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Roger de Vlaeminck: 11 monuments and very good looking
I noticed that early on, too, and was pretty surprised when the commentary team only figured that out after it was essentially too late. Sometimes I wonder whether they are actually watching given the number of times the time gaps will be changing radically, up or down, and they wont even notice and just carry on. Sigh.I hadn't remembered these forums even existed for a longest time.
And tbh - it wasn't the irritation with Pietrobon which made me post after an eternity, but rather the frustration with the commentators who kept lauding the co-operation for ages after it was clear to every observant eye that Pietrobon wasn't pulling at all.
I am fine with his tactics. I am not fine of paid pundits being so totally absent of the real situation. Shame to whole studio of those idiots...
Pietrobon was simply on fumes. He was the weakest of the four. Sure, to then attack like that after sitting on for so long wasn't classy, but on the other hand he is obliged to try and win whenever the opportunity arrises. It's pro bike racing, not a club ride.
I did find that odd, and yet he and his LR partner did/do work for Visma, with no apparent illl effects. There are a few other sports, including baseball, where you don't have to have played the game to be a successful team employee.
Don't forget "and lying about it to pretend to maintain objectivity, meaning he still had access to other teams' and riders' data and info, while serving as a shill and a mouthpiece for every ridiculously narrow-minded and selfish idea that team's money-grubbing boss has and throwing tantrums about any criticism of either himself or his former boss".
Twitter influencer Libertine is the hero cycling needs but not the one it deserves
It's actually the only reason I can see why teams would wanna work with him. He never says anything interesting and his only claim to fame is stupid catchphrases like tugbuddy and fake news climbs. His tactics literally never go furgher than "put teammate in break and inshallah".
Because, like Jose Been, he's a story of somebody who was just an enthusiastic fan and computer game player who has gone on to be able to make a living from the sport. It's presented in a way that somebody who doesn't know much about cycling can watch, understand and feel knowledgeable for understanding, even if it's only just beyond surface level and surfing populist trends on Twitter for engagement purposes (and then bragging about engagement and subscriber count as a 'gotcha' to the people with actual insight and knowledge). It's not for nothing that the criticism coming from the 'old guard' cycling personalities has derided him as exploiting naïveté and ignorance to build a fanbase of novice fans. It's like if a popular Madden Youtuber suddenly became an NFL pundit - to be a successful social media personality you have to have something that makes people keep coming back to see/hear/read you, so having that guy/girl on the NFL coverage would be popular with certain audience sections, but the people who've played, coached or managed at the highest level will never treat them with real respect. But if they treat them with open disrespect, the social media personality's fans will rush to their defence. And one thing Benji is really good at is stirring up polarised opinions so that he can pick the more popular side, or at least wait until Richard Plugge tells him what his opinion should be.
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