I agree.
Also, you never know what will happen to any one particular team… Look at Ineos…
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From the reporting it seems unclear to me if that is an actual contact or just a commitment and assuming it is a contract it would probably have some clauses in which the contract can be terminated by wout or visma.
I think I saw that Wout is directly sponsored by Red Bull’s Belgian distributor, so maybe a somewhat autonomous/different apparatus than the main Bora sponsorship?
If you happened to be in Zurich this weekend, where would you be on the course watching?
I’d probably would recommend the Zürichberg Strasse towards Fluntern or on the Witikon climb
On the map in the link places 10-12. Just click on Männer elite to get the map. Around the 6 it could also be nice last small climb on the plateau before the downhill but it’s outside the city.
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Exciting last ~16.5km in the women’s world championship road race
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Boy, the Dutch really made a mess of that finale. Went from having 3 in the lead group w/ 10km to go to not getting a medal.
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Yes - Kopecky (spelling???) was willing to lose to win, while Vollering played herself out of a win because she road as if she was so desperate to win. Amazing ride by Dygert to get the silver medal.
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I think their weakness in these national team events stems from their inability to react to race conditions
Vollering was their clear plan A today but they were slow to force the other teams to chase when they had 2/4 in the lead group
Likewise it was vollering attacking that distanced her two teammates in the final circuit
Quicker adjustments could’ve shortened the odds on a Dutch winner. Obviously much easier to see from the couch, and maybe Vos dropping was inevitable, but at least force a competitor to do it
Regardless, final 50 km was great fun to watch - likely a more dynamic final than we’ll see tomorrow. Also quick shout for the final from men’s U23 yesterday, final lap was great
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It was a phenomenal finish! I thought Dygert was done for when she fell off in the last few k’s, just to have her claw back on in the last k and manage 2nd place. It was clear, that between her crash a few years ago and Thursday’s fatal crash in the Junior women’s race, she wasn’t nearly as confident descending as the rest of the group.
We staked out a position about 50m from the finish line for today’s race, right on the barriers, and that was a fantastic place to be. Although I don’t think Sunday’s race will come down to any form of a bunch sprint. Any of those 3 climbs are enticing also.
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Nah, she has always been a crap bike handler. Her pack riding skills are by far her biggest limiter in road races.
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I’m pretty gutted about the death of Muriel Furrer and I ask myself what needs to happen that the sport actually focuses more on rider safety. It’s now 3 deaths in 15 months or so… In no other sport would the response be this lackluster… Thst the UCI pres. Says in 50% of the cases it’s the riders fault is just really poor taste…
As for the women’s race the dutch did everything to loose the race… And the main issue seemed to be vollering she seemed to be focused fully on kppecky. Chasing after teammates… Attacking and forcing the tempo while Voss was in the group…
For today it will be interesting if the longer race and more repetition of the climbs will make it to hard for mvdp and Pedersen. I think if roglic works for pogi and they do a full gas lead out into the zürichberg he will probably gap everyone the questions if he can stay away if a strong group is behind although most of the times group 2 will not work properly…
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Pog puts his cards on the table with 100 km to go and out of a group of easily 75+
Felt way too early to me, but 30 km later the domestique list is getting short for everyone else
Still feel like he went too soon and he lost it but guess we will see
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And Group 2 syndrome is starting to set in 
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Pog making this look like a race between a man and a bunch of children playing bikes.
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Especially strategically. I tuned in after Pog was already at the front, but WTF were Remco and MDVP thinking letting Pog go?
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I dunno….he went w/ ~100k to go. I think my reaction would be “sure thing…go for it”, too.
I don’t think MVP has that kind of long range attack in his legs….Remco probably does, but he had his whole team at his disposal at the time, too.
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They were thinking the same thing everyone else was…we have a half dozen domestiques each and 100km is too far
Hard to say it’s a strategic mistake when an entire Belgium team can’t close a sixty second gap, they just didn’t have the legs as a team or really a peloton
When he went was after a very hard stretch and he obviously felt no one else could go at that time
Watching in real time it felt way too early, but with 25 km to go it looks like the right decision
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You left out “and no one would work with Remco”
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