79pmooney

Visma Lease-a-Bike: What a day! Won both the Men's and Women's. And lost their #1 rider for weeks. USA rider Matteo Jorgenson wins the Men's with an impressive attack, Marianne Vos survives chaos in the Women's to mount a 2-woman attack with 12 km to go. (You don't want to go into a two woman sprint with her!) And Wout Van Aert touches a teammates wheel, breaks a collarbone and several ribs. Totally sucks. I know. I've done exactly that.

I wish Wout could manage to ride a little smarter. He doesn't always put himself where he needs to be. This race he was behind his teammate - good. An acceleration happened. He yelled "Go!" to his teammate who went - but not as quickly as Wout and Wout touched his wheel and took himself and five others out. His wasn't the only collarbone. That's Cat 4/5 racing, not World Tour.

RCMoeur 

It's been about 40 years, but I still have faded scars and fresh flashbacks of those days in Cat 4, when sometimes you'd think state fair demolition derby might be a bit saner and safer. It is amazing how UCI World Tour riders are able to handle most anything - but even they are occasionally human.

MinnMan

I've commented about the mens race in that other thread.
But yeah, Marianne Vos is unbelievable. van Anrooij is an up and coming star, and can't be much more than half Vos' age?

79pmooney

4th of July weekend in Connecticut - I did two of the three 3/4 crits. (They handed invented 5s yet.) Went around 5 crashes. Two by riders right in front of me. Made me a believer of my absurdly quick steering Fuji Pro. (75 degree HT and probably the same fork rake as the 49 cm bikes. (Mine was 59.)

slcbob

No, that's bike racing. And hyperbole.

If that was a Cat 4/5 field, 30 of them would have been on the deck.

BREAK

Interesting to read that the women's race was neutralized for 15 min and two hillengen + 20k removed, while emergency services responded to a crash between two cars in the men's race convoy. The pre-neutralization break (also with Vos) had 18 sec on the field but was restarted together.

Trakhak

You're seriously going to suggest that Wout should "ride a little smarter"? This reminds me of the Bike Forums poster who insisted he could teach World Tour pros how to handle their bikes better because he'd once taken a motorcycle handling course.

Many top pro riders have been saying that the races have become harder from the gun and far more relentless lately. Meanwhile, the three or four best riders have come to seem almost impossible to beat. So the riders just below that level feel unremitting pressure to ride out of their skins.

And, of course, they can ride as intelligently as humanly possible, but occasional crashes are inevitable for riders trying to win. As the racers say: riding to win means being willing to lose.

Finally, on the question of van Aert's bike handling skills, here's what came up from a quick search for "Wout van Aert cyclocross wins":

"He started his career in cyclocross where he became World champion (2016, 2017, 2018) and Belgian champion (2016, 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022)."

79pmooney

He's the physical equal of Van de Poel but Van de Poel is besting him nearly every race. Look at where Van Aert puts himself. Often too far back and has to make massive bridges to get back to Van de Poel who has spent much more time at the front front and ahead of crashes. This one, he accelerated into his teammate's wheel. I'm not saying his bike handling skills are poor. Just that his decision making is keeping him from beating Van de Poel more often. (And Van de Poel rides the front and does those multiple attacks because he knows full well he'll struggle to beat Van Aert without Van Aert having to waste energy before hand. If Van Aert/Visma took seriously riding the front which they have the depth and strength to do, Van de Poel would win less often. I'm a fan of Van de Poel so I like the current outcome but I still go back each race and look to see where Van Aert was when the various moves were made.)

MinnMan

I think van der Poel is just plain stronger than van Aert. Aslo, we've seen van der Poel crash plenty of times in cx races.

slcbob

They have very different engines. "Stronger" is a tricky word and a bit one dimensional for those beasts. WVA bests MVDP in a TT (not prologue), proper mountain stage, or bunch sprint. MVDP comes out ahead more often in the repeated shorter sharper efforts that we see in CX and many of the classics and early monuments. He's more selective in where he goes to the mat and is coming out ahead in the monument tally because of that, but WVA is the more rounded rider. Let's hope they get back around to going at it soon. Maybe in his down time WVA will glance at the hot tips for him dropped here, have a revelation, and come back better than ever.

79pmooney

The chess game of road racing. VDP, the knight, makes frequent jumps. And every jump, the field surges. WVA, a bishop, can travel across the entire board in one move but has he to monitor his accelerations and use them wisely. Too far back in the field and the field accelerations get worse, everything gets more chaotic and the likelihood of staying upright lower. (Some riders are extremely good/lucky at spending real time in iffy pelotons. I suspect really good noses for danger and when to be somewhere else. Something my club vets taught me. Be aware. Look for and ride next to or behind other good riders. Avoid the bad ones.)

The other challenge of not being at the front. - when bridge time happens, VDP is well up the road. Yes, WVA can bridge to him but it takes matches he cannot afford to waste. VDP is winning this chess game. WVA's gotta ride smarter if he wants to beat VDP in conditions that don't include mountains. In the big picture - strategy and small picture - not accelerating into your teammates's wheel!

GrainBrain

I like the chess analogy. I agree with slc as well that MvdP definitely has been sharpening his race intuition. Wout seems more fluid in a way, but MvdP looks almost "programmed". Like in cx worlds and the Ronde he looks 1000% focused, just like "push play and go". Incredible form physically and mentally right now, that I wonder if he should try for the yellow jersey. Ha ha, ok, ok I'll show myself out.

MinnMan

WvA is back on his bike