I love comically pre-emptive honours, that statue is the cycling equivalent of Birmingham returning Jude Bellingham's shirt number or Obama's 2009 Nobel peace prize.
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Seems like it to me.Which would explain why he went so hard and emptied himself with still two laps to go: to prove a point.
Quite poor managing from the Belgian team car.
The most striking thing for me is that national coach Vanthourenhout liked the tweet from Hans Vandeweghe (saying that Merckx was right all along) as well. I think that's highly unprofessional and inappropriate.
Bardet wasn't the victim of 2018 France tactics, Pinot was.First of all the most striking thing for me is that in Belgium there are talkshows where the cycling national team's tactics get discussed.
Second - the tactics weren't great, but in the end when Bardet would probably have been the better option compared to Alaphilippe I didn't hear him or his team complaining afterwards? I mean, in the end, these things happen. All in all the Belgian coach doesn't seem to be the best, it feels like they kind of messed up several times now. So if you want to learn something from it maybe you should think about a new coach.
Bardet wasn't the victim of 2018 France tactics, Pinot was.
Anyway, the little social media passive aggressive war is pathetic. Honestly Vantourenhout shoudl get fired for this.
Forget about the WCRR, who cares about likes on twitter. You can't change what's been done. Remco has to look ahead now towards Emilia and Lombardia. Like Roglič always says, the beauty of road cycling is that even if you miss your goal, luckily there are new challenges to keep you busy right around the corner. Onto the next races...
It's insane he got the job in the first place.Has Vantourenhout ever showed himself to be a brilliant road racing strategist/coach? I believe the answer to that is a resounding no. I think after a pretty shyte home performance, Vantourenhout needs to stick to cross.
Coach has proven he isn't the best tactically, but he also is a relative "nobody" in cycling (B-category cross rider). Difficult to have authority over world-class talents then.Second - the tactics weren't great, but in the end when Bardet would probably have been the better option compared to Alaphilippe I didn't hear him or his team complaining afterwards? I mean, in the end, these things happen. All in all the Belgian coach doesn't seem to be the best, it feels like they kind of messed up several times now. So if you want to learn something from it maybe you should think about a new coach.
It is honestly shocking to me that a cycling powerhouse nation like Belgium has this level of incompetent dweeb calling the shots for the road racing selection and tactics at the world championships that happen to be in their home country!It's insane he got the job in the first place.
It is interesting. You don't have to be a good racer yourself to be an excellent tactician and strategist. However, Vantourenhout has not demonstrated even mediocre skills in this regard.Coach has proven he isn't the best tactically, but he also is a relative "nobody" in cycling (B-category cross rider). Difficult to have authority over world-class talents then.
This disturbs me more than anything Remco said, in all honesty.About the remark that he said before the race that he had faith in Remco:
"I couldn't really say anything else. I had no choice but to say that" (translation of: Ik kon moeilijk anders)
Ha, I love your first point—that seems so surreal (from the U.S. perspective) that cycling strategy debates would be on talk shows!First of all the most striking thing for me is that in Belgium there are talkshows where the cycling national team's tactics get discussed.
Second - the tactics weren't great, but in the end when Bardet would probably have been the better option compared to Alaphilippe I didn't hear him or his team complaining afterwards? I mean, in the end, these things happen. All in all the Belgian coach doesn't seem to be the best, it feels like they kind of messed up several times now. So if you want to learn something from it maybe you should think about a new coach.
This disturbs me more than anything Remco said, in all honesty.
He didn't ask to be co-leader, he asked if he could get a free-er role, that, if there would be a situation where he was ahead with a small group, he could attack from that. But apparently, all he was allowed to do was follow and pull, and not attack himself. That's seriously weak from the coach, tactically. A team is much more dangerous if there are many riders that could win - as DQS demonstrates so often.Remco is also kinda wrong (if he actually said those things), by now he should know that he couldn't win a sprint against even Pozzovivo, so he has to understand why having him as the main option/as the co-leader with the same rank as Wout is not gonna be an easy choice for a team coach. I also don't know if I'd put my money on him dropping everyone and winning the whole thing, he could have gotten a medal. Still, his team chasing behind and him not getting permission to attack when his group with many big nations had +50sec on the main bunch towards the end of the final lap of the Flandrian circuit was stupid, I can understand why he's not super happy about that one. I also get the feeling that he's surrounded by yes men who blow smoke up his arse.
Why?
Remco said the same thing over and over again before Worlds, being that he was 100% committed to helping Van Aert become the new World Champion, that he was their to be a dom and not a leader, and so on. Even in the teammeeting he doesn't say anything.
Then out of the blue he asks the Belgian DS if he can get his own chance just before the race starts? And then a few days later he starts criticizing his teams tactics?
I would be annoyed too if I was Van Aert. It's just incredibly fake from Remco, he said those things before Worlds because he knew he would get shitted on by the press and Belgian fans otherwise and now that he sees the Belgian press in its hypocritical nature (everyone and their mother was fine with Van Aert being the sole leader before the race), he saw his chance to hop on that train.
Look, I don't like Vanthourenhout, it's *** stupid that he got the job in the first place, literally had no experience with road cycling, and I do think afterwards that the teams tactics were pretty dumb overall, but it's bloody time another rider like Van Aert says what he thinks about the kid.
Also let's stop acting like completely emptying himself was because he got the orders to do so. Vanthourenhout already said immediately after the race that he did that on his own (probably to prove a point) and that there was no way of communicating to him on time to stop doing it.
He accepted the strategy then they didn't win and now he's whining.Did you watch Extra Time Koers? I did not watch the whole talk show but in the fragment I've seen it was De Wolf and Van der Poel who were criticizing the team tactics, not Remco. He just gave some honest answers to the questions they asked him.
Can you blame him when he feels that after the recon there are chances for him on this parcours, that he then asks the national coach if there is a scenario in which he would get a chance? When he was told no he accepted the strategy and rode as instructed. I don't see where he did wrong.
Him completely emptying himself after WvA and the rest of the favorites catched him was under instruction from WvA himself (at least I haven't seen WvA denying this).
He accepted the strategy then they didn't win and now he's whining.