Thank you, its good Wout had some belgian nearby to remind him to get back in his bike, he might have forgot otherwise
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Thanks!
Solid ride WvA!
FYI, a crash always takes something out of you.
FYI, a crash always takes something out of you.
That is clear. How could they forgot to go over that in the bus right before the race. 'Guys, have at least the same legs as VDP and Pog!!"
"Common Wout, how could you forget?? we discussed this... the plan was to have the same or better legs than VDP and Pog"
GReat race from him, just not good enough to be with the best in the race. Seems to be a bit of a pattern for him, in the real big races he is always with the best, but never the best.
Now lets go to PR!
I agree with recent observations on the need for Jumbo and Wout to step up tactically. Getting back to basics should help. Step 1: Don't crash. Step 2: Be monstrously strong. Step 3: Position oneself ahead of everyone else at the finish. The rest should fall into place.
There 2 types of riders, riders who win, and riders with bad positioning.
It’s becoming more clear that he doesn’t quite have the snap needed against the absolute best in hilly races. I will still go with him for PR and wouldn’t be surprised with a Van Baarle esque win by a couple minutes.
And then you watch TdF and wonder why he doesn't seem to be able to get this right. Well, he almost did in 2020 and we didn't know what would have happened in 2022, but 2021 and 2023 he just got spanked by Mathieu + Asgreen and Mathieu + Pogacar. Very similar races for him.
I know its different to each other and all, but I cant help but to think he's just stronger in July and cross season might have something to do with it. Also Jumbo super peak July, but they should able to apply that for April?
I know its different to each other and all, but I cant help but to think he's just stronger in July and cross season might have something to do with it. Also Jumbo super peak July, but they should able to apply that for April?
They've literally podiumed every single WT race since the Omloop. They won Tirreno, Catalunya, Omloop, E3, G-W and DDV.
I really don't want to see them super peak in April.
Wout beat Cav on the Champs-Élysée, to keep him from beating Merckx's record...he never needs to win another race again, for me to call him Legend.
He simply choked. It's the pressure of being a Belgian (or Belgium, as Horner would say) trying to win De Ronde.
I don't think you know what choke means.
When there are 2 guys in the race WAY stronger than you, losing is not a choke.
He's not at 100% when mvdp drops him whenever he feels like it.
WVA at 100% isn't necessarily winning this race but he just seems to have this fragility that makes it hard for him to show up at 100% at the big races for whatever reason
He should not have been that much weaker, which I believe was as much mental as physical, thus he choked (which means you do not rise to the occassion). And saying he "didn't need to prove anything" was merely a facade that only demonstrated his own insecurity.
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I think at 100% wout can fight to stay on mvdps wheel. He can't do that this year
His form has been scary at the last 2 TDFs. Bad luck with covid last year but just not good enough this year. Something always derailing his big goals. Be a shame if he doesnt bag another monument.
Not rising to the occasion is NOT choking lol
But he was weaker, we saw that already in E3 even that he won, he would have big problems in the Flanders climbs.
In fact I would say its difficult or rare to choke in cycling because there are not a lot of cases where there is an overwhelming favorite/strongest that 'should' win.
When you bogey the last few holes in golf to lose by 1 or something like that, ya call it a choke.
The 3rd best rider getting 4th place is not really a choke job.
Cycling 'choke jobs' i can think of... hmm....
Rogla in the tdf mayyyybe????
QS vs Stannard in some belgian classic a few years back
I dunno, but it would be cool to make a list
edit - you could say wout choked in the cx champs a couple months ago, i wouldn't fight u on that.
He was the best in the Olympic road race imho. But he didn't win there either.
His palmares doesn't live up to his status. Nevertheless he should have won at least two top tier races by now, be it Ronde, Roubaix, Worlds or Olympics. But instead he became 2nd at the 2020 worlds, 2nd at the Olympics, 2nd at 2020 Ronde, 2nd at 2022 Roubaix, 3rd at 2022 Liège... There are lesser riders than him with bigger wins. Pedersen won WCC, Asgreen won Ronde, Colbrelli, Van Baarle won Roubaix. Van Avermaet won Roubaix and Olympics. But those guys all did that when they weren't the big favorites. Look how Asgreen, winner only 2 years ago while beating Van der Poel, was allowed to go in a dangerous break. Same for Pedersen yesterday. Nobody would allow Van Aert to do that, because even while he may be ridiculed as "always 2nd best" he is simply to good for his own good, but on the other hand he lacks something that can help convert those 2nd places into 1st places. He's way too good to be an underdog, but he's too much of an allrounder to be considered the top favorite in these races. And yet everybody always considers him the or a top favorite. He does as well, as does his team. In the meantime years are slipping away.
And i have to wonder, if he doesn't have a better chance at winning Liège than winning Ronde.
Big Doopie
BANNED
distance.
he seems to lose his edge over a certain amount of kms.
also a team can only get you so far if you are up against better riders.
why do you think ineos can no longer replicate the froome years? and why did pog win the 2020 tdf? no matter the team, if your guy doesn't have better legs when he is launched than the other guy, he's not going to win.
only way a better team wins when not having the best rider is by having enough threatening riders that many of them could win (like QS used to) and putting them in the right place to force the better riders to do all the work. today, jumbo did nothing. they put van hooydonck (no threat) in front and then thought they had the equal to pg and vdp in wva. they do not.
he seems to lose his edge over a certain amount of kms.
also a team can only get you so far if you are up against better riders.
why do you think ineos can no longer replicate the froome years? and why did pog win the 2020 tdf? no matter the team, if your guy doesn't have better legs when he is launched than the other guy, he's not going to win.
only way a better team wins when not having the best rider is by having enough threatening riders that many of them could win (like QS used to) and putting them in the right place to force the better riders to do all the work. today, jumbo did nothing. they put van hooydonck (no threat) in front and then thought they had the equal to pg and vdp in wva. they do not.
I believe he has a GC rider level day-to-day recovery and as he is not going for the GC, is able to use that to pull off different kinds of major performances with unreal looking frequency at the Tour.
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