This is a new one - putting spoiler in the title and the name of the winner!

Even pros want post-up photo ops (so Island Photography can send email marketing for years after the event).

But that jersey, specifically, must come with a special prismatic eyesight feature that makes the current wearer unable to judge distances.

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The Cavic Vs Phelps example is not a good one. Cavic touched first but fina said not with enough force to trigger the omega timing plate, or whatever is called.

We don't know if he won or not and which day he got DQ'd or not and in what race

Why was Van der Poel not at Worlds? Seems he would have been a favorite with Van Aert and Alaphillipe. Last year the rainbow jersey was handed to him on a silver platter with the dream breakaway composition for him and he bonked and failed. This year he did not race. Why?

His reasoning was too much climbing for his liking

Everyone loves this guy because of the panache. But panache is a double edged sword.

Saw this today, and thought "post LBL what could he possibly be thinking?" After LBL you'd think he'd keep his hands on the bars even if he was winning solo.

You can see JA's "oh crap" moment just after the line.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
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For me, I missed all the live coverage today and I saw an image like this before opening any articles and it was unclear where the line was (as it is in this pic). I could have sworn he did it "again" and lost "again".

At world's 10 days ago, when he started his celebrations way before the line and went nuts, I kept saying to myself, "Please don't lose control over your bike before the line....Van Aert is not that far back if you fall"

If he lost, he could always lodge protest over MvdP's illegal socks. (maybe pink)

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

It's only been a week since Worlds and we've already had the rainbow jersey front and center twice for winning finish photos, which is two times more than all year for the 2019 jersey wearer (who in fairness got screwed out of getting to wear his jersey much at all thanks Covid).

Along these lines, poor Chloe Dygart never once got to wear her 2019 rainbow jersey.

JA may be a fool for celebrating too soon, but it is still cool to see the rainbow jersey at front of races with arms upraised in victory (or not).

it's disc brakes fault for sure

Cavic did not touch first. But it's also not a good example because given where Cavic was in his stroke, he really had no option but to "coast" as someone put it. If he tried to do another complete stroke he would have been beaten by a lot more.

Well technically Cavic had the option of the quarter stroke where you do roughly quarter pull and throw your arms forward (see what Phelps did) which was effectively like a bike throw at the line of the XC skier lunge with the leading foot (each sport has its peculirity of fastest way across the line (in track we have the lunge or some extreme guys have done the superman dive). But regardless Phelps kept working, Cavic gambled that he could get to the line on a coast. As butterfly does not stipulate two kicks per pull, he also had the option of starting a third kick rather than a full coast into the wall.

In any case I was kind of joking about that given the swimmers can't start celebrations until the wall anyway...but they can start coasting rather than applying power. Regardless my heart sank seeing an image on one of the cycling websites with Alaphilippe crossing the line in rainbow stripes without Roglic beside him with his arms in the air and the other rider (MVP) looking like he may have beaten him!!!

He so desperately wants that photo where one guy is celebrating when everyone else is still sprinting hard.

Not only did he celebrate stupidly again, he deviated from his line when he noticed MvdP surging. It wasn't nearly as egregious but it was enough to cause MvdP to swerve slightly.
My feelings on JA were fairly neutral up until this week, but he's roughly shown himself to be pretty boneheaded.

Maybe there is a rainbow jersey IQ subtraction effect :-)

Agreed, he's a bonehead. Don't understand why people like him. Over under on him blowing it again?

I think he is loved, because unlike the Ineos/Sky-bots he races with spontaneaty. Sometimes he nails, it and gets glory, sometimes he totally blows it....and lately he seems to be in the right place at the right time, and he's 50/50 on blowing it vs not blowing it (and the last two times its due to his own stupidity).

At LBL where he was relegated, he swerved wildly on a turn inside the final km almost taking out Pogacar. Nothing came of it; they were not full gas as they were playing for position at that point and Pogacar obviously didn't go down because of it, but it was a pretty egregious move.

Seems he’s had a few similar incidents at the Giro...

https://www.instagram.com/...?igshid=oaccop6l92ea

Well, while everyone focuses on this, it is meaningless - JA received a penalty in the lead up and was dropped to 5th place in the final standings. So, this DID NOT cost him the win, and he DID NOT "blow it" (at least here).

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
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Sure, on paper he didn't blow it because he was going to be relegated regardless... but he still blew it :)

Let's see what happens at Tour of Flanders. Van Aert and Van Der Poel hopefully don't blow it out pokering each other.

Dev ,
Did MVDP cause JA to crash or did they both just have their heads down .

Neither were looking further than the next guy's wheel.
A motorbike isn't that small.

He won't be putting his arms up in the air for an early celebration any time soon, that's for sure.

Totally Ala's fault. He was on his radio and not paying attention. I love the guy, but screwing up two monuments in a month? SMH.

In fairness to Ala, hitting that moto while communicating with his team directeur could have happened to anyone. LBL OK that was stupid, but today, that shit happens in bike racing. What a fantastic two man finish between Van Aert and MVP!!!

Amazing race to watch , love the narrow roads and small villages they passed through .
What a place to ride a bike !

Good tactic to drop a guy is veer towards the moto then swerve at the last second without calling out the obstacle. No friends in pro cycling.

The entire situation was complicate

1. It was an S Turn, Moto is supposed to be out of the line of the face. On the left sweep just before moto should be on the right side, but then it was a right sweep and with a turn of its throttle moto should have gone out of the way enough that VanAert Could not draft moto
2. Van Aert for sure took advantage of the moto. That's what you do when the moto is in the way every time the moto is in the way you draft it to build the gap on the followers.
3. For whatever reason the moto dramatically slows down and almost stops on the right, but on the tarmac and does not pull off on the grass, just as Alaphilippe is about to talk into his radio

So combo of moto in the wrong place in the race line, Van Aert drafting it to the max, Moto suddenly decelerating, Van Aert not signalling before he swung out of the Moto line, and Alaphilippe fumbling with the radio at the exact moment. All in all, three things all at once. MVP barely got out in time. I don't think Alaphilippe had a chance to even see the moto until MVP swerved to avoid it.

From what I saw in the replay and it was a scenario of "its just part of racing and shit happens". I few things slightly different and nothing happens and we don't even notice all of the above items.

How do I watch? Usually all bike racing just gets auto-recorded for me on YoutubeTV, but no Ronde van Vlaanderen showing for me in my recordings. Very disappointed; want to watch the finale of these three - then two - beating each other up on the bergs.

Hopefully you are watching and our boy in rainbow can keep his hands on the bars until across the line today wherever he ends up this year!