Personally given E3’s history, I don’t think this is a simple “we misjudged” situation. IMHO in this case, people need to be fired over this, starting at a pretty senior level. Or World tour teams should boycott the event this year.
Martinez is ripe for a great season with Bora. New team, new bike. Everybody in the WT circuit knows he is a great talent and works hard. His main obstacles have been: positioning, descending, mental? and bad luck.
Ugh, I think Rui Costa should have gone out on top (retire last year). I really hope EF did not pay very much for him. I doubt he will perform like he did last year. He is an amazing racer and has a ton of experience, so maybe EF brought him on to lead. I love watching win in breaks where he just refuses to do a lick of work, LOL.
Huh? He’s at EF… He already scored a 6th(?) at a pretty stacked one day race two weeks ago and I have no doubt he’ll be consistent once again.
Last year he was Intermarche’s top points scorer, literally doubling the second place rider… Those points are worth paying some money for, and EF is looking forward.
Clasica Jaen Paraiso Interior was today…the Spanish Strade Bianche.
Good race…Wout continues his streak of not winning races after flatting out of contention. Chased back to ~22", but couldn’t close the gap.
Most fo the gravel / dirt roads had to be taken out due to recent rains…only 4 gravel sections were left in, but that was still plenty to break the field up.
As scientific as his team is I can’t believe they can’t find a better tire setup for Wout. He’s a heavier rider and will puncture more often than a 135 pound racer.
I don’t think is a matter of tire setup/heavy rider. For me, a puncture is the result of a combination of skills + tire setup + luck. You can play and diminish the odds by being more skilled and choosing the right setup for that race. But if you keep constantly having punctures, it might be your skills.
I’m not saying a puncture is always evitable, or always a result of bad skills. However, you can bring the odds to a lower point for sure.
I’m pretty sure Wout checks the boxes when it comes to the skills department.
Is he?
What skills that would reduce the risk of a tire puncture would a 3 time World Cx champion need to work on?
Did you read Sagan’s book? His coach used to say that he wouldn’t never win PR, because he was/is “too hard” in the cobbles - although the result we know 
He also blames himself for 2 punctures at the Rio Olympics. Poor line-chossing, etc. And he’s 3x world champion - in a row.
I’m not saying WVA isn’t a gifted rider. But when you play with the variables of one equation keeping one constant, and the result is the same…
Don’t you have a guy in your peloton who never - rarely - gets a flat tire? Do you think that is just luck?
Edited: I don’t like to credit luck - or lack of it - for bad or good results.
I don’t think in terms of luck, just probabilities, and it would be an interesting analysis to estimate, for any one rider, what value of X punctures in Y races (or Z miles, since we never hear about punctures in training) would be more than chance. In this particular case, I’m not sure what line choice could have done about a screw on a farm road.
I am a little late to the party but Amber Kraak’s breakaway win in Stage 4 of the UAE tour was impressive considering the p̶a̶r̶k̶o̶u̶r̶ parcours.
Parkour! (insert Office gif)
Parkour noun
The sport of moving along a route, typically in a city, trying to get around or through various obstacles in the quickest and most efficient manner possible, as by jumping, climbing, or running:
Parcours - French for course.
I promise you I knew that but I typed this quickly.
But I deserve to be put on blast for this. Fair play.
TBF I haven’t seen the stage, so it could have featured parkour a la Chris Froome on Ventoux in 2016.
Nice win beating Remco in the last portion of the climb!.
So the UAE Tour got more interesting, with Yates out ( still baffled that there isn’t a protocol for crashes like this… Should have never been allowed back on the bike). And really nice attack from AG2R and good win for them. Don’t think O’Connor can beat vine on hefeet but at least it should be interesting.
Clean Camino starts today lets see if Vingegaard is already flying, overall a strong Startlist