DIVIDE AND CONQUER

Siri: show me an example of a group of riders who will not work together.

At the point when Alberto Bettiol attacked into Kwaremont village on the penultimate climb of the 2019 Tour of Flanders, he was clearly the strongest. Nobody could follow. By the time he turned left at the top, onto the long straight drag of the N36, his lead was 10 seconds, and he doubled that along the main road. However, at the top of the last climb, the Paterberg, his lead was getting squeezed down - 17 seconds, and that was after Bettiol’s team-mate Sebastian Langeveld had cost the chasing group momentum by holding the front into the sharp right-hander at the bottom of the climb and taking his sweet time getting around it.

This left Bettiol on his own for the final exposed, flat 12km, against 17. Bad odds, even if he was strong - 17 against one in a bike race is not an even battle. However, the composition of the 17 could not have been worse. First, they represented 14 teams, and one was Bettiol’s team-mate. Second, the teams with numbers - Lotto with Jens Keukeleire and Tiesj Benoot, Deceuninck with Kasper Asgeen, Bob Jungels and Yves Lampaert - had only diesels. Third, the group was also packed with excellent sprinters - Alexander Kristoff, Michael Matthews, Greg Van Avermaet, Peter Sagan and Wout Van Aert. The feng shui was atrocious - the only teams with numbers to chase couldn’t sprint and the sprinters couldn’t chase for fear of deadening their legs for the final straight, or just setting up another attack if Bettiol were caught. With Langeveld making a nuisance of himself, the group sputtered into Oudenaarde still 17 seconds behind. Asgreen chipped off for second; Kristoff won the sprint for third. Bettiol had beaten 17 riders; or rather, they’d beaten themselves.