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jyte seems to be having problems, it won’t register my vote. My yes vote, that is.
Wellens broke his wrist in that crash, and still hung in there for fourth. That there is one driven man.
But . . .
You know what else he is besides driven? He’s a whiny little bitch. He’s threatening to sue the race organizers, and complaining that Vervecken and Page don’t deserve the podium.
F**k that. Bad luck is part of the game. I’m sorry he got injured, but c’mon? Lawsuits?
Maybe. But Wellen’s crash also caused Nys to go down, which started his crappy day. Had Nys not gone down, I think he would have had much better results.
It seemed as though he would have won, but I agree with Pidge. Bart used to be my favorite, but its hard to root for someone who showed no class after the race such as he did. If you want to sue the promoter, fine, but don’t go blithering on about it on tv. Also, to even suggest that Page and Vervecken didn’t derserve their results is clearly the words of a poor loser. I think Nys’ dominance over the last couple years is making him crack.
Bart was clearly on fire. No others looked amazing. Nys was straight onto him when he went ahead and I know it was early days but no-one else seemed ready to respond. I agree with erikv – Nys can’t be discounted – he went down hard.
All speculation. Bad luck is cyclocross’s evil twin and that much is a fact. A name almost no one is mentioning is Rad Simunek Jr. He was absolutely flying, you see him in the lead group on the first few laps, then, he’s gone. Ends up he flatted, twice! So if he doesn’t flat how does he do? After all, he won a WC this year. Wellens was likely the “strongest” but the same could be said the week before in Hoogerheide when he dropped out because of the cold and wet. And, yes, talking to a lot of the Belgian insiders over there after the race, they say the pressure on the Belgian riders, Nys especially, was immense going into the race. And Nys has not figured out a way to deal with it. These same Belgian insiders say they think Page is the best technical rider in Europe right now.
Page may just be the best… and the Belgian security guards seem to do their damn best to keep him and his family and friends under constant attack and thread of bodily harm.
First they beat up his preg wife… now his mechanic carrying two bikes and wheels gets beat up and knocked unconscious…
not so inside knowledge that he’s a threat…
Page deserved to be on the podium…
Vervecken is rumored to have tripped Nys or someone else at one point in the race as well…
who knows but no crash and Nys has a different day, but Page is still there…
i’d say No (if i could figure out that thing to vote)
Who is to say that Bart wouldn’t have flatted, crashed on his own or god forbid cramped? While it’s disappointing to both he and his spectators that there are lingering “what ifs;” get over it. Bad luck is never a reason to criticize your opponents or worse yet to say they are undeserving of their final standing. His stance is so firm I would hope he is ready and willing to step off the podium in the future if he ever falsely advances due to someone else’s misfortunes. Unlikely.
Flips over the handlebars. Plenty of washing out in the mud. Sand traps that sapped the best of the beach riders, Barriers being thrown out in front of you after being bumped by moto’s, crowd barriers tumbling down in front of your path caused by drunken “Ik bin Supporter von XXX” fans….madness. The race was sick. But to speculate who would’ve won is super tough. hit, there was a moment there I thought Ree-chard was on his way to another WK victory in his horrible Orange NL kit. Vervecken’s bridge up to Page from 10th or so after tangling with Nys….and bridging to a Page I’ve never seen lay down the hammer like that before except for maybe nats….was absolutely impressive. I do not think there is anyone stronger than Vervecken pound for pound. Sven wins in a cannibal fashion and that obviously takes strength but he is more tactically astute than Vervecken and has the playbook down on how and when to attack to put the nails in everyone’s coffins. You see him do this over and over and over and over again at the GVA’s and SP’s. That playbook fell apart for him at teh WK’s and it showed. He could not put the pieces together to get to the pointy end of the race. Wellens could salvage something and showed guts, but not near the strength of Vervecken IMHO.