fabulous racing again. We are really being spoilt so far this year!

I miss the fans but the racing recently (both stage and one day races) has been superb. I think bike racing is entering a bit of a golden period.

Yep. E3 in particular was as good as any Ronde I can remember.

Even as a massive Van Der Poel fan it’s good to see WVA win, sets it up nicely for next week. Has MVdP peaked too early and has WVA timed it right?

I think both VdP and Van Aert overdid their workload at E3 and that was mainly the fault of AG2R IMO – fair enough, they may not have been on top form but both GvA and Naesen are top quality riders and yet just sat in the wheels. Lack of ambition

The Womens Gent – Wevelgem was excellent too. Similar to the mens, in that there was a breakaway, that was 40 seconds away for a long time, but, it was caught in the last kilometre, then Marianne Vos, just accelerated, and no-one could get near to her.
Hard luck to Elisa Longo Borghini who led the breakaway, and looked like it would stay in front. Why wasnt Anna Van Der Breggen there?

warm weather and no wind for Dwars door Vlaanderen, another uber team fielded by DQT can MvdP emulate his nemesis and put them to the sword ?

heat has made them frisky….

viviani face planted into a ditch

he’s human afterall !! 😀

Impressive win from Van Baarle and another for rim brakes after the 1,2,3 @ catalunya…. pray for rain. 😉

It was a cracking break away and a full on TT to the finish, very impressive. I think the course suited his tactics more than most of the One-dayers, so going for it really paid off massively for him.

It’s official. ASO say Paris Roubaix is postponed until Saturday, October 2 for the women and Sunday, October 3 for the men.

☹️ sensible I guess

rolling out….

they look a little chilly

Indeed, it doesn’t look warm. I’m sadly off out in a minute as my boy is racing Southern XC up at Checkendon, so i’ll have to catch up later with it.

good luck weeksy jnr 🙂

Ah, he doesn’t need luck, we’re just going for the day out, he’s gridded 25th and riding a 160mm enduro bike (admittedly a light and fast one). So we have 0 expectation of anything remotely decent for today, XC ain’t his thing really, it was just a day out with a few other mates riding it as well, so his only target is beating his best mate 😀

“Sam Bennet in Gent Wevelgem over-fuelled” how’s that work then guys ? I can’t see as a racer how you can over-fuel ?

probably ate at the wrong time…. just before trying to stay with WvA up the last climb resulting in throwing up.

aggro at the front of the pack. “absolute muppets” 😀

Yeah, not sure why the Astana rider hit the brakes – there’s no Astana rider in the break – but you wouldn’t brake to slow things down or disrupt an attack just ease up.

Both riders been DQed.

Looked to me that the astana rider got some verbals from teams trying to block the road and let the break go so he brake checked them….

kicking off a bit on the cobbles. DQS look keen.

“Death Ridge” 😀

Pidcock you muppet!!!!

dq’d for throwing a bottle to a spectator!

That’s a powerful break going away. 😯

they(the peleton) are not giving them a very long leash at the mo..

No. I reckon 2nd time up the Kwaremont, there’ll be a decisive break.

MvdP on the front (with 3 team mates)….

yowsers! boonanesque

Alaphillipe you crafty little bugger 😀

brilliant

asgreen has got a free ride here

Ineos are really missing Portal’s strategic nous. Headless chickens at times.

don’t think they have the legs to be honest

it’s a select bunch out front

If you train for stage races all year, de Ronde isn’t an easy race I suppose.