I picked Van Avermaet for Omloop het Nosebleed so for tomorrow’s jaunt I’m going for Kristoff with my no.2 choice being Stybar.
Who do you fancy for it?

Erm, I predict a DNF for Boonan.

Ian Stannard.

bikebouy – Member
Erm, I predict a DNF for Boonan

twice in a weekend ? Was he hurt today then ?

(still can’t quite believe that peterperfect lost out today – looked awesome early on, while GvA sat in behind)

^ GVA sat in behind. Hence he won.

Sagan gives too much in these wee breaks.
He needs to sit up and make the others work.

Oh, I agree – you have to love him though, really. Looks like he’s just walked out of a log cabin and been put on a bike for the first time (physically and tactically!)

Awesome, effortless-looking power (for 150km anyway)

GvWheelsucker.

That’s his knickname.

Boonan got caught in a pileup, lost loads of time and it was impossible to get back to even the main remains of the peloton, never mind Sagz/VandaMan/Wheelsuckermart.

I like Sagz, at least he gives it a punt.

If the wind blows like today, it’ll be a tough one. I do think Stannard will be up there, maybe Rowe but that’s dependant on the Lotto boys letting them, considering they didn’t do that well today.

I’m going for Boonen. Purely because I’m going for Boonen for the remainder of his pro races.

Oh, I agree – you have to love him though,

Yes and no. He’s an animal but doesn’t posses the nous to ride away from the leeches ala Cancellara. If he can master it he’ll romp the classics.
He’s towing winners to the line year after year.

TBH, I like to think he was just using this one as preparation – he wants a nice power climb or two within 5km or so of the finish, really. I reckon he might bag a couple again this year.

Christoff in a sprint

GvWheelsucker

It was Vanmarcke that had to be told to take his turn, GvA rolled through and did his bit.

If you listen to Sagan in the interview later he didn’t seem that bothered about not winning. I think scaredypants has it …he sees this as preparation for bigger fish later in the campaign.

GvWheelsucker
It was Vanmarcke that had to be told to take his turn, GvA rolled through and did his bit.

This, GVA did some V strong turns. PS used this almost as a training ride to see where he is. Yes he did a lot of work and decimated the group but I dont think he was bothered about getting second.

The peleton needs to be worried as he was a lot stronger than anyone else.

GVA did say in the interview afterwards that he wasn’t the strongest in the race and just rode smart. I think he was also asked what Sagan should be doing tactically, his response being that he hoped Sagan didn’t work it out as no one else would win anything!

Next race, count the turns GvA does on the front compared to those the others do. There is a pattern.

Don’t get me wrong I like GvA as a rider.

There was a still image from the race posted to Twitter of Sagan (when he was in the chasing group) telling the other 5 riders he was with to work, someone had captioned it “Work, bitches, work!”

He did seem to do more than his fair share on the front during that chase but equally I don’t think anyone else had the legs to do anything other than hang onto his wheel at that point.

I’d like to see Zdenek Stybar win today, he’s got a decent enough sprint on him. Going with that choice as he finished 14th yesterday whereas Boonen and Kristoff were both victims of that big pile up on Donderij and may be nursing injuries today. Jasper Stuyven won last year from a lone break but I’m going with a small sprint finish today.

bit of an argument going on

Looks like the podium placed riders in the omsloop broke the rules a little

No Booneeeeen for today 🙁 . Tummy bug of some sort
http://www.rtbf.be/sport/dossier/les-classiques/detail_tom-boonen-declare-forfait-pour-kuurne-bruxelles-kuurne?id=9540117

Noooooo 🙁

Looks like the podium placed riders in the omsloop broke the rules a little

I saw that, Sagan riding right on the kerb edge was actually really skilful. But the later riders were clearly upset about not being allowed on there, they were gesticulating at the Commissaire Moto. I blame the organisers – if you don’t want riders to go up the kerb you put barriers or marshals in place.

Otherwise it’s too difficult, you’re always going to end up with riders forced onto pavements, cycleways, verges etc to avoid crashes and I’d be surprised if the riders themselves knew it was that particular segment they’d been warned not to ride. You simply follow the wheels.

Is that a DNF for Boonan then 😆 ok, it’s a DNS but still.

He retires this April, his best is a very long time ago. I’ve been a huge fan of his over the QS years, sadly the last 3 years have been fraught with injury and lacklustre performances. It’ll be a sad day when he leaves, one hard riding Belgian you can rely on to pull you through the Pave.

Save yourself for PR Tomke.

I’m pretty sure I remember Sagan doing a lot of wheelsucking and refusing to do any work earlier in his career. To the point where he would happily sit up and let any chasing group catch them. And he lost a lot of races doing that.

Then he seemed to just decide that he was going to ignore what everyone else was doing and just race. And you have to love his aggression, and confidence.

Ooh, echelons.
This is all coming back together though.

Oh this is good now – textbook attack from Stuyven as he did last year when he won, Sagan has now bridged with Trentin and behind is one frantically panicking peloton!

Nice group off the front now.

Yep, that’s going to the finish that one. Good to see Luke Rowe up there.

Not sure about current form but on previous, Trentin from that group. Or Sagan of course.

Notice how everyone is rolling through but Sagan still takes the longest turn? Proving a point?

Playtime!

Boom! Sagan!

Nice work – good result for Luke Rowe as well.

That was pure class

Sagan’s an animal – Trentin’s tactics were poor though, when he left Sagan’s wheel

Apologies if it’s been posted, he is quite amusing…

http://nos.nl/video/2160040-sagan-ongeschoren-en-spraakzaam-na-tweede-plaats.html

Love that interview mrblobby, cheers for posting it.

For me Sagan is everything I want from a racer; he is the polar opposite to the controlled, wheelsucking, watt obsessed ‘modern’ bike rider. I like his devil may care attitude both on and off the bike. From amateur cat4 all the way up to the pro peleton, if everyone stopped being so scared of loosing and just knocked 6 bells of sh*t out of each other from the off, we’d all have a lot more fun both participating and watching racing.