Originally Posted by
MinnMan
I rather liked what Alpecin-Fenix was doing early in the TdF, where Philipsen and Merlier were clearly trying to share the glory. Merlier won that sprint stage on Philipsen's lead out, even though Philipsen is surely the stronger sprinter.
The way I remember it, Merlier was widely considered to be faster on flatter stages, while Philipsen was more of a threat for the points jersey because he lacked the top speed but could get over the mountains. The pundits excoriated AF for trying too hard to spread the love because they wasted Merlier on leadout duty and missed out on more sprint wins. Unlike Merlier, Philipsen repeatedly showed that he could not beat Cavendish, and the points he got for consistently finishing behind Cav were all for nothing because DQT took full advantage of AF's waffling with their total commitment to Cav for sprints and the green jersey.