Not following you? It would seem that if the other contenders weren't sitting up and looking at each other they would have brought him back??

Then do that.

I am not too sure about that: GvA chased hard, so did van der Poel but he was unlucky, van Aert blew up and was gapped on the final climb, Sagan and Velverde didn't have it yesterday. Yeah maybe Kristoff and Matthews weren't doing a lot of work, but they really couldn't; their only chance was a bunch sprint. What EF did right was having Langeveld slow down the chase multiple times on the climbs, and kudos to Vanmarcke for all the hard work. So, I wouldn't say the favorites were playing games and let one get away.

I guess we all did when Lance ... nevermind.

Watch the final 15k again. Plenty of opportunity for them to work together. Was a great race though. Van Der Poel was an animal.

Did you watch the last 10-20k? The group simply wouldn’t work together. If they had, race over. Good on him though to take advantage of the situation.

See my post above: first off, what makes you so certain that even if they work together they had enough gas in the tank to bridge the gap? Most of them were cooked, like van Aert. Also tactics is a big part of the race, just as important as the physical ability. So kudos to Bettoil having the audacity to attack. BTW, with Kristoff and Matthews in the chase group, it was hard to justify for all others to work together in the final kms to chase down Bettoil.

No doubt. When Vanmarcke was drilling it on the front into near unconsciousness, I was thinking, "Bettiol had better pull this off or Sep's going to be pretty pissed."

This was it. No one in that chasing group was going to work to help another team win. The teams that had more than one person to lead the pull (DQS, LottoS), didn't have a sprinter. None of the sprinters (Sagan/Kristoff) had a teammate to burn.

Does this take any thing away from Bettoil's win? IMHO, not at all. In fact, very few UCI races are won or lost because of pure physical ability.

Not at all. This is a cycling monument FFS. Any way to win is worth celebrating. Because Bora or Sunweb or UAE didn't have strong enough support to make it to the finale with more than their sprinter isn't EF's or Bettoil's problem. That's all part of race strategy and tactics. I would say they worked that race perfectly. They didn't have a sprinter and went for it at the time when the sprinter teams didn't have someone to pull for them. They pretty much beat DQS at their own game.

How would you have felt if Stybar or Jungels had won in the similar manner instead of Bettiol?

Do you watch any sort of athletic competition without that thought in the back of your mind? I don't. I still try to enjoy the events and try not to dwell on the fact that it might have been aided. The two other options as far as I can tell are stop watching or bury your head in the sand.

Some I can, but cycling is especially difficult, e.g. I have no problem with soccer (football) when my favorite team wins.

Just to clarify, what's the problem exactly? Are you concerned that we'll all find out later that he was cheating in some way?

I don't know, i guess i just don't take it so personally. I watch and enjoy the spectacle, and it was great. Really amazing and exciting race, the whole day long. And i was rooting for him to stay away.

If he later gets popped, like yeah it sucks for the clean riders who maybe could have made a result in an alternative universe but I don't think i'd be "hurt" by it emotionally.

Yes. That little doubt in the back of your mind prevents you from actually feeling happy and celebratory. If someone I liked gets popped, you felt like that you made an emotional investment into a fraud, and that kind of "hurts".

Kind of like how all the Ironman records have been broken several times over, over the past few years?
Must be the shark fin Zipp wheels...................... ;)

If you want to feel good about racing, watch this:

https://www.facebook.com/.../?v=2344120618955191

"Full gas into the Kwaremont, and then:
PAM!!!!
Let's Put The HAMMER DOWN!!!!"

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http://www.jt10000.com/

Yep. Watch the last 75 km's of the women's race.

Oh ! True, forget it (with that frame fo mind), the winner got busted a few years ago...... meeeeehhhhh !!

Louis :)

Sagan, Valverde, MVDP, Wout, GVA, Kristoff don't give a crap about Bettiol winning Flanders.....they would rather he win then drag one of the others to the line. DQS could have shut it down as well with three guys at the end, but again why help the others? There was no real chase and he had a tailwind. It's like Vansummeren winning Roubaix in 2011, Cancellara could have shut it down but he would have been dragging Hushovd to the line, so he sat up and let Vansummeren win.

If you believe footie is clean, there is really very little hope of winning you over with a rational argument.

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At this point cycling is likely one of the cleaner sports out there. And one day racing is likely the cleaner end of the sport, since tactics have such a big part to play (versus grand tours which are so attritional).

Personally I mostly manage to willingly suspend disbelief in athletic performances unless it's becoming too blatant to ignore. Cycling in the 90s and 00s was unbelievable - top guys getting busted left, right and centre, performances so dominant it was like men vs boys, riders dying in hotel rooms, etc. These days I'm sure it's still going on but it's at least being done more subtly and therefore it's easier to suspend disbelief and just enjoy the racing.

Current sports I struggle with? Tennis and football. Massive money sports so plenty of incentive to dope, and big advantage to be gained in doing so (the athleticism of modern football/soccer and tennis players is incredible). Fairly lax testing regime. And nobody ever seems to get busted. Also struggle with certain individuals e.g. find it hard to believe somebody like Gatlin is clean having been busted twice already and seemingly getting better in his 30s when sprinters normally start to slow down. Mind you, we have a world champion in cycling with a similarly questionable past who also seems to have discovered the fount of eternal youth!

Asgreen, who finished second, has never won a pro race either. The gall.

Bettiiol does have double letters, so maybe he cut the course, or used someone else's bib

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

basically this

one wonders why there was such a protracted battle over the Operacion Puerto blood bags; my bet is that too many in La Liga were involved

the OP has some serious cognitive dissonance. Only reason why footie has a veneer of being clean is that they don't go through the more rigorous testing that cycling undergoes; out of sight, out of mind.