Oh dear, not good news for Wout; sacrificed a probable CX World Championship to be fit & ready for Flanders/Roubaix, and is now unable to race the first target.
I'm reminded of a quote "when they're fit and well, race them, don't save them for one day down the line".
There does seem to be a high number of riders/ teams going down with all kinds of illnesses, I suspect there'll be a few more.
Would love to see a spectacular MVDP win a la Amstel Gold. But think Pogacar will be in with a great shout (not a fan!).
I would really like for someone else to win. It'd be nice if QuickStep could get a Classics win, they're a bit short on podiums at the moment. Stybar would be nice.
It's going to be Pogacar from about 35km out, isn't it?
It’s going to be Pogacar from about 35km out, isn’t it?
Depends if MvDP attacks earlier! Can't see Pog having the horse power to drop the Classics specialists
sacrificed a probable nailed on CX World Championship
Can’t see Pog having the horse power to drop the Classics specialists
I don't know, there were plenty of Classics specialists at Strade Bianche and that's a similar style of course and he just rode away.
I don’t know, there were plenty of Classics specialists at Strade Bianche and that’s a similar style of course and he just rode away.
On a down hill and MVdP wasn't there and it has much bigger climbs and more climbing. Not saying he can't do it but I doubt teams will make the mistake of letting him go again.
Chris Horner is super annoying but I do like his analysis. Her thinks Pog for the win followed by MVdP and then Asgren.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T86LmoI5z8M
Chilly roll out
come on Tom!
pog down
meant to be rain early afternoon. Going to be miserable out there 🙁
Bloody Carlton - want some chips (& a beer) now
pog down
Oh I missed that. I assume he's OK cos the team are up the front and riding.
It's not warm out there is it, plenty of them riding in legwarmers, big gloves, jackets/gilets...
Edit - yes, he's fine, camera has just picked him out.
They showed him stretching out a knee shortly after the fall but yeh, seems OK
Big Tim looks great up the front of a bunch, doesn't he? Not sure he can make the difference here but it's good to see
Cobbles are now happening.
Look at the crowds on the Kwaremont!!
💥
I can confirm it's quite busy on the kwaremont!
grown-ups seem to have woken up to the danger and a chase is kicking off
wow!
pog looks disturbingly fit
Fred Wright off the front - I remember when he won the Junior Tour of Wales in 2016! He started his cycling riding as a Youth at Herne Hill.
fascinating race.
Some great cable cam work along the Kwaremont! They've really gone to town on that climb,
tense, this !
Battle of the giants. Tom P can't be happy, I thought he'd be in the mix.
They won't close it down before the finish but Groups 2 and 3 are very slowly dragging it back. Gonna be close for the final step on the podium.
This is nailbiting!!
Ooft, that nearly went sideways for both of them!
meh, pog can bang his bars all he likes; he had a gap before DVB arrived and couldn't take it
I 😍 MVdP
Too think that Pog is a tour winning climber AND can drop all bar MVdP like that is quite frightening.....at least his sprinting isn't stellar too.
Pog showing some tactical naivety there - towing VdP was never a good tactic, but then playing cat and mouse and letting the chasers catch them to finish off the podium. He should have gone at about 5km, there’s a slight rise and enough of a dig and you can drop someone and it’s a long and exposed run-in to the finish - I’ve grovelled my way back along that road a few times and it feels like a flippin’ long way.
Last 30km of the Women's race now.
Anna Henderson the lone British rider in the lead group.
He should have gone at about 5km, there’s a slight rise and enough of a dig and you can drop someone and it’s a long and exposed run-in to the finish
if he's not dropping him on the patterberg, he's not dropping him on a slight rise, come on now
He should have gone at about 5km, there’s a slight rise and enough of a dig and you can drop someone and it’s a long and exposed run-in to the finish – I’ve grovelled my way back along that road a few times and it feels like a flippin’ long way.
With the greatest of respect you are not MvDP. Pogs only real chance once MvDP had followed him up the climbs was to jump early in the sprint, or sit up early and make MVdP work too much in the final few km. Although I expect MVdP knew he could out sprint those behind too so once POG failed to drop him it was a done deal.
😳😳😳😳😳
Battle of the giants. Tom P can’t be happy, I thought he’d be in the mix.
