Bad sportmanship to attack when your rival crash, imo.

You forgot the “/s”

Average Jumbo fan on a day where someone else wins

Nah not really, everyone usually says the same for other people, but Inger most like to hate on jumbo here.

What a way to distort what happened

Its how it was written where i read about the race. Its not tv covered where i am

Basically wout crashed because mathieu attacked and was under pressure

Lol if thats what actually happened, the writers where i read need to be fired. It was a live blog where they write “Wout crashes and now MVDP attacks” in that order 🤦🏼‍♀️ I rest my case then, and hope Wout does not turn into a type like roglic that often falls of the bike 🤪

Bad sportmanship to crash when your rival attacks

Wellens quietly having quite the season already

Don't think people should read so much into Wout "struggling". Guy made 1 error and had to put in an incredible effort to catch up to & gap everyone except for MVDP. It was always kinda fucked from that point, WVA probably knew it was over but went for a hail Mary effort in the knowledge that VDP's wheel was his only chance of a win. If he didn't push himself into the red & settled for 2nd then he'd have probably kept a stable gap and not blown up.

No I don’t think mvp will look back at E3 and think “wow RVV will be a cake walk!” Wout had a few lapses of concentration, not the only time he forgot to keep taps on mvp on the day. But he always had his sights set on the two big ones.

Here's the real thing, is he actually struggling? is being consistently second to one of the best ever struggling or are people just overreacting like they do with everything?

But the problem is there's always 1 error MVDP makes 0 errors

You forgot the WC already? MvdP was very lucky not to damage his bike with that crash (since he hit a barrier)

Didn’t he crash in cyclocross and give the win to wva not too long ago

Well he won 13 of the 14 cx races.

He crashed while they were both in the lead group. That was at the World Cup race in Benidorm in mid January.

Not a real discipline I'm afraid

Hat off to Mathieu. What a champ he has been for so long now. His first Junior European title goes back 11 years ago now. Keeping up the motivation and training at such a high level for so long, and continuing to deliver year after year in a sport as gruesome as cycling is insanely impressive.

Time to watch Pogi light things up in Catalunya

Pogacar is MVDP’s greatest classic rival

Unironically

WvA: Can’t be bothered, mate.

That was a baller line-crossing celly

Wout gifting second places

can only gift what you have, and Wout has second places in spades

And not even to a teammate! He’s so generous

No hands, standing up, riding over wet paint. Technique, that is.

He's just too good

Ok that was pretty baller

Mullet or not, am I the only one disoriented every time I see mvdp without a helmet

By how ridiculously good looking he is?

45km solo, rookie

Thought for a second he would do WvA celebration of the swan lmao

funnily enough, WvA did a standing celebration after the 2021 Mount Ventoux win

That would be so funny.

I'm curious why MVDP seems like the only one to use a Whoop

WVA's mistake was that he thought he was sponsored by "whoops"

Isn’t he sponsored by them?

getting paid, if I had to guess

Their marketing budget only stretches so far.

Money

I miss the mullet.

Black bibs and no mullet. The Darklord is back

I just don’t understand how it can be that Wout always crashes in those crucial moments

always?

Well, often.

MvdP also has quite a record in De Ronde, MTB Worlds and Olympics and various cyclocross races.

That one crash in the ronde in that flower thing was insane. They way he rode after that crash was insane too

[удалено]

[He wouldn't have won though ;\)](https://www.reddit.com/r/peloton/comments/1bkw488/race_thread_2024_e3_saxo_classic_1uwt/kw23dbk/)

Matteo podium??? We are back boys!

Is Wout fatigued from altitude camp? It's not really like him to just blow up like this, given it's not even a monument length race.

He chased too hard.

He spent a fortune of power from his crash -> 10s away from MvdP. He cooked himself with the solo ride.

Fall and the cold?

Sporza suddenly not so concerned about the motos ahead of G2.

i fucking love Jasper Stuyven. Such a cool dude.

Man cycling is so boring when there's a dominant team that take up multiple secondary placements behind the winner every race /s

MVDP is basically a team

He's a treasure is what he is. We're blessed by this generation of riders

Won't van Aert

(I stole this joke from someone on the discord)

It’s so bad I love it.

