Ardennes Classics 2019 *Spoilers*
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I just watched the last 10km again. Shortly before 7km it looks like Alaphilippe takes out his ear piece... which he probably regrets now.0
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A lot of footage we see of some DSs in the car on the radios seems to be unnecessary and somewhat manic. Really the DS should be like a NASA Capcom, relaying pertinent information rather shouting "Go! Go! Go! Full gas!". I think a lot of it is counter-productiveGraeme_S wrote:I just watched the last 10km again. Shortly before 7km it looks like Alaphilippe takes out his ear piece... which he probably regrets now.Twitter: @RichN950 -
No tA Doctor wrote:awavey wrote:Niewiadoma takes the win in the womens AGR
Good race, fantastic attack from Niewiadoma on the Cauberg. Rode Vos off her wheel, then held of van Vleuten (double world's TT champ) for the nearly 2km false flat at the top.
agreed, but I could only follow it via twitter updates which took alot away from it, everyone kept saying it was a televised race and Im looking at snooker, motorbikes or Kirbyisms from Turkey on Eurosport
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awavey wrote:No tA Doctor wrote:awavey wrote:Niewiadoma takes the win in the womens AGR
Good race, fantastic attack from Niewiadoma on the Cauberg. Rode Vos off her wheel, then held of van Vleuten (double world's TT champ) for the nearly 2km false flat at the top.
agreed, but I could only follow it via twitter updates which took alot away from it, everyone kept saying it was a televised race and Im looking at snooker, motorbikes or Kirbyisms from Turkey on Eurosport
It’s on the on demand part of Eurosport now0 -
awavey wrote:No tA Doctor wrote:awavey wrote:Niewiadoma takes the win in the womens AGR
Good race, fantastic attack from Niewiadoma on the Cauberg. Rode Vos off her wheel, then held of van Vleuten (double world's TT champ) for the nearly 2km false flat at the top.
agreed, but I could only follow it via twitter updates which took alot away from it, everyone kept saying it was a televised race and Im looking at snooker, motorbikes or Kirbyisms from Turkey on Eurosport
Yeah it was televised live as it finished before the live coverage of the men's started. Really good finish0 -
RichN95 wrote:
A lot of footage we see of some DSs in the car on the radios seems to be unnecessary and somewhat manic. Really the DS should be like a NASA Capcom, relaying pertinent information rather shouting "Go! Go! Go! Full gas!". I think a lot of it is counter-productiveGraeme_S wrote:I just watched the last 10km again. Shortly before 7km it looks like Alaphilippe takes out his ear piece... which he probably regrets now.
I agree, it seems to be more for the DS's to remind riders to eat and drink, obstacles up ahead etc.. most of the bits about the racing are relayed over the main organisation race radio aren't they?0 -
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It’s the beerRick Chasey wrote:Cyclocosm points out Amstel time gaps are the most unreliable in the calendar.0 -
WTF was that...
Just watched the last 35k or so knowing only that the finish had been remarkable, not the outcome.
Was all looking pretty standard with Alaphillippe and Fuglsang out front, and I started wondering what all the fuss was about... then bam. Commentators didn't really pick up that the gap to g3 was dropping like a stone until the catch was pretty much made.
Kind of makes you wonder if riders in the main groups settle for scraps on these kinds of finishes too often, since quite a few riders did have the legs to follow.0 -
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Having watched it back again - wondering what on earth happened to Bardet and Gilbert. With 5km to go they were both riding solo a handful of seconds off the front of the vdp group, then they were just nowhere to be seen? Feel like Gilbert may have dropped a b*llock there as he could have had the chance to sit on and disrupt0
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Rick Chasey wrote:Quick Step pointing the finger at narrow roads and lots of race traffic...
Are they implying a tow?“New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!0 -
Who was working in the VdP group ?0
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SpecialGuestStar wrote:Who was working in the VdP group ?
VdP...........................................................................................................................
TailWindHome wrote:Rick Chasey wrote:Quick Step pointing the finger at narrow roads and lots of race traffic...
Are they implying a tow?
If the gaps were correct, single handed he took back a minute in 7kms, so it's a fair bet that's what they are implying."Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.0 -
From what I could see it was mostly just VdP, the rest were pretty much passengers.SpecialGuestStar wrote:Who was working in the VdP group ?0 -
I think alaphillippe will be regretting that, the fact Kwiatkowski got on shows they must have slowed down a lot while they were playing silly beggars. If they had kept it up they would have been able to stay clear I reckon.0
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TailWindHome wrote:Rick Chasey wrote:Quick Step pointing the finger at narrow roads and lots of race traffic...
Are they implying a tow?
It's not like Lefevere having a whinge when things don't work out the way he wants them to...0 -
M.R.M. wrote:Super dumb hubris attack from My Man MvdP from 42k out. Then didn't have the legs to go with Alaphilippe 10k later. Was able to recover and cyclo cross across, but a good directeur sportif ought to tell him to not try and Cancellara it, but rather stick with Alaphilippe and only follow a different move much closer to the finish (if Alaphilippe doesn't attack). He has the best sprint off of most reduced groups, so it makes no sense to go hero mode and possibly miss the winning move.
Miracle finish and great race. MvdP is the total package, but today his game plan was off regardless of the miracle finish. Closing that gap was legendary nonetheless.
