It will be another Wiebes show, unless she crashes. A shame they didn't fully commit to keep her behind.
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It was strange tactics from the leading group of 17 - Teams had multiple riders in the break and needed to drive it to the final, not just for the stage win, but for GC. I was impressed with Manly's ride as she was strong on the climbs and in the sprint.
Manly was very strong, which made it even weirder that BEX didn't commit to keep Wiebes behind.
Faulkner was in the group and she did a bit of pacing at the front of the break - From memory EF had two riders and Canyon SRAM had three riders.
Faulkner mainly tried to attack away from the group rather than pulling wholeheartedly. But yes, BEX wasn't the only team to help DSM.
yes you could see on the live coverage (noticeably edited out on the highlights) when Danni Shrosbree rolled back underway, literally only a few 100metres from where theyd actually been stopped, they first passed a silver car that seemed parked in the middle of a field,which seemed rather curious, and then a few seconds later a police motorcycle by the verge of the road laid on its side.
the local newspaper confirmed it was police motorbike & rider, but no more details have been released, though I thought Id read elsewhere the delay was partly due to following the accident investigation process.
https://www.suffolknews.co.uk/bury-...takes-victory-as-womens-tour-hurtles-9257890/
chatting about it at the finish we wondered if maybe the car we'd seen was driving along the road in the same direction as the race was heading, suddenly found themselves swamped by the moto riders coming from behind as they would be coming at you faster than youd expect maybe panicked as there wasnt anywhere to really pull off and made a mistake which left them colliding and the car ending up in the field, as we couldnt really see how else theyd have come together otherwise.
Also on the coverage front btw they have confirmed its 4G they are using and thats the reason for the drop outs in locations.
I don't want to start sounding like ex cross rider Jens Dekker and start analysing every finish inch by inch, rule by rule like he does on twitter, but that finish today wasn't great either. While the actual final km seemed fine, the corner after the finish is not great at all. There was probably no more than 20m between the finish and the corner. We've seen crashes before right after the finish (Brussels Classic in the rain a couple of years ago springs to mind) before so it could definitely end in disaster.
not sure if it was the camera foreshortening the distance/angles, but I thought at one point in that final few kms run in, it almost looked like the lead riders hadnt seen one of road marshalls protecting road furniture till the very last nanosecond & only just made it around them, and the group behind them literally then had no warning. Id have been panicking abit if that had been me standing there.
and yeah if we are criticising stage finishes, that was definitely cross the line and come to full brake stop NOW please, lucky they have disc brakes eh
and yeah if we are criticising stage finishes, that was definitely cross the line and come to full brake stop NOW please, lucky they have disc brakes eh
It will be interesting to see how she fares tomorrow. Faulkner lost time today, so unless Manly cracks, she should be the sole leader now.
I found three interesting things about today's stage - One is that Manly showed her cards too early in the stage and second that Brown attacked after Van Dijk punctured out of the leading group - I doubt Brown gets away with Van Dijk in the group which probably results in a group of six or seven making the final. Finally if riders in the break show full commitment then the peleton is not coming back.
Brown also isn't one for a sprint either, she stylistically seems to prefer aggression and that works best from her; this equals the biggest group she's won from in her international career (she's won from some bigger groups in Aussie domestic cycling a few years ago but even then she typically would solo in), and if you were going to be sprinting against two of the top names and wanted to choose your opponents to maximise your chances of victory, you could certainly do a lot worse than picking Elisa and Kasia, both of whom are less than spectacular sprinters, although Kasia is improving (incrementally).
The MTF tomorrow should be interesting, but the fact Kasia and Elisa are so close and are at the head of the field may affect some of the suspense as they are the on-paper favourites you'd say. However, Ash is only a few seconds off and has the might of SD Worx behind her; it's only what would be a cat.2 climb in most major stage races, and Brown is a decent enough climber that she could readily survive that kind of distance if her form is good, and Manly got over some climbs of comparable difficulty in stages she won or contested in the Thüringen Rundfahrt, although they were admittedly a long way from the finish. Canyon also having Elise Chabbey as a card to play suggests they are best placed on paper. Faulkner losing time suggests BikeExchange need to focus on Manly, or at worst set Faulkner to go 100% at the base of the climb and see if Manly can sit on while others chase. I just think this ought to be Canyon's to lose unless Elisa or Ash are simply unbeatably strong; in addition to having both Niewiadoma and Chabbey as GC cards, they can afford to set Mikayla Harvey (who looked pretty decent the other day, hopefully it's a matter of 2021 being anomalously disappointing rather than 2020 being anomalously strong given NZ's success in dealing with the first wave of the pandemic) to crush and chase too.
