2020 World Championships - now confirmed for Imola, Italy.

[richwallone]

Gotta say, it's a beautiful course, and perfect road.

 

[Big Doopie]

beautiful roads.

absolutely stunning.

going to have to take a trip and do a few rides in that area in the future.

 

[BlueRoads]

Uttrup Ludwig is such a fighter and really always goes all out.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Meh nobody wants to help the chase again so podium settled

As is well and correct.

Longo Borghini is a better time triallist than anybody in group 3 and can't sprint so it is in her interest to keep going.
Van Vleuten is not working as she shouldn't, and will take off if they're under threat of being caught.

Lippert is contributing, as she would be an outside bet for a medal, but she's not a particularly strong time triallist.
Deignan is contributing, because she has the most to gain, because she would be the favourite to win a medal if the catch is made.
Niewiadoma and Uttrup can only medal if Deignan is torched chasing ELB/AVV because Vos is in that group and they can't sprint, so they aren't contributing as they gain nothing from doing so until Deignan and Lippert are worn out.
Vos is not contributing because she isn't going to chase her own teammates.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Also I'm sure Annemiek will outsprint Elisa for the silver, but Longo Borghini most certainly deserves to medal and I'd prefer it to be silver, but I doubt she can outsprint even a one-armed Annemiek.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Poor Elisa all that work and bound to get bronze

 

[F_Cance]

AVV sprinting to 2nd would be cruel

 

[gregrowlerson]

He gave the reason why there are more professional female riders now than some decades ago: The looks and what you wear is more important now in cycling. To have a nice looking bike, a chic helmet, a nice kit... so more women are attracted to cycling.

It's not even particularly attractive to women in this way anyway; it's rather non feminine in both the activity and the outfit/look. Seeing the peloton from not that great a distance away, I see it as barely discernible from the male peloton; save from a few ponytails and no Jerome Cousins chest hair.

Professional women's cyclists do this for the exact same reason that professional men's cyclists do: they love the sport.

And they have talent.

 

[sir fly]

Well, it's been exciting... while the chasers had Van der Breggen in their sight.
And until it became really tough on the slope.

No dilemma about this victory. Congrats.

The course won't be this selective for the guys, I think.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yikes, ELB did everything she could to get the silver, but couldn't quite make it. And might have got demoted if she'd done anything more anyway.

 

[JosephK]

Vleuty in silver. Crazy.

 

[Bolder]

Watch those elbows!

 

[Climbing]

I would have closed the door there, no question asked.

 

[F_Cance]

Vleutens palmares is big enough but her ego is even bigger sprinting to 2nd

 

[Jagartrott]

So, having a more professional péloton with a better organised calendar so more women can make enough money to make a living from it isn't a factor? After all, we lost plenty of good riders young to academia, studies and early retirement, including a young Italian climber who beat van der Breggen on a very hilly course in the World Juniors.

They didn't have pink bikes with glitters, so it makes sense she stopped.

Seriously, who makes such comments? Who was the guy, Blueroads, and is he famous? I hope he doesn't return behind the mic.

 

[Eclipse]

Interesting course but a fairly boring race.

Overwhelming strength telling.

lol at ELB's desperate elbows while slipping to bronze

 

[meat puppet]

The only comparison to the Dutch team effort would be Norwegian xc skiing ladies.

 

[JosephK]

Yikes, ELB did everything she could to get the silver, but couldn't quite make it. And might have got demoted if she'd done anything more anyway.

ELB did not quite do a Groenewegen.

 

[JosephK]

Vleutens palmares is big enough but her ego is even bigger sprinting to 2nd

But she's very polite about it.

 

[Big Doopie]

Vleutens palmares is big enough but her ego is even bigger sprinting to 2nd

um, not sure this is really about her individually.

she does have a responsibility to represent her country and national team to try and achieve the best possible result after all.

which she did.

 

[Gigs_98]

That was one ugly sprint by ELB

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Van der Breggen: "A really hard race right from the beginning" ? ? ?

 

[Red Rick]

That was one ugly sprint by ELB

1. Start too early
2. Leave gap on inside
3. Try to close the door
4. Still lose

 

[Pirazziattacks]

Bizarre sprint from ELB, you'd think she was the one with the broken wrist. Had it easily if she held her line but opened the gate, closed it, opened it again, tried to close it again but let AVV through instead of putting her into the barriers.

 

[Asero831]

The Germans and French were tired to even catch up AVV and ELB for the medals. 20 seconds lead with 10 kms seems to be enough