2024 Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes, approx. 4 hour sort of monument, April 21st

[Dk one]

Holy ***, Brown, amazing win! She did look pretty strong on the climbs today after a less than spring. And a strong 17th for debutant and lone Dane Minke Anderson.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I think the others would still have caught up without Cadzows help, because Kasia just went way too early to last the distance to the line, and fair enough it's the only card she can play in a sprint contest with those riders.

Afraid I don't think "those riders" even comes into it. I think Realini and Koppenburg are probably the last ones left that she can back herself in a flat sprint against now that ELB has upped her sprint game.

The higher the gradient, the more Kasia can be competitive.

 

[Didinho]

What some CX session can do for your road success. Soon everyone will start doing it.

 

[Unterlenkerfahrend]

I had no problem with her gambling at all. She obviously wouldn't have expected Cadzow to do something as blatantly doomed to fail as that.

But from having had Chabbey up front, Kasia sitting on most of the way in the elite chasers, and two riders in the Vos group, to not get a podium is a bit of a mess.

They'd done almost everything perfectly up to the final kilometre but they just didn't have it to bring it home. And somehow Trek and SD Worx who completely made a mess of the race and made it much, much harder than it needed to be to control for themselves did get on the podium.

On paper it's disappointing but in the end Trek and SDW also just have the better rider (suited for a race like that). So in the end you can only do so much tactically in a high speed run in into the finish like that.

I think Chabbey messed up a bit working too much in that front 3 for the majority of the time, Brown was skipping quite a few turns and just sat on on Roche-Aux-Faucons. No podium is disappointing but 4th and 5th and 3 riders in the top 10 is still a good result for Canyon-SRAM.

Trek and SDW might'v gotten the podium but given the caliber of their riders this was a total shitshow. Trek completely blew that chase, letting the gap go up way too much and apparently totally missevaluated Brands capabilities in that breakaway. They almost got bailed out by an insanely strong ELB but if they keep that gap at just a minute less, the front 3 is caught way earlier and I reckon she wins easily.
SD Worx have completely sold out Vollering these Ardennes. I have no idea what their internal dynamics are regarding Vollering leaving but she basically has to race on her own while the rest treats Kopecky as if she were the favorite. She obviously also messed up in that final km and in her positioning in the sprint but given how much she has worked for teammates in the past its quite a disgrace how she seems to be on her own.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

On paper it's disappointing but in the end Trek and SDW also just have the better rider (suited for a race like that). So in the end you can only do so much tactically in a high speed run in into the finish like that.

I think Chabbey messed up a bit working too much in that front 3 for the majority of the time, Brown was skipping quite a few turns and just sat on on Roche-Aux-Faucons. No podium is disappointing but 4th and 5th and 3 riders in the top 10 is still a good result for Canyon-SRAM.

Trek and SDW might'v gotten the podium but given the caliber of their riders this was a total shitshow. Trek completely blew that chase, letting the gap go up way too much and apparently totally missevaluated Brands capabilities in that breakaway. They almost got bailed out by an insanely strong ELB but if they keep that gap at just a minute less, the front 3 is caught way earlier and I reckon she wins easily.
SD Worx have completely sold out Vollering these Ardennes. I have no idea what their internal dynamics are regarding Vollering leaving but she basically has to race on her own while the rest treats Kopecky as if she were the favorite. She obviously also messed up in that final km and in her positioning in the sprint but given how much she has worked for teammates in the past its quite a disgrace how she seems to be on her own.

Ad 1) I'd say that while yes, Trek and SDW have the stronger riders for the race, they also didn't perform up to their favourite status, whereas Canyon tactically did everything right to get them outnumbered, but just didn't have the overall strength to make it count. I understood Chabbey working because there was no guarantee they would be caught if there was not collaboration behind, and her work on RAF dropped Cadzow, but not by enough that she couldn't come back soon after.

Ad 2) yes, there was a tactical disasterclass among the top two teams, but ultimately strength was enough to win out. That's fairly typical for SD Worx, often they're tactically a complete mess but they're just so OP as to be able to bludgeon their way to success anyway.

Ad 3) Ever since they've had Kopecky there's been discord that there just wasn't to the same extent before. I know I get slated for a biased standpoint on it, but you can see how Demi coexists fine with just about everybody else on the team, but Kopecky has had absolutely awful chemistry with her from day one and Strade Bianche or no Strade Bianche (where Kopecky already attacked Demi before the final kilometre mess), it was doomed to failure. At the Tour the complete and blatant refusal on Lotte's part to collaborate or cooperate was probably the last nail in the coffin for the two working together towards one another's goals, and the team probably had to make a choice. They could have kept them to their respective targets, but the way Lotte's skillset has expanded into the climbier races has meant that they were inevitably going to impinge on one another's territory as favourites, and with Wiebes expanding into the shorter punchier stuff and Kopecky able to win the UAE Tour, plus Vollering's contract being up, the choice seemed to be academic by that point.

It also isn't helped by the absence of Reusser, who has probably been the top rider on SD Worx that has the best in-race chemistry with Vollering now that Anna VDB is retired. It's kinda funny that Anna was in the car today because if ever there was a circumstance where I would have thought SD Worx would explicitly favour Demi over Lotte it would be with Anna in the car. Danny Stam, on the other hand, somehow managed to achieve miracles at Amstel Gold and got both of them to expend effort as domestiques in the attempt to get Wiebes to win the Amstel Gold Race. Which almost worked (and would have been a disaster for the race, a Zabel-wins-in-Maastricht moment for it), and is the best the two have coexisted in this whole saga that I can remember: when neither of them were the preferred rider.

But last year we were being told how Demi was the selfish cannibal of a rider.

 

[awavey]

Vollerings quote from the race "I gambled too long. I have myself to blame. It’s a big disappointed to end the classic season without a personal victory. But I’m even more disappointed that I couldn’t thank my team mates with a win after all their work."

 

[yaco]

Vollerings quote from the race "I gambled too long. I have myself to blame. It’s a big disappointed to end the classic season without a personal victory. But I’m even more disappointed that I couldn’t thank my team mates with a win after all their work."

A bizarre comment seeing the team did nothing to help Vollering for the whole of the race.

 

[JR1012]

A bizarre comment seeing the team did nothing to help Vollering for the whole of the race.

Of course the team helped her.
Protecting her, get her into position, get her bottles from the team car, Bredewold was in the break and afterwards she worked to get the gap down.
If you really believe the team are not working for their leader, then you obviously have no knowledge of cycling.

Of course sometimes it's messed up when you see, for example Kopecky, not working for Vollering, when she is clearly the leader in team for this race.

 

[pmcg76]

Nice to see the SD Worx/Trek domination being broken. Well done Grace Brown. Probably a bit of inexperience, but Cadzow did way to much pulling when the others caught the break. She should have let Vollering do the chasing when she started mucking around and again at the finish.

One thing on SD Worx and their team, NFB was near the front most of the day and looked like one of the strongest, but disappeared just before RAF, then was flying up the climb, just missing the split. I don't know if something happened her, but if she had been nearer the front, she would likely have made the split and given SD Worx options.

 

[JR1012]

Nice to see the SD Worx/Trek domination being broken. Well done Grace Brown. Probably a bit of inexperience, but Cadzow did way to much pulling when the others caught the break. She should have let Vollering do the chasing when she started mucking around and again at the finish.

One thing on SD Worx and their team, NFB was near the front most of the day and looked like one of the strongest, but disappeared just before RAF, then was flying up the climb, just missing the split. I don't know if something happened her, but if she had been nearer the front, she would likely have made the split and given SD Worx options.

I think before the last climb she was out of position, maybe because descending isn't here strength.

 

[awavey]

A bizarre comment seeing the team did nothing to help Vollering for the whole of the race.

whether they did or didnt as much couldnt tell from the coverage we got, but in the race report she speaks specifically about how each of them NFB, Gerritse, Vas, Bredewold...cant help feel theres one missing there did a specific job to help her, but I think shes also a smart enough rider to know compliments to the team like that are good to bank for later races to come.

Demi Vollering closes spring with third place in Liège-Bastogne-Liège - Team SD Worx

teamsdworxprotime.com

the quote that stood out to me kind of a rewording of that original one,

"I'm disappointed. I had really good legs today, but gambled too much. I started my sprint too late. This feeling will linger for a few days. It will only make me hungrier for La Vuelta Femenina."

but it confirms what I thought at the end there, maybe thats why I like it she had the legs still, just got the decision on the sprint wrong. and I dont think shes just saying that to fool her rivals into thinking she was in better shape than she was, because she goes on to say LBL is the race out of the 3 classics, she has the most regrets about because it was her mistake.