06/03/2023

"What Pidcock did is something that almost always fails"- José De Cauwer and Karl Vannieuwkerkeare admired by Pidcock win in Strade Bianche

Tom Pidcock's win in Strade Bianche keeps enchanting cycling fans around the World. Belgian commentators José De Cauwer and Karl Vannieuwkerkeare no exception, and they even put the victory of the INEOS Grenadiers rider ahead of the one Tadej Pogačar achieved on the same race.

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"We thought we had seen a big number last year with Pogacar's solo. But wasn't this song even bigger? Because the pressure from behind for Tom Pidcock was immense", said Vannieuwkerke to Sporza.

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De Cauwer answered, "The pressure was indeed greater. And Pogacar as a rider last year your rate is higher than Pidcock's this year. What Pidcock did today is something that almost always fails. There's also so much preceding it that makes it even more impressive than last year."

But Pidcock's victory was also influenced by the lack of cohesion of the chase group right behind Pidcock, has De Cauwer rightly noted, "Behind him, then, what Pidcock hoped for happened: there was no cohesion among the chasers. Once one took a little lead, then the other went. Don't quite understand the story of Benoot and Valter".

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Tiesj Benoot and Attila Valter's cooperation was indeed not the best, Benoot even revealed loudly his discontent to his teammate when Valter jumped over to Benoot's group. Benoot stopped cooperating and everything went for the worst for the chasers. Jumbo-Visma passed an image of "a group of friends and everyone knows his place", as Vannieuwkerke said, but on the race, things looked very different.

"Valter and Benoot didn't choose who should ride for whom. Valter is a young guy and came to this team with ambition. From the following car of Jumbo-Visma, apparently, there were no consignments. If one had sacrificed himself for the other, that 9-second gap on Pidcock might have been closed. " commented De Cauwer.