Possibly the race of the season and it’s on this weekend (Sunday) 🙂

Loads of background stuff over on velonews and a good preview by inrng.

Live coverage on eurosport tomorrow from about half eleven.

Fingers crossed for G. Just so long as he doesn’t try and go head to head with Sagan in a sprint again.

What time is it on please? Eurosport or normal telly??

Eurosport tomorrow afternoon.

Can’t wait!

Fingers crossed for G. Just so long as he doesn’t try and go head to head with Sagan in a sprint again.

Yes, difficult to see how he can win against Sagan, Cancellara or Boonen. Be interesting to see how they play Wiggins, can’t see him lasting too long in the lead group though hope I am wrong.

Gonna set tv to record.
I’ll be at a children’s Easter egg hunt in the afternoon, i tried to duck my parental responsibilities but ive been outnumbered by the women in the house.

My leftfield prediction is the polish quikstep guy.
cant recall his name right now.

Looking forward to this. Hope its raining so i’ve got an excuse to stay in.

I think Cancellara will have the edge over Sagan again this year. Degenkolb is also on good form with a strong team. Be interesting to see how Boasson Hagen does this year and Wiggo is supposed to be riding.

What’s the weather forecast?

My leftfield prediction is the polish quikstep guy.
cant recall his name right now.

Stybar? He’s Czech.

I don’t really follow road racing but I can’t begin to imagine wiggo winning this – how’s he going to get up those steep hills fast enough when they start to attack ?

Can only imagine he’ll be there to tow somebody else after a breakaway

What have I missed ?

(watched it last year and it was brilliant !)

Not him, hes a good bet though.

Kwiatowski. Blushes when someone points out he’s not riding….

Kinda desperate to see Wiggo do something, he’s got a huge engine when he wants to turn it on.

Cancellara was insanely strong at E3 though, if he wasn’t caught behind that crash I think he would have destroyed ’em.

Thomas is leader for sky on Sunday. Wiggo probably superdomestique role if he can be arsed

Kwiatowski. Blushes when someone points out he’s not riding….

And as if by magic…..

if he can be arsed

Haha yep, would be great to see him throw some huge horsepower down though and split the field.

Here’s hoping for some horrible wind and an OPQS smackdown.

if he can be arsed

Bit of a lol at that. I think he’s only riding because Stannard is injured, his stated goal was always Roubaix.

OPQS have an awesome team, almost too many options though.

I meant the Czech guy stybar……

boonen for the win!

Luca Paolini?

Would guess Paolini will be supporting Kristoff. Stybar will likely be there for Boonen or Terpstra.

OPQS have an awesome team, almost too many options though.

wondering if Patrick Lefevere is forming the new “Mapei” classics super team. What are the odds on a 1-2-3?

if he can be arsed

Hope I’m wrong but it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s in the back seat of a Sky Jag before the race has even hit the Koppenberg. As I said, hope I’m wrong though, would be great to see him back on form.

I’ve heard the forecast is for rain which should count against Sagan but give Thomas a slightly improved chance. My outside bet would be Kristoff though.

Stybar will likely be there for Boonen or Terpstra.

Can’t see Boonen doing anything. I suspect his glory days are behind him, combined with sad news in his personal life. Terpstra on the other hand looks in fine form this year.

Hard to see past Cancellara however if he is getting marked could see Devolder coming up with the goods, he has looked really strong the last couple of weeks

Fingers crossed for G. Just so long as he doesn’t try and go head to head with Sagan in a sprint again.

I think he was probably pretty shagged in the last one to be fair, leaving him with no other options. He seems to be riding strong at the moment though, he just needs to find that last burst of power to get him over the line.

I think he was probably pretty shagged in the last one to be fair, leaving him with no other options.

I think you’re right, despite what I said. Given the situation he was in it was very hard to see what else he could have done. He is getting better though, and what he did on the Kwaremont in the E3 must give him a lot of confidence for getting a big one day win quite soon. Real pity Stannard is out though.

About 40k in and the first break is up the road. Phinney an interesting one to let get away.

Live text coverage over at cyclingnews. Eurosport coverage imminent.

Online linky for those without Eurosport.

nevermind

Heh…who just saw the poor pedestrian with a bike on top of them? Hope they are ok.

@Cloudnine

You click the…

nevermind

..oh, ok 8)

that cricfree link jamie, it loads for a split second then jumps straight to some super deals site…..is this just me or is it borked for anyone else?

@mayan

I have a adblocker* for those sites, so not seeing that. Assume it’s just a pop up/under, that needs closing?

Couple of others to try:

http://www.nutjob.eu/ss4tv.html
http://lag10.com/ss4
http://www.footyfree.tv/sky-sports-4-stream.html

*adbl0cker

not sure whats going on there, but i’ve pictures from one of those feeds and an english commentary from a different one….

thanks!

Has that Garmin – Sharp rider took a Spectator out ?

As Jamie said, they were on the floor with his Bike on them and weren’t moving 😯

live.Cyclingnews.com – member
This just in from our team in the press room:
A witness told VTM that an older woman tried to cross the street and Vansummeren was unable to avoid a collision. Both Vansummeren and the woman were driven to the hospital. The woman seemed unconscious. The latest information came from Sporza where a doctor would have informed them that the woman is still alive but in critical condition.

*deleted – given the above info*

edit, crossposted

First time I’ve remembered to watch this race. Is it always this hospitalising?

😯 ouch