I certainly hope it has a better broadcast signal than Montreal!
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Thanks!
My son, who lives in Montreal and watched the race, said it was about 25-26 and very humid.
Really? That guy...
I was pretty disappointed with everyone except UAE. Their tactics were plain to see, as was the inevitable result. So why not try something earlier?
Let's not even talk about the complete and utter capitulation of the field once Pog attacked. Only Bilbao and Alaf, bless his heart, showed a little desire to win. At least they made the podium.
According to the official meteo station the temperature was 27-28 degrees. Humidity was pretty high (dew point temperature up to 19 degrees) but not extreme. All in all, unpleasant weather for hard physical efforts.
Visma - lab had four riders in the ~20 deep group chasing Pogi after his attack. Completely embarrassing to not pull on the front. They couldn't sacrifice Lemmen, Kelderman or Benoot for Jorgenson? Pogi had 22 second on top and about the same after the descent. It was possible to catch him, but no, they rode for the L (placings) instead.
Not being ready to pull after pogi attacked showed a complete lack of winning mentality. What did they think was going to happen? Either Jorgenson can follow Pogi (not happening based on all historical data), or they lose? No attack earlier on to break UAE's rythm and nothing after??
So frustrating to watch the group 2 syndrome and Visma were the main protagonist in sabotaging the chase.
Not being ready to pull after pogi attacked showed a complete lack of winning mentality. What did they think was going to happen? Either Jorgenson can follow Pogi (not happening based on all historical data), or they lose? No attack earlier on to break UAE's rythm and nothing after??
So frustrating to watch the group 2 syndrome and Visma were the main protagonist in sabotaging the chase.
It looked to me Jorgensen went deep into the red trying to stay with pogis attack. His race was done right there and nothing to pull for
He was still able to get 12th in the end and so he clearly had something left for the final lap. If he was cooked, then surely he could do a pull with Lemmen for Benoot and Kelderman. Terrible team tactics or cohesion from Visma-Lab.
I am not. I am judging a bike rider by his ability to ride a bike.
Is a guy who is cooked gonna be able to pull back the guy who has dropped everyone?
Most of the group was just cooked. With not much road left to recover and pull back.
He was able to go hard on the last lap and stay with the best guys on the climb and sprint in the end. Lemmen attacked, Kelderman attacked, benoot attacked and Jorgensen hung on in a strong group. So they clearly had strength left even with Jorgenson spending most of his strength already. Pog was not unbeatable with the right tactics. Wandahl did a pull for Hindlay in that group and then dropped. Cant any of the Visma boys do the same and close pogi to 15 seconds? You have to pull in that group or accept that the race was lost before it started.
Let me put it like this: If Vingegaard attacked and dropped everyone and UAE had Wellens, Majka, Ayuso and Yates in the group behind, but only counter attacked individually and didn't sacrifice two guys to pull behind - everyone would talk about the "clear lack of cohesion" in UAE team without Pogi there. Same logic applies to the master control room guys of Visma-lab. Are they really in it to win it or just guys looking for personal glory?
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Simple answer is probably no.
They went for attacks to try and get away for a chance at podium. They wasnt gonna be able to form a chase on their own in the group and pull him back with being cooked and other riders attacking as well.
Completely disagree. Benoot and Kelderman was not cooked neither was Lemmen clearly! Doing random attacks with Lemmen et al was obviously the wrong thing to do and they would have a greater chance at podium if they kept it together and launched on the final climb.
No they wouldnt. They had the numbers to put someone ahead and failed. Thats why they took turns in trying to get away with someone.
Forming a chase, lol there was no time and they was cooked, then someone out of them being able to sprint against anyone in that group would fail miserably. Why would they take that responsibility? A fairytale.
You're just wrong. I'm talking about going for the win. What did Visma do to win this race? Absolutely nothing. Did not have the time? 20 km left when Pogacar went! Jorgenson was the second strongest on the climb and would likely be that again if they pulled for him. Then they surely would have had a podium.
What are you basing him being completely cooked on? He didn't drop from the group and did several attacks in the chase.
The alternative was that they sprinted from the group and lost anyway. Good riddance.
Lol, relax.
They lost the chance to win when Pog dropped everyone and Jorgeson went into red.
Attacking from a group where everyone is cooked is not that strange. They were all, in the group, going for the exact same thing. Attack to try and get away to avoid sprint for podium.
He was obviously cooked as he got dropped hard by Pog on the climb. That he follow others and stay with a group who is equally cooked is neither here nor there.
Sure, but their best chance to get a podium... having no rider with a sprint in their team left... the best alternative was probably to take turns and trying to get away from the group with someone. Not take the responsibility to form and chase with riders already on their limit to bring back the strongest rider in the race. There was not enough time nor did they have the power left to do that and they would get beaten in the sprint no matter what.
I am very relaxed thank you. I'm just so done with the best riders getting no challenge from teams who seemingly don't even try to win the race. Pogacar dropping Jorgenson was very predictable, that we can agree on.
Thus, I think that Visma needed to break the race from UAE's rythm earlier. Ideally at the point were wellens had done some work. Leaving Pogi with only Majka or Novak in an uncontrollable group of 30 ish strong riders. At that point they have a chance to go for the win.
When that didn't happen, the plan before the race must be to either hold Pogacar wheel (not good tacticts some would say delusional) or form a strong chase. Wandahl was clearly ready to work - then Benoot and Lemmen could do the same and suddenly the gap is stable at 20 seconds or even less. They had plenty of time. Come'on man. 23 km.
It feels like almost every one day race this season is teams being super passive waiting for the hammer from the best guy and when it happens it just "oh alright then we don't win today". This holds true for so many teams at so many races these days. I am singling out Visma because they are actually prepared to make it difficult for MVDP in the classics and so they understand this in principle at least.
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