Women’s RR - World Championships 2024 (September 28)

[Samu Cuenca]

Did you not watch the Tour de France Femme Avec Zwift?

That was two years ago, to be fair.

 

[Tonton]

First and foremost: Bravo Lotte! Second and second-most: meh...

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Thing is, when you know Vollering can only realistically win solo or perhaps from a break of two you have to have a Plan B. Vos was the obvious Plan B but Vollering’s pressing kept dropping her.

The thing is, Demi has a pretty good sprint. Just not one that will compete against the likes of Kopecky's. Of the puncheuse types she's usually one that can stand to leave it to a sprint, as against the likes of Longo Borghini, Niewiadoma, Uttrup et al, and only Lippert and Cavalli would likely fancy their chances against her in a sprint of that kind, but you'd often expect Demi to be able to pressure them enough before the sprint to affect that. However, as Kopecky has moved ever further into the climbing terrain, it's become something of a moot point because Kopecky will dust the lot of them in a sprint, but anybody that gets dropped seems happy to ride her back to the front.

That's also why I was dissatisfied with Faulkner's ride at the Olympics until she got away from the final quartet, because it looked like she would be handing the race to Lotte on a silver platter unless she was the strongest rider of the lot, but fortunately the latter scenario turned out to be true.

 

[Hugh Januss]

Vollering wanted it too much, and it showed, and Kopecky used that to her advantage. She should have let Longho Borghini go and win it for Italy.

She definitely should have gambled and forced Kopecky to chase when ELB attacked. As it was Vollering and especially Lippert did all the heavy lifting for Kopecky.

 

[Lequack]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1840157035658190848

View: https://x.com/jon_snow_pt/status/1840157035658190848

 

[jmdirt]

Congrats Lotte!

Homer hat: good race CD!

Congrats Puck!

 

[proffate]

This was really dumb from Vollering, should have forced Kopecky do chunk of the work or risk letting ELB go away for good. And then she was the one closing down Roseman-Gannons early attack and to cap it all off led out the final sprint as well. With all the talk of internal rift at SD Worx , she was for some reason hell bent on making sure Kopecky won this race.

You really have to wonder what her plan was. She raced it as if she were the best sprinter, turns out was nearly the worst of the group

 

[proffate]

Hats off to an amazing race, Ghekiere!

Kopecky wins because she dares to lose and keeping the strongest kick at the finish line. Her level of tactics displayed today, Vollering can only dream of. How can the Dutch team end up with just a fifth place ...

As a Belgian I'm happy, of course. But after all the bad luck and heavy injuries, I would've enjoyed a Dygert victory too. Kudos for your persistance, Chloe.

She also won by pushing the pace on the last (wet) descent which distanced the stronger (imo) Dygert. That was pretty astute.

 

[proffate]

It's too many leaders isn't it ? Weirdly Demi out of all of them seems happiest riding for others when it's her turn to do it. The others not so sure. We can all highlight Demi smoked most of her team today, but what were her team doing for her anyway ?

Ask not what your country can do for you...

 

[proffate]

Ugh just watched on catch up.

Very undeserving winner imho, wheelsucked the whole way. Great from Dygert. Poor tactics from the Dutch.

Sir, this is ciclismo. Go watch a triathlon

 

[proffate]

Dygart, though she managed a 2nd place, also played a role in Kopecky’s victory by helping pull the latter back to the leaders when she was thoroughly dropped. The way Kopecky was climbing at that point Dygart could have put in an acceleration to drop her and still ridden herself back to the front. But she just rode tempo up the rest of the climb, though perhaps she feared going over the limit herself. I guess she figured her sprint might be good enough. Such an undynamic racer.

Monday morning quarterbacking at its finest

 

[Coffeeplanter]

She definitely should have gambled and forced Kopecky to chase when ELB attacked. As it was Vollering and especially Lippert did all the heavy lifting for Kopecky.

My theory is that this race was the birth of Demi Vollering turnt Sven Nys. 20 years ago, Nys got shafted by the Belgian team in a CX race in Pijnacker. It's a long yet funny story, but ultimately most Belgian riders, long out of play for the World Cup, sprinted as if their lives depended on it, causing Nys, who needed like a 6th place finish to win it all, to come in like 9th, and thereby lose said World Cup. His reaction after the race was that everyone can sod off, from now on Sven Nys only cares about Sven Nys.

Given the amount of times Vollering has been shafted by SD Worx this past season, despite her doing work for the likes of Wiebes and Kopecky even when it made little sense, she does not care anymore. Therefore, we can safely say Danny Stam and Anna van der Breggen are the main reason this race went to hell and resulted in such a disaster class, as per usual.

 

[Rechtschreibfehler]

Aaand Dutch media is solely laying the blame on Vollering. Predictable and idiotic all at once.

Tbf she did a lot to get herself into this position. I only watched the last 25k though, who else should share the blame in your opinion?

