UCI Road World Championships 21st-29th September 2019 - Yorkshire - Race Thread.

[Logic-is-your-friend]

****Belgium
***Netherlands
**Slovakia, France
*Italy, Australia, Denmark, Spain

From what I've seen this week, I honestly don't think any other nation can win. I really am leaning towards a Belgian win. Mathieu is my individual favorite but I can easily see him burning too many matches at the wrong time and missing out.

If this is raced hard, i don't even think it's a given guys like Wellens and Van Avermaet are going to make the cut. I could completely see a scenario where Belgium only has Teuns and Gilbert in the final. Evenepoel if he digests the distance.

 

[SafeBet]

After watching all the road races I'm quite sure this is going to be more selective than we all thought. Yes, youth and women cycling have less density of talent hence races tend to always be more selective than the men counterpart, but this is a demanding parcours, likely to be ridden in bad weather. I'm thrilled for tomorrow.

 

[Juan Pelota]

After watching all the road races I'm quite sure this is going to be more selective than we all thought. Yes, youth and women cycling have less density of talent hence races tend to always be more selective than the men counterpart, but this is a demanding parcours, likely to be ridden in bad weather. I'm thrilled for tomorrow.

Same here. I'm thinking this might look a bit like Amstel Gold or Liege.

 

[Valv.Piti]

If it looks like Liege I would be extremely disappointed...

 

[Pricey_sky]

After watching all the road races I'm quite sure this is going to be more selective than we all thought. Yes, youth and women cycling have less density of talent hence races tend to always be more selective than the men counterpart, but this is a demanding parcours, likely to be ridden in bad weather. I'm thrilled for tomorrow.

Yes, 285km on these roads with bad weather, this has the potential to be a great race.

As I said on the other Harrogate thread last year, this circuit is really demanding despite the profile not really suggesting it would be, it’s been a great route by the organisers.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Got a bit distracted, but awesome ride from Van Vleuten. When the gap was stabilizing around 45s, i thought they'd take her back eventually, but once it was over 1m15s, it seemed like she was gone. Dygert currently lacks the ability to go that deep after that distance. If she were a few years older, maybe she could have stayed away for silver or even close the gap, but after all is said and done, she never had a chance today. Dutch played it well (though ideally Vos should have been there as well), didn't kill eachother off, and it paid off. Inspiring by Van Vleuten. Clinical by van der Breggen.

 

[Montelimar]

Same here. I'm thinking this might look a bit like Amstel Gold or Liege.

While Amstel was great this year, Liege was pretty awful. No, with national rather than trade teams the set up is very different, although there can be loyalties between usual team mates.
I'm intrigued if the ban on radios is continuing, it has led to some interesting tactical mistakes as riders are more inclined to follow their impulses.

 

[motty89]

I rode the course after the women's race and was a lot harder than the profile suggests. There are quite a few tight descents that will be pretty sketchy in the wet and although there's no specific climb it's all up and down. Was also quite windy today. Easily as selective in rain as amstel I would think.

 

[Koronin]

I still think Amstel is a good comparison.

It seems that Valverde is saying between the weather and the course that this year's Worlds isn't for him and he really doesn't like the weather forecast for tomorrow and didn't do much of a training ride today due to the weather.

Gilbert is still my favorite to win tomorrow.

 

[macbindle]

I rode the course after the women's race and was a lot harder than the profile suggests. There are quite a few tight descents that will be pretty sketchy in the wet and although there's no specific climb it's all up and down. Was also quite windy today. Easily as selective in rain as amstel I would think.

Did you suffer any punctures, or mechanicals?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Krylatskoye Ring is a good equivalent I think - it is just under 14km and has five climbs:
The hills of the circuit:
km 2,3 (1100m @ 4,6%)
km 2,8 (170m @ 9,4%)
km 6,3 (550m @ 6,4%)
km 7,2 (260m @ 8,5%)
km 9,8 (700m @ 5,1%)

It was introduced for the Olympic Road Race in 1980, for which it was purpose built, and the amateur men generated a race not dissimilar to today's, with Sukhoruchenkov attacking at km0 to create a select group, then attacking it again and soloing in from long distance, with Yuri Barinov marking any moves for the USSR as well, and eventually Czesław Lang got away, but it was basically a 1-on-1 battle Soukho vs. Lang, and Soukho finished nearly 3 minutes up on the chasing duo, then nobody else was within 7 minutes. Quite a few people with some connection to modern cycling in the péloton that got put to the sword that day - Adri van der Poel, father of David and Mathieu, was the best "western" finisher, and Marc Madiot was also in the top 10, both in the group 8'26 down. Ronald van Avermaet, father of Greg, recorded a DNF. Peter Winnen, Stephen Roche and Régis Clère were also among those put to the sword.

They always race it in the Five Rings of Moscow, but usually only at around a half the distance the elite men will be riding tomorrow.

 

[RedheadDane]

It's just a tv camera. The director chose to show the race instead of a guy in the back. Camera guy and TV director has nothing to do with UCI jury as far as i know.
And they were very clear yesterday that they did NOT base their decision on the footage that was broadcast on tv. People simply failed to believe them, so now they are showing the footage.

1. That still doesn't explain why they waited so damn long with showing the footage.

2. Isn't there supposed to be a UCI personnel whose sole job is to look at all footage (including the not-broadcasted) to check for stuff like this?

