Re: Re:
I agree about Gerrans. I dont mind him sitting in the peloton letting his team do all the work and then winning Liege in 2014. The blame should be on the other riders who didn't make the race hard and at least tried something to drop his domestiques so he would have to work for it himself.
What I really dont like is his riding in MSR 2012 (I'm probably biased towards Fabian, oh well). I just rematched the finish and from the beginning of the descent to the line he took 1 pull (and not a very long one). Around 2 k to go after Cancellara had made an incredible effort on the front and several times flicked his elbow, Gerrans even sat in Fabian's wheel for a brief moment when he stopped instead of picking up the pace. Then he took a short pull in the front and sat in Fabian's wheel for the last 1.5 k.
With none in the group behind and with a good chance in the sprint against Cancellara (still a 50/50 chance even if he worked some more IMO) he had everything to ride for and nothing to sit up for.
In hindsight Cancellara should have just sat up or attacked or something else but it was the perfect example of achieving a great result with very negative racing.
Zinoviev Letter said:jaylew said:I agree but the key is in "opponents who make a habit of sitting on and not working even when it should in theory be to their advantage"
Most of the time people around here label people as wheelsuckers when sitting on is to their (and their team's) advantage
That I agree with almost entirely. Fans do that constantly and it's best ignored as simple sour grapes.
The "almost" is because for some riders, because of their particular spread of talents, it is nearly always their best tactical option never to take a pull. Unless the rider is an out and out big bunch sprinter, those kinds of riders are rarely in any way popular at all. And again that's just as rational from a fan's point of view as staying out of the wind at all costs is from the rider's point of view. It's not sour grapes or a double standard.
Gerrans is the archetypal example. I can absolutely understand why so many fans hate him. Personally I admire his wily ruthlessness, but I also don't like to see him win just because any race he wins will almost certainly have been very boring. As an aside, there is so much gloating about his screw up in the 2014 WCRR precisely because it's very rare that he's screws up like that. When he sits on, he's nearly always doing the tactically right thing.
I agree about Gerrans. I dont mind him sitting in the peloton letting his team do all the work and then winning Liege in 2014. The blame should be on the other riders who didn't make the race hard and at least tried something to drop his domestiques so he would have to work for it himself.
What I really dont like is his riding in MSR 2012 (I'm probably biased towards Fabian, oh well). I just rematched the finish and from the beginning of the descent to the line he took 1 pull (and not a very long one). Around 2 k to go after Cancellara had made an incredible effort on the front and several times flicked his elbow, Gerrans even sat in Fabian's wheel for a brief moment when he stopped instead of picking up the pace. Then he took a short pull in the front and sat in Fabian's wheel for the last 1.5 k.
With none in the group behind and with a good chance in the sprint against Cancellara (still a 50/50 chance even if he worked some more IMO) he had everything to ride for and nothing to sit up for.
In hindsight Cancellara should have just sat up or attacked or something else but it was the perfect example of achieving a great result with very negative racing.