Road Bike Racing - De Ronde

That was a race...
At first I thought of van Petegem and Museeuw, then Bettini and Zanini, perhaps Freire or Bartoli. Nardello and Tafi were not really on my list.
Van Petegem, Museeuw, Tafi and Nardello and some others reached the leading Erwin Thijst and made it till the end. Museeuw tried to break away twice but couldn´t get away. Tafi fought back and attacked time and time again, but was caught back also. Van Petegem tried his luck, but was interfered by some motorbikes. Their fellows had to let them go away at the Muur and VP,M,T & N were on their own. Tafi attacked once more and managed to get away... Museeuw tried to reach him, but was not supported of van Petegem and especially not Nardello.
Tafi won "De Ronde", Museeuw was 2nd, van Petegem 3rd and Nardello finished 4th.

Correction :
Hincapie finished 4th and Nardello finished 5th...
sorry about that.

:D

Way to go, nardello! I'm a fan of his- I was impressed with his moxie during the 2001 Tour. Sorry he won't be in the tour this year, but he is the Italian champ and has to be in the giro! Speaking of which, way to go Cipo! I was sure he'd bail at the koppenberg, but he obviously is determined to hang onto the white jersey for a while.

I wish I could have seen it live, oh well. I saw some good photos on cyclingnews.com, but none taken on the Koppenberg!

Some Impressions of the Koppenberg (for wabbit) :

2nd :

3rd :

4th :

Zabel fighting the Koppenberg :

Bettini :

and finally Cippolini :

Piratello,
Great pics! Did you take them? That one of Bettini really shows what a seriously steep pitch that little beastie that Koppenberg. My young cycling buddy who is going to school in Brussels went to the race. I forget where he watched it, but it was on one of those steep little climbs. He said it was amazing to see the pros powering up the climb, but it was also amazing to see the suffering on their faces.
Regards,
Raymond

No, I didn´t take the photos myself. I just saw "De Ronde" on TV. The Photos ware from a german online cycling magazine. I hope I didn´t violate copyright laws... :angel:
but who cares ? Just watch the pics and think about if you would have made it to the peak of the Koppenberg. I think I would have serious problems and may reach the middle... then walking...

You know, I'm sure I could do the Koppenburg... but very, very, very slowly...

I Know I could do the Koppenburg
going downhill

Marty

Are you nuts! Going downhill would be even more dangerous! Look what happened on the Kemelberg where they had that huge crash a few days ago, where Tchmil was injured (along with several others). They were descending. And it's not as steep as the Koppenberg. I love that shot taken from the summit- yikes!

Great photos piratello. I was hoping graham watson would have some of the koppenberg on his website. He had reat photos but none of the koppenburg yet.

Are you nuts !
Well, yes.

Going downhill would be even more dangerous!
I never said I would actually make it to the bottom in
one piece, all I said is I could go down (gravity helps here).
I may not have rim or brake pads left but I think I could
manage to creep down...maybe.
Piratello, great pics, us north americans (see I included
those of us in the great white north :lol: )
really appreciate any crumbs we can get.

Marty

Another great race.

I was in the U.S. from April 6 until April 15, but have refrained from any visits here until now. Why? Because I wanted to watch the races (that someone else taped here) without knowing the outcomes.

I have a lot of catching up to do!

Cheers...Gary