 

[rghysens]

Aaand Dutch media is solely laying the blame on Vollering. Predictable and idiotic all at once.

Look, in a post race interview (with VRT) Vollering said about the group with Vos and Markus having a minute going in to the last lap: " That wasn´t a good situation for ME." We´re talking a group of 4, with the fastest being another Dutchwoman.

How would you assess the situation in the Leuven wcrr, where there was a clear order in the Dutch womens team to do everything for Vos in the last lap, and Vollering rather went for a 7th place than doing a proper leadout? It was clearly stated then (by AVV) that Vollering only rides for herself.
And yeah, Loes Gunnewijk may not be tactically astute, but given there are no earpieces, she can´t give any orders during the race, or not very easy at least. The decisions during the race were made by the riders.
And I don´t understand why Vollering " being shafted by SDW" during the year would explain why her race decisions (one can´t call it tactics) where completely in favor of a SDW rider. Stockholm syndrome or what?

EDIT: Anybody heard post race interviews with Dygert or ELB? Would like to know if they had anything interesting to say.

 

[Sciatic]

Monday morning quarterbacking at its finest

And why not? Just saying saying what I saw, without of course knowing what was going on in their bodies or heads. Isn’t that what everyone is doing here?

 

[shadowrider]

Kopecky of course. Thanks to every other nation. And Ghekiere.

Kopecky of course ? After you wrote Kopecky was done ! A true specialist. You can join the tv-director.

 

[theyoungest]

Aaand Dutch media is solely laying the blame on Vollering. Predictable and idiotic all at once.

Well, who would you blame otherwise? Other than Gunnewijk, who once again has proved incapable of creating a fighting unit with one goal: to win, doesn't matter with whom. Rather than: to win, but only with Demi Vollering.

Kopecky of course ? After you wrote Kopecky was done ! A true specialist. You can join the tv-director.

She was done though She did get a little lucky, even those who watch the race through a strictly Flemish lens would have to agree.

 

[yaco]

Ultimately, if Vollering was the one and only seed for Holland, then you need to line up riders to make it difficult, instead of, sending riders up the road.

 

[tobydawq]

The whole idea of sending Vos up the road after she had been dropped the previous lap was godawful. She was never gonna be able to hang on, and it's completely expected that she finished over a minute down.

What it did is it forced Vollering to race defensively on the section where she could have attacked and definitively dropped her main rivals.

In a four man group with a teammate and no big favourites?

 

[theyoungest]

The whole idea of sending Vos up the road after she had been dropped the previous lap was godawful. She was never gonna be able to hang on, and it's completely expected that she finished over a minute down.

What it did is it forced Vollering to race defensively on the section where she could have attacked and definitively dropped her main rivals.

There was nothing stopping Vollering from attacking there and trying to drop her rivals. Thus joining her teammates in the front and having three Dutch riders in a group of 5. Instead she attacked when they had already caught Vos and Markus (and attacked, and attacked again... only dropping her teammates)

I understand that Vollering thinks it wasn't in her advantage to have Vos and Markus in front, but actually it was. She just had to play her cards a little smarter, which she is unable to do.

 

[Didinho]

Kopecky of course ? After you wrote Kopecky was done ! A true specialist. You can join the tv-director.

Was about the sprint. Everyone knew she was the one to beat. I really thought she was done when she got dropped.

 

[awavey]

EDIT: Anybody heard post race interviews with Dygert or ELB? Would like to know if they had anything interesting to say.

I've not seen,read or heard anything which is unusual as normally in a Wwt race at least there's plenty of post race chat with riders for their views and not just with the winners.

 

[awavey]

There was nothing stopping Vollering from attacking there and trying to drop her rivals. Thus joining her teammates in the front and having three Dutch riders in a group of 5. Instead she attacked when they had already caught Vos and Markus (and attacked, and attacked again... only dropping her teammates)

I understand that Vollering thinks it wasn't in her advantage to have Vos and Markus in front, but actually it was. She just had to play her cards a little smarter, which she is unable to do.

Though from Vollerings perspective Vos & Markus being up the road and her having to lead the chase to bring them in, wasn't optimal.

This comes back to my point about so what were the Dutch riders doing to support Demis chance to win ? I'd argue being 2 riders up the road like that was counter productive to Demis chances, even if both riders thought this is supporting the Dutch team goal to win.

Because Demi was never going to let that group carry on as it wad, she had to attack to bring it back to win.

 

[pmcg76]

Enjoyed this race even though tactics were bizarre as usual, it does make for an interesting race. Delighted to see Puck get the U-23 title.

 

[proffate]

And why not? Just saying saying what I saw, without of course knowing what was going on in their bodies or heads. Isn’t that what everyone is doing here?

I said that because dygert made the decision that made sense in the moment, without the benefit of hindsight. Kopecky looked done, not the biggest threat to win.