M.R.M
Well-Known Member
Enormously strange stage. I'm trying to be positive. The tactics shown were asinine beyond comprehension.
But before we get to that, maybe one slight hopeful note, very tiny chapeau to Gigante for trying and not giving up. Her descending is terrible, albeit seeing Anna van der Breggen doing the Joux Plane descent entirely on the hoods was pretty awful as well, and certainly cost her a podium spot, but you can't just wish yourself into being better at it. She is 24, she has time to work on it. I hope she does, otherwise she will never become what she could be.
Now to the asinine tactics:
1. What the hell were SDWorx and Anna van der Breggen thinking? What was even the point of attacking from like km 0 and then basically trying to go solo for like 90 km? She was 12th on GC if I remember correctly, so didn't exactly have Pogacar legs to rip everyone else to shreds during this Tour. If you want to go for the stage, why not ride with the group and attack with 8-20 km to go? If you don't have the legs to stay with the leaders for that long, how likely is it for you to solo against the entire field for 90 km?
SDWorx have often seemed to have suspect tactics in the past and were able to brute force their way to victories, but this was really a new low.
2. What was the point of the leaders letting PFP sit on for basically the entire stage only to be mugged for the win at the very end? Even in amateur racing the leaders would individually attack the person unwilling to work to force him/her to do their share of work.
There was no teammate up the road. She could have told them she isn't interested in the stage and only wants the GC, so she will sit on to wrap that up, but won't get involved for the stage. Then riders will accept the passenger. No issue. However, she seemingly even mentioned in pre-race interviews that she wanted to win the stage in yellow. How can the directeur sportifs not know this then and inform the riders during the stage?
The group needed to ride to keep Gigante away, but you could still very much attack PFP and have her close the gap. If she doesn't the next rider attacks and so on until only PFP remains. If PFP closes, everyone recovers for 1-2 min and the attacks start anew.
If you have ever raced in Belgium or the Netherlands you know this all to well, as even riders in different teams will gang up on you to ensure a Belgian or Dutch rider wins.
Pauline was by far the strongest rider at this Tour. She was utterly world class, but that is so much more reason to actually employ some tactics to at least salvage a stage win. Also the stage win is a tad hollow or a bit less class. On the one hand it's not her fault the others are so stupid, but on the other hand you will not see MvdP or Pogacar refusing to work when they don't have a teammate up the road. A champion does not shirk his/her responsibility and does his/her turn in the wind; but this is only a tiny gripe, she is welcome to try to sit on if the others let her.
Of course the commentators managed to witter on endlessly without picking up on any of this. Wasn't as bad as the team during San Sebastian with giggling for no reason etc., so it's not a man-woman issue. Kirby is worse than all of them.
But before we get to that, maybe one slight hopeful note, very tiny chapeau to Gigante for trying and not giving up. Her descending is terrible, albeit seeing Anna van der Breggen doing the Joux Plane descent entirely on the hoods was pretty awful as well, and certainly cost her a podium spot, but you can't just wish yourself into being better at it. She is 24, she has time to work on it. I hope she does, otherwise she will never become what she could be.
Now to the asinine tactics:
1. What the hell were SDWorx and Anna van der Breggen thinking? What was even the point of attacking from like km 0 and then basically trying to go solo for like 90 km? She was 12th on GC if I remember correctly, so didn't exactly have Pogacar legs to rip everyone else to shreds during this Tour. If you want to go for the stage, why not ride with the group and attack with 8-20 km to go? If you don't have the legs to stay with the leaders for that long, how likely is it for you to solo against the entire field for 90 km?
SDWorx have often seemed to have suspect tactics in the past and were able to brute force their way to victories, but this was really a new low.
2. What was the point of the leaders letting PFP sit on for basically the entire stage only to be mugged for the win at the very end? Even in amateur racing the leaders would individually attack the person unwilling to work to force him/her to do their share of work.
There was no teammate up the road. She could have told them she isn't interested in the stage and only wants the GC, so she will sit on to wrap that up, but won't get involved for the stage. Then riders will accept the passenger. No issue. However, she seemingly even mentioned in pre-race interviews that she wanted to win the stage in yellow. How can the directeur sportifs not know this then and inform the riders during the stage?
The group needed to ride to keep Gigante away, but you could still very much attack PFP and have her close the gap. If she doesn't the next rider attacks and so on until only PFP remains. If PFP closes, everyone recovers for 1-2 min and the attacks start anew.
If you have ever raced in Belgium or the Netherlands you know this all to well, as even riders in different teams will gang up on you to ensure a Belgian or Dutch rider wins.
Pauline was by far the strongest rider at this Tour. She was utterly world class, but that is so much more reason to actually employ some tactics to at least salvage a stage win. Also the stage win is a tad hollow or a bit less class. On the one hand it's not her fault the others are so stupid, but on the other hand you will not see MvdP or Pogacar refusing to work when they don't have a teammate up the road. A champion does not shirk his/her responsibility and does his/her turn in the wind; but this is only a tiny gripe, she is welcome to try to sit on if the others let her.
Of course the commentators managed to witter on endlessly without picking up on any of this. Wasn't as bad as the team during San Sebastian with giggling for no reason etc., so it's not a man-woman issue. Kirby is worse than all of them.
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