Van der Poel won Dwars 4 days before he won Ronde the last time (he also rode it in 2021 and 2019 shortly before Ronde). There was nothing inevitable about Benoot standing on the pedals and his back wheel touching Van Aert's front wheel.
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Many commentators were stating before the crash that WVA had "something to prove", that it was one of his "last chances". I get where that is coming from as anyone can recognize that, out of bad luck or lack of reading race capabilities or instincts he was underperforming. But at the same time the load of expectation on his shoulders might have been too much.
Many athletes become riders because they're born in a culture prone to cycling. But that same culture puts them under enormous pressure to perform. Had WVA been american and I guess he would feel more lighthearted about racing.
They have philipsen, remco is going to get away with it again!Yes and now we won't get to see Remco Evenepoel going in a doomed break with 200km to go featuring Łukasz Wiśniowski, Harry Sweeny and some Kosovan refugees because he was 'riding for Wout'
Check the video from the motorbike, the curb had nothing to do. WVA going down was the main cause of all subsequent riders piling up.
And so is debating over it, however you may find it a nuisance. But from the tone of your initial post on this matter, you didn't seem to been taking things easy, but to the contrary your vehemence jumped through the screen.😏
I could go off on a tangent here about Visma as well. There's a negative pressure applied to their top stars & the way they race (full gas, all in) which exacerbates errors with pretty dire consequences. WvA crashed himself on Friday & the team crashed him out yesterday.
Perhaps it's too early for a proper post-mortem of what happened but IMO it's no coincidence both Roglič & Wout van Aert always end up getting pummelled in a meatgrinder either just before their number one objectives or during them (for Rog it's the TdF). It's negative pressure & the weight of (over)expectations on their shoulders.
It's sort of wild to me how Visma has essentially burned through their two top riders from the 2019-2022 period. I mean it's clear WvA was already not in a particularly good place mentally coming into this classics season. He wasn't relaxed, at all.
The RR? That's too difficult for him against the likes of Pogacar and Evenepoel. They do 4500 altitude meters. If they go hard every time on the hills, he will collapse eventually. Just like he collapsed in Leuven.
I completely agree. There's a thing called bad luck but if you keep adding water drops to a glass - JV riding full gas, all in - , sooner or later it's gonna tip.
Should be a pretty open race though. And its really good for Evenepoel as well.
But its a parcours where I absolutely favor Van Aert over MvdP
Wout did 4 classics since Feb and Van der Poel did 3. One skipped DDV and did GW, the other did the opposite. All the other riders going for RVV are doing several races as well. Putting this on Wout or Visma as if it’s some internal pressure they created that caused this fate to happen is a bit too far imo.
Like Rackam's post eloquently stated, it's not the number races, it's how they are raced.
Agree. Obviously we don't know the exact facts about the sternum break, but that will be what determines when he will be able to get back.
This crash is really at a bad point in time and and the worst of news. I couldn’t tell if he was better than last year but his chances particularly for Paris-Roubaix looked good with a strong team and a good build up. I am afraid that he will find himself in the same spot as Alaphilippe crashing out of RVV and then having a long hard struggle just to get back to something that looks like the normal. The world continues to spin and new talents will emerge meanwhile. This is all too sad.
Beloki's crash and the way he was laying down on the sun looked way more painful.
But heartful testimony. Fortunately WVA didn't break any bones in the legs.
While the impact / medical report is bad, I feel many here see it far too negative.
If his skin heals, he sleeps well, his ribs and sternum grow back together... he can be competitive somewhere in July.
Realistically, he can't figure in the olympics (for sure not as a main contender, but you know the Olympic phrase that competing is more important than winning), but he can race Vuelta and Worlds.
As for Visma and the way they're racing, I don't buy that there is too much pressure on WvA. I think he has proven his worth for Visma the last 4-5 years and is worth his money. I don't think there is that much pressure on him personally from the team, and I also think WvA doesn't suffer from too much outside pressure: he knows he has formidable competitors (if MvdP wasn't born, WvA would already have cemented his status as national hero winning RVV, Worlds, ... in Flanders and probably have a statue in his hometown) and that's frustrating, but he enjoys racing (as long as he doesn't crash as hard as yesterday) and even without major wins, I think he can live with what he has won, rather than what he hasn't. If WvA has to be sad about not having won too many big races, 99% of the peloton should be very depressed.
But the interesting thing I noticed about Visma's notes about Dwars door Vlaanderen:
"km 121 will be chaos on downhill but fight like hell to be with the guys"
I mean: if you read this carefully, the crash was a selffulfilling prophecy, and Visma has to think REAL hard how much responsability they want to take for this crash, given the way these notes ask for nothing else than to ride agressive and take serious risks crashing, for no other reason that setting up an attack for WvA to win this race. There was a time when prep races were just that: prepare for the big race. If WvA (but Visma in the first place) treated this race like a prep race, testing out tactics, e.g. send Benoot / Jorgensen up the road, or let WvA chase attacks rather than be the one to attack,... or in other words: Visma could have eased up just a bit in this race, still win it, but learn a lot more from racing differently than the plan they had now, which was to obliterate the competition already on Kanarieberg. What would they have learned from that, in preparation for trying to beat MvdP on Sunday? Not much it seems. Maybe whether they could drop Stuyven / Pedersen, but that's about it.
If his skin heals, he sleeps well, his ribs and sternum grow back together... he can be competitive somewhere in July.
Realistically, he can't figure in the olympics (for sure not as a main contender, but you know the Olympic phrase that competing is more important than winning), but he can race Vuelta and Worlds.
As for Visma and the way they're racing, I don't buy that there is too much pressure on WvA. I think he has proven his worth for Visma the last 4-5 years and is worth his money. I don't think there is that much pressure on him personally from the team, and I also think WvA doesn't suffer from too much outside pressure: he knows he has formidable competitors (if MvdP wasn't born, WvA would already have cemented his status as national hero winning RVV, Worlds, ... in Flanders and probably have a statue in his hometown) and that's frustrating, but he enjoys racing (as long as he doesn't crash as hard as yesterday) and even without major wins, I think he can live with what he has won, rather than what he hasn't. If WvA has to be sad about not having won too many big races, 99% of the peloton should be very depressed.
But the interesting thing I noticed about Visma's notes about Dwars door Vlaanderen:
"km 121 will be chaos on downhill but fight like hell to be with the guys"
I mean: if you read this carefully, the crash was a selffulfilling prophecy, and Visma has to think REAL hard how much responsability they want to take for this crash, given the way these notes ask for nothing else than to ride agressive and take serious risks crashing, for no other reason that setting up an attack for WvA to win this race. There was a time when prep races were just that: prepare for the big race. If WvA (but Visma in the first place) treated this race like a prep race, testing out tactics, e.g. send Benoot / Jorgensen up the road, or let WvA chase attacks rather than be the one to attack,... or in other words: Visma could have eased up just a bit in this race, still win it, but learn a lot more from racing differently than the plan they had now, which was to obliterate the competition already on Kanarieberg. What would they have learned from that, in preparation for trying to beat MvdP on Sunday? Not much it seems. Maybe whether they could drop Stuyven / Pedersen, but that's about it.
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Yeah, it's obviously not an almost career ending injury (WVA isn't being treated by French doctors this time, so I guess he should be ok
), but he will probably still be going through many of the same emotions as Beloki did back then.
Everything suits Pig so it felt redundant to say.
Should be a pretty tactical race which I dont think is great for WvA
That's ridiculous. Show me a team that has ever told their riders to be at the back at a crucial moment.
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