E3 Saxo Classic 2025, one day classic, March 28

Netserk · Mar 29, 2025

Panda Claws said:
When it comes to Sagan I don't recall that many monuments where he was so much better than the field as Mathieu is. I don't think he ever had the same punch uphill nor the same TT capability to do solos as Mathieu has shown. He was also plagued by question marks about his 250k+ stamina throughout his career.

Sure there was more wheelsucking but Sagan simply wasn't the classics rider that Van der Poel is and wouldn't have rivaled him on neither a Poggio nor an Oude Kwaremont.

Sagan mostly suffered from this cause he couldn't actually distance all of his rivals. Cancellara sometimes could but was easier to mark overall due to his weaker sprint.

When it comes to Sagan specifically it's notable that Kristoff, Degenkolb, Terpstra and old man Gilbert managed to win multiple monuments during his reign.

If Van der Poel hadn't been there and WvA was the premier cobble star than perhaps he might have been marked out as Sagan was due to not being able to distance everyone well enough.

Different era. He'd have smashed the field if the current era started a decade sooner.

jmdirt · Mar 29, 2025

Pozzovivo said:
If all teams and riders (or even the majority) rode for the win, races would look completely different.

At first, I thought maybe, but then I quickly thought no they wouldn't.

tobydawq · Mar 29, 2025

Nice excuse by Groupama for riding after the split.

"We had many guys in front of the split, so it wasn't a problem for us."

Netserk · Mar 29, 2025

They don't have to say anything, there's nothing to justify. The race was on and they rode.

Tim Cahill · Mar 29, 2025

Don't remember Van Der Poel stopping out of solidarity after he knocked John Degenkolb off his bike.

Red Rick · Mar 29, 2025

Netserk said:
Different era. He'd have smashed the field if the current era started a decade sooner.

Based on what?

Traits wise he was closer to Van Aert with lower FTP than Van der Poel. Strong propensity to perform much worse in monuments than 200km races.

jono · Mar 29, 2025

Tim Cahill said:
Don't remember Van Der Poel stopping out of solidarity after he knocked John Degenkolb off his bike.

Wout chose that very moment to attack, so I'm not going to blame MVDP in that scenario.

I think there's also a difference between a racing incident and a crash holding up three-quarters of the peloton 7 kilometers into a stage. I don't know what the racing etiquette is, exactly, but the two situations are not similar.

Peyroteo94 · Mar 29, 2025

Red Rick said:
Based on what?

Traits wise he was closer to Van Aert with lower FTP than Van der Poel. Strong propensity to perform much worse in monuments than 200km races.

Still won 3 WC. His main weakness was his overrated sprint. He got a lot of podium in bunch sprints because he is a god in surfing wheels.

Netserk · Mar 29, 2025

Red Rick said:
Based on what?

Traits wise he was closer to Van Aert with lower FTP than Van der Poel. Strong propensity to perform much worse in monuments than 200km races.

A more explosive Van Aert who would be able to go solo more than he did. He was fine in long races when he was at his best. If anything, he was weakest in E3 in 2016, 2017 & 2018.