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Teams & Riders Official Wout Van Aert thread

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The new Tommy Voeckler.

Just kidding but that strategy was a complete fail today. The end wasn't too hard for him either (he could have won versus Pog on such a finish), so going early ruined any chance of a stage win (& didn't even make UAE work because other teams had their own interests as well).

"Jumbo's failure is now complete" (insert Darth Sidious voice). But seriously, everything people predicted would go wrong as a result of having too many team objectives at once has happened to TJV in this TdF (split leadership weakening both GC guys, points & stage hunting backfiring today).

You just can't ride for points, intermediate points, stages, yellow, GC placement etc. & hope to make the whole thing work.
 
but you do, if you know deep down that you do not stand a chance to be on the top step of the GC podium.

you win as much else as possible.

But they literally could have won the stage today with Wout van Aert if he'd stayed with the peloton. He blew his best chance at a stage win (& all the points that go along with it). When Michael Matthews was Pog's closest challenger, we know WvA should have been right there.

My guess? WvA went early to make UAE work (to force them to chase & tire them, like Jumbo attempted last year on stage 7's 250km slog). This was an example of Jumbo attempting (& failing) to combine points chasing & GC prospects. It backfired because there's no Van der Poel to work with him in a breakaway (oops, he's cooked in this TdF) & other teams had reasons to chase, thus saving UAE's legs.

Their overall strategy of combining all these goals into one tactic is unworkable in this TdF. WvA lost the jersey (& stage) because the 'brains' in the team car don't know what they're doing.
 
But they literally could have won the stage today with Wout van Aert if he'd stayed with the peloton. He blew his best chance at a stage win (& all the points that go along with it). When Michael Matthews was Pog's closest challenger, we know WvA should have been right there.

My guess? WvA went early to make UAE work (to force them to chase & tire them, like Jumbo attempted last year on stage 7's 250km slog). This was an example of Jumbo attempting (& failing) to combine points chasing & GC prospects. It backfired because there's no Van der Poel to work with him in a breakaway (oops, he's cooked in this TdF) & other teams had reasons to chase, thus saving UAE's legs.

Their overall strategy of combining all these goals into one tactic is unworkable in this TdF. WvA lost the jersey (& stage) because the 'brains' in the team car don't know what they're doing.

oh, i agree, that today was a fail.

but that has nothing to do with WvA competing for the points jersey. that was simply wasted GC effort as other teams (as they always do) came to UAE's "rescue".

i am only talking about JV having several goals. winning GC will require Pog to be ill or have a mishap. in that case they will have Vingo (or possibly Rog) to step into that place. In the meantime, they will win the Green, have a shot at Team prize and placing one and maybe two riders on the podium. pretty good return on their sponsor's money since GC win is frankly a pipedream.

to me, their goals make sense (given Pog).
 
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The people criticizing Jumbo better not criticize defensive and boring racing at the same time.

And you really believe that considering Jumbo was massively represented in that group while Wout was cruising for a stage? That woulda made no sense what so ever on a stage like this.
The people criticizing Jumbo better not criticize defensive and boring racing at the same time.
I've said similar many times. People criticize 'boring racing', and then they criticize hard racing, and then they criticize risk taking.
 
Wout Van Aert is a Great Champion. He's not The New GVA, he's more. No disrespect to GVA who won a lot and collected big, big wins. Le Tour is the biggest stage, Wout was in yellow and what a performance today! Wout proudly wore the jersey, instead of defending it, he attacked. Chapeau.
 
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