Me too. The sorting was early though and no one else was getting in. Good race. Really enjoyed it though quite cold this year
Can't help but think Pidcock is not the right size to have the power to be a northern classics type rider. He's sub 60kg isn't he?
Wiki says 58kg and it also says Pog 66kg, Van alert 78kg, MVdP 75kg. Doubt they are that accurate but it does paint a picture.
Toms not as fit as last year, but last years results are pretty impressive I would say especially for someone his size -
2021
1st Brabantse Pijl
2nd Amstel Gold Race
3rd Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
5th Strade Bianche
6th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
6th La Flèche Wallonne
2022
3rd Dwars door Vlaanderen
I rode the 179km route yesterday and was spectating on the Kwaremont today. Really amazing to watch and great atmosphere. The Belgians really love thier biking eh?
Anyone see Jumbo-Vismas automatic disc brake bedder -inner jig? Like a motorised wheel on turbo trainer, slot bike in, press foot pedal, drag brake.
Every shop should have one, you can sit and sip a coffee whilst your rotors get a fresh bedding in after you've spent a few rides being naughty and feathering them gently into corners and laying down all sorts of irregular brake track on your rotor... 🙄
I rode the 179km route yesterday and was spectating on the Kwaremont today. Really amazing to watch and great atmosphere. The Belgians really love thier biking eh?
Yes they really really do. Was massively impressed with them a week or so back.
Next up, Scheldeprijs on Wednesday then Amstel Gold on Sunday (both have Men's & Women's races).
I rode the 179km route yesterday and was spectating on the Kwaremont today. Really amazing to watch and great atmosphere. The Belgians really love thier biking eh?
It's been a while since I was out there but I've ridden most of the climbs in and around Oudenaarde, visited the museum there and so on. Most of the villages in and around that area have little crits on regularly during the summer and they're amazing. Whole town turns out, roads are just completely closed down and riders descend on the town from all over. The prize money is very good - decent riders can actually make a living off it - and they're wildly popular. Huge fields, loads of spectators and then afterwards, the town returns to its sleepy little self as if nothing had happened! Just always seems to be a welcoming attitude to cycling and cyclists out there.
Interesting edition of Scheldeprijs today. Cross winds decimating the field and a very reduced group of 13 well clear with 23km to go. Quickstep and Jumbo both missed the bus!
Looks like it's operation "try and break mvdp" @ amstel
Wow! It's like déjà vu all over again
good race that!
Sad for Cosnefroy but great to see Kwiato get it after a few leaner years.
Got back and turned it on with 2km to go great finish!
Was out riding all day yesterday so missed everything about Amstel Gold!
Anyway, final race of the Spring Classics this weekend - Paris-Roubaix!
Have to say, a couple of years ago when the cycling press was fwapping away at any and all "innovation" to conquer the cobbles and combining it with all sorts of prose about the iconic iconicness of the iconic event it almost turned me off it completely. Couldn't move for some ex-pro or other banging on incessantly about cobbles so I'm hoping to avoid all that this year and just watch the race without any of the "who's on form?!" build up.
Anyway, final race of the Spring Classics this weekend – Paris-Roubaix!
La Fleche Wallonne?
Liege - Baston - Liege??
Still some great racing to come 😎
La Fleche Wallonne?
Liege – Baston – Liege??Still some great racing to come 😎
I think of those as the Ardennes Classics but yes, it's a fairly loose definition! The racing so far has been good, it's nice to see the crowds back.
Loves a good bike throw does Michał
https://twitter.com/VelonCC/status/1513458495584096258?s=20&t=tf6ThyVNck8NUtkPqDKOHQ
Looks like WvA is fit for sunday, lets hope his legs are good.
Bike is prepped... For the rollers. Tomorrow I shall wheel out the Paris Roubaix winner...
The irony is, Degenkolb won in 2015 and this bike was discontinued in 2014 so you couldn't buy it. All that effort by Giant to make a classic winning bike and they'd stopped selling them for the love of discs! Note the Elite gel water bottle cages. Pros know what works and you'll see the usual carbon stuff replaced by these on Sunday.
Anyway, mine is the same size, has manual shifting DA and cheaper wheels (7.25kg all up). It seems to be a bit slower - but mine's clean ;-). Have raced it (slower than my Propel), done 100's on it and just cruised around on club rides. It's even been to Belgium. I don’t think I’ll ever sell it!
Classy looking bike that @TiRed. Decking could do with a bit of a clean though...
