Ahh, fairynuff..

GVA. Good ride, glad he had to hit it out from the front in the last 15k.

MuchoRespecto.

But Boonan, the Man.

ooft!

Glad it wasn’t Stybar

incredible

close stuff nearly jumped by the chasing group!

ooft!

Glad it wasn’t Stybar

Same here, wanted him to win until he tossed it off in the break.

Superhuman ride by GVA considering the problems he had earlier in the race

. That Sagan and Majka advert is cringeworthy

I like it, it’s Sagan through and through, also it shows brands that the stars are worth paying for

( By worth it i don’t mean that I’m buying one)

A lot of talk about Sagan, but Van Avermaet has looked unbeatable recently. He’s a step above everyone else, doing most of the work in breaks, and still hammering everyone else at the line. Well deserved winner.

Van Avarmaet is having one hell of a year after being the eternal Mr Runner up.

I actually wanted Stybar to win before the race and couldn’t understand why he was 30/1 with the bookies. He has a good history in this race and has been unlucky in the past. But after watching him do very little for the last 30km and GvA doing most of the work there was really only one deserved winner.

Moscon nearly made them pay for looking round at each other on the velodrome though!

Feel for Moscon, when he made such a valiant effort, and an aggressive move for the line, then one by one, each rider passes him… Good effort though.

And Griepel up there too. Would love to see him win Paris Roubaix.

I like it, it’s Sagan through and through, also it shows brands that the stars are worth paying for

It doesn’t mean you can cook in your cycling gear though

I’d picked GVA as the winner based on his form and as soon as GVA was in the break said “well, there’s the winner then”. Possibly as a result of watching the mashed ‘highlights’ on eurosport (where they just edit chunks together, miss half the action, don’t update on what’s happened in between so it’s difficult to follow) but I thought it was (relatively speaking) boring, with most of the favourites out of action early (though GVA went from screaming for a bike and looking like he was out of it to being on the front, with nothing in between…).

Nice to see Hayman at the pointy end to prove last year wasn’t some fluke.

Boonen has been scathing about Degz sitting on him all race too.

GVA was certainly one of the 4-5 riders who you’d expect to be right in the ball-park at the end. So no massive shock there.

He very much deserved it though i thought.

Is there anywhere you can watch it on repeat?

YouTube. I watched the whole race with French commentary last night.

Well the best man won.

I also wanted Stybar to take it, until he started fannying about in the final few KMs. Guess he knew GVA was stronger and thought he’d need to mug him to stand a chance of the win.

Even Sean Kelly wasn’t impressed.

The problem is though, if you know the guy has you in a fair sprint, then what do you propose ? Working with him isn’t going to help your cause.. So you need some sort of plan that may work in your favour.

+1 glad GVA won and not the wheel-sucking Quick-Step rider*

Shame Trek-Sega didn’t try to close the gap for Degenkolb. They had men in there to pull on the front. But as Boonen said afterwards, Degenkolb just wanted to sit on Boonen’s wheel.

*insert any Quick-Step rider’s name here

reggiegasket – Member

+1 glad GVA won and not the wheel-sucking Quick-Step rider*

I really don’t understand all the hate on here (and by Sean Kelly) for Stybar’s tactic in the finale. He had a team mate behind who was more than capable of winning the race, he didn’t have to work. Neither GvA nor Langeveld had anyone – why does Stybar have to help them get to the line and potentially beat him/his team?

crashtestmonkey – Member

Nice to see Hayman at the pointy end to prove last year wasn’t some fluke.

The same Mat Hayman who prior to winning P-R last year had previously had two top tens in the race?

Well deserved win for GVA.
Think QS played their cards wrong, pretty sure Boonen had the legs to go himself when they sent Stybar up the road.

Was very surprised by the number of punctures – the equipment is there to run tubeless now and it seems a bit of a no brainer.

I was under the impression that Stybar was marking a move for boonen that ended up going away. Boonen was never going to be able to man mark everything.
Why run tubeless if you’ve got tubs available?

Why run tubeless if you’ve got tubs available?

Because several riders had their races more or less ended by punctures, and with the latest tyres there’s virtually no difference in rolling resistance.

kilo – Member

I was under the impression that Stybar was marking a move for boonen that ended up going away.

Yup, he was certainly doing that. And as such didn’t have to do any work with the lead group (he apparently has said that he was only told he could go for the win at 4km to go – which sounds about right, it wasn’t clear that group would get to the velodrome on their own until about that point). With GvA clearly the strongest rider in the group he had no incentive to do work for GvA, even more so with a viable team mate behind him and by the time he got to 4km to go it was clear that they would make it so why would he waste energy? I think it was poor form of Sean Kelly to criticise him imo.

The big disappointment was Trek-Segafredo’s negative racing. They had the resource (Degenkolb plus two others) and the incentive (no one from their team up the road) to work to pull GvA etc back but showed no desire to do so. If you want to point fingers at anyone for sitting in, that’s where your finger should be pointing.

The big disappointment was Trek-Segafredo’s negative racing. They had the resource (Degenkolb plus two others) and the incentive (no one from their team up the road) to work to pull GvA etc back but showed no desire to do so.

Stuyven was up the road with Oss for a long time, and then in the GVA group whilst Oss was pulling on the front.
Trek couldn’t commit to pulling at that stage as Stuyven at the very least would have been a protected rider if not joint leader in the team.

As Sean Kelly suggested, he could have made a token effort to keep the peace.

Do we think he was under orders not to work with them so Boonen might have a crack at winning his final race? Seems daft to me as the gap was obviously pretty big and there were plenty of other strong riders in the chasing group.

I really don’t understand all the hate on here (and by Sean Kelly) for Stybar’s tactic in the finale. He had a team mate behind who was more than capable of winning the race, he didn’t have to work.

Yep. The commentary I was listening too was giving him grief for working too much at the start 🙂

On previous results it’s a real shame Stybar didn’t hold GVA off. I don’t see what the issue was, I was watching it thinking I’m glad someone with a chance of winning is just working for the sake of it. Good tactic.

I find GVA a bit dull personally.

The same Mat Hayman who prior to winning P-R last year had previously had two top tens in the race?

Yes him. I was reflecting on his Cycling Podcast and other interviews where he talked about how it would feel racing with 1 on his back, but don’t let that get in the way of your smartarsery.

There’s no Stybar hate from me, I really like him as a rider. It’s a shame he was under team orders as he has a good history in the race and clearly likes it. I think given the chance to ride his own race he’d have been in with a shout and would most likely have dished out some hurt.

Given the work GvA had to do to get himself back in with a shout, then the work he did to keep the bunch of three away from the group(s) behind he definitely deserved it.

I was wondering why Mark wasn’t in the Team Dimension Data squad for this years race after a strong showing last year, seems like he’s suffering from glandular fever.