-
They shouldn't have let him go then.
As Kelly used to say, you've got to be prepared to lose in order to win.
andyp-
I take your point - im just trying to say that it’s easy to say they should have covered but hard to do when you are on the rivet!
I just watched the action again. There were three attacks in succession at the top of the Oude Kwaremont - first Colbrelli put in a dig, then Stybar attacked and drew out a royal group of Sagan, Kwiatkowski and Nibali. They sat up when it was apparent that the selection was wrong, then Nibali put in a dig again. The elite riders (Kwiatkowski, Sagan and Van Avermaet were the first three position in the bunch, with Terpstra fourth) looked at each other to assess whether it was worth chasing down a joker, and by that time Terpstra had clipped off. Then the group was strung out and Tiesj Benoot and others tried to jump across but weren’t strong enough. For some reasons Van Marcke was at the back of the group - I think he had a mechanical. If any rider could and should have followed that move it was Van Marcke - but he is cursed I think.
deleted
But no outright favourite wants to burn a match closing down the move (knowing Terpstra probably wouldn’t work with them if they bridged), and few other teams had enough strength in depth to send a second rider up the road to mark the move. Someone like Roelandsts should have covered, but he was probably unable to.