Not to mention Kopecky's riding on the final climb, sitting at the back leaving Bredewold to ride in the wind for 500m, then coming up at the last second distracting her from Gery who was already sprinting. This could have barely been worse.

Genuinely insane decision-making here. Actively throwing away a chance of a one-on-one final climb against a rider from the breakaway, to then do a lead-out with no team mates on the wheel at all.

SD Worx doing SD Worx things again. We're back!
#DBPwomen

Apparently

Is it weird that I'm starting to feel like Stefan Bissegger has a really good chance to win this race?

Hey TV directors, maybe try not to keep showing images of riders who are clearly badly hurt after a heavy crash every week.

There was also, you know, a race into the most important climb of the race going on. Could have shown that.

I think it's legal actually. Just illegal if it's between team mates but giving a competitor an advantage isn't really a problem

Tactical analysis says: excellent news for Evenepoel who will not have to fight for position in a large peloton anymore.
Puzzling from UAE's perspective as Pogacar has only 1 team mate left with him with no clear advantage gained from their move. Van der Poel is alone but still has Dillier in front

Remember the time when you could still attack on the 2nd time Kwaremont to 'get ahead of the favourites'? Now we're at 100 km to go with a move including all of the favourites and almost no one who isn't a clear favourite or outsider

I guess he heard about it and was so frustrated that he started riding out of the cobble sector so hard that he split the peloton. That looked like it was meant to split the peloton btw.

Fun fact for Tour of Flanders men: Either Mikkel Bjerg has put on his overshoes the wrong way round, or the rest of the team is doing it wrong because the pattern in mirrored 😂

For a race like Flanders this is probably not great. For Roubaix, though... I could see him doing very well.
In any case, I reckon he's got good chance of being a bit better in long, sustained full days on the gas compared to previous years.

Could be that the break from racing (and certain types of training) has left him with a little less top end.
That could either mean he's just at a slightly lower level this spring compared to previous years. Or the balance has shifted away from the turbo and towards endurance.

Mads Pedersen today constantly rides like he's used to having another gear left. Like he expects to be able to continue accelerating but he never does. He goes out of the saddle gearing up for a big attack or to follow a move, then he has to sit back down again.
#DDV26 #DDVmen

New positioning strategy for GC favourites just dropped: Just ride on the front yourself going into a descent. Interesting to see Vingegaard and Evenepoel tackle the final descent without team mates in Catalunya.

I mean, it would have been incredibly difficult to win it from the moment they came to the end of the descent but there were a lot of ways to give themselves a better chance to win.

Revolutionary tactic from UAE, riding Kopecky to the finish, providing her with a lead-out and Gasparrini not even trying to get in the right position to have a chance to beat her.
If their aim was to finish 3rd, perfect tactic. To win, absolutely terrible

Seated attacks coming from behind with speed are the best attacks. Go, Lieke!

'The best we could achieve in the situation' says a team mate of the rider who comfortably won the sprint behind the group she was in.
Another tactical masterclass.

Meanwhile in Ster van Zwolle...

I'm not going to go point-by-point but to claim there's hardly any team work in cyclocross is a fairly ignorant point-of-view. So many examples. You can't do as much as on the road but you can absolutely do something.

Final thought: What a way it would be to secure goodwill and therefore the help of your strongest team mate in the spring classics by doing your best to help him get a better result, maybe even a win in a World Cup. Instead this is an excellent way to destroy that goodwill

Missed out on a 2nd place in Benidorm though.

Yeah, the point is that in Benidorm he could have taken Del Grosso along to a second place. His actions don't make a difference to the win for the team but it has made a very clear difference for Del Grosso's results.

If I were Del Grosso I would not think twice about closing a gap to Van der Poel at Worlds next week. Not even if Nys were on the wheel, for instance. If you're going to ride against me why would I try to help you?

I am frankly puzzled as to why he would do this. He has the legs to be able to chill and help his team mates without sabotaging his own race, but right now he's riding like his team mate is his biggest competitor.

In Benidorm he attacked from the wheel of Del Grosso as though he was his biggest competitor. In Maasmechelen he worked very, very hard to drop Del Grosso when there was no one else on the wheel. In Hoogerheide Del Grosso has a gap and VDP attacks across, pretty much bringing a non-teammate across

Generally in cycling, in whatever discipline, team mates try to work together. If the team 'leader' has the opportunity to help their team mates they usually do it. In the last 3 races, Mathieu van der Poel has pretty much screwed over his closest team mate Tibor Del Grosso #CXWorldCup

Right, the lap where she was 'struggling' to the lap where she attacked was a difference of 35 seconds in lap time 😅

Aaaand Brand's gone anyway. It was fun while it lasted