Yeah, I was kinda pulling for him when he was up front on the Poggio…if he had a teammates with him to cover an attack on the Via Roma, I think he would have won.
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All things considered he did well. 10 seconds behind in #36. If he stops making rookie mistakes. I think he could have a great 2021, despite how weak team.
Totally, he did so well. Also nice to see Sagan back in good form!
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Yep quite amazed at how well Peter Sagan held on after his performance in Tirreno…just goes to show form is temporary class is permanent 
I wouldn’t get too excited about Sagan just yet…MSR is one of the easier races to “bluff” your way through. “Easiest to finish, hardest to win”. Yesterday ws also not the hardest edition of it (despite the speed, which was fueled by a tailwind). Everyone largely kept their powder dry on both the Cipressa and Poggio and a steady tempo meant it was “easier” to get over them with the group.
A good result no doubt, but there is a big difference between 4th in MSR and being competitive at Flanders or Roubaix. But the form does seem to be coming and he still has 2 weeks before Flanders, so we’ll see.
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True - although quite a few didn’t make that last group - I can’t see him winning either the Ronde or the Hell of the North this year TBH but it’s nice to see him up at the pointy end where he belongs.
That was a hell of a finish, so happy about Jasper holding the field off. Some will say he went too soon, but I think he timed it perfectly given the bunch. Amazing.
I thought that. They seemingly burned all their matches keeping the pace high to discourage attacks and get Pidcock into that final group, but Pidcock isn’t a sprinter and was never likely to have a chance in that kind of finish against a group with that much quality (still love that he gave it a go on the descent anyway!). In the absence of them having an out and out sprinter to match up against the likes of MVDP, Ewan, WVA, Sagan, etc, they either needed Pidcock to attack on the Poggio and get into that finish with a much more select bunch. Or they needed to get Ganna into that final group instead of burning him up on the Poggio, he has the engine and aero to pull off a long range attack similar to Stuyvens.
It’s not like Ineos were favourites and blew the race, just odd to see them doing so much work on the front in the last 40km to set up a finish which favoured other teams more than their own. I guess maybe they thought they could make the pace so severe that it would eliminate guys like Ewan, and put Pidcock over the top with a bunch of more like ~5 guys instead of ~17 or whatever it was in the end 
That was the plan I think. Attack on the downhill open up a 10-20s gap then try to hang on to the end. He didn’t get a gap and shut it down. That’s bike racing.
I did the Zwift BMTR 100. Was the perfect accompaniment to this race. It finished about 15 minutes too soon though so had to switch to music. I was not expecting Stuyven to stay away. I thought the sprint would surely overtake him.
Same…timing was almost perfect.