SPOILER of the YEAR

[72gmc]

Originally Posted by 54ny77

would indeed be disappointing if we came to learn he was jacked up on anything beside his grandma's dried fruit.

Once I learned to put dried fruit in my jersey pocket and have a nibble every 15 mins I stopped bonking on 3+ hour rides. So I’m team Tadej.

[hokoman]

Originally Posted by saab2000

All the stars aligned for him that year and he was always very talented.

Anyway, I was able to attend the race in person today and what a ride from TP! Crowds were gigantic. What I loved about this, and this is the third or fourth road worlds I’ve been to in addition to several cyclocross worlds, is that everyone is cheering for the sport and their riders but I have yet to see any ugly incidents. Everyone is well behaved that I saw and the police try really hard to keep the lunatic idiots from interfering on the climbs. I wasn’t able to get to one of the big climbs so I can’t comment about those. We spent the whole day within a mile or so of the finish.

Great day and a very tough course. The last hour was actually not really exciting because TP seemed to have everything under control. The women’s race was actually a far better and more exciting event, but with much less pleasant weather.

Awesome! I paid for the flo monthly subscription so I could watch the women's and men's race. If I was back home in Portugal, I am sure I could have watched it on eurosport.

Pogi - it was crazy watching him rip, but the other guys were asleep when he took off. Their mistake. I mentioned to my friends that Ben should retire after the podium at the Vuelta and the world's!

The women's race was wild. I have always been a Lotte fan and she is a master tactician. Demi is by far the best climber in the world, but I think her tactics have always been questionable and the fact everyone knew ahe wanted it so bad - made her so easy to mark. It was a head scratcher for sure. I am glad the podium included Borghini because she was attacking like crazy. When the four were up the road, I was pulling for Vos if they made the break stick.

[peanutgallery]

I have a bridge for sale, too. Check the classifieds

That was a lot of motor for a dude built like a bulimic ballerina. I'm not buying what we're seeing from him...all season

Originally Posted by jlwdm

Don’t think we needed to hear this from you again.

Jeff

[72gmc]

Hokoman, that's a good capsule of Demi's recent head scratchers: she wants it so bad. I can imagine it's the desire to get as much as possible from her gifts, or pressure from everyone else's expectations. I hope she has good coaching and can develop new strategies.

Lotte, and to some degree Chloe, demonstrate a strategic sense that I attribute to track racing. Seems track is quick to punish racers who don't use muscle and brains.

[54ny77]

this was the first race i genuinely enjoyed watching in i dunno how long. years.

why? no race radios!

tactics and legs did all the talkin'.

[herb5998]

Checked out the highlights, certainly an impressive victory, but I'll agree with others, it's starting to raise more questions, especially with the team history.

While Pog may be a generational talent, none of the "generational talents" were completely clean based on current standards. I hope I'm proven wrong, but many of us have been duped before.

[54ny77]

oh come on, are you a cynic and skeptic?



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuE17gDwhL4

Originally Posted by herb5998

Checked out the highlights, certainly an impressive victory, but I'll agree with others, it's starting to raise more questions, especially with the team history.

While Pog may be a generational talent, none of the "generational talents" were completely clean based on current standards. I hope I'm proven wrong, but many of us have been duped before.

[notlance]

Impressed with Ben Healy - top 10 finish in Olympics and WC . The way he kept attacking in the closing 5k was sheer doggedness.

[Spoker]

I can see Remco's frustration with nobody willing to pull.
I also think a race with an in form WvA may have ended differently.
Incredible ride and guts by Pogacar.

[dan_hudson]

Watched parts of the women's and mens road races. Are radios that important to today's peloton?

As mentioned by others, Ms Vollering + the Netherlands generally had ample horsepower but seemingly less savvy. And during the bungled chase in the mens race, the commentators in the coverage I was watching compared their tactics to what you'd see in a wknd cat-3/club race and not at the highest levels of sport.

[saab2000]

For the record, I felt the women’s race was a far better race. Exciting to the end. The men’s race was a slog and kind of boring. Had they caught TD it would have turned very interesting.

[trener1]

100K!!
Mic drop

[Alistair]

If Tadej is doping, he has to be the dumbest MFer in the peloton. Winning so many races, often with stunning solo efforts, I figure nobody on dope would be dumb enough to win like this. Maybe I'm just naive, but whatever, it's fun to watch.

[merckx]

Originally Posted by Alistair

If Tadej is doping, he has to be the dumbest MFer in the peloton. Winning so many races, often with stunning solo efforts, I figure nobody on dope would be dumb enough to win like this. Maybe I'm just naive, but whatever, it's fun to watch.

LA was the dumbest m’effer in the peloton.

[rwsaunders]

Pogačar

"After this kind of season I put a lot of pressure on myself for today. I had pressure from myself, from the team, we came here for the victory, then – I don’t know – the race unfolded pretty quick and there was a dangerous breakaway in the front, and I maybe did a stupid attack, but luckily Jan [Tratnik] was there with me and I just never gave up until the final. It’s an incredible day, I can’t believe what just happened.”

From the Escape Collective

An attack with 101 kilometres still to race – and more, considering the mileage counter marks the front of the race – seemed so ludicrous as to be sacrificial for Pogačar. Sure, he’d spent 81 km on the attack at Strade Bianche, but this was the World Championships, a once-in-a-season opportunity to stand out among the highest quality field of the year, so the balance of risk and reward was far more finely tuned. Though the man himself offered the word “stupid” to describe the timing of his move, everything worked out in his favour: his teammate was able to relieve him in the bridging move to the breakaway despite the lack of race radios, so kudos to the roadside helpers who communicated the necessary information; and he could then count on chaos giving way to cat-and-mouse games in the chase behind. Job done.

It’s up for debate whether either Evenepoel or Van der Poel, or both, could have followed Pogačar even if they had been closer to the front on the Bergstrasse, but regardless, that positioning error is the most obvious failure of their respective races. They both admitted afterwards that they were not expecting it, even that they didn’t think it was the smartest move given the strength still in the peloton. “I thought it wouldn’t happen so early. At that moment I still had strong riders in front,” Evenepoel said of his rival’s long-range attack, at which point the Olympic champion had been about 20 or 30 riders deep. “I had the feeling that you could still hide on the circuit to save energy and therefore didn’t always have to be in the top ten.”