Adam Blythe blasts Demi Vollering's questionable tactics at the World Championships: "Demi should be wiser about that and she's not"

No rainbow jersey. Not even a medal from women's a road race. The Dutch star-filled team once again deployed tactics that were, in the best scenario, questionable. With just shy of 10km to go, Demi Vollering attacked on a steep climb, bringing rivals including later winner Kopecky with her but dropping team-mates Riejanne Markus and Marianne Vos, who could not chase back on to fight for victory.

Adam Blythe, former professional and currently analyst for Eurosport was in a disbelief seeing Vollering's tactics. "The way she rode today was - I want to be respectful - stupid. But I think in a way that she knew what she was capable of, but the way that she did it, and the way that her team-mates were around her, was ridiculous."

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"She had Marianne Vos in that group. Vos was at the back of that group. There were points when Demi was driving at the front. For me that's acceptable because Vos is still within that group, but times when you start to go uphill and you start to drive it, that for me then is when you've got one of the quickest women in the world [and with] Kopecky not in that group, Demi should be wise to that and she's not."

Instead, Vollering continued to push both uphill and downhill, preventing her teammates in second group from coming back to the front of the race. "She never once at any time looks round and stops. She's doing long pulls on the front without looking around, seeing who's there and going back at it."

"With 16km to go, when you’ve got Vos there who’s the fastest finisher within that group, even if Kopecky had come back in, I would have been confident Marianne Vos would have won that sprint," believes Blythe's colleague and fellow pundit Dani Rowe. "She’s dropping her, I just don’t understand it, I really don’t."

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