Another week, another Classic and another Peter Sagan conundrum. As at Milan-San Remo and E3 Harelbeke, the Tinkoff-Saxo man impressed on the final climb at the Tour of Flanders but then baffled by again losing his way at the death.
With eventual Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) and Niki Terpstra (Katusha) already up the road, Sagan and Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) proved the strongest of the chasers on the Paterberg, cresting the summit with 25 seconds to make up.
Finding common cause on the flat, exposed run-in to Oudenaarde, Sagan and Van Avermaet’s working alliance saw them peg back the deficit to just 10 seconds at one point, but Kristoff’s strength and Terpstra’s reluctant agreement to collaborate with him meant that they would draw no closer as a tandem.
ADVERTISEMENT
Then, on the long finishing straight, when Van Avermaet climbed out of the saddle to make one final, forlorn effort, he turned and saw that Sagan was no longer on his wheel, the Tinkoff-Saxo man simply unable to follow.
While Van Avermaet was ushered immediately towards the television interview tent ahead of the podium ceremonies, the fourth-placed Sagan wheeled disconsolately across the finish line where his soigneur was waiting for him.
After rolling to a halt, Sagan leant over his handlebars coughing for a minute before he was gently sent on his way again to soft-pedal towards the buses in the main square 500 metres further along the road, seemingly oblivious to a pat of consolation from Filippo Pozzato (Lampre-Merida) as he ambled past. On reaching the sanctuary of the team bus, Sagan opted not to re-emerge, and instead it was left to directeurs sportifs Lars Michaelsen and Tristan Hoffman to speak to reporters on his behalf.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/1a7A4vB
No comments:
Post a Comment