you can't just sit and kick on Laros. He could be sitting anywhere from 3rd to 8th himself.
You can follow close to Jakob, bc you know he's gonna be in position 1 or 2. even if you can't get to him, you can get within a couple spots, and that's close enough to the front. if you want to follow Laros, you might get yourself swallowed up in really bad position, and never even have a chance to medal.
And that doesn't even factor in that Laros is as fast or faster than Hocker anyway.