Thor Hushovd has been one of my favorite cyclists for years now. I've been a fan of his since his Credit Agricole days. I was super excited, and honestly surprised, when he won the World Championship last year at Geelong.
However, I was quite disappointed by his lack of effort to work with Cancellara yesterday. I don't think the World Champion should be a wheel sucker, and really I was glad to see Fabian sit up and tell Thor he'd had enough. To me, the fact that you're wearing the stripes of a World Champion should be some incentive to at least take a few pulls at the front. I guess Thor was only worried about not letting Fabian get away, but I think the winner would have come from their little group if they would have just worked together. Once Van Summeren was clear, then I could see Thor not working in an attempt to give his teammate the victory, but up to that point I expected more from him. I find it hard to believe that Thor was working all along to give Van Summeren the victory, because until he broke free of that lead group, I honestly don't think anyone thought he was going to take it.
That being said, and openly admitting that I'm also a huge Cancellara fan, in a way I was glad to see Van Summeren take it. He was definitely deserving of it.
All-in-all, P-R was quite exciting! I just wish there wasn't a year before the next one.
However, I was quite disappointed by his lack of effort to work with Cancellara yesterday. I don't think the World Champion should be a wheel sucker, and really I was glad to see Fabian sit up and tell Thor he'd had enough. To me, the fact that you're wearing the stripes of a World Champion should be some incentive to at least take a few pulls at the front. I guess Thor was only worried about not letting Fabian get away, but I think the winner would have come from their little group if they would have just worked together. Once Van Summeren was clear, then I could see Thor not working in an attempt to give his teammate the victory, but up to that point I expected more from him. I find it hard to believe that Thor was working all along to give Van Summeren the victory, because until he broke free of that lead group, I honestly don't think anyone thought he was going to take it.
That being said, and openly admitting that I'm also a huge Cancellara fan, in a way I was glad to see Van Summeren take it. He was definitely deserving of it.
All-in-all, P-R was quite exciting! I just wish there wasn't a year before the next one.