PSA: Classics season starts this weekend

Terpstra rode that last 10km perfectly

Hmmmmm – unless he actually had any energy left, in which case he needed to go from about 5, I’d have thought. If he didin’t have the energy, WTF was he doing going with Kristoff from however far it was ?

I still think their tactics are weird (unless having the sponsor/team name at the front on TV was enough?)

I imagine that when he went he was expecting GVA or G on his wheel, not Kristoff. Once committed I bet he thought he’d drop him on the last climb, having failed at that he sat in as that was the only option left.

I would have expected Terpstra to have done even less work considering he always had Štybar looking very strong behind and if Kristoff pulled all the way to the line then he’d need everything he had to beat him in the finale. EQS seem to me to have too many riders at a similar level and no designated leader – though I expect Lefevre has rather more idea about Classics strategy than me.

Sky were really odd – seemed to ride as though it were a stage race and they were neutralising everything for one rider in a protected finish.

For mine I would have thought EQS, Sky and to an extent BMC and Astana needed to make things as hard as possible from about 100km out to try to shake Kristoff, Degenkolb and Greipel. Really whittle things down and make it selective.

Well I’ve just been out again for another 50k Hack and I was replaying the RVV on my way around..

So, Sky…
I want to know where on earth Berni was ? #posterboyEisel was he too busy looking into the cameras to actually do something ? I mean I watched the whole race and saw him on the front for 8k along with the rest of the squad..
And..
Bradley #ridingoutmynoticeWiggo ? where on earth was he?? bloody useless..

The only guys doing anything for Thomas was Standard, Knees, Roe… That is hardly a squad best placed to win a Monument.. Apart from Roe the rest just did”t even feature, made no difference to the race at all.
I know Standard and Knees did there bit but where the bloody hell were the rest of them?

What ever happened to burying yourself for your team mates ??

Looks like Sky have a squad of 3 maybe 4 riders, pathetic. Thomas needs protecting right to the end in this kind of race, you can not expect a blow out like last weekend in G-W, that happens once a season the rest should be a team effort to take a team mate to the end, end of.

Sagan ? Lost in his own singularity. Again another team expecting one lone rider to cope with all the pressure, I didn’t have him feature at all in this race, felt he was too fat and looked lazy on the bike in the last couple of races.. my reticent attitude born out.

Etixx ? Bloody great, can’t really fault their riding at least Terpstra was on form, everyone knows he’s not a sprinter yet following and taking turns with Kristoff is not for the faint of heart, for once I think Etixx played a blinder, but then they had too didn’t they 😆

Only other showing were BMC, at least they have GVA and Oss willing to bury themselves, you just had to watch the effort GVA put in in the last 10k and for Oss, well without Oss BMC would be left with Gilbert alone.

Lampre did Ok, not often these days you see the Pink and Blue up front.. Never really found his form has Pipo since, well “you know what” and it was nice to see the Portuguese putting some effort in when he at least had the chance.

Proper days racing that, made me want to go out on my bike again, twice in one day… Thats what it’s supposed to do.. Inspire You.

Righty… Then…. P-R next weekend…

Predictions….

I reckon Bradley will throw a fit and not finish. 😛

Sky were really odd – seemed to ride as though it were a stage race and they were neutralising everything for one rider in a protected finish.

Sky are getting some stick on their FB & Twitter pages about both their tactics and their much publicised cobble-specific, marginal gains, ground-breaking, game-changing bike as hailed by Sir Bradley of Wiggins as the best thing he’s ever ridden. Up until the point he fell off it and threw it into a ditch obviously.

🙄

I thought Sagan rode really well considering his was pretty much a solo opportunistic effort. Yes, he seems to be carrying a little more weight than ideal, but finishing fourth there is no mean feat. Not what we and certainly his team might have hoped for but predictions of his early demise are hugely exaggerated – he’s not the FVDB of this era.

I wonder how much Sky were being saved for P-R, with Thomas’s E3 win meaning today he wasn’t as important as Brad’s final hurrah…

They did seem to disappear rather quickly when the racing picked up.

As much publicity Sky would get from Bradley winning Paris-Roubaix, I’m sure they’re aware that they had a better chance of Geraint winning Flanders, given his proven form. Pretty sure they’d be putting everything into it.

Sagan is no joke either. Decent ride from him. But I suppose the real question is, is he fulfilling his potential?

