@Logic-is-your-friend any word on Van Wilder. We have seen him suffer more than most in the cold which explains his firm in the early stages of the race but he has looked way off the pace and DNF today. Presumably sickness to be so bad but the cold factor makes it questionable as to him ever sustaining a strong Giro GC in his career.
I have been unnerved with his showings all season tbh, even though Mallorca and UAE was "good" it was less than i had expected (and less than last year) and i think it fits perfectly within my assumption that the staf at SQS has no clue what they are doing at this point. There has to be a moment when the penny drops. While for every individual case you can look for explanations, i think they need to address the elephant in the room, and it ain't Evenepoel. Alaphilippe, Asgreen, Lampaert, Van Wilder... let's be honest, even Evenepoel isn't where you would expect him.
Last i heard about Van Wilder which was info from right before Catalunya was that everything was going fine, goal is to be top for the summer. Even though before the season, he was supposed to come to Catalunya as a personal goal. Now only Romandie has remained, which ironically also has plenty of cold and rain usually, which aren't exactly his preferred racing conditions. In Paris Nice i also found him to be below expectations, but i thought he might have gotten sick because he raced the TTT with his shirt open (his zipper broke) in the rain. Other than that i have no info atm.
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