Tyler Farrar won today. The race report is here at Cyclingnews. I watched the last hour or so. Tom Boonen fell pretty hard and must have hit his head or something. He led the sprint out from way, way too far out and then when he realized it, he just quit pedaling. It was interesting watching him take his time getting back on his bike and chasing. He even changed one of his shoes before he reconnected with the field.
I’m not sure about how well lead outs actually work. I still think that free lancing a sprint works out better most of the time. That is unless you have train of 6 guys going 65 kph in front of you. But, no teams seem to have that completely together so far this year. I would prefer one fast guy around me with a km to go and if he has a chance to keep me out of the wind until the sprint, then that would be good. But, trying to stay on the wheel of only your team mate for the last couple km’s takes a ton of energy. It is much less energy intensive just floating at the front. Tyler timed it pretty well.
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To bad for McEwen. Would have been nice to see him win.
I think his win today was his first that I can remember in front of some real, legit protour talent. I might be wrong there?
His previous wins from last season were good, but he was still getting beaten by little Spanish dudes on teams a lot smaller than his own.
When the chips are down in a real spring classic, I think he still has a ways to go before he will be duking it out for a win. We’ll see how he develops from here!