When Grace won her other three-up sprint the opponents were Elise Chabbey and Niamh Fisher-Black, for the record.
The MTF tomorrow should be interesting, but the fact Kasia and Elisa are so close and are at the head of the field may affect some of the suspense as they are the on-paper favourites you'd say. However, Ash is only a few seconds off and has the might of SD Worx behind her; it's only what would be a cat.2 climb in most major stage races, and Brown is a decent enough climber that she could readily survive that kind of distance if her form is good, and Manly got over some climbs of comparable difficulty in stages she won or contested in the Thüringen Rundfahrt, although they were admittedly a long way from the finish. Canyon also having Elise Chabbey as a card to play suggests they are best placed on paper. Faulkner losing time suggests BikeExchange need to focus on Manly, or at worst set Faulkner to go 100% at the base of the climb and see if Manly can sit on while others chase. I just think this ought to be Canyon's to lose unless Elisa or Ash are simply unbeatably strong; in addition to having both Niewiadoma and Chabbey as GC cards, they can afford to set Mikayla Harvey (who looked pretty decent the other day, hopefully it's a matter of 2021 being anomalously disappointing rather than 2020 being anomalously strong given NZ's success in dealing with the first wave of the pandemic) to crush and chase too.
When Grace won her other three-up sprint the opponents were Elise Chabbey and Niamh Fisher-Black, for the record.
The might of SD Worx has a taken major hit with both Reusser and Van den Broek-Blaak abandoning due to injuries,so I don't expect them to control things, but Ash might be the strongest anyway.
Today being 3rd out of 3 is more what we're used to though. I'm convinced yesterday the "twins" swapped jerseys for the day, Audrey finished 32nd amongst the likes of Niewiadoma and Ewers which is where you'd typically see ELB roll in on a stage like that!
She also tweeted after today's stage that it might be time for her and Jacopo Mosca to do some more sprint training.
The coverage from this Tour has been so bad. Has it been powered by a AAA battery or something?
The headwind sadly affected the finish too much, but the overheads shots of the landscape were beautiful. I did't understand why they had those cones at the end, caue they just blocked the riders from racing properly.
ELB got revenge for yesterday, and after Van Dijks hard work it was also a deserved victory for Trek. Brown got blocked by Faulkner, but still managed 3rd and will apparently stay in the lead, but is on the same as ELB. Kasia seemed to have some problems with her gears, so getting 2nd ind the end wasn't bad.
ELB got revenge for yesterday, and after Van Dijks hard work it was also a deserved victory for Trek. Brown got blocked by Faulkner, but still managed 3rd and will apparently stay in the lead, but is on the same as ELB. Kasia seemed to have some problems with her gears, so getting 2nd ind the end wasn't bad.
Armchair cyclist
Moderator
So Brown is ahead of Longo Borgini on position countback, and because ELB will surely not successfully sprint for bonus seconds tomorrow, will win on that basis.
So the GC riders were essentially instructed not to race for finishing position on Stage 1, with times being taken at the 3 km point, and position on stage 1 is going to be the main determining factor on who wins the event. Ridiculous.
(Yes, the organisers can save some face in pointing out that the countback would be the same if Stage 1 were excluded from the calculation, but the principle remains. )
So the GC riders were essentially instructed not to race for finishing position on Stage 1, with times being taken at the 3 km point, and position on stage 1 is going to be the main determining factor on who wins the event. Ridiculous.
(Yes, the organisers can save some face in pointing out that the countback would be the same if Stage 1 were excluded from the calculation, but the principle remains. )
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Although if they had finished next to each other on stage 1, where ELB was doing a leadout for someone, Brown would still be in the lead, but of course it would have been easier for ELB to make up the positions needed tomorrow in that scenario.
Sure, but I still think they made it more dangerous than if they hadn't been there.
Also I seem to have cursed the riders in this race. First Reusser gets cught up in the crash on stage 2, and today it was Doebel-Hickok's turn. It didn't look good at all.
Armchair cyclist
Moderator
As acknowledged above (possibly after you lifted the quote). But that is by-the-by. They cannot declare the finish of a stage null and then make it a determining factor.
But has is actually been confirmed that stage 1 is included in the countback?
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