I re-watched the men's race to finally solve the problems that bother this world.
First, the crashes that happened in the first half of the race shaped it to a huge degree. There weren't many teams left that felt strong and had all men available to control the race. Together with the aggressive French approach and the one over-favourite that made for a specific, exciting race.
So. No, Evenepoel did, for large parts, not work for van Aert. In the first part he def. hoped for the breaks to last. He didn't only take turns, he encouraged the other riders to work with him and got even a bit frustrated when they didn't make the effort he wanted them to.
Stuyven didn't do much work for van Aert and van Aert worked a bit for Stuyven, so I'm not sure any telling him earlier to do his own race would have helped Stuyven much.
What's really eyecatching, though, is how the Belgian team doesn't have a strategy how to deal with the things which are happening. Shall they work or follow? They never seem to know. The only one who very consequently joins moves but then refuses to work is Campenaerts. Benoot's role seems also rather defined. The others don't seem to be know which pace to set - the German commentators speculate a few times about the team trying to make the race hard, preparing a long range attack from van Aert - none of that makes much sense. There is no need for van Aert of all people to do a long range attack... but at one point you could indeed think that they are preparing one. For a lot of time they are making the race hard, either by being active in the breaks (mostly Evenepoel, but also Declerq) and setting a very high pace at the front - presumably to get rid of the pure sprinters. Either that was just an intuitive reaction to the French's race, without much thinking, or they actually thought they needed to do this to get rid of people like Caleb Ewan. But if they did, it was not a very clever assessment in my eyes, because obviously enough was already done by other teams to make the race hard and also I had never believed in Ewan to survive until the end, anyway. A hard race was presumably much more against what van Aert wanted, and yet they ended up enhancing it. Was it the French's surprising behaviour? Evenepoel doing his own thing? A lack of communication and strategy talk beforehand? Probably all of it. It definitely would have helped them had they been able to say "yes, Evenepoel there in front is also our leader, if you want to, you chase" instead of "oh, well, yeah, you all already know we are only here for Wout, so..."
Anyway. How could the Italians miss the decisive moves in the earlier race? Incredible. Somehow they ended up with three guys in the final - which was very lucky. I get that they had some serious bad luck with the crashes and that they were a bit confused - but they had a bit of time to reshuffle, and still ended up not joining the moves when one top rider after the other went into the break - that could have gone differently.
Almeida, also missing the decisive moves, ended up worse. I am not sure what he did. He could at least have joined the last straw-move with Politt, but by then he had retreated again. Maybe he just wasn't on his best day anyway. Maybe he was also (similar to the Euros?) really naive in terms of positioning and race tactics.
Speaking of which. Alaphilippe, and also Cosnefroy and Madouas, showed incredible awareness. Not just that the team had a good plan - they were pretty much always positioned perfectly, and did their moves in the right moments. The only time the French totally failed was that first break-away attempt on a big, big open road... after that... I'd say "tactically, they were perfect". Alaphilippe was communicating all the time, touching everyone, talking to everyone... stark contrast to some other teams (maybe he was just talking about the snacks). But what's probably even more important - he has become so good at positioning. Wasn't that rather a weakness of him once? It's not the first race he did that in, but really, he always knows now when he can hang a bit at the back, where to save some energy, and is always at the front in the important moments, and also on the right side. His final 20k were a crazy ride, risking it all in every corner. Cosnefroy did an incredible amount of work, always initiating new moves or at least following the ones that happened. Still placed very well.
But Pidcock, indeed, is the guy I think could have won the race instead, had he clung to Alaphilippe... Well, he's young.
The Slovenians are another team whose tactics I didn't really get. In the end Mohoric was there in the final and just lacked the extra-legs, so it didn't matter much. But at times it really seemed like Tratnik was riding for Mohoric, yes, but Roglic and Pogacar were mostly doing their own, individual race, independent from that.
I didn't get the Danes' strategy, which was surely influenced by the crashes and Asgreen not feeling so well. And with Valgren on the podium the end result was not so bad. Still, why, again, did Magnus Cort join the second break? Were they so sure he wouldn't last the long distance? What exactly Asgreen was doing at times I also didn't get, one moment he seemed to ride for himself, next as a helper, next for himself, next as a helper. Who were their designated leaders? Well, whatever...
The Dutch would probably have been better off with making van Baarle a real captain from the beginning, because he really worked quite a bit before the final. Wait, does that mean I think he could have become world champion? Maybe. At least as much as more likely than Stuyven.
Powless would have profited from a stronger team and a bit of brains. But he's got it in him! He just needs to ride with a bit of sense and conserve a bit of energy. (Not too much, I like it that way.)
All in all, really great race from 160k out. Now as soon as I find the time I need to watch the Euros again.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram