Bling is right. He's clearly studied the cycling problem in considerable detail and correctly determined that the optimal strategy is a mixed one when it comes to chasing or not chasing.
It remains to be seen whether he's favouring the not chasing play excessively. Valgren had a similar decision to make, but because he's a young rider without many notable results, the second place too carried considerable value, so not forcing Gasparotto to do more with the threat of otherwise getting caught was fine.
“I saw the Lotto guy in front of me and another Lotto guy behind me so I was, like, ‘For sure they’re going to work together and just try and bring them back…’ There’s no point me trying to launch across and bring everyone back and then everyone attacks over me again. So it was a bit of a gamble, not going with Gasparotto when he went.
“Then the [Tinkoff] guys [Michael Valgren] went and still no one chased.
“I had to really gamble from that point that someone else was going to work… and no one else wanted to work. Everyone wanted to sit back and wait for the sprint so from then on it was pretty much: game over. Unfortunately.”
It remains to be seen whether he's favouring the not chasing play excessively. Valgren had a similar decision to make, but because he's a young rider without many notable results, the second place too carried considerable value, so not forcing Gasparotto to do more with the threat of otherwise getting caught was fine.