jyl

Wow, I've been away from the races for a couple weeks and EVERYTHING has changed. Boonen AND Cancellara out. Kirstoff looks unconquerable. Sagan is ready for the glue factory if you believe the media. Thomas is squeezing into Cinderella's dress. EQS has too much power and too many options, a headless Godzilla?

Tomorrow morning - we'll be dragging ourselves up early, brewing coffee, sitting in front of the pixelated screen, yelling loud enough to wake our unforgiving spouses.

Post whatever you want here!

WCroadie

Yup, me too. Got my coffee and I'm sitting in front of the computer. My wife want's me to take a break and go to church with the fam, I'll have to be home by 10am EDT so I can see the finish though.

The only person I don't want to see win is G Thomas or any other Sky rider except Wiggo. I would like to see Vanmarcke win today, or Kristoff.

jyl

Man. Kristhoff was so strong. Not much suspense from 20+ km out. You knew Kristhoff would slay Terpstra in a sprint, that Terpstra couldn't stop working and let Sagan and Van Avermat catch them, so the only question was if Terpstra could drop Kristhoff on the final climbs, then when Terpstra was struggling to hold Kristhoff's wheel up the Paterberg, it was all over. Well, I did wonder if it would be sporting for the EQS team car to knock Kristhoff off his bike, but they never had the chance.

Another disappointment for Sagan but he was still stronger than so many strongmen today - everyone but Kristhoff, Terpstra, and Van Avermat. GVA made a comment after the race that if someone other than Sagan had come along, they could have bridged to the lead pair. Sagan is still something of a mystery but it seems clear that (1) his team support is just as poor as it was with Cannondale, (2) he is good getting into the winning move despite zero team help, (3) he then has run out of gas at the very end, before having a chance to use his sprint.

Wiggins is not riding like someone who is even going to finish Paris-Roubaix, much less win it.

Edit: maybe I'm unfair to Wiggins. I know he had a crash and two bike changes, then managed to get back to the front to pull for a while.

TCR Rider

Seems like Kristoff is doing what Sagan did a few years ago -winning almost every time he lines up. Sagan is still a danger man but man has he fallen down a couple of notches. Seems like he's got nothing left at crunch time. Weird

jeirvine 

These are long brutal races, way longer than your average TdF stage, and a lot of these guys have been riding the cobbles for weeks before RvV. I'm not at all surprised to see folks run out of gas. And I think Wiggo was saving some gas for Roubaix.

cthenn

Can you ever be surprised at Wiggins? He has got to be the biggest diva racer of all time. If he wants something, he can be impossible to beat, but when he's not all-in, he's off the back before you even know what happened. My bet is he doesn't give a crap about this and was only using it as training for PR. I wouldn't be surprised to see him in it with a chance to win it next week.

He's just a very unlikable character IMO. His heart is not in it half the time.

DiabloScott

First Norwegian ever to win M-SR: Kristoff.
First Norwegian ever to win RvV: Kristoff.
Only Norwegian ever to win a Monument of Cycling: Kristoff.

If he pulls off the double I'm gonna be a big fan.

Other than the reasonably good weather, that was everything I love about de Ronde.
I'm even kind of over the fact that de Muur isn't in it anymore.

jyl

You don't exactly get the feeling that he'll empty himself to support the team leader, Thomas in the case of RVV.

His career has been unusual for a road rider. Grew up on the track, excelled in solo time trials, a couple years in small teams then was hired by Sky and groomed for TdF success. Never been a real domestique. He did ride very hard for Cav in the World Championships and then the Olympics. But they were friends from way back too.

hueyhoolihan

ya, Wiggins is not a sympathetic figure, IMO. it will be interesting to see if he's got it for PR. i'm wouldn't put any money on him.

and it didn't look like those suspended bikes were of any advantage.

Ken Brown

Been a few years since I've seen a support vehicle take out a rider. Was it the same Shimano support driver that later rear ended another car and sent a second rider flying?

jyl

Different driver, say the reports.

Ken Brown

From Cyclingnews:

Should we re-think neutral service?

Crashes are part and parcel of bike racing but we don’t often see cars getting involved. Unfortunately for Jesse Sergent and Sébastien Chavanel, they found themselves on the blunt end of some bad driving in Flanders. They are two separate incidents with entirely different factors but with two crashes like this occurring in one of the biggest races of the year, should we reconsider how neutral service is delivered and the rules surrounding the race convoy?

It is unclear why, in the case of Sergent’s accident, the neutral service car was trying to overtake the leaders. With so much time between themselves and the peloton, there was little need for it. In many races, vehicles must get permission to pass the break. We don’t know if this occurred prior to the incident but perhaps car movement should be better regulated and in the tights confines of a cobbled classic, are neutral service motorbikes the way to go?

Chavanel’s crash was a slightly different story. The FDJ car had pulled over in a tightly packed convoy when the Shimano car shunted it from behind. Again, the exact details of the incident are not known, perhaps the Shimano driver was distracted by something but it brings into question the regulations surrounding the race convoy. Perhaps a simple measure stating that a stopped car must use its hazard lights may have been enough to avoid the crash.

When cars and riders are in such close proximity there are always going to be dangers but more needs to be done to safeguard the safety of riders and drivers. (SO)

WCroadie

Would you if you were wiggo? He got the shaft last year from Sky by getting left out of the TdF, he wants off that team. I'm not a sky fan but I kinda felt at little bad for wiggo last year.

jyl

That was controversial. I think it made sense to leave Wiggins off the 2014 TdF team, he and Froome have such a poor relationship and he wouldn't have worked for Froome, so he'd only have been there as a plan C after the Porte plan B.

Slackerprince

I have to agree that it was all but over near the end with the 2 leaders. I was hoping GVA and Sagan would bridge.
Barring injury, Kristoff is THE MAN this season.
Sagan, well...
Looking forward to Paris-Roubaix, Monday night at 7:00
What an outstanding week of racing with Tour of the Basque Country sandwiched between 2 monuments.


S

WCroadie

The heck with waiting until monday night, use steephill.tv and watch live on your computer.