LouisN wrote:5 8 5 wrote:I agree at that point it was "full gas" to get and stay on Cancellara's wheel during his attack up the Poggio.
IMO, at that point, Cancellara just joined the two man breakaway, and stepped on the gas to keep the pace up, and maybe accelerate things. It was Nibali, a few seconds earlier that did the brutal attack an put out the biggest sustained effort...yet. 3 guys with 3 strategies in mind. Gerrans , clever and strong at that point. Clever at the end.
Louis
I meant from the point when Cancellara caught them and went to the front.
wassertreter wrote:5 8 5 wrote:I'm talking about the run-in to the finish where you'd expect the breakaway riders to all contribute in some way to maximise it's chances of success.
What makes you come to that conclusion? Most of the finishes I've seen the pacing work wasn't shared fairly, and certainly even less so the more riders were involved, and the closer the finish line came.
Where did I say shared fairly? I said "contribute in some way". I meant all three had something to gain - a podium position in a Classic. It's the ideal maximum breakaway size in a one day race.
Lets look at some numbers. When Cancellara went to the front the time to the finish was just over 7 1/2 minutes.
Gerrans took one turn of 30 seconds. Nibali didn't take any. Cancellara did 7 minutes or 93.3% of the pulling.