As expected, the Jensen/Aranburu tandem experiment did not go very well, but I guess it could have been worse. Jensen in 7th is acceptable. He looked stronger early on, so I hoped for a top 5, but he obviously didn't follow the winning move. Seemed to be on an average day. He lost to some weaker riders and beat some stronger ones. Can't complain there.
I can already see the "I told you so's" mounting with regards to Aranburu. So be it. Lopez/Skujins had similar results, and I knew this was a possibility. I had hoped Aranburu could hang on longer in this type of grueling race though, given he didn't seem to do any work before getting dropped. Small sample size, but I'm not super happy to see guys like Boily, Chaves, De Plus finishing in front without Aranburu, especially in a race under 200 km. Guess we'll see how he does in his solo leadership races before issuing a verdict. He and Jensen racing together is the exception, not the rule.
Great racing overall. Fun race to read with a fantastic report. Congrats to Sauber on a well-earned victory, and thank you to Fabianski for bringing it to us!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
Disappointing as Boswell just didn't have it today, maybe paying for being isolated pretty early. Guess this is a vote against too many HC adventures as we just don't have the team support.
Congrats to Sauber, great to see the US NC jersey getting a prominent showing. Thanks Fab for the awesome report.
Rumors on the team bus are Granigan really hates Van Gils.
Kraftwerk depth really paying off, 5 riders out of 32 with 50km to go and 4 surviving to score points. Bilbao overperforming for 6th backed up by Boily in 14th, Arndt in 19th and Dieteren in 23rd.
Sorry I missed the super preview, but I really enjoyed the excellent report, well done Fabianski.
No points for Bralirwa, but that was expected. Mengoulas and Menicucci in the Top 50 after a nice breakaway appearance is all I could reasonably hope for. A pity that someone like Ndayisenga gets completely discarded by the AI, otherwise I think he might have a decent shot at at least a handful of points, but such is the game.
Fantastic report, Fabianski, thank you! Really good to have you back reporting!
thank you Fabianski
