"I found it a cringe-worthy World Championships" - Jan Bakelants struggled to watch Dutch performance in women's road race

Whilst in the men's road race at the 2024 World Championships, the potential issues with Slovenia's dual leadership strategy for Tadej Pogacar and Primoz Roglic brought no issues, in the women's race the day prior, the Dutch team didn't gel well at all.

With no team strategy, the likes of Demi Vollering, Marianne Vos and Riejanne Markus all seemed to ride for themselves, casting the hopes of their teammates aside and ultimately, handing Belgium's Lotte Kopecky a second successive Rainbow Jersey. Afterwards, on the podcast Wielerclub Wattage, ex-pro turned cycling pundit Jan Bakelants vented his frustrations.

"I found it a cringe-worthy World Championship," Bakelants began his review of the race. "From a Belgian perspective, we were just very lucky. Lotte did a very good job with it and she was also honest enough to admit that she wasn't that good at all. But when they hand it to you on a tray, it's up to Lotte to unpack it and accept it. It was not a pretty sight. It just made me angry!"

"Vos doesn't even have to be angry, because she was completely smoked up", Bakelants adds. "But then there's that Riejanne Markus at some point and then they start..." the Belgian trails off in sheer disappointment.

Bakelants is also certain of the root cause of the issues... Demi Vollering. "She always attacks at the wrong moments," he analyses. "But then she has to do that on the most difficult part of the course. She lets the Bergstrasse pass by completely without doing anything and then attacks on a part that wasn't even that difficult. Then they join in and start looking at each other again. Yeah, come on, it was terrible."

In the end, Vollering, Vos and Markus all secured top 10 placings, but the feeling lingers that so much more could have been achieved with more succinct cooperation.