Finding an explanation for the results of the men U23 TT World Championships in Doha
The world-championships are under way and produced a couple of surprising results. As you can read in the first blog, organizing the Worlds has consequences. Yesterday Marco Mathis was the fastest in the men’s U23 TT field. Starting as the second rider of a big start list of no less then 74 riders. Usually the starting order is determined by previous results. But if you take a look at the top ten you can see that most of the riders started early.
A couple of the favorites explained that they couldn’t find the rhythm (Filipo Gana) or that the heat was getting to them (Neilson Powels & Eddie Dunbar). Neilson Powels stated that the heat was more decisive than the headwind that was present on some parts of the course.
Looking at the weather circumstances during the race we can’t see an increase in temperature. The only significant change seems to be the wind, becoming more powerful and blowing from the NE instead of the NW.
In the media there was also suggested that the drafting behind the officials car helped Mathis ride a better time. This happened at the moment Mathis overhauled an ambulance and seems the hinder him more than it helped. The fact that there is no official warning or mention of the UCI says enough.
If the circumstances where of no influence then we can only conclude that the preparations for such an extraordinary event are of high importance. With these high temperatures the acclimatization seems the most important cause for the results of the U23 TT in Qatar. Let’s see how the rest of the World Championships unfolds!
