Originally Posted by ed073
So where does he get off flipping Devolder off in the final?? "I'm pissed off with you because you didn't ride while I was sitting on??"
I reckon this is a great case for no radios. If it was 1990, both guys would've raced hard to the line, rather than hit panic stations that they might not be listening to the boss or make a bad decision.
Nice Point! It's good to look back on the good ol' days when each man raced like a streetfighter on the bikes in the peleton. Now it's like a digital chess game managed from behind. Then again, if that was somebody like Erik Dekker or Jakob Piil in the break instead of Devolder or Gilbert, chances are that they would've dropped their breakaway companion in the last kilo and gone for it solo for the win. Vino messed up in a similar situation in the final stage of last year's Paris-Nice, scolding his breakaway partners in the final kilo while the peleton came up from behind and shut them all down. Only one guy could scold his breakaway companions, and then beat the snot out of them and win the race, that man being Johann Muesuew.
Amongst the pros, good timing for a "hit them hard" attack is everything. It's fair to say that Devolder and Gilbert were cooked in that last kilo. Gilbert tried to get away on one of the small hills in the last ten kilos, but Devolder got back on. The two men were waiting for a sprint, but with only about seven or eight seconds over the peleton in the last kilo, there would not have been time for slowing down for tactical games like setting up the other guy for the lead-out. Both men are strong and seasoned riders who have plenty of time in their careers to learn from what happened to them in the final of Paris-Tours, and condition themselves to be future winners of races like this.