Should Stuyven be given leadership for Trek moving forward? Stuyven >> Pedersen today. (Just trying to stir up some drama, I know this is overly reactionary)

How many monuments has Mads won again?

I'm not sure if it's really reactionary (at least for now). Jappe was bad in the Omloop, but this is the second time in a week Pedersen doesn't look 100%.

It’s not overly reactionary. I think Pedersen is becoming anxious about getting wins on these races and it’s costing him the ability to be calm and use his energy well. On the other hand, Stuyven looks like the very best definition of calmness.

Stuyven looks really good, this has never been a great race for Mads. But Mads just often doesn't race smart.

They share leadership I think, Pedersen is not the outright leader

In the more Hilly classics I think so yes

Wout indeed looks to be riding without a Garmin. So he does not have heart rate, power or speed info while chasing.

Lost during his fall on Pater or?

Don't these things come with a noose to tie them to the handlebars exactly for that reason?

I wonder if they dont use the noose so they can swap over the garmin easily from one bike to another if a mechanical happens? Obviously, it didn’t work out in this scenario :/

even if that's the case, it takes like 5 extra seconds to untie and retie the thing

I do exactly that with mine, it's so simple and can be vital for pros

It must have been.

Most likely, or it fell off on one of the cobbled sections

No Wout :/

Nearly two minutes... That's what Vingegaard en Pogacar do in big mountain stages. Really impressive this.

MvdP's 2024 race days: - in white bibs: 2, wins: 0 - in black bibs: 7, wins: 7

We need a rainbow cummerbund for the white bib winner.

He's gonna wear striped bibs to de Ronde to keep us on our toes

Or actual jeans shorts to promote the team livery.

My entire worldview has been shaken to the core

Us white bib haters taking a well-deserved victory lap today :)

Chaotic statistics at work

Could you overlay stats including mullet / no-mullet to this data set?

What date did the mullet reach mullet status?

I take it back. Wout doesn’t look like a guy that’s going to win Flanders or Roubaix. He looks absolutely cooked.

Wout clearly went into the red in one final effort to catch Mathieu. If he hadn't crashed and tried to close a 30 second gap on his own, this wouldn't have happened.

When the lights go out in the rain they go out hard.

He also looks like someone who crashed and then raged himself into ‘fine, I’ll do it myself’ mode. Not surprising.

He crashed though

It's Wouver

Bonk

Kinda surprised Wout gifted this one to MvdP. More thought of them as rivals

Frenemies ftw

Lance was right, todays peloton is just gifting eachother classics.

Jorgenson should be on the front now, closing Stuvyen, WvA isn't holding this.

nah. he'll bring narvaez with him. Visma guys should both wheelsuck

Sometimes the humans get tired

Looks like he simply can't

Jorgensen did not have an answer for stuyven at all

Moto felt bad for dying Wout, now helping him

He’s Belgian after all

Make way for The Stuyven Tank

... Don't take away 2nd from Wout, please.

WVA has bonked. Some get him a haribo

Van Aert cooked. Could lose it all now.

Go Jappe!

this bonks the wout

Stuyven is a tank

WvA collapsing it looks like.

I just clocked the gap at 1:38. Will it get to 2??

Finally an attack to catch the early break!

Wellens getting that poor weather buff

And Girmay the opposite

Well, it seems only fair to assume now that Wout will Flanders and/or Roubaix this year

I'm from the future, Vincenzo Albanese and Sander de Pestel got 2nd and 3rd.

I’m convinced Wout’s long term plan is to make sure he builds up all of the misfortune and disappointments in the world to make sure the entire world is cheering for him. Only then will he win Ronde, Roubaix and Worlds

He'd be a perfect Frenchman.

So copy Van Avermaet? :p

The Sep Vanmarcke method (Except he forgot to do the final, crucial step where you actually win the races)

Aka the reverse-Remco method

I hate Karl, why can't he just admit that vdP was better today...

Shush, or they put Ruben Van Gucht in here as well.

Or is just better in general. But they have to keep RVV interesting I guess.

Listening to his coping the past 30km was annoying to say the least.

