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Gent - Wevelgem: October 11th, 2020

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MVDP much more to blame than WVA there. It was like watching GVA ride against Sagan, very negative approach.
I can’t say I blame him for being a bit snide. It’s one thing getting Saganned when you are a Sagan, it’s another getting Saganned by a Sagan.

It's perhaps not the thread for this, but since you mentioned it.

Considering Greg was blamed all those years for 'dumb riding' with continous attacks and never tactical gambling, but delivering spectacle all the time in all kinds of races, it's really unfair to accuse him of being the rider that rode negatively against Sagan. He finally learned to use his head a couple of times on occassions when Sagan didn't and he also proved himself to be the better of the Slovakian in multiple races. Sagan isn't a holy rider, he himself isn't free from idiot race decisions that made him and others lose. And he has a much less pleasant personality in general.

It's biased bullsh*t, which I unfortunately detect more than once here, and I feel I have the right to defend him at least as much as you have to give him a wrong reputation.
 
I do agree that Van Aert, already having won a lot his season, had less to lose than Van der Poel, who by his standards, hasn’t won as much.

With that being said though, I wonder which rider or arm-chair cyclists on this forum would have wasted the last of his energies and surely “lost” in doing so in order to bring Wout van Aert in pole position to take the win.

If he had done so the comments would have been “VDP rolling the red carpet for WVA”.

Also, the people suggesting Wout was the strongest, I don’t necessarily disagree, but I think they were equally strong with the way they powered past everyone on the Kemmel. Moreover, Mathieu had put in some efforts before the last part of the race as well. Wout just picked a different part of the race to start putting in his strongest efforts.

Lastly, in the same way that Mathieu didn’t want to “lead out” Wout the reverse is also true. Wout didn’t want to waste his energies cause he would have probably lost the sprint to Mathieu (or Pedersen).
 
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Cmon, Van Aert is the best bike rider in the world atm. Obviously MVDP is going to mark him.

This is what's so great about cycling. Arguably the two strongest in a race finish 8th and 9th in a group of 9.

Absolutely. Many think that it's good that the strongest rider wins. I say: no, the cool thing about cycling is that it isn't always the strongest who wins.
 
Pedersen a great winner, Küng & Bettiol were perhaps the strongest today but both didn't end on the podium. MvdP used all his last energy to chase down the four man group and couldn't do anything afterwards. WvA understandably annoyed, but there wasn't much else that could have been done. No need to show off with your previous results.
 
No need to show off with your previous results.
Sigh.

That has nothing to do with 'showing off'. It's pure tactics. When you have some big wins under the belt already, you can gamble a bit more in race finals because there is more pressure on your opponents. It explains that he isn't obliged to chase down every attack, and a rival should know that. You see it often that a second or third big win for a good rider sometimes comes easier than the first one, exactly because of this. Having the mental upperhand, a case of confidence.
 
Sigh.

That has nothing to do with 'showing off'. It's pure tactics. When you have some big wins under the belt already, you can gamble a bit more in race finals because there is more pressure on your opponents. It explains that he isn't obliged to chase down every attack, and a rival should know that. You see it often that a second or third big win for a good rider sometimes comes easier than the first one, exactly because of this. Having the mental upperhand, a case of confidence.
Ofcourse it's tactics, but he shouldn't expect that with his sprint after a hard race his opponents will close gaps for him. They both rode to win, so they both lost.
 
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There was a lot of logic in both WvA's riding and MvdP.

I wouldn't call it anti-... It's annoying for WvA and from the point of view of MvDP, it was MvdP's best tactic to have a chance that there would be a sprint.
MvdP dearly missed a team mate.


It's clear WvA and MvdP were the best. Apologies for all others in that front group, but they were a bit like the furniture in a theatre of two rivals.
Next Sunday, it won't be like this: there are enough cobbled climbs to separate them from the others. I don't see more than 2-3 other riders following the wheels of WvA and MvdP.
 
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Sigh.

That has nothing to do with 'showing off'. It's pure tactics. When you have some big wins under the belt already, you can gamble a bit more in race finals because there is more pressure on your opponents. It explains that he isn't obliged to chase down every attack, and a rival should know that. You see it often that a second or third big win for a good rider sometimes comes easier than the first one, exactly because of this. Having the mental upperhand, a case of confidence.

He isn’t obliged, and neither is Mathieu. Mathieu certainly isn’t pointing the finger at anyone, so it seems like Wout is more frustrated with himself than anybody else.

Everyone knows that his season wouldn’t have been made or broken today, including Mathieu. I can understand that his choice of words to express that fact could have seemed a bit arrogant.

It’s hard to blame anyone for what they say in the heat of the moment though. All I know is, the RVV is shaping up to be epic.
 
Next Sunday, it won't be like this: there are enough cobbled climbs to separate them from the others. I don't see more than 2-3 other riders following the wheels of WvA and MvdP.

I really hope so... Not fond of so many wheel suckers getting their moment in the limelight today... Then again, we have Alaf there next weekend, and his theatrics... But that might be fun to watch :p
 
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There was a lot of logic in both WvA's riding and MvdP.

I wouldn't call it anti-... It's annoying for WvA and from the point of view of MvDP, it was MvdP's best tactic to have a chance that there would be a sprint.
MvdP dearly missed a team mate.


It's clear WvA and MvdP were the best. Apologies for all others in that front group, but they were a bit like the furniture in a theatre of two rivals.
Next Sunday, it won't be like this: there are enough cobbled climbs to separate them from the others. I don't see more than 2-3 other riders following the wheels of WvA and MvdP.

Agreed. Arm-chair cyclists galore.