now, a lot of outside contender types

 

[JosephK]

I wouldn't be surprised if van der Breggen doubles up on rainbow jerseys today. AvV might ordinarily be the favorite, but she's riding with one arm tied behind her back and missing some days of training . . . also carrying a 50-lb. backpack to make things more fair.

 

[JosephK]

The Danes were animating things a little while ago, and now they're getting dropped. Tough course.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Why is the Dutch girl pulling? She has the perfect alibi to twiddle her thumbs and let the others do the work. If the break is successful (or if some of them can survive long enough to be of use to teammates later on) she would still be fresh.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Live coverage just started in Australia. They showed some of the earlier action; there were a lot of what seemed like totally unnecessary crashes; hopefully none of those riders physically effected from those.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Peloton really soft pedalled the climb

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Peloton really soft pedalled the climb

Could be a similar thing to last year develop here, Netherlands, Italy, USA and GB have got riders up front now, their riders will look to people like Poland and Denmark to do the work, since they have A-level leaders but not the same depth of squad and have missed that move.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Could be a similar thing to last year develop here, Netherlands, Italy, USA and GB have got riders up front now, their riders will look to people like Poland and Denmark to do the work, since they have A-level leaders but not the same depth of squad and have missed that move.

Easy enough to call the Dutch bluff on that with this break though. No way they’d be happy to have this go the distance

 

[gregrowlerson]

Seriously steep.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Easy enough to call the Dutch bluff on that with this break though. No way they’d be happy to have this go the distance

Agreed, though they may prefer to keep it close enough to use as a bridge move a bit like they did in 2017 to outright catching them/bringing them back. Definitely looks like the Poles are happy to gamble on calling the Dutch bluff.

I'd say Spain have probably played their card here. France maybe - Labous is one of the strongest climbers in this move and while she's very promising I'd presume they aren't expecting to win with Évita Muzic from the péloton as long as the likes of Anna VDB, ELB, Vos, Deignan and co. are still there. USA might be in a similar boat with Wiles being a strong climber too. Pieters can get over obstacles better than many, but I think is similar in that respect to Barnes and the Dutch might be happier if it was, say, Vollering, or maybe Mackaij.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Eugenia Bujak going for today's Amets Txurruka award for the worst balance of energy expended / reward ratio.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Damn tomorrow cant come fast enough, this looks like a great route! But first the women, I have very limited knowledge about the riders, but should be a good one as well.

Edit: But I do know Cecilie, lets goo!

 

[Andy262]

Make the Dutchies chase ffs.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Damn tomorrow cant come fast enough, this looks like a great route! But first the women, I have very limited knowledge about the riders, but should be a good one as well.

Edit: But I do know Cecilie, lets goo!

Route looks like it has Fuglsang written all over it.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Make the Dutchies chase ffs.

100%. Let’s see how long they bluff for. It’s their job to take it back. Helping is sheer stupidity.

 

[Eclipse]

We're going to have to see the pace getting raised a bit earlier than expected it seems given the gap and the longer the others wait on closing it the more explosive it's going to have to be.

Just waiting to see who is going to worry first

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Italy

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Italians flinching and working for the Dutch even though they have a rider in the break

 

[Valv.Piti]

Route looks like it has Fuglsang written all over it.

Youre completely mistaken, it has old grandpa Valverde all written over it.

 

[Rollthedice]

Route looks like it has Fuglsang written all over it.

If he doesn't miss the right move, I don't think there will be one larger group in front in the last lap but rather a small one with the winner in it chased by other groups with slim chances to catch them.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

And now the Australians pull. I hope they get nothing out of the race

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Italians flinching and working for the Dutch even though they have a rider in the break

Can understand it though. Ragusa I thought was one of the more intriguing riders in the break, but she's neither as strong a climber as Wiles or García, nor as strong a sprinter as Barnes, Pieters or Brennauer, so if she's not feeling good about the climbs, then she's a long shot. Italy also need it to come together more quickly than the Netherlands because without Bastianelli or Balsamo their sprint options are very limited, whereas the Dutch can be equally happy with an aggressive race for Annemiek or Anna and a reduced sprint for Marianne.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

I’m not sure about the timings here. The Australians are driving hard but the gap is going out?