First time ive seen a sprint where they were all looking behind for Waldo instead of looking forwards
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Merlier came from pretty much the same place. They're neck and neck when they launch. Really rare to see a sprint just like that.
Strong sprint by Milan, he was in the wind much longer and started his sprint in 13th position.
Yeah nice to see a leadout just dead stop when they realise the guy isn't on their wheel, also quite funny as it leads to chaotic sprints like this one.
Nah, Merlier was still behind the Cofidis rider when Milan was already in the wind. The last 100m they were as fast, the gap was created before.
Still, no shame to only loose to Merlier in such a sprint.
Would have been hard for Philipsen, you can't box in 2 guys at the same time...
I really wouldn't say that he was in the wind. But he maybe lost it when he had to stop for a second to pass Hofstetter.
Very narrow roads, lot of road furniture and good few turns in the last few KMs would be a disaster if it rained and you know it. It was dangerous in the dry too when they're going at that speed.
Always this moaning, it's so tiresome.
No turns is also dangerous as crashes would happen at higher speed.
The finish in Andora just after Capo Mele was a big no-no for me, but I saw no issues with this.
Merlier talking about haters is the most I've seen someone overrate their own significance
Deciding to let the accelerating peleton go on only one lane of the road with turns and rundabouts was very lame. These are situations when riders lose races, seasons and health in crashes.
Respect to tim merlier to stand up against the haters of himself, the team, Alaphilippe, Fausto, remco etc etc.
No surprise that merlier beat Milan, seeing that Milan has had a far superior lead-out train at the Giro and on this occasion Milan lost the wheel.
Merlier gives the dryest interviews, it's like he'd rather not bother. And that's okay too, not everyone needs to be a charismatic Pog.
When you win almost every race you enter it probably starts to roll off the tongue naturally too
Hard to tell since he is so dry in speaking, but I don’t think he was very pleased about the last question they asked re: finally winning more than 1 stage in a GT and never beyond stage 3. He said something garbled about disappointing, but got up quickly and left. Kinda like asking him “so you’ve been a failure before this what do you think now?”
Merlier is absolutely right. He was constantly belittled and mocked as a rider who could only win one stage, and the first one at that, in a GT. So he proved the haters (one could name them laughers, mockers, negative people etc.) that he is more than a one day sprinter. He still evolves. Many people forget he was (only) a second degree cyclocrosser who only switched to the road at a later age.
Then it is difficult to build up resilience and endurance. So he is absolutely right to respond to those stupid people.
The same happened with Merlier in two other stages. Merlier also could have won those stages with a better lead-out or with a bit of luck.
"Nothing will show these stupid people by telling them how much I care what they write about me"
I guess you could say the same about the so called haters.............
I don't see any of Merlier's points. He has been praised for performance, his results show it. For everyone who hates him or throws shade in his direction, would guess ratio is 5 or 10 to one. Where did Julian Alaphilipe have to go? 2 time world champion, won stages of everything, was an absolute fly in the ointment for many teams, with him being aggressive and capable and getting in the mix. A great racer,top of the world, top of the heep. He could only go down, and with style he became the world champion of crashing w serious injuries. And yes sofa surfing good for nothing vessels of belly butter ragged on him . For not being the same rider as before being broken in half. General public BS, would expect nothing less. But for his team leadership to drag him through the mud, publicly say he was sucking was a bridge too far. If after the heat of battle we got to hear Merlier' s interworkings of what he has in his head as motivation, cool. He won..listened to similar in your head demons from Caleb Ewan and all those critics occupy too much of his skull and body to get anything done on the bike. These are athletes, so if they say really stupid things, shake it off, they are not paid for intelligence.
Some of the interviewers do have a way of asking at the very least ill-timed questions right after a race, it's as if they had never competed in sport themselves.
Impressive sprint from Merlier, he beat Milan while also starting the sprint from a non-ideal position. I think its the first time he wins a GT stage in the second or third week.
A bit of a throwback to last year for Milan starting his sprint from the back and finishing second in the end.
A bit of a throwback to last year for Milan starting his sprint from the back and finishing second in the end.
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