😉
Women's Paris-Roubaix tomorrow. I'm riding in the morning but should get back in time for the majority of the race. Looking forward to it. Lizzie Deignan isn't riding so no repeat of her epic solo breakaway win from last year - and it also won't be muddy. I'd really like Vos to win but Elisa Balsamo (and in fact most of the Trek-Segafredo team) will be hard to beat.
Balsamo just dq'ed with a very sticky bottle, all to play for now. About 20s lead for a soloist with 25km to go (not naming in case of spoiler avoidance, but I'd argue if you don't want spoilers don't open a thread on the spring classics)
Balsamo just dq’ed with a very sticky bottle
would've gotten away with it, if it wasn't for those pesky riders she overtook while hanging on ! 😂
just had to make a phone call, and she's put 20s back into them in the last 5 or 6km. Did the chase group give up?
yeah, suddenly sat up
would’ve gotten away with it, if it wasn’t for those pesky riders she overtook while hanging on !
It was a bit too sticky really in the end. The car should have known better
just had to make a phone call, and she’s put 20s back into them in the last 5 or 6km. Did the chase group give up?
It contained 2 teammates of the leader and 2 individuals so it was just the teammate duo marking everything.
There seemed to be a lot of punctures, I'd have thought tubeless should have done away with most of those. Pressures too low causing the tyre to burp?
Delighted for Elisa. A brilliant attack and great team work to disrupt the chase. Oh and my cheeky side bet came in 3rd.
There seemed to be a lot of punctures, I’d have thought tubeless should have done away with most of those. Pressures too low causing the tyre to burp?
I almost gave up on tubeless for gravel riding for this reason, if you ran pressures any lower than you would with tubes you just pinched the tyre instead! Had just as many punctures tubeless as with tubes! Am now nervously eyeing a set of Rimpact CX inserts that are apparently hell to fit but should allow lower pressures without risking damage to tyre
I understand tubular carry less risk of pinch flats as rim doesn't have the same sharp sidewall?
Tomorrow is the single biggest tech day of the road racing year... Dynamic air pressures is coming, but not this year, apparently. Like Deg's calliper-braked Defy, a non-tubeless will win tomorrow. Would be funny if it was tubs, but clinchers and latex tubes are very nice. I was reminded just how nice this afternoon. Excited.
Liking at TiRed’s defy and hoping someone wins on a Domane today to sway my purchasing strategy away from a 2020 TCR build 😀 I reckon a Domane is perfect for a 50yo with a bad neck on club runs…
Right, off for a ride now and back in time to put my feet up in front of the Telly. No Belgian beer for me though, I’ve our own club classic around Essex to sweep tomorrow.
As someone with a Domane who loves it…..it’s a heavy bike and quite dull. Absolutely Uber comfortable though especially with nice supple 32mm tubeless tyres….but I’d much rather have a TCR.
cagey with half arsed break attempts so far
playing chicken with the road furniture just now 😮
Yep, quite a cagey and disorganised start. Mix of riders who seem to want a break vs some who are quite happy to sit at the back and wait another 50km. Looks quite steady at the back. Hides the fact it's still 50km/hr!
As the owner of a few Domanes, I'm not a fan of the current one, I liked the previous versions, and the 'new' one as ridden by Elisa & her team looks a lot better.
It looks like the men's team are using it as well. It seems as if EF are no longer using the Synapse, which is a shame, as it's also a great rough road bike.
As this is a MTB website, I hope one of the MTB riders wins.
Ooohh and it starts getting interesting from here!
Suddenly all gone mental, that's a big split now with a lot of big names caught at the back.
Turned on just in time to see the split
Mmmmmm.... Looking interesting.
Liking at TiRed’s defy and hoping someone wins on a Domane today to sway my purchasing strategy away from a 2020 TCR build
Well they've won the first two women's races.
I reckon a Domane is perfect for a 50yo with a bad neck on club runs…
As a slow old man I reckon it would be a toss up between a Domane and a Roubaix. Maybe.
interesting from Wiggins, no team cars yet so any punctures or mechanicals and you're back in the bunch. I thought the time needed was a minute, do they need to shove on and get a bit more so the cars can get in?
Seeing the state of the potholed roads around Manchester and Cheshire on my ride yesterday I think everyone’s gonna need a Roubaix as standard soon