13th Strade Bianche: Siena › Siena (184k) Saturday, 9th March 2019 *Spoilers*

ocdupalais

RichN95 wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Another way to look at the sky dominance boring, quick step not argument is the basic tactical premise that Sky shut the race down; Quick Step open it up.

It’s down to the format mainly and what tactics work best, but that’s the difference.

Another way of looking at it, consistent with your format point, is that there's never really been a time since the 50s where the Tour de France was all that open. It's been dominated by the best rider since Bobet

A double shame then that along with those Jammy Spanish Dodgers - Pereiro and Sastre - the Tour official records reads like a plate of broken biscuits between 1998-2010.

The likes of Museeuw, Zabel, Tchmil, etc. just “made mistakes”.

blazing_saddles

Rick Chasey wrote:

Another way to look at the sky dominance boring, quick step not argument is the basic tactical premise that Sky shut the race down; Quick Step open it up.

It’s down to the format mainly and what tactics work best, but that’s the difference.

Eh?
How did Quick Step open that race up?

Lampaert reeled in the break, more or less solo. Stybar does what he does best and sat on any wheel that moved.
In between, Fuglsang put in an attack, which Alaphillipe followed.

Last weekend I seem to recall it was Stannard who opened up the races and it was DQS who initially followed.

Btw, I'm not the one equating dominance to being boring. Others have been there and done that.
To me it's just dominance equating to the inevitable.

gsk82

Rick Chasey wrote:

Another way to look at the sky dominance boring, quick step not argument is the basic tactical premise that Sky shut the race down; Quick Step open it up.

It’s down to the format mainly and what tactics work best, but that’s the difference.

I reckon stybar did a good job today shutting the race down. It would be more accurate to say that the rest of that group let him shut it down though. The last couple of years have like been watching 3rd riding for points. "I'm not going to work hard cos someone else might benefit"

bobmcstuff

Alexey Lutsenko's data from two spring classics. How are Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (4th) and Strade Bianche (7th) different? #StradeBianche https://t.co/mM4lj1BYLU


Tl;Dr: Strade Bianche was much harder (for lutsenko)

ridgerider

G's finished.

ocdupalais

Erm.. in the light of Team Sky’s performance in the 1st 2 stages of Paris-Nice (take a bow, Rowe, Kwiatkowski and Bernal) - shall we reassess this outdated nonsense about their racing (outdated since at least when Froome was doing a Fenton on Wiggins in the Tour 2012)?

m.r.m.

In life, some people can never win.