PVPs attack at Worlds

I was on the Claremont at the big screen TV on the last lap when the big move came on the Beckett Dr
climb. The camera caught it all, with Bettini on his wheel and Boogerd, Astarola, and others
following. At first everyone could tell it was THE big effort but you couldn't fully tell the
damage. A few seconds later the camera angle was able to show just what damage had been done. At
that point, the huge crowd let out a giant gasp at seeing the size of the gap that had almost
instantly been created. What an effort!

Boogerd attacked on the flat prior to the descent of the Claremont. This was a dumb idea because the
break still needed to work together to stay away from the bunch, and there is no way he could have
resisted the break anyway on the descent of the Claremont. He and PVP had a big discussion of this
futility which was nicely captured on camera.

On the final climb of the Claremont, the break was looking at each other with the bunch bearing
down. I knew there would be an attack and figured it would be from anybody but PVP or Bettini since
they had done a lot of work to make the break. When Astarola went, it seems PVP and Bettini were
looking at each other and not wanting to cover it for fear of giving the other the advantage. That
proved fatal.

The final couple of K the camera mainly focused on Astarloa, so I didn't get to see Valverde's
effort to get up to the break. That must have been spectacular.

Wayne

>When Astarola went, it seems PVP and Bettini were looking at each other and not wanting to cover it
>for fear of giving the other the advantage. That proved fatal.

That's the way I saw it as well. The break in general was looking at each other, especially Bettini,
who kept looking back for help that never came. No cooperation, and meanwhile the pack was gaining
fast. Astarloa attacked while Bettini was looking the other way and caught him by surprise. I think
the pack might have caught them if he hadn't gone and forced the others to go harder.

Valverde seems like a keeper. I wish I had seen his move, too.

"Mapei81" <mapei81@aol.com> wrote in message news:20031014202639.28030.00000211@mb-m05.aol.com...

> Valverde seems like a keeper. I wish I had seen his move, too.

The scary thing is, he seems to climb even better than he sprints. He brings all the talents that
Jalabert had spread out over the timeline of his career to the here and now.

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