Quote Originally Posted by Memphis View Post
Why could they not go with the breakaway? If it was a relatively flat race and Cavendish had the legs to keep up why let them get away in the first place?
That was a possibility. Not completely out of the question, but the thing is you can't go with every breakaway. Most breakaways are caught. If you go with a breakaway and then get caught (which 9.5 out of 10 do) the chances are your race is finished. The energy you expended to breakaway means you won't be able to go again if you get caught (well, its very rare for someone to be in more than one breakaway). So they could have gone with the breakaway and in hindsight that would have been better, but they could not have known that it would have been one of the 0.5/10 breakaways that succeed. The tactics they employed were the best bet but as you can see in road cycling you can't guarantee anything.
By doing what they did probably gave them a 50% chance of victory but going with the breakaway would have been about 10%. On this occasion it was the 10% chance that came home. Even if you employ the best tactics and ride brilliantly you can still only win if at least a few of the other team's aims match your own (or you get very lucky) - that's just road racing for you.