3. Why not show it? A pre-race favourite making it back after a crash; that's kind of important… besides, not unusual to show riders off the back.
In the Junior Men's RR they showed a kid crying by the roadside for several minutes, before basically stalking him as he saw no other options but to start walking with his broken bike.

 

[Koronin]

1. That still doesn't explain why they waited so damn long with showing the footage.

2. Isn't there supposed to be a UCI personnel whose sole job is to look at all footage (including the not-broadcasted) to check for stuff like this?

3. Why not show it? A pre-race favourite making it back after a crash; that's kind of important… besides, not unusual to show riders off the back.
In the Junior Men's RR they showed a kid crying by the roadside for several minutes, before basically stalking him as he saw no other options but to start walking with his broken bike.

They have released the video. Velo had it in an article on their site.

 

[markene2]

How is Bettiol in the rain, thinking of doing a few small bets on him, Ackermann and Colbrelli

 

[jmdirt]

1. That still doesn't explain why they waited so damn long with showing the footage.

2. Isn't there supposed to be a UCI personnel whose sole job is to look at all footage (including the not-broadcasted) to check for stuff like this?

3. Why not show it? A pre-race favourite making it back after a crash; that's kind of important… besides, not unusual to show riders off the back.
In the Junior Men's RR they showed a kid crying by the roadside for several minutes, before basically stalking him as he saw no other options but to start walking with his broken bike.

#1 I completely agree, but don't get stuck on that. Yes, that's lamo on the UCIs part, but doesn't make what happend OK.

#2 If its on some person's camera, how are they going to view it until they get it (we don't know if this was a broadcast moto)? The real question here is if that was an "official" on that moto, why didn't they communicate ahead that what they were watching was full blown cheating. Maybe they tried and they couldn't? Maybe they weren't UCI or broadcast? Do we know the source of the video? Was it cyclingnews?

#3 We don't know if this was a broadcast moto (yet).

For he and his agent to be mad is stupid. I can see why he is emotional, but he can't be mad to be called on that.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

#1 I completely agree, but don't get stuck on that. Yes, that's lamo on the UCIs part, but doesn't make what happend OK.

#2 If its on some person's camera, how are they going to view it until they get it (we don't know if this was a broadcast moto)? The real question here is if that was an "official" on that moto, why didn't they communicate ahead that what they were watching was full blown cheating. Maybe they tried and they couldn't? Maybe they weren't UCI or broadcast? Do we know the source of the video? Was it cyclingnews?

#3 We don't know if this was a broadcast moto (yet).

For he and his agent to be mad is stupid. I can see why he is emotional, but he can't be mad to be called on that.

It was a broadcast moto, like i said earlier. The footage was from the same moto that filmed him joining the caravan. But it wasn't a UCI moto. The TV director simply chose to show the race, and not a guy in the back, until he joined. The guy on the moto even made a statement about it (he didn't think it warranted DSQ). His name is Marnik Vansevenant.

 

[Koronin]

It was a broadcast moto, like i said earlier. The footage was from the same moto that filmed him joining the caravan. But it wasn't a UCI moto. The TV director simply chose to show the race, and not a guy in the back, until he joined. The guy on the moto even made a statement about it (he didn't think it warranted DSQ). His name is Marnik Vansevenant.

I still not convinced it warrented to DSQ, however, I do think it warranted some sort of time penalty, which is what I thought was a more common penalty for that type of pacing.

 

[Brullnux]

A time penalty makes no sense whatsoever in the context though. Is it a common thing anyway? Not sure I remember many moto pacing time penalties

 

[jaylew]

I still not convinced it warrented to DSQ, however, I do think it warranted some sort of time penalty, which is what I thought was a more common penalty for that type of pacing.

Is there a practical difference in this case? So you give him a time penalty he finishes 6th or 20th depending on the time docked? Does that really change anything?

 

[DNP-Old]

How is Bettiol in the rain, thinking of doing a few small bets on him, Ackermann and Colbrelli

My yearly fun bet is on Moscon.

 

[Koronin]

Is there a practical difference in this case? So you give him a time penalty he finishes 6th or 20th depending on the time docked? Does that really change anything?

Likely not, however, I think we see this type of thing and thus penalties in stage races vs in one day races. It's very possible the penalty is different for a stage race than it is for a one day race. Dumoulin was given a time penalty in the Tour for the team car pacing him after a puncture at the Tour a couple years ago.

 

[Juan Pelota]

How is Bettiol in the rain, thinking of doing a few small bets on him, Ackermann and Colbrelli

Course is going to be too hard for those guys.

 

[Pantani_lives]

I don't think you can compare this race to LBL, because the climbs aren't hard enough. However with the irregular roads with a lot of turning, constantly going up and down, augmented by the announced bad weather, it could be comparable to Gent-Wevelgem. It could be a race with echelons. I don't believe a big group will stay together until the final lap. A tough, experienced rider like Gilbert might do well.

 

[Breezy1985]

If this is raced hard, i don't even think it's a given guys like Wellens and Van Avermaet are going to make the cut. I could completely see a scenario where Belgium only has Teuns and Gilbert in the final. Evenepoel if he digests the distance.

Dutch showed how a big team should do it but also the danger for the rest. I reckon the closing down or marking of breakaways will be frantic tomorrow. With the exception of Sagan I don't see any small team rider making the final group tomorrow

 

[Koronin]

In an interview Valverde said he expects a group of around 20ish riders to hit the circuit together and that the race will be decided by that group.