Once, twice, three times a Lotte victory? 21st Women's Ronde van Vlaanderen, March 31st, 2024

[Libertine Seguros]

Basically, she’s not explosive enough to drop other climbers so she has to play the percentages. Her only shot at winning was to sit on for the last 10 clicks, hope Trek would work to stop Vos coming back and try and mug the two of them in the sprint. It may not be her way, but surely her DS should be screaming this at her?.

"I am not a sprinter, the way to win is always by attacking" - Katarzyna Niewiadoma.

She basically can't win unless she comes to the line alone. It's both her best and worst trait.

 

[Gigs_98]

More fool you, expecting Kasia to win is a fool's errand.

Believe me, as somebody who has been a fool for the best part of a decade now.

Here's to the fools who dream.

 

[awavey]

Lizzie D confirmed broken arm from the early crash

 

[Samu Cuenca]

"I am not a sprinter, the way to win is always by attacking" - Katarzyna Niewiadoma.

She basically can't win unless she comes to the line alone. It's both her best and worst trait.

Longo Borghini managed to improve her sprint, so there's still hope. Otherwise she should perhaps consider contesting the Polish NC again.

 

[awavey]

Easier said than done against two riders on the same team. I know, I know, Stannard, blah blah. She's not Ian Stannard.

she doesnt have to be like Ian Stannard though, she just needs to be alot less happy about finishing second, all the time.

which is a mindset change IMO, Danny Stam (in)famously said SD Worx never consider her to be a serious rival. which is a damning indictment of a rider who actually does finish 2nd or 3rd alot of the time to them and is certainly within the current top 10 women's riders in the WWT talent wise. And thats simply because I think SD Worx know Kasia will always disadvantage herself in terms of a chance of going for victory, to guarantee a podium finish instead, they dont have to think about tactics to beat her to the win, because she takes herself out of that game too often.

she was doing way too much work on the front pulling ELB/Shirin along today in that finale, when she should have been letting Trek do the majority of the work, yes the risk of the chasing group then catching them is far greater if they arent all working together, but thats arguably thenTreks problem to solve isnt it ?

because I doubt ELB fancied her sprint against Vos or the rejuvenated Kopecky or Vollering, so Treks chance of winning was all about pushing on, so why does Kasia then have to contribute as hard to that effort ? because Kasias only chance of victory in that 2 v 1 scenario was making sure Trek ran out of gas before the line because she doesnt have that explosive sprint power and yet she ends up helping them to get to the line, helps them not have to worry about that chasing group and in doing so totally compromised her chance of winning unless ELB suddenly ran out of steam.

the difference in tactics was visible in that second group in that same run in Vos sat at the back for most of the time, barely took a turn, and yet she still beat all of them to the line.

 

[awavey]

Basically, she’s not explosive enough to drop other climbers so she has to play the percentages. Her only shot at winning was to sit on for the last 10 clicks, hope Trek would work to stop Vos coming back and try and mug the two of them in the sprint. It may not be her way, but surely her DS should be screaming this at her?.

youd hope they were, Id assume Maggy was DS for her with his experience of Belgian classics, and Michelle was commentating on the race, but maybe its a CanyonSram problem too, we didnt really see where her teamies dropped out of the reckoning, Dygert was obviously near her till the Koppenberg when she got bumped into the bank, yet Paladin finished ahead of Dygert so must have been around the same road area, as Dygert recovered to be in the group of riders behind the two main split groups that formed after that, where Kasia made it to G1.

maybe had one of her teammates got into G2 it changes their game.

though Vollering said in interview post race she wasted too much energy having to also run the Koppenberg, and then bridging the gap between groups.

 

[pmcg76]

That was a fun race, much more so that the mens race. Happy to see SD Worx defeated, even if I would have liked to see Kasia win today. Hard to know how she can win if not alone, makes it very tough on her.

Happy to see so many cross riders in the mix, Van Empel did OK, but was kinda expecting more tbh. I guess she has only done a few races so far this year so has time to improve.

 

[Izzyeviel]

Lizzie D confirmed broken arm from the early crash

'Now that Lizzie is no longer in my fantasy cycling team, I don't have to worry about jinxing her & can finally change my avatar' - Me, last month.

I'm so sorry

 

[awavey]

Interesting piece in Rouleur on Kasias view of the race.

https://www.rouleur.cc/blogs/the-ro...to-long-awaited-victory-after-flanders-podium