Ofcourse he was flat, he went over the limit to gain back 25 seconds on mvdp after he lost 35 seconds due to his crash. Mvdp could pace the penultimate climb while Wva was going into that climb overheated.I thought exactly the opposite and thought his legs and mid section looked slightly smaller, thinner. He was flat for last @40k no snap to anything he did.. MVP just rode away from him
It probably didn’t help this was his first race after altitude, and he wouldn’t have won anyway: without crashing, he would likely have been chasing mvdp solo from paterberg (so an even longer chase). But who knows he gets over the top of the last few hills with mvdp. Now Wva made life much more difficult going solo in the chase. Either riding with mvdp or with the chase group would probably have fatigued him less than what he did now.