I’ll go back to my previous ‘too much too early’ then, which still doesn’t make much sense given the experience in the squad.

I just can’t see the praise of Quickstep in previous posts aside from the fact they had riders there.

Terpstra was unlikely top beat Kristoff in a two up sprint and, by not riding, could have let Stybar bridge across to give numbers. It’s not recognised as good form to chase your team mate but in this case Terpstra was up the road with a very dangerous man. So it would have interesting to see what would have happened if Geraint and Stybar had bridged across at the top of the Kwaremont when the gap was only 16″. Having two in a group with 2-3k to go would have put the emphasis on Geraint and Kristof to chase down repeated attacks form Stybar and Terpstra. The same tactics worked well for Topsport in a 4 up the other week at Dwar Door Vlaanderen with Jelleys getting away with 2k to go.

I think Lefevre will be privately pissed at how things panned out, but then has a great excuse in a certain separated shoulder.

More importantly, that was a class ride from Kristof. He’s been known as a sprinter, but to escape of the front of a strong field like that (and without Paolini’s support) shows he’s not totally reliant on the bunch sprint. Proficiat Alexander!

Quickstep will get it right next week and Stybar will win alone at Roubaix!!!! FWIW

Quickstep have got it wrong enough times recently with numbers up front (E3, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad), I wouldn’t bet anything on them.

don’t forget that classics are classics for a reason and that they are entertaining because of their unpredictability and the fact that you can’t just turn up with the strongest riders and the right tactics and engineer a win.

True

Thing is, I’d have expected Kristoff to have a far better chance in P-R than this one

Obviously Wiggo’s going to win it 🙂 but who’d bet against Kristoff coming second ?

You would have thought that, but Kristoff did say RVV was his main target for the season.

Curious to see the sky boys disappear after Eisel and Wiggins bossed the peloton at De Panne. They seemed to put in a big push to close the break around 60k to go then went missing.

Race did seem to be missing something (maybe Cancellara and Boonen.) Still kept me entertained for a few hours on the turbo!

As for Etixx, they really are missing Boonen, maybe not for the win but for the tactical options he gives them.

And what happened to Vanmarke? Looked like he was super strong at Strade Bianchi but hasn’t been quite there since then. Was painful to watch him almost get back on.

Terpstra had to ride, Kristoff is smashing it, he would have won from any group.

Wiggo the head ****, he crashed and that was him.

Greipel was an absolute warrior, team should have worked for him!!

Not selective enough for Thomas I think, weather was too nice.

Surprised to see Van Marcke distanced, anyone see what happened (mechanical?) as he seemed to be chasing hard to get back on. Seen him slump and knew he was done, been there!!

Sky were on the front a lot early on, the peloton had decided they had the favourite so they were working. There was rarely another team on front. BMC and Giant had numbers in the finale but refused to chase and let Sky/Lotto try to bring it back every time. Team working on the front marshalling the peloton all day works for Cancellara because he’s so strong in the finale (that and he really doesn’t mind throwing the race away), Thomas def needed more team mates around him.

Cluster **** of a race, deflating airbridges, neutral service smashing the place up, far far too many camera bikes in amongst/infront of the peloton (no doubt in my mind they were aiding some of the groups at some point) and Boom getting a very healthy tow back up to the chasers in the last KM!

I wonder how much Sky were being saved for P-R, with Thomas’s E3 win meaning today he wasn’t as important as Brad’s final hurrah…

They did seem to disappear rather quickly when the racing picked up.

Luke Rowe seemed to be absolutely burying himself to work for G, and to get back into the group to be able to do so again later in the race.

I thought Sagan rode really well considering his was pretty much a solo opportunistic effort… finishing fourth there is no mean feat

…1 place ahead of a 21yr old neo-pro who splits his time between racing and studying economics at Gent Uni.

Greipel was an absolute warrior

+1 V impressive he was clearly turning himself inside out. He’s worked like that before for other team mates in the classics (and done bottle duties) and it can only earn him respect and dedication when it comes to them leading him out in sprints. Watching him wrenching the bike around trying to stay in the lead group up the steeps made MY legs ache!

And another “Wiggo petulantly throws bike” pic to add to the burgeoning album…

And if you’re on twitter and into following it during races (or catching up after) @nyvelocity is excellent (and @ukcyclingexpert more generally).

