Elite Worlds Analysis

Ok, so it is a little past worlds, but I would like to discuss the race a bit.

 It was a really aggressive race as expected. At one point there was a group of 40-50 riders off the front, but the dutch chased hard to pull back the break as they did not trust the chances of their two riders in the break. The race continued with attacks all over the place, even when the front group was finally pulled back. At this point, the peloton being the first on the road, there were only 60 riders who had not been dropped or pulled out in the pack. Sadly this did not include any Canadians. Towards the end (about a lap to go on Stuggart’s circuit course) a group of 5 managed to get off the front. These riders were Frank Schleck (Luxembourg), Stefan Schumacher (Germany), Alexander Kolobnev (Russia), Cadel Evans (Australia), and Paolo Bettini (Italy). They stayed away to the end. At the finish, the sprint was led out by Kolobnev who was eventually passed by Bettini, with Schumacher rounding out the podium. This meant Paolo Bettini’s second world championship in a row. As for the rest of the group, Frank Schleck was 4th and Cadel Evans was 5th.

So, as for my predicted riders, this is how they fared:

Alejandro Valverde – predicted 1st – finshed 57th

Paolo Bettini – predicted 2nd – finished 1st

Stefan Schumacher – predicted 3rd – finished 3rd

Cadel Evans – Wild Card pick for possible win – 5th

So overall, with my picks I might say I did quite well. With an exception of Valverde of course. I don’t know what happened to him. He really dropped the ball.