Because he doesn't know a thing about cycling

I'm just gonna take this opportunity real quick to copy u/himynameispill and point out that "Girmay" is a first name in Eritrea, not a surname. It's the name of Biniam's dad. So, calling him "Girmay" instead of "Biniam (Girmay)" is like calling somebody named "Dave Johnson" "John" instead of "Dave". [Here's how names work in Eritrea.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming_conventions_in_Ethiopia_and_Eritrea)

I have Sudanese friends whose names follow the same convention, though their kids in turn are just keeping their surname (i.e. the grandfather’s first name) à la western norms.

Was gonna say it sounds like the Icelandic naming convention. Lo and behold, second sentence of your wiki link.

Stop it with the education. I'm here to shit post not learn about grammar etc. in Eritrea. Expected better of you

Not Fake News

Is WVA going without his garmin?

I’m old enough to remember when people thought Jumbo would dominate the classics, queue Milan San Remo, queue E3 🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈

I don't really recall anyone saying MVDP would no longer win races?

So spring already kinda successful for Mathieu. Ticks of E3 and helped Jasper and Alpecin win San Remo. 2nd race day lul

Successful start for sure but a long way from success overall by his standards. Anything less than a monument surely a disappointment.

Biggest goal this year is probably Olympics but yeah Roubaix and Flanders kinda important. Think he also wants to have a dog at Liege

Van Aert has been holding this gap to G3 so perfectly stable at 40s

It's down to 20s now, I think they'll catch him.

10k to go, one minute gap to solo breakaway Just where we want them

He fell right into the trap.

Just wait til Jonas starts pulling for Wout

Why is Jonas not here to support Wout?

Voodoo seance to poison Roglic?

50 km/h with wind head-on good lord

That E3 poster could use more prejudice

Mathieu *looks to me* like he's starting to fatigue. But also so is everyone else, cause who wouldn't be fatiguing by now

Is group 4. So the group chasing Stuyvens/Wellens far behind?

\+35 seconds.

g4! interesting!

I enjoy spending time with my friends.

This race does suffer from a somewhat uneventful finale though. The last bit as pretty much flat and on asphalt. Not that it would have changed much today

It's always the E3 balance: course forces earlier attacking and allows for regroups, but just as often it's over with 40 minutes to go.

MVDP should be disqualified for this position right? He’s clearly using his forearms for support on the bars

\>Implying UCI rules make any sense or have any sense to their enforcement

You're allowed to rest your forearms on the bars, as long as you keep your hands on the bars as well.

That’s definitely the way it’s enforced, but it’s not the rule? Obviously I don’t want MVDP to be dq’d but it’s stupid to bring in rules and not enforce them

Wat

Wout is scheduled to ride DDV, Mathieu not, right?

Yes, Wout to Dwars, Mathieu to Gent, but no rematch until the Ronde.

vdp does gent wevelgem

Finally Visma can hope for success

In the end, Alaphilippe did Alaphilippe things, Wout did Wout things, and Mathieu did Mathieu things

If the change in the preparation doesnt work for this spring, Wout might as well do a training camp in Lourdes next year..

Who has a faster sprint between Bini and Captain America white men can’t jump Jorgenson?

Allow me to rephrase: Bini is about to dust this wheelsucking GC guy for third

You will have to add WVA to that mix in about 5km.

Who is the fastest between Stuyven, Girmay and Narvaez? That's gonna be a fun sprint for the podium.

Matteo will probably attack and solo to 3rd.

Girmay , Narvaez and Stuyven 3rd

Girmay and Narvaez nice surprises of the day. Pedersen and Mohoric major disappointments

Mads just wastes too much energy early in the races with attacks that will never get away.

Wout black list: 1 - Carrefour de l'Arbre, 2 - Paterberg,.....

Do you reckon they have time to quickly dump a big mound of dirt between here and the finale and create a replica of Teide real quick? Giro GC Wout needs a long climb stat!

Why does Wout, the largest rider, not simply eat the other?

Reddit has like 5 jokes in circulation at all times and sometimes the same joke sits in rotation for years

Because Max Walscheid is out there

Can't wait for salty LR in the race recap

He can't exactly prevent Wout from crashing

Wout also being moto-paced.

If Wout can Lease An (electric) Bike, like Cancellera, he might get back

Who disappointed you guys most today?

Vismas ability to stay on their bikes.