The situation on a road cycling racecourse is like the weather in high summer, often impossible to predict.
Similarly, a Professional Cyclist's performance on any given day can't be fully and specifically analyzed by pure science and reason.
The riding styles of Road Cyclists can perhaps be summarized using big data and their past performances.
Take O'Connor, for example. Every team has a decent understanding of his riding style.
He has respectable climbing ability and his overall strength is above average.
However, steep climbs and his Sprinting Burst are considered his relative weaknesses.
But even though every team knew his characteristics, none could have predicted that his form in today's race would be this astonishingly good.
He didn't just launch a direct attack around the 120-kilometer mark of the stage, with 65 kilometers still to the finish.
With 27.5 kilometers left, he also dropped his only rival and went solo.
