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Lesser known races thread 2022

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yaco

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Strange tactics by BEX and Alpecin - Bex had four riders in the peleton with live chances in Matthews and Groves, yet only rode at the front with 5kms to go, while Alpecin had multiple riders with Merlier in the peleton, yet relied on Bayer from the break who was not favored to win - Strange indeed!
 
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Devil's Elbow

Devil's Elbow

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yaco said:
Strange tactics by BEX and Alpecin - Bex had four riders in the peleton with live chances in Matthews and Groves, yet only rode at the front with 5kms to go, while Alpecin had multiple riders with Merlier in the peleton, yet relied on Bayer from the break who was not favored to win - Strange indeed!
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Alpecin at least got a third place out of the race with Bayer. BEX are racing like they don't want to stay in the WT.
 
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Samamba

Samamba

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Devil's Elbow said:
Alpecin at least got a third place out of the race with Bayer. BEX are racing like they don't want to stay in the WT.
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They almost got so lucky that LTS tried to gift them big points by pulling the last 40k for their sprinter that was sitting at home.

Alpecin didn't do anything wrong. They gave Baier their chance, why not. It's not like they really really needed this win. BEX on the other hand, incredible.
 
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yaco

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Samamba said:
They almost got so lucky that LTS tried to gift them big points by pulling the last 40k for their sprinter that was sitting at home.

Alpecin didn't do anything wrong. They gave Baier their chance, why not. It's not like they really really needed this win. BEX on the other hand, incredible.
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Alpecin had the fastest sprinter in a reduced sprint field - Every win is needed.
 
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Ricco'

Ricco'

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yaco said:
Alpecin had the fastest sprinter in a reduced sprint field - Every win is needed.
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It was Merlier's first race in two months post injury. Adding to that, it was a hard day from the beginning with heavy conditions, I wouldn't think he would be the fastest sprinter from the beginning (it was the perfect kind of race for Kristoff).

Bayer otoh comes with a decent shape from the Giro and has shown there to be capable of being relatively fast in a sprint in a couple of occasions. Plus he has a somewhat decent engine (former ITT champion of his country in youth ranks), top-10 at Worlds last year in a similar kind of route), so I don't see it as a strange tactic.

The way the race was run, I wouldn't see Merlier able to reach the final podium today.
 
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tobydawq

tobydawq

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lemon cheese cake said:
Bike changes for Kristoff and maybe others I guess. Or issues with rain and the timing chips
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Results are in and it turns out Van Lerbeghe was 43rd and Mørkøv 75th. I wonder what happened there...

They were the two first riders on the startlist (numbers 4 and 5) who finished the race, so I wonder if that is some sort of reason. It seems very weird, though.
 
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Escarabajo

Escarabajo

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Samu Cuenca said:
And I thought the sprint in Bruxelles was dramatic, wow!
(Stop at 1:20, if you don't want to see the horrible pictures)

https://twitter.com/x/status/1533495502972637185
View: https://twitter.com/faustocoppi60/status/1533495502972637185
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Oh my dear!! I heard about it in the news, but only have seen it until now. There are so many things that can go wrong at a sprint finish like dangerous curves, stupid moto drivers, stupid fans, rain, bad roads, dangerous maneuvers. Well, we have all here in one finish. I guess they should have stopped the race before they went into the center of the city.
 
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