thirdcrank wrote:I thought it was unrealistic of Dumoulin to expect other riders to work with him. What was interesting was that when he had briefly gone out of the back of the chasing group they didn't make sure he couldn't get back on. One minute the commentators had written him off and there didn't seem to be any coverage of what he was doing, with the cameras on Yates and the two main chase groups with occasional shots of Aru. Dumoulin getting back on seemed to happen off-camera, perhaps in an ad break. (I only saw the highlights on Quest.)
He admitted it was entirely reasonable of them not to play ball with him, but it didn't hurt to try... My wife is a Cloggie and says his comments lose a lot of resigned humour in translation. He seems rather happier in Dutch on NOS than he does in English on Cycling News.
I was watching live on EuroSport and it looked to me like once they'd dropped him seemingly convincingly they then started fannying about looking at one another, so he just TT-d back on.
mjr wrote:Yates was pretty scary going downhill
One of the Grand Tours a couple of years ago had a huge descent and a couple of the AG2R lads were being tracked (just!) as they screamed down it. It was real peek through the gaps between your fingers stuff, terrifying even on TV... there's no two ways about it, descent is a clear skill and some do it better than others, irrespective of weight. Emma Pooley weighs next to nothing but freely admitted she used to be a terrible descender before finding the right coach. 2 years back, Kruiswijk had it pretty much sealed until he crashed descending trying to stick to Nibali.
Pete.
Often seen riding a bike around Dundee...