My least fav Monument but that was awesome on so many levels.
Spoilers and discussion to follow!
My least fav Monument but that was awesome on so many levels.
Spoilers and discussion to follow!
Edited Title so folks who haven’t watched yet know that spoilers will be allowed.
Agree: awesome finale
Good edition imho. The finale delivered, and it is always satisfying when the attackers stay away. WVA clearly in very good form.
Six men teams should really become the norm. It seemes facilitate more exciting racing instead of trains doing their thing. Especially trek just kept shooting bodies up the road for nibali.
Any tv coverage here in US?
FloBikes had it in US
TiZ.
Great times for Dutch and Belgian riders/teams!
I though there was going to be a repeat of the Amstel Gold with Van Der Poel winning.
another US option is Fubo Cycling, watched it live this morning.
For me, the two most impressive aspects:
WvA transforming himself from a master of 1 hour races to a master of 7 hour races;
That sprint! Wout had his power LOCKED. IN. Made JA look like a flailing rag doll.
It’s going to be a barn burner of a decade with MVDP, WvA, Remco…
Fun times!
Two weekends in a row with great racing and fun finishes. Really nice to be watching live racing again.
Watching the final sprint was really something! I was pretty shocked at the difference in forms and seeming control.
SPOILER ALERT - Trek’s efforts were kinda anti-climatic. They did all those pre-attacks for Nibali, and then when he made his move it was irrelevant. Wout VanArt and Julian Alaphilippe destroyed him and everyone else. Alaphilippe’s kick was super strong and impressed every at the top of Puggio. He actually gapped VanArt. I thought it was over then, but obviously not. What an exciting race!
Yeah I was kind of wondering what Trek was hoping to accomplish with that strategy.
The other thing that I noticed was how strange it was to see JA caught on a technical downhill section. Great race overall and congrats to WvA!
Not only in the sprint but the descent, too.
20/20, Wout was mentally and physically far more in control of himself than JA.
Even more impressive that such control was present after 7 hours of racing.
Similar to Pederson’s sprint in last years WC – controlled and composed.
Carbs for the win!
It is one of my favorites…or at least the last 30k are. Honestly, it is the best finish in cycling…you have the climb up the Cipressa, the descent, the group flying along the coast and then hitting the Poggio…
The race overall doesn’t touch Flanders, but it is pretty hard to find a more exciting finish, IMO.
This year didn’t disappoint…WVA is clearly on song and Alliphilippe redeemed himself well. Won’t is every bit the descender as JA, so I wasn’t surprised he caught him…the gap wasn’t that big. And I think JA might have gotten a little rattled on one of those earlier hairpins where he cut it close.
Was really hoping to see Gilbert pull it off and briefly thought he might do it inside the last K, but he seemed to lack just that little bit of a spark to either go on the Poggio or jump across to WVA and JA w/o taking everyone with him.
As for Trek’s tactics, sometimes the other guys are just better than you…you execute the plan as you drew it up and you just get beat. That’s bike racing…
I agree, getting caught on that downhill was surprising.
Pro cycling doesn’t get better than this. They did a great job of getting rid of the sprinters. JAP’s attack on the Poggio was blistering. I love the way he goes all in and leaves nothing behind. Last year, when he won, he almost got dropped after his Poggio attack. WVA is so smooth. Kudos to him!
Disc brakes vs rim brakes?
Trek was 100% trying to make it so hard that it dropped all the sprinters, and that’s why the sent all the attacks. All their eggs were in the Nibali basket, and he couldn’t stay with WvA and Allaphilipe.
That chase from Sam Bennett was quite impressive, even though it never would have mattered in the end, guy gave every ounce of energy he had.