But if he did that he could find himself in the situation Sagan regularly has, he was always the one who would win a reduced sprint so was left to chase all the attacks from the break. MvdP's apparent lack of tactical awareness could actually be a strong point in his favour as he's so unpredictable.0 -
Fair point. I also don't think MvdP usually lacks tactical awareness. Exactly the opposite actually. Just this time he initially overplayed his hand. Problem is, if he keeps winning nonetheless there isn't much incentive to learn from the mistakes (Sagan's problem).PTP Champion 2019, 2022 & 20230
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"Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.0
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I listened to this yesterday.Blazing Saddles wrote:
The question we need to ask is what did we actually see MVdP do? We saw very little of that group in the last 5km, but listening to some journalists this weekend, he bridged the gap up to Ala/Fuglsang single handedly and then outsprinting them. (The first time we see them in the last kilometre he's riding fourth wheel)
He's clearly a very talented rider, but there's been a lot of embellishing of the story of this race
I thought his Flanders performance was more impressive.Twitter: @RichN950 -
RichN95 wrote:
I listened to this yesterday.Blazing Saddles wrote:
The question we need to ask is what did we actually see MVdP do? We saw very little of that group in the last 5km, but listening to some journalists this weekend, he bridged the gap up to Ala/Fuglsang single handedly and then outsprinting them. (The first time we see them in the last kilometre he's riding fourth wheel)
He's clearly a very talented rider, but there's been a lot of embellishing of the story of this race
I thought his Flanders performance was more impressive.
We saw him win! Agreed his on off on off performance was awesome at Flanders and maybe it was that massive interval session 2 weeks before that helped him do what he did at Amstel.0 -
RichN95 wrote:
I listened to this yesterday.Blazing Saddles wrote:
The question we need to ask is what did we actually see MVdP do? We saw very little of that group in the last 5km, but listening to some journalists this weekend, he bridged the gap up to Ala/Fuglsang single handedly and then outsprinting them. (The first time we see them in the last kilometre he's riding fourth wheel)
He's clearly a very talented rider, but there's been a lot of embellishing of the story of this race
I thought his Flanders performance was more impressive.
The final km was quite something. After 250km.0 -
But if you look back when they first appear in the distance behind the front three, it's Schachmann and Madouas pulling them along, not van der PoelRick Chasey wrote:RichN95 wrote:
I listened to this yesterday.Blazing Saddles wrote:
The question we need to ask is what did we actually see MVdP do? We saw very little of that group in the last 5km, but listening to some journalists this weekend, he bridged the gap up to Ala/Fuglsang single handedly and then outsprinting them. (The first time we see them in the last kilometre he's riding fourth wheel)
He's clearly a very talented rider, but there's been a lot of embellishing of the story of this race
I thought his Flanders performance was more impressive.
The final km was quite something. After 250km.Twitter: @RichN950 -
He had targeted the race, and had the weekend before off, so he had signposted his intent to try hard to win it!
And to be fair to him, we shouldn't compare his performance to the two jokers in front...did he leave a trail of floundering riders behind him in his wake?Half man, Half bike0 -
RichN95 wrote:
But if you look back when they first appear in the distance behind the front three, it's Schachmann and Madouas pulling them along, not van der PoelRick Chasey wrote:RichN95 wrote:
I listened to this yesterday.Blazing Saddles wrote:
The question we need to ask is what did we actually see MVdP do? We saw very little of that group in the last 5km, but listening to some journalists this weekend, he bridged the gap up to Ala/Fuglsang single handedly and then outsprinting them. (The first time we see them in the last kilometre he's riding fourth wheel)
He's clearly a very talented rider, but there's been a lot of embellishing of the story of this race
I thought his Flanders performance was more impressive.
The final km was quite something. After 250km.
Alright then the last 700m.0 -
It was certainly a good ride, but I wouldn't call outsprinting Simon Clarke with long sprint "the best performance I've ever seen in cycling"Rick Chasey wrote:
Alright then the last 700m.Twitter: @RichN950 -
RichN95 wrote:
It was certainly a good ride, but I wouldn't call outsprinting Simon Clarke with long sprint "the best performance I've ever seen in cycling"Rick Chasey wrote:
Alright then the last 700m.
What about Trentin? Or Alaphilippe who quite plainly had a very easy 3km prior?
AGR is a properly difficult race, given the parcours. And he definitely was doing a lot of work whenever the cameras did cut to him in the chase.
There's a reason everyone is saying it was a super impressive win and why saying otherwise is being contrarian.
A more interesting argument is that he clearly needs to work on his race-craft as his legs won't always bail him out.0 -
Trentin had spent 30km struggling to follow Kwiatkowski and Alaphilippe failed to outsprint Fuglsang.Rick Chasey wrote:RichN95 wrote:
It was certainly a good ride, but I wouldn't call outsprinting Simon Clarke with long sprint "the best performance I've ever seen in cycling"Rick Chasey wrote:
Alright then the last 700m.
What about Trentin? Or Alaphilippe who quite plainly had a very easy 3km prior?
AGR is a properly difficult race, given the parcours. And he definitely was doing a lot of work whenever the cameras did cut to him in the chase.
There's a reason everyone is saying it was a super impressive win and why saying otherwise is being contrarian.
A more interesting argument is that he clearly needs to work on his race-craft as his legs won't always bail him out.
It was a very good race, and it was a good win. He's clearly going to win many races. But whenever someone new comes along, the media hype goes into overdrive.Twitter: @RichN950
