E3 Saxo Classic 2024, one day classic, March 22

[Moose McKnuckles]

I came here expecting everyone would be saying Wout would smash Mathieu tomorrow, with the over 1 million km of altitude training and motopacing up Mt. Everest and all.
Anyway, I hope Mads is on a good day tomorrow.

 

[hfer07]

looking forward to this race

 

[Potomac]

Reviewing the race history I didn't see an American that ever finished on the podium in this race.

No pressure, Matteo J

 

[Rob5091]

Yep, it's MvdP & WvA and then everyone else .... unless Visma's normal tactic of trying to blow the race apart with 80 km to go and then have numbers over, does not work.
Interested to see how De Lie does against the big boys.

 

[Berniece]

I expect WVA to win in sprint again. He did it last year when MVDP looked stronger, so don’t know why he wouldn’t be able to follow this year. E3 isn’t as hard as De Ronde, where WVA only cracks at the end.

 

[Bushman]

Hoping for a surprise top 10 for Casper Pedersen. He quietly won the sprint behind the front group in MSR in front of Kooij among others.

Last year he seemed to have had a revival after his transfer to Soudal and was at his best level since his Paris-Tours win in 2020, but he was very unlucky. First, covid kept him out of the cobbled classics, which were his first big goal, and then he broke his collarbone shortly after his podium finish in Belgium Tour missing out on the Tour de France. Hope he can finally have luck on his side!

 

[Volderke]

I hope someone like Oier Lazkano, Arnaud De Lie, Wellens,... will win this race (or at least feature in the finale), and, as the winner of E3 is often top favourite / winner of the Ronde, I hope more than one of those will feature very deep in the finale of RVV.
I would like WvA to finally win RVV or Paris-Roubaix, but I won't be excited watching another MvdP (or MvdP vs WvA) dominated race.

 

[KenFiamingo]

My man Mohoric to outsmart Wout and Mathieu.

 

[tobydawq]

Due to extremely popular demand, my yearly negative startlist of E3 (riders not participating (for any reason) who could have done well and has shown promise on these races before (hence, no Remco on the startlist)) will of course also be done today.

And before Netserk asks, it's sorted by team in order dictated by the (actual) startlist.

Christophe Laporte
Quinten Hermans
Timo Kielich
Jasper Philipsen
Gianni Vermeersch
Laurenz Rex
Mike Teunissen
Luke Lamperti
Tim Merlier
Arnaud Démare
Florian Sénéchal
Alexey Lutsenko
Benoît Cosnefroy
Pierre Gautherat
Mikkel Honoré
Neilson Powless
Laurence Pithie
Filippo Ganna
Michal Kwiatkowski
Thomas Pidcock
Geraint Thomas (he's a former winner, you know)
Jonathan Milan
Thibau Nys
Iván García Cortina
John Degenkolb
Mauro Schmid (is he ever going to ride anything ever?)
Filippo Baroncini
Tadej Pogačar
Florian Vermeersch
Hugo Hofstetter
Dylan Teuns
Magnus Cort
Alexander Kristoff
Søren Wærenskjold
Anthony Turgis (not even invited)

Thankfully, there are other good riders to look out for in one of the best races of the year!

 

[Slavique Nuke]

Visma makes the most of the strength advantage and van Baarle manages to win solo.

 

[shadowrider]

Pogacar not being there, the same Laporte. Van Aert coming from a sunny altitude training. Rain all day. I don't think the favorites or the Visma-team will attack from far as last year or in some other races. The better riders and/or the Visma team may take a bit of a hit. But the rain and the partial headwind will probably cause regrouping. There are no more climbs for the last (tens of) km. If there is still a fairly large (leading) group, it will be difficult for the favorites to attack. So, a domestique (from the strong Visma-team ?) or a strong sprinter could win.

 

[Samamba]

Already a big crash.

Bettiol and Hagenes among them.

 

[shadowrider]

Due to extremely popular demand, my yearly negative startlist of E3 (riders not participating (for any reason) who could have done well and has shown promise on these races before (hence, no Remco on the startlist)) will of course also be done today.

And before Netserk asks, it's sorted by team in order dictated by the (actual) startlist.

Christophe Laporte
Quinten Hermans
Timo Kielich
Jasper Philipsen
Gianni Vermeersch
Laurenz Rex
Mike Teunissen
Luke Lