Key Takeaways: 2024 Olympic Males's Highway Race

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With a jaw-dropping show of pure energy, velocity, and a wonderfully timed assault, Remco Evenepoel received the boys’s 2024 Olympic highway race and accomplished a historic time trial/highway race gold medal double after driving away from an elite group of favorites on the picturesque but chaotic Parisian metropolis circuit.

Behind him, the French duo of Valentin Madouas and Christophe Laporte pulled off the spectacular feat of filling out the remaining podium locations, with Madouas simply barely holding on after being dropped by Evenepoel’s profitable assault and Laporte working over the chase group behind within the slow-speed dash.

I’ve damaged down the important thing takeaways from the memorable race via the streets of Paris under.

Paris Olympic Highway Race 2024 Prime 10
1) Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) +0
2) Valentin Madouas (France) +1’11
3) Christophe Laporte (France) +1’16
4) Attila Valter (Hungary) +1’16
5) Toms Skujiņš (Latvia) +1’16
6) Marco Haller (Austria) +1’16
7) Stefan Küng (Switzerland) +1’16
8) Jan Tratnik (Slovenia) +1’16
9) Matteo Jorgenson (United States) +1’16
10) Ben Healy (Eire) +1’20

Race Pocket book

270km-128.4km to go: With such an extended course and small subject, the groups of the favorites let an early breakaway go up the highway and construct up a large benefit earlier than placing key riders on the entrance to chisel the hole again down after roughly 100kms of racing. In between, a chase group, together with Eire’s Ryan Mullen, clearly a satellite tv for pc rider for an eventual Ben Healy assault, are bridging as much as the entrance. Notably, the four-rider French staff is sitting again and refusing to make use of valuable assets at this level, whereas the three-rider Dutch staff makes use of a key rider, Dan Hoole.

88km: Because the race enters the outskirts of Paris, Alexey Lutsenko assaults, realizing that everybody however the ultra-top tier favorites might want to get in entrance of the race earlier than they enter the town circuit. He’s adopted by Healy, whose teammate Mullen is now simply 90 seconds up the highway and sitting as much as anticipate Healy.

67.4km: Remco Evenepoel unleashes one in all a handful of early assaults on a flat part of highway via a feed zone. He’s rapidly marked by USA’s Matteo Jorgenson and a handful of others, however that is possible simply an try to melt up the group and gauge how a lot energy the skinny Dutch staff nonetheless has at this level.

60km: After getting into Paris, with Ben Healy nonetheless pushing 30 seconds off the entrance, Germany’s Nils Politt takes benefit of the tempo, lastly coming off on the entrance by ripping clear with a robust assault.

59.3km: Again within the peloton, the still-slow tempo permits riders to stream throughout the hole. Ultimately, a robust group, together with France’s Valentin Madouas and Switzerland’s Stefan Küng, fashioned. Belgium will get again on the entrance to regulate the hole, however with no illustration within the entrance group and solely a fatigued Tiesj Benoot left to set the tempo, this can be a precarious state of affairs for the race’s dominant staff.

46km: After they hit the cobbled climb of Butte Montmartre, with Healy nonetheless solo, the peloton 40 seconds behind the sturdy chase group, and Belgium having no domestiques left to reel in them, Mathieu van der Poel assaults and is straight away adopted by Wout Van Aert and a small group of elite riders who journey clear.

38.6km: This escape group, which is especially being pushed by Van der Poel and Jorgenson, is finally reeled in by Mads Pedersen, who missed it on account of an ill-timed flat, with the peloton following intently behind. Notably, France’s Julian Alaphilippe was capable of mark the transfer and sit on to de-incentivize the chase for his teammate Madouas.

38km: As quickly because the teams mix, with Van der Poel sitting close to the entrance marking Van Aert, Remco Evenepoel sees the proper alternative and launches a wonderfully timed assault.

38km: Not like his earlier assaults, Evenepoel’s transfer instantly opens up important daylight because of the group being gassed from the just-completed chase. Evenepoel is ready to rapidly bridge as much as the chase group, which is now simply 11 seconds forward, whereas Healy remains to be impressively alone on the entrance.

27.8km: On the second move of Butte Montmartre, with Evenepoel ripping via the entrance teams and the peloton now 45 seconds behind him, Van der Poel assaults once more. Nevertheless, he’s once more intently marked by Van Aert, who refuses to drag via on account of his ‘teammate’ being up the highway. At this level, with Evenepoel off the entrance, Van der Poel unable to shake Van Aert, and Van Aert displaying he’s right here to assist his nationwide staff, the race is actually over.

21.5km: Up entrance, after hurricane Evenepoel has ripped via the teams, the one rider remaining on his wheel is Madouas. Despite the fact that Madouas is sitting behind Evenepoel, the distinction within the two riders’ aerodynamic positions implies that Madouas is struggling to get a draft. With 44 seconds on the Van der Poel peloton and understanding he can drop Madouas at will, Evenepoel has settled into a comparatively managed tempo.

15km: On the following climb as much as the highest of the course in Montmartre, Evenepoel merely turns up the tempo and leaves Madouas in his wake. Madouas, to his credit score, realizes resistance is futile and instantly sits all the way down to concentrate on retaining his personal tempo excessive in an try to carry off the chase behind to salvage a medal inserting.

3.8km: Heading via the Louvre and towards the end alongside the Seine, Evenepoel suffers an especially ill-timed flat time, which units off a panicked bike change. Whereas he has 1’31 on the peloton and 1’15 on Madouas (who remains to be preventing to carry off the chase), Evenepoel has no method of understanding his lead is comparatively protected because of the lack of race radios.

End: After getting again on top of things, Evenepoel crosses the end line, set spectacularly in entrance of the Eiffel Tower, and, in true showman trend, poses for a clearly pre-planned photo-op to have fun his historic TT/RR double gold efficiency.

Chase Group End: Simply over a minute behind, Madouas polishes off an unimaginable journey to carry on for silver, whereas his French teammate, Christophe Laporte, who has marked Matteo Jorgenson’s makes an attempt to bridge throughout via the ultimate few laps, wins the dash for third. To spotlight the chaos of the race, Laporte, who completed third, didn’t understand he had completed on the rostrum, whereas fourth place, Attila Valter, celebrated considering he had completed third.

5 Key Takeaways

1) The Unusually Small Discipline Completely Suited Remco Evenepoel’s Attacking Fashion: The 24-year-old Belgian turned the primary male rider to finish the Olympic time trial and highway race double with a trademark solo victory the place as a substitute of utilizing layers of techniques and deception, he merely rode everybody off his wheel till he crossed the end line for a significant solo victory.

• Alongside his 2022 Highway World Championship win, this win provides him a second main worldwide (non-trade staff) highway title in two years and means he’s unofficially the king of messy one-day occasions contested with smaller, much less organized nationwide groups.
  • This is because of the truth that his aggressive fashion of racing, which has him attacking first and asking questions later, coupled along with his ultra-aerodynamic place, which supplies riders on his wheel an almost non-existent drafting benefit, implies that he can break away from a peloton that lacks a full suite of sturdy domestiques and rapidly construct up an insurmountable hole whereas concurrently driving anybody remaining straight off his wheel.
    • Moreover, the dearth of race radios in worldwide occasions means his attacking fashion is rewarded extra usually since it’s rather more tough for the dominant groups to know precisely who’s attacking and much more tough to know the race state of affairs, together with the time gaps and entrance group composition.
      • Additionally, since his sub-nuclear attacking fashion doesn’t enable him to easily rip away from a bunch and requires a little bit of front-group chaos and fatigue to create the preliminary hole, he’s higher served at getting and staying clear on rolling programs that host World Championships and Olympic Highway Races.
        • As soon as he’s clear, it’s almost unattainable to reel him in with out the help of a number of sturdy teammates.
• Much more so than previous World Championships and Olympic Highway Races, which have sometimes featured between 130 and 190 rider fields, at this time’s race, which featured solely 90 starters, with simply 61 presently being from the WorldTour because of the new choice standards, created an especially favorable race state of affairs that benefited Evenepoel’s attacking fashion.
  • The small subject, leaving few riders to drag again strikes, meant that being forward of the race was at all times going to be a significant benefit, and the Belgian staff performed this sport completely by having Wout van Aert observe Mathieu Van der Poel’s assaults earlier than sending Evenepoel up the highway in pursuit of the beforehand escaped teams.
    • Belgium’s Van Aert/Evenepoel 1-2 punch is especially deadly in these stripped-down worldwide races, which is one main cause Evenepoel has had such success within the World Championships and Olympics.

2) Mathieu van der Poel’s Aggressive Ways Performed Proper Into Belgium’s Palms: After coming into the race as a near-absurd pre-race favourite, the World Champion rapidly put his staff to work on the entrance earlier than launching an assault as soon as the race hit the Butte Montmartre, the toughest a part of the Parisian circuit. Sadly, he was duly marked by his lifelong rival, Wout van Aert, and, with different prime favorites like Denmark’s Mads Pedersen having no intention of letting a dual-superstar transfer journey clear, the duo rapidly had firm.

• Van der Poel and his Dutch staff regarded completely uncovered when Evenepoel launched his unmarked counter-attack and rapidly closed down on the chase group and then-leader Ben Healy. And, as quickly because it was clear that if Van der Poel needed to bridge throughout, he must do it with Van Aert sitting on his wheel, the race was basically over.
  • Whereas Van der Poel was at all times going to have a tough time coping with Belgium’s one-two punch of Van Aert and Evenepoel, contemplating that he merely let Evenepoel journey away from his group and onto eventual victory, it possible would have been extra sensible to take a seat again, keep away from burning any matches and letting Belgium take up accountability for pulling again Healy and the harmful chase group.
    • By attacking and making an attempt to bridge throughout to the primary two teams, which didn’t embody a single Belgian, Van der Poel basically bailed out Belgium, because it left him weak to a counter-attack and softened up the group for an eventual Evenepoel profitable transfer.
      • And, along with his assault approaching the primary move of the Butte Montmartre, it was at all times going to be unlikely to distance each rival.

