Ex-pro Danielson critical of 'silly attack' Vingegaard: "Maybe the Netflix trailer was in his head"

As a cycling enthusiast, Danielson enjoyed it, but as a former professional, he also felt frustrated. "WorldTour tactics were completely thrown out the window and replaced with Tuesday night group ride tactics," he said on social media. He identified Vingegaard as the 'main culprit.' "High on power, low on strategy. Unless, of course, the Dauphiné is your local Tuesday night group ride where the goal is to throw pointless haymakers so everyone talks about how strong you were? The group ride strategy is really the only explanation—why else would you throw such a massive attack on a flat road directly in front of Tadej and MDVP? And then keep pulling when you see them on your wheel? But then later kinda not pull, but sort of keep pulling? Maybe the Netflix trailer was in his head."

The criticism of the Dane's boldness quickly gave way to admiration. "Wow, he is more explosive," the American also noticed. "Tadej got a front-row seat, but based on the faces of Tadej and MDVP, it sure looks like Jonas has gotten his acceleration to a really good place. Also, if you watch the final sprint, Jonas was able to accelerate right away on Tadej’s wheel when he jumped—so well, in fact, that he was able to come out of the draft and come alongside him in the final."

Van der Poel had doubts about his abilities after his wrist injury, but Danielson questions the nature of the injury. "Broken what? Normally, this is quite serious for cyclists and motocross racers, as you don’t want to risk it not healing correctly—it could affect your career. I don’t think two weeks is sufficient time to heal this. So either he’s racing with it and maybe risking it, or he doesn’t have the fracture like previously reported. Who knows? But what we do know is: he has some form! Cool seeing him make the winning move and then almost take the stage. He calculated his effort well and knew he had to go long to stay away from the sprinters. Could his wrist have affected his sprint? 100%."

The unfortunate fourth was Evenepoel. The Belgian had to close a big gap in the final, which he did brilliantly. "Yes, he has AMAZING FORM—but bro, you cannot be in 70th when Tadej, MDVP, and Jonas are at the front. I would have thought after Liège he would never let this happen again. But here we are. Good news is… he is flying and was able to bridge to the break and immediately pull"