Ottobre 2021 - La Flamme Rouge

So, here we are. In my nerd mind casually thought about this. We are used to have #1 bib in Tour de France being worn by the defending Champions and – if it’s not present – the captain picked by the team of the defending Champion. This is a tradition of the Tour de France but for Tour de France Femmes we don’t have a past edition. Maybe.

So, who should wear bib #1 in the race?

Here there are my hypothesis – feel free to pick the one you want, or choose yours

1. Elisa Balsamo

Elisa Balsamo is the reigning world champion, so why don’t give her the number 1? This is usually a solution that RCS does in their races when the defending Champion is not present. Applying it to the Tour de France Femmes seems a good idea. Balsamo also had bib #1 in the first Paris – Roubaix Femmes (thanks to Twitter user WillStrickson)

2. Amber Neben

Don’t know if her team will get a chance but Amber Neben is ‘formally’ the defending champion of “La Route de France”. The race was up since 2016 – at 2.2 level – and replaced the Tour de France even if not organized by ASO. Amber Neben is currently 46 and it’s unlikely to be there, but she is formally the defending champion of this race. The last champion of the “Grand Boucle Feminine internationale” held between 1992 and 2009 but not from ASO was Emma Pooley that isn’t there – and his team at that time (Cervelo) isn’t active anymore. Last edition of a race organized by ASO in 1993 under name “Tour de la CEE feminin” was instead Heidi Van de Viver. Unfortunately we have no info on her team in 1993 (was the race for NT?)

3. The UCI Women World Tour Leader

Why not? I mean, one choice is like the other, so we have a leader – we can pick her to wear the bib #1 in TDFF. It’s one idea like another.

4. Demi Vollering

What’s the precursor event of the TDFF? La Course. Who is the defending Champion? Demi Vollering. La Course transitioned into TDFF, seems linear making her having the honour of wearing bib #1 in the TDFF

5. The captain of the first team in alphabetical order

This is the rule that RCS uses in Giro and their other races when no World Champion and no Defending Champion starts. Acqua & Sapone before and Ag2r La Mondiale later are used to wear #1 bib.

6. Nobody.

Is that possible? Yes. It happened in TDF 2007 with Landis being DQ. Pereiro, 2nd in 2006 (assignation still under judgment), started with bib #11. Bib #1 was not in the race. In the next year, instead, Evans, 2nd behind Contador, started with bib #1 as Astana was not invited.

So, what’s your opinion?

emmea90

Co-Founder of LFR account. Cycling lover since early 2000s. Say no to short stages.

blog.la-flamme-rouge.eu

I am back on using this space (would probably soon consider a blog section on LFR site) to write down what I think of what happened in Worlds between Van Aert and Evenepoel. Not speaking about declarations in general, but about the tactic and about what happened.

First: the tactic. According to what was reported by the riders in question, main tactic should’ve been Evenepoel keeping himself in peloton, following attack in final and in general working for WVA sprint. What happened is that Evenepoel followed attacks earlier, gave all he has for WVA once reached.

To undestand this tactic we should first think imho at what were the best chances for the riders in question to win the race. Evenepoel is indeed favourite in long-range solo attacks due to his TT skills and in general superior lungs on the flat portions. WVA can win a restricted sprint.

In an ideal world belgium tactic would so have been Evenepoel attacking in the last lap – or before it in a small group, using him to make WVA saving energies to lost wheels. Stuyven as its last domestique.

Would define the approach of this World Championships a little embarassing from the point of view of Belgian Team. Evenepoel was basically denied his chance in press – the only rider of the belgian team that received this treatment and – to make sure of it – old uncle Eddie added salt in the press.

I don’t think that was fair. I don’t remember any World Championship in which you said to one of the possible winners “you are going to be full committed to WVA”. This hasn’t been requested to Stuyven, i.e., that rightly had his chances in the final. So the first question on the matter is that if you bring Evenepoel you should give him a chanche. It’s unrespectful to not do that. If you want a domestique for WVA bring a domestique – there were plenty of them at home for Belgium. If you bring here Evenepoel, you should respect Evenepoel and give him his chance. The whole approach of the World Championships bringing Evenepoel on a bad spotlight was honestly unrespectful for the rider.

We then have the race – and even in the race there is someting that needs to be talked about. While Belgium first favoured Evenepoel group, there was a moment in which Madouas, Evenepoel, Bagioli, Van Baarle and Powless was the leading group with 35” and Belgium chased this group behind brigning everyone back, just to drop Kristoff and Sagan.

This was in my opinion the most nonsense move of the entire worlds – as Belgium used domestiques and dropped domestiques. The outcome of this was that Evenepoel didn’t got a possible chance of playing his cards in a group of 5 and Belgium went outnumbered in domestiques. Belgium went from protecting the attempt at 68 to go, to chase it at 60 to go.

The outcome was Belgium not having Teuns and Lampaert anymore, making race more hard for Alaphilippe, burning a possible chance to ride on wheels because of Evenepoel in front and using the same Evenepoel as WVA domestique (he asked for his chance at this point on car, it was denied).

Here we have the first question: does WVA already felt bad legs here? Because in this case he had to tell the car and team should’ve acted differently. I don’t want to say that the purpose of the action was to put Evenepoel out from possible contenders and make sure Belgium would’ve rode for WVA at that point, but this is exactly what happened.

Evenepoel then giving all he had to distance a group without possible contenders was honestly another bad move. Belgium had Lampaert and Teuns behind – who were they try to distance? It just made race even harder benefitting Alaphilippe.

In conclusion, I don’t think Evenepoel is to be blamed here. If you want a domestique, call a domestique. If you call a free rider you should expect that he rode like that and he’ll probably do it tomorrow in Lombardia. In other words, from real world examples, if you are Jumbo-Visma and you bring both Roglic and Van Aert in a classic that both can win in different way, you shouldn’t expect Roglic to work for Van Aert and would be disrespectful asking Roglic to do so.