2013 Pro-cycling season thread

Don't agree with the criticism of Vandenbergh. Without a radio and patchy time gap info surely he was quite right to ride hard and assume that a chase would be organised behind whilst Chavanel sat in? If he sat up there was no guarantee Chava would win the sprint anyway, so why not guarantee second or give Chava chance for the win by making the chase hard? It is easy to play DS from the comfort of an armchair.

That's fair comment. From my armchair I might have been tempted to sacrifice 2nd place for a chance at the win though by telling Vandenbergh to sit up and force Paulini to ride hard for the line. The way Vandenbergh rode was a gift for the better sprinter.

The riders to criticise are the rest of the break other than Chavanel. Surely someone like Van Avermaet or Thomas would be better rolling the dice, as fairly sure their teams will accumulate enough points not to worry about minor placings at this stage of the season.

Yes, I wondered if they were all just a bit tired with the cold and it being early in the season.