3) The Hometown French Squad’s Extremely-Pragmatic Racing Paid Off Completely: Whereas the Dutch, Danish, and Belgian groups burned valuable assets early within the race, controlling the hole to the early breakaway, the French, even with a robust four-rider staff (the utmost allowable quantity), sat again and allowed their rivals to chase earlier than unleashing a traditional ‘punt and squeeze’ tactic that noticed them sweep up the one two real looking podium spots.

• After getting Valentin Madouas up the highway in the important thing chase group with slightly below 60 kilometers remaining, which allowed him to latch onto Evenepoel’s wheel after he stormed previous, they squeezed each potential chase group by marking and sitting on with Julian Alaphilippe and Christophe Laporte behind.
  • Up forward, Madouas did simply sufficient, and, most significantly, he allowed Evenepoel to drop him earlier than he utterly imploded so he would have sufficient to carry on for Silver.
    • This spectacular and pragmatic driving each up entrance and within the chase behind allowed them to completely maximize their potential medal haul and confirmed that they clearly grasped that after Evenepoel was storming clear, the one transfer was to race for the second and third locations.
      • One thing notable about this extremely coordinated driving is that they did all of this with out the advantage of race radios, which might counsel they obtained important communication from the in-race motos and roadside vegetation.

4) Behind the Nationwide Staff Lineups, Two Commerce Groups Had Huge Days: Probably the most attention-grabbing quirks of Worldwide racing (Olympics, Worlds & Continental Championships) is that riders who’re paid extremely effectively to work for each other 364 days of the yr are instantly thrust into the roles of rivals whereas riders who’re fierce rivals (e.g., Van Aert & Evenepoel), are positioned within the roles of teammates. Whereas Saturday’s Highway Race didn’t produce as most of the ordinary ‘secret teammate’ shenanigans that we’ve seen up to now (the place commerce teammates work for each other regardless of being on totally different nationwide groups), it’s attention-grabbing to have a look at what number of riders every commerce staff positioned within the prime ten.

• After we have a look at the highest ten
  • Prime Ten by Nationwide Groups
    France: 2 (Madouas & Laporte)
    Belgium: 1 (Evenepoel)
    Hungary: 1 (Valter)
    Latvia: 1 (Skujiņš)
    Austria: 1 (Haller)
    Slovenia: 1 (Tratnik)
    United States: 1 (Jorgenson)
    Switzerland: 1 (Küng)
    Eire: 1 (Healy)
  • Prime Tens by Commerce Groups
    Visma-Lease a Bike: 4 (Laporte, Valter, Tratnik & Jorgenson)
    Groupama-FDJ: 2 (Madouas & Küng)
    Soudal-QuickStep: 1 (Evenepoel)
    Lidl-Trek: 1 (Skujiņš)
    RedBull-Bora: 1 (Haller)
    EF-Training First: 1 (Healy)
    • Taking a look at this checklist, Visma’s roster’s depth comes into focus, and their capability to find and recruit expertise from exterior their residence area (the Netherlands) is made clear.
    • Additionally, whereas Groupama-FDJ is usually seen as a scrappy underdog that may battle with constant performances (they’re presently sitting twelfth within the UCI Staff Rankings), Saturday’s race highlights that they do, in truth, have a really excessive stage of expertise on the staff.
      • Whereas neither Madouas nor Küng win highway races that always (solely 4 WorldTour highway races win between them), they’re each long-race specialists (which is an effective measure of a rider’s class) that constantly outperform expectations in main occasions.

5) Worldwide Programs Are All the time Extra Tough In Apply Than They Seem on Paper: Whereas it might have been simple to have a look at the course and envision a Milano-Sanremo-type end result, with out the advantage of large groups deep with firepower, the small pelotons inevitably break up on account of fixed assaults earlier than the end line.

• After studying the identical lesson again and again after seemingly delicate city-center programs find yourself producing races that shatter the peloton and are contested by small, elite teams, it’s clear that the times of national-team contested races that featured a number of laps of a circuit might be contested by riders who get forward of the race early, not by sitting again and ready for a diminished dash.
  • It’s because as a substitute of shedding from the again, worldwide races, particularly Olympic video games, with a most of four-rider groups, have a tendency to interrupt up from the entrance, with the eventual choice coming because of the fixed strikes going up the highway.
    • For instance, 4 of the eventual prime ten (Healy, Haller, Küng, Madouas) attacked earlier than the pre-race favorites opened up their set-piece assaults.
      • In an period of some superstars having untouchable top-end velocity, this highlights the significance of getting forward of the profitable strikes earlier than they’re made.