Tom Boonen criticizes often confusing tactics in women's cycling: "80% of the time I don't understand what's happening"
Cycling
Road cycling is a sport where tactics can become very complex and sometimes it is not possible to execute them. It's a very diverse sport where anything can happen, which leads often to chaotic situations. Tom Boonen and Patrick Lefevere believe that in women's cycling there are more often invidual tactics within teams and that sometimes it's not understandable.
"With permission: those team interests play less of a role with the women than with the men. In the end, everyone rides after everyone else," Patrick Lefevere argued to Het Laatste Nieuws. This is something that more often happens in races such as the World Championships or Olympic Games where there are no radios and the riders have little idea of what's going on. Although some argue that no radios make racing more exciting, the overwhelming opinion is that it leads to racing where often you see decisions that don't seem to make any sense when comparing to a regular race.
You could interpret the Dutch team's tactics at the recent women's World Championships this way, with Demi Vollering repeatedly attacking the leading group, dropping her teammate Marianne Vos who had a chance to take the world title as a strong sprinter. None ended up finishing in the medals although it looked like for a long time the Dutch had the upper hand and the race under control.
But even with radios, at times difficult-to-understand situations happen. At the Tour de France Femmes, Demi Vollering did not win the title by 4 seconds, and in one of the hilly stages she lost significant time after crashing in the final kilometers as the yellow jersey. Her teammate Blanka Kata Vas won that stage, but Lorena Wiebes also finished on the first positions, none of her helping Vollering which on flat roads would've made a very large difference.
"Those women's races are sometimes bizarre to watch. I watch, because they are often really tough races. But in terms of racing tactics, 80% of the time I don't understand what's happening," Tom Boonen admits. Whilst Vollering defended the criticism that fell on Wiebes at the time, it's not clear who made the decision to keep the riders in the peloton whilst the yellow jersey was on her own chasing on flat roads.
"It's all so different from the men's races. The difference in level between the top and the category below is still too big, in my opinion."
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I much prefer a race where the riders are less like puppets whose movements are orchestrated by a puppetmaster in a Team Car watching the overall race. I like it when each rider has to figure out what to do on his or her own. Yes, opportunities will be missed as a result, but I rather like to see the results of individual's road racing intelligence as much as their physical prowess. Having all these communications and such between the puppetmasters and the riders eliminates all but the physical prowess.
It’s certainly more interesting to watch than most men’s races.
Yes they race different to the men but I think it's generally smarter cycling by the top. Mens there's plenty of chess but also I think there's more of a view that you physically break your opponents. The womens you see the top riders forcing mistakes more which not only gives them time ahead but has a huge psychological impact.
It may also have something to do with more competitiveness due to less well defined leader (there are more potential winners also in many races) and team structures which is reflected by far smaller salary differences. In other words, the upper levels of hierarchies are still more open for the taking and there is more desire to « go for an exploit » rather than working solely for team leader results.
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