As we wonder what's going on with Peter Sagan, how about what Alexander Kristoff is doing out there!?

He just won the 3 road stages, (in a row!), of the 3 Days of DePanne in Belgium and he took the overall win with a sizzling TT. He already has amassed 9 wins on the season and is now targeting some other spring classics. The guy is a top tier sprinter, can get up hills well, can climb better than most sprinters, ride the cobbles well and now it looks like he has a darn good TT going for him to. There is no telling how good he can be, although I know the wins will get tougher as he now has the target on his back.

He is doing everything we expected to see Sagan doing, except this guy is getting it done quietly without the Sagan fanfare.

So is it a sad end result of the last decade that my first thought in response to your post was to wonder what the new undetectable doping regime was this year? He is having a good year so far, but it seems like a lot of the big names are targeting later races. We will see how he does in some of the classics.

Well, if you look at his palamares, he does have some impressive results, he is 27 and probably just coming into his prime...

He had 3 stage wins in Qatar too. He's hitting a very good run of form, but Degenkolb edged him fair and square in MSR. If Paolini can get him near the finish of Flanders still in touch, he has a very good chance on Sunday.

Flanders and Roubaix are both wide open this year, especially with the 2 guys who've won 13 of the last 20 of either not lining up.

He's good, but I watched most of those races and it seems like he just got off to a good year when a lot of other good riders / teams have yet to get into their stride. I have a feeling he will continue to be in the top 10, but I doubt he will have many if any wins once the season really gets going.

Not saying Degenkolb did anything unfair but that was Krisoff's teammate pegging everyone back on the Poggio and single-handedly leading out the sprint. Degenkolb was cagey but this shows again that it is often easier to hide in the pack (of course you have to survive to that point) and then follow wheels in the sprint. Katusha rode to win and didn't have the numbers to pull it off but I admire them more, especially Paolini, for the effort. I like Degenkolb a lot and am glad to see him fallow up on his Vuelta de Espagna breakout of a few years ago with some really big wins.

I'd like to see Kristoff get a big one day result in the coming weeks although another part of me wants someone to tear Roubaix and Flanders to pieces ala Cancellara.

When I looked back, Giant did a lot of work catching the early break at MSR. If Degenkolb followed the wheels of other teams over the Poggio, that's entirely within his rights. And he did edge Kristoff for speed at the finish. Yes Paolini gets a lot of credit, but having the strongest team is no guarantee of winning races, otherwise Etixx would have twice as many wins as they do.

In 2014 he won a stage in Oman, won Milan San Remo, got 5th in Flanders, and kept his form going through 2 Tour stage wins in July and the Vattenfall Classics in August. He's not just some guy who caught the rest of the field out when they weren't looking or were building for something else, he's won big races against big names who were trying to win those races.


I think Kristoff's showing some great riding, and I hope he and Degenkolb both decide to have a real run at the green jersey in the Tour this year, rather than it being another Sagan procession. They can both get over the climbs just as well, and if anything they're faster in the sprints.

Oman, and Milan are too early in the year when a lot of big names are not pushing hard or teams are not in full swing yet. He wouldn't have won last year on stage 12 if Greipel didn't fall. Had Sagan had the space and didn't loose his team he would have got the win for sure.

Vattenfall Classics is a big race, but the 2013 champ wasn't back to defend and if he was I think the outcome would have been different. He did beat out some big names, but I'm willing to bet he doesn't get a podium spot this year. He's been under the radar and is a good rider, but he's not THAT good....

Are you seriously saying that there are teams out there who use Milan San Remo as a warmup?

And he won stage 15 against a full peloton (Sagan 3rd, Greipel 4th, Kittel 11th).

Kristoff's the real deal. On his terrain he's as good a one-day racer as there is in the pro ranks right now.

He's the first rider to ever win all 3 stages of the 3 Days of DePanne, and then take the overall with a stunning TT. That might have been the best TT I've ever seen a sprinter do. He also has 9 wins on the season already, 2 more than anyone else.

IMHO, yeah, he's THAT good!

And any team that isn't riding hard for the Milan San Remo, shame on them!

I agree, Kristoff had to go from a long way out in MSR and Degenkolb jst nipped him at the line, it was a great win and I like both these guys. The spring classics have been very exciting this year and I expect de ronde to be the same.

You make your own luck in bike racing, he's not coming out of nowhere to win big races, he is a top level pro. Did you miss sky dominating most of the spring races? Sky and Etixx are controlling these races, yet Kristof and Katusha are racing well.

And I agree with this as well, it was also great to see Paolini win G-W, once Kristoff told him to ride for himself, he rode perfect, and the surprise attack with 6 to go was awesome.

I think the other guys need to fix their radars.

As a former sprinter myself, it's great to see a sprinter take the race by the balls. A well deserved win today for Kristoff.

True enough, but Kristoff is turning out to be more than a one-trick pony!

That was a great win. There was an article recently about sprinters and the few (Kelly, Museeuw & Boonen) that have been able to make the transition to a true classics rider. It looks like Kristoff can be added to that list.

I'm just glad Thomas didn't win.

Yessir! And it's good to see.

Yep, looks like he can definitely be a classics rider, tho he even said after de ronde that he is never that good in P-R, so I am not expecting the double.

Yeah me too, I don't care for him or Sky, the way they dominate remind me of LA and postal/disco. Thomas was a track rider and he was flying up climbs and dropping everyone with Porte, that smells fishy to me.

So was Terpstra.

Well Oddschecker.com has him as the clear favorite at 6:1 Last year he just had bad luck with three flats and a crash. I would love to see him snag The Ultimate Prize.

Thomas won the 2004 Junior Paris Roubaix and rode the 2007 Tour de France for Barloworld aged 21. He's never been "just" a track rider, he happened to be a rider with a very good engine, hence why GB picked him for the team pursuit in the Olympics.

The surprising thing is that more countries don't do exactly that; get 5 or 6 road pros who you know can do a good short TT, drill them on the track every chance they get for 12 months before the Olympics, photo-bomb the podium when your charges pick up their medals.

There's a difference between having a good engine and dropping people on climbs, usually track guys are not climber types, I could be wrong, I just don't care for Sky.


Probably because training for the track is a bit different than training for the road and they may not want to jeopardize their road careers for the track, which is probably less popular in the US than road racing. But it is something to consider.

Ok didn't want to read the post in case it included a spoiler before I watched the whole race. Just finished watching flanders last night and Wow he dominated the end of the race hands down. I guess he IS that good, and it showing his dominance this year.

I still think Terpstra probably could have just road the wheel more since he knew he couldn't beat him in a sprint in the finish, but either way I think Kristoff would have won the race no matter what. I was still happy to see Sagan give it a go and make his presence known although he just didn't have it in the end.

It's starting to become clear that if Alexander Kristoff feels like winning something, he wins it. If he continues this streak, people are going to be nervous if he shows up in the Ardennes.

I think you missed my point. Thomas was already a road rider with a good record, who could climb, before the GB team/Brailsford suggested he might go for an Olympic medal on the track. He's not Chris Hoy. He's a roadie, who has also ridden track. That used to be a common thing back in the day.

I'm no particular fan of Sky myself. But if making suggestions about their team ethics, I think it's worthwhile basing them on facts rather than impressions.