Very impressive from Kristoff. If he hadn’t started his sprint in MSR a tad too early he’d would’ve bagged both monuments so far. And he’s gotta be in the mix for P-R now what with Cancellara+Boonen out, Vanmarke struggling, it seems, and Sagan blowing too.

I was disappointed that nothing much changed for the last 20km of Flanders though. As said, Etixx could’ve tried something to beat Kristoff.

Is Greipal riding Paris-Roubaix? I’ll cheer for him if he is after that ride, could suit him a bit better than Flanders if he’s on such good form.

I love how cycling does this, one impressive ride can turn you from meh about someone to rooting for ’em.

Terpstra had to ride, Kristoff is smashing it, he would have won from any group.

It’s true Kristoff was on top form and would have been hard to beat in any scenario – but the chances had to be better if you’ve got multiple people attacking from a small group rather than going head to head. I guess they made the decision definite second and an outside chance at a win is better than a chance of nothing at all.

…1 place ahead of a 21yr old neo-pro who splits his time between racing and studying economics at Gent Uni.

That kid has definitely got it – but remember Sagan had some good results at that age as well. This game aint easy.

So as we roll up to the greatest Spring Classic of all time, eva… The damaging, brutal, rumble that it Paris – Roubaix it’s time to think about what tyres you’re using, double or single wrap tape, extra nappy under your bibs or three layers of arse cream, extra thick soles in your dancing shoes, to clip your toe nails or not, should you put in your contact lenses or relish the cloudy blur ?
Decisions, decisions …

Well one blokes decided to stand alone and take aim at the establishment, the purist, the traditionalist…

Bradley’s got permission from the UCI to ride a Disc version of his Pino….

I am in tears 😐

We’re almost there so I guess we can have a few days of speculation towards the day it all comes down to the right turn onto the boards…

It’ll be tight I reckon, a small break of VanMarke, GVA, Terpstra, Kristoff… I’m going to seek out the rosta and decide tomorrow 😀

Bradley’s got permission from the UCI to ride a Disc version of his Pino..

got a source for that? Somewhat surprised to say the least

Daniel Lloyd on Twitter… 😕

wow, seems to be huge risk to me.

Every other man and his dog wields a spare wheel above their heads in hope of saving a guys race. How many are going to have a disk one?

Will Mavic have disk wheels on their neutral support bikes?

has to be a joke, as the chef suggests

(unless he’s got some utterly bombproof tyre system but even then he can fall/collide and bend a wheel easy enough)

Wiggins set to use this disc brake on Sunday with special UCI permission. pic.twitter.com/HFyIzqLwkl

— Daniel Lloyd (@daniellloyd1) April 8, 2015

If you actually read the whole thread and have a look at the picture, it’s all a big piss-take.

Daniel Lloyd on Twitter..

really…..?!!

No access to Twitter or FB at work

😆

where’s the pic from ? – he’s well filthy !

where’s the advantage ? weather forecasts looks like it will be dry and dusty and there’s no hills to speak of. you can only assume it must be sponsor driven.

where’s the pic from ?

Daniel Lloyd’s thread on twitter…

😀

https://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/rear-suss-for-cobble-riding-road-bikes-developed-by-pinarello-jaguar/017700

Ah – it’s one of those new eccentric discs as well 😉

Pic is last year’s PR – with a photoshopped in disc of course…

😆

😆

Well it shook me up I can tell you. I was just about to put my R5ca up for sale when I read what Dan Lloyd had written, I mean… discs on a road bike ?? Just the thought of it makes my spine shudder and my gut reflex skip out of beat..

Ridiculous I tell you !

I’m keeping one eye on that Llyody fella.. 😆

Anyway back on topic, Scheldeprijs today, gotta love mid week races!

Can we really see anyone other than Kristoff taking this one?

No Kittel, no Cav.

Difficult to see past him on current form (inrng has an interesting article asking how he can be beaten!) Usually ends up in a sprint but maybe if a big enough group goes up the road leaving Katusha to do all the work…? Unlikely though.

Can we really see anyone other than Kristoff taking this one?

Sky seem to be bigging up Elia Viviani…
Strong team supporting him but then Sky were bigging up their new Pinarello last week and it didn’t seem to do them much good…

Kristoff is probably the most obvious choice.