“I hesitated a little too long" - Matej Mohorič rues missed opportunity as he finishes 3rd on stage 9 of the Tour de France
Cycling
Finishing atop one of the Tour de France's most historic and rarely ridden climbs, the Puy de Dôme, the fight for victory on stage 9 was always going to be a fierce one. Finishing 3rd, Matej Mohorič was right in the mix on a thrilling day.
"It was difficult for me against the pure climbers, but I tried," the Bahrain-Victorious rider told WielerFlits in a post-stage interview. “I wouldn't have had a chance in a direct duel against the better climbers. Only if they had stopped behind us, not working together, it would have been possible. But it is what it is. Especially the last four kilometres were beautiful.”
Heading into the final climb, Mohoric was in a group of chasers hunting down lone leader Matteo Jorgenson. If the Slovenian would've had his way however, he would have been alongside the Movistar Team rider at the front. Had he been, maybe the stage win would have been possible.
“I hesitated a little too long when he went. I was the one behind him, so I had the chance to jump with him… But when he was gone, it got very tricky," Mohoric rues. "We tried to get back with Powless and those other two guys (De la Cruz and Burgaudeau, ed.), but we couldn't. On the final climb I gave everything I had, but this was all I had. Michael Woods proved today that he was the strongest.”
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- Avoiding him is a good strategy, you get more wins and then you can compete in the TDF relatively relaxed. Pit yourself against Pogi and not only there will be no wins, it will be considerable mental setbackabstractengineer21-12-2024
- If you hold onto then, you blowup in a minute and then you finish 5 minutes down like Ben O'Connorabstractengineer21-12-2024
- Based on what argument?Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Agreed except the length of climbs, pretty sure you can stretch that to about a km unless we’re talking about half a dozen in quick succession.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Lot of contradictory information floating around world cup contenders, someone should do some tidying up.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
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- The likelihood of RE improving enough at this point to outclass TP or JV is less than zero.verve82521-12-2024
- That’s the most stupid thing I’ve read for a long time, did you not go to school and learn even the most basic physics? Aero depends on one thing only, drag, drag depends speed and the relationship is squared and apart from maybe at zero or the speed of sound or due to side winds that relationship is valid at all speeds, it dies not “suddenly” start at a magic number. Very simply, the faster you go the more the effect becomes important. If you think 25km/h is needed to have noticeable effects you’re delusional, athletic WR are cancelled as soon as winds top 2m/s that’s 7.2km/h, why because the assistance is already too important at that speed and the times prove it. You don’t even consider wind which can significantly increase the effective speed for aerodynamics and you underestimate speed of climbs, 6% is ridden more at 30 than 25km/h, a speed at which early generation high rims were considered to have more advantages than disadvantages. And finally, as in normal races you can’t just switch bikes according to terrain, it’s pretty pointless to discuss climbs as a separate situation, the aero will have justified itself plenty during the rest of the ride.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- If you look at how much TP progressed in that 1 1/2 years you can no longer say that’s nothing. If Remco improves as much he’s a challenger!Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Froome wishing to ride the Vuelta...he won't even be selected for the team!frieders320-12-2024