2024 European Championships in Heusden-Zolder/Hasselt (September 11-15) Discussion Thread For All Races

[Samu Cuenca]

Rickaert disrupted the Italian leadout. The 2 riders following Merlier got the podium.

It also ruined Démare's sprint.

 

[Brullnux]

State of italian cycling in 200 meters, no way they *** up an entire race with that disgraceful ending lmao

Be fr, Milan is one of the quickest sprinters in the peloton and has beaten Merlier/Philipsen/Kooij several times this year, this was a perfect race they just messed up the ending.

This is the issue with a sprint, it often doesn't go the way you intended. To add to that, as @Mayomaniac has been saying, Consonni isn't a great leadout man

 

[Jagartrott]

Laporte ends ahead of Démare.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Kristoff coming in 5th - not too shabby for an old man. Also good to see Bittner in the top 10.

 

[proffate]

Just positioning. Boxed them in. That’s what I meant with disrupting their leadout.

How can you disrupt a leadout? That is the point of the leadout. The fastest train gets in front and their rider gets the best position. Doing a leadout implies disrupting a leadout. Doing a leadout well implies being unstoppable. Well at least until we have a race finish on the Katy freeway and there's room for everyone to ride abreast.

 

[yaco]

I posted earlier that if you have 2 quality sprinters you bring them to this type of race which was vindicated today. Merlier and Kooij have ridden a total of 2 GT's in the last two years.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Great sprint by Gudmestad for 56th place.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

And don't tell me that Mathieu couldn't have done more for Kooij for a leadout. I guess he only really rides for himself or his trade team. Weak.

 

[Tim Cahill]

Philipsen displaying sub-Juan Ayuso levels of excitement for his teammates victory at the finish there.

 

[Brullnux]

Milan in hard races is so overrated it's not even funny

This wasn't a particularly hard race and Milan has done harder and done better. It was a simple *** up in positioning, not much to read into re "can't do well in hard races".

Not convinced this was any harder than the race last weekend in Hamburg, where Milan was quite clearly the quickest sprinters (but got boxed in there, too). It happened at the Giro 2023 a few times, ghost of that re-appearing a bit, which I guess is to be expected for a guy who only really started sprinting on the road two years ago.

 

[Coffeeplanter]

20s for Roglic.

If they do it more times he may lose his Vuelta still

Rent free.

 

[Peyroteo94]

Jasper "the best sprinter in the world"

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Even in is interview Philipsen is a f**king loser. Only talked about not having legs, nothing about his teammate winning, nothing about the Belgians wasting all of their leadout on him, and him still not being able to win. Team should have been 100% for Merlier.

 

[Coffeeplanter]

See double standards in live action and proceed to ignore it for your own narrative.

But I already called for a Merlier DSQ.

 

[Peyroteo94]

According to who?

Truste me, a lot of people said this. I just hope they were posting after partying big time and some couple of mojitos in their liver.

 

[Brullnux]

See double standards in live action and proceed to ignore it for your own narrative.

You cannot be serious... please let it go it's boring and you're just wrong.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Milan in hard races is so overrated it's not even funny

Yeah, but he was blocked and frankly Consonni blew it, he isn't a great leadout man and the big guys have an easy time manhandling a 60kg guy like him when things get messy.

It's easy to push him away when you're 20kg heavier.

I rewatched it and Rickaert did nothing wrong, it's Consonni who isn't that good in this position. Use him before Trentin (maybe after him, but better before him) and have Ballerini be the leadout man

 

[Coffeeplanter]

Truste me, a lot of people said this. I just hope they were posting after partying big time and some couple of mojitos in their liver.

I am sure a lot of people said this, in 2023. Unfortunately, it was true at that time. I think everyone would back Merlier and Milan for best sprinter(s) in the world at this current point in time.

 

[carolina]

See double standards in live action and proceed to ignore it for your own narrative.

20s and a fine is the minimal penalty for UCI WT stage races. For the european championships it's only a fine.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

He was blocked and Consonni didn't have it, got manhandled and blocked. That said, Milan also looked cooked in that sprint.

Even with the best leadout, he would have been pedalling backward. He had zero speed himself.

 

[Samamba]

Really just happy to see Philipsen lose. Doesn't even have the class to congratulate Merlier, who was far and away the fastest there, and won without the leadout. Philipsen is such a loser.

While I agree about the whole Philipsen thing, Merlier did have a leadout, and a very great one. Van Lerberberghe brought him back from Narnia with like 600m to go.

 

[Brullnux]

The truth hurts.

I have no dog in the pro/anti-Roglic bias fight, and I actually love really obvious cheating (see, Nibali) so will always respect it. If anything, Roglic went up a lot in my estimation after it for his innovation. It was also clearly a penalty and it was like almost a month ago now.

 

[AmRacer]

Mathieu and Mads trained for the Worlds.

 

[Brullnux]

Even with the best leadout, he would have been pedalling backward. He had zero speed himself.

Imo it's hard to say, he ended up going backwards but not clear how much of that was the fact he kept slowing down after picking the wrong line like three times in a row. Doesn't matter, really, as at the end of the day a bad sprint can be either bad positioning/bad legs/both, and it was certainly a bad sprint.

 

[RedheadDane]

Mathieu and Mads trained for the Worlds.

And then Pogacar wins.