On paper, the Dutch team was by far and away the strongest for the elite women's road race at the World Championships on Saturday. There was a double world champion in Marianne Vos, a Tour de France Femmes winner in Demi Vollering, solid domestiques who could also be leaders in Riejanne Markus and Pauliena Rooijakkers, and the coming things in Puck Pieterse and Mischa Bredewold.
With 20km to go of the race, the Dutch were in an excellent position. Vollering, Markus and Vos were still there, and rarely does anyone bet against the latter in a sprint. However, 20km later, Lotte Kopecky of Belgium won the sprint, and Vollering finished fifth. Vos and Markus finished eighth and ninth. There was consolation in Pieterse winning the race for the under-23 jersey, but this will do little to stop the thought that the Worlds was there to be won.
There was often Dutch orange at the front, but moves were often chased down by riders in the same jerseys, all in the apparent hope of delivering Vollering to victory. Perhaps another tactic would have resulted in success, but we'll never know.
The world champion, Kopecky, predicted some confusion ahead of the race: "They are starting with a very strong team, but it has already been shown several times that they do not always get along well," she said.
"You see that on paper there is one clear leader, but there are also others who are eyeing the world title. There are several women in the Dutch team who can and want to win."
Despite appearing to be onto something, post-race, she was less willing to put the boot in, graciously.
"I’m now really wondering how it looked from television, because I’m getting so many questions about this," Kopecky said. "There were riders with clear roles. Tactically they did not do it that bad, but also you know if Demi is the leader she is not going to be the one in the break.
"Having Marianne in the break, she was probably the fastest ,they could have played it differently, but that also means you have to have Demi sitting in the bunch, which is very hard to do. I have to see the race myself to say something about it, but I think the way they rode was pretty logical.
"I don’t know if there’s something really different. Demi was just trying to get rid of us [with her attack on Zurichbergstraase on the final lap] and ride solo to the finish."
However, all Vollering's attacks did were drop Vos and Markus, who didn't return to the front of the race again.
"We were in a super good situation with me and Marianne in the breakaway, and of course Demi behind," Markus said after finishing ninth. "We tried to make it over the big climb, we knew that the favourites would attack on the last climb, we just tried to make it over the climb so we would be there in the last group with three, but I think we just missed it by like five or ten seconds. It's really disappointing because I think if we have three in the final then it's a different game, but Demi was alone, and it was just a little bit too hard for her.
"It was always the plan for her to attack on the climb, I think for her the race needs to be as hard as possible, so I don't think it's a mistake, but the ideal situation would be that we make it in my opinion, so it's just shit that we're not there."
For Ruby Roseman-Gannon, the Australian who finished sixth, it is a "blessing and a curse to have such a dominant team, because everyone looks to them".
"It's a real challenge for the Dutch to win with Kopecky there, she's a real all-rounder and it's really really difficult," she said.
"I think sometimes the Dutch can work very well together, and I think sometimes they don't," Chloé Dygert of the USA, who finished second, added. "I think their biggest strengths are sometimes their biggest weaknesses. I think everyone on that team wants to win, and that sometimes means everybody loses."
Viewers and pundits were not the only ones startled by the Dutch tactics. Every time you looked at the television, it appeared that the Dutch were on the front of the break and also of the chase. Something had to give, and it did.
"I was surprised with how the race played out as I expected fireworks from the Dutch from the start and also that they would attack full," Liane Lippert of Germany, who finished fourth, said. "But it was honestly not super hard until the last lap so I was a bit surprised about that.
"I was surprised by their tactics, but it’s not the first time it’s like this."
If the tactics had come off, if Vollering or Vos had won, then there would be less discussion over how strange it looked. As it is, the Dutch left the elite race empty handed, and with confusion reigning over what happened. It is only two years since a Dutchwoman won the rainbow jersey, but as the winners of five of the previous six, this feels like an eternity.
