The official Great Bauke Mollema thread

[CheckMyPecs]

Seriously, root for Poels, he's your best bet.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Was probably going to fall off the podium either way but looked good for a top 5

Kruijswijk, Dumoulin, Mollema.... (and Keldermerckx but he's hopeless either way)

 

[DBotero]

Ok maybe he would have lost the podium but still the Dutch really have no luck.Kruijswijk,Dumoulin,Mollema and i thought only Gesink is jinxed.

 

[Bardamu]

Cycling is a cruel sport, I love it!

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

You can take the cyclist out of Rabofail, but you can't take Rabofail out of the cyclist......

 

[Alexandre B.]

I would have preferred a regular defaillance.

 

[Pantani_lives]

Ok maybe he would have lost the podium but still the Dutch really have no luck.Kruijswijk,Dumoulin,Mollema and i thought only Gesink is jinxed.

I'm really sorry for Bauke and Dutch cycling in general. With Yates not doing so well today I think he would have defended his podium place in normal circumstances.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

You can take the cyclist out of Rabofail, but you can't take Rabofail out of the cyclist......

Perfect summary of Dutch cycling

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

According to TGBM he went down when going on the attack, at least he tried.

 

[yaco]

Lost his nerve on the descent. Nothing more to say.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Took to many risks, he was following Cherel and was in 2nd position. Actually in great position.

but anyway, taking a risk isnt bad. The way it ended is

 

[IndianCyclist]

The dutch third week curse strikes again

 

[roundabout]

It looked like he fell even before the more technical part

 

[Jagartrott]

Dutch Cycling should consider giving their young talents steering training.
Gesink and Kelderman crashing every 10 km, Kruijswijk losing a Giro win, and now Mollema losing a potential Tour podium.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Has nothing to do with steering training. Even excellent bike handler like Nibali fell today

It's all just very coincidental. Apart from Kelderman these riders do not even fall often or more than the regular rider. It just happens always at the WORST possible time. That's the issue.

Is it pressure? Is it stress? Is it just bad luck?

Or is it Ryo Hazuki doing blood magic and chants so he can laugh at Dutch riders? Who knows.

 

[Carols]

Re:

Has nothing to do with steering training. Even excellent bike handler like Nibali fell today

It's all just very coincidental. Apart from Kelderman these riders do not even fall often or more than the regular rider. It just happens always at the WORST possible time. That's the issue.

Is it pressure? Is it stress? Is it just bad luck?

Or is it Ryo Hazuki doing blood magic and chants so he can laugh at Dutch riders? Who knows.

Hard to miss a rider that falls directly in front of you! He had no chance to avoid it

 

[Valv.Piti]

Is it fair to assume he would have lost, say, at least one minute today? He didn't seem to be on a great day at all, but its obviously hard to tell after he crashed. But it didn't really seem severe.

Anyways, without the crash, he still would have been in it for a podium. Now he needs to fight a pretty uneven fight to stay in top-10 with Rodriguez, pretty bad odds at this point.

 

[damian13ster]

With crashes today I feel like it was more about luck than bike handling skills. Rolland fell even though he had a decent line and the bike was almost upright. The wheel just slipped on a bit of mud on the road. Not sure what happened with Froome and Nibali, but it seemed like they both hit a bump in the road. The descent was really tricky, with lots of mud and some uneven surfaces. Good thing that noone got seriously hurt

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

I'm very disappointed. Without the crash, even if he'd been dropped on the final climb he wouldn't have lost much. Now instead of getting a deserved podium, he will be lucky to fend off Purito.

 

[Anderis]

Mollema would have a good chance for GT podium in the future if there's a GT with harder 2nd and easier 3rd week. He is usually very good in the middle part of the race, but this year we've had many easy stages in 2nd week.

I don't think he will ever get any big results, though, because whoever I'm rooting for seems to be cursed and will not do well whatever happens. The only exception is Chris Froome, but hey, we still have tomorrow...

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re:

Is it fair to assume he would have lost, say, at least one minute today? He didn't seem to be on a great day at all, but its obviously hard to tell after he crashed. But it didn't really seem severe.

Anyways, without the crash, he still would have been in it for a podium. Now he needs to fight a pretty uneven fight to stay in top-10 with Rodriguez, pretty bad odds at this point.

He was feeling good up until the fall. He says the chase cost a lot of energy. And he basically blew himself up on the steep beginning of the climb trying to come back. Because of that he was 'bad' on the remainder of the climb. Even on a good day you can blow yourself up

 

[Tonton]

Yes, he blew himself trying to come back maybe a little too fast, and he had no one to help him. After TD, SK, now BM. Dutch folks, I feel for you. Really. But after knocking at the door so many times, for Christ's sake, it's coming. You guys have a lot of great riders.

 

[Jagartrott]

Re: Re:

He was feeling good up until the fall. He says the chase cost a lot of energy. And he basically blew himself up on the steep beginning of the climb trying to come back. Because of that he was 'bad' on the remainder of the climb. Even on a good day you can blow yourself up

He said he was trying to get back to the group as fast as possible, but that seems like a bad idea in any situation - and especially with a 10 km, 8% climb on the menu. Of course he should have had team mates up there to help him, but Trek is poor. WTF is Schleck doing there still anyway? Porte even still had GVA on that last descent. And Trek also put no-one in the break I think - really clueless, these guys.

 

[CheckMyPecs]

It was really bad for him when Haimar just decided to take a shortcut through the forest. The Ninja would have been an invaluable aid to Mollema on the flat.

 

[hammerthaim]

With crashes today I feel like it was more about luck than bike handling skills. Rolland fell even though he had a decent line and the bike was almost upright. The wheel just slipped on a bit of mud on the road. Not sure what happened with Froome and Nibali, but it seemed like they both hit a bump in the road. The descent was really tricky, with lots of mud and some uneven surfaces. Good thing that noone got seriously hurt

That bump being the white line.