I really wanted to see a good womens race, and maybe the beginning part that we missed was what I wanted, but the part they did show, to me, was boring. It appeared to me that most of the women didnt spend enough time getting cobble skills and were strictly just trying not to crash opposed to attacking/pulling and trying to win. Of course this does not apply to Voss and Lizzie, but maybe to the rest. That being said, the majority rode it better than I could ever ride it.
Well that’s just it, I went back and looked at the replay and we went live about 52k to go - by which point Deignan was already out in front and all the key selections had already been made. So most of the racing had happened by then.
I don’t accept that theory and I find it rather dismissive of the professionalism and skills of the women’s peloton. . There were more debutants in the mens’ race than normal due to the protracted delay in holding this race so no difference there - they were also trying not to crash. Plus the women are very used to riding in Belgium. Some areas not as awful as the Paris Roubaix course but they still know how to ride on cobbles!
The key issue for me was that ASO vastly underestimated their speed and skill. It worked well for Deignan and being a Brit, I’m pleased she won. But a longer distance would have made for a more competitive race. And I’m pissed off that the coverage was limited.
The rumours on Sunday was that domestic coverage of the woman’s race in France was ~2million peak - which is a comparable figure to the mens coverage in 2019. Hopefully 
, that gives the organisers something to go sell to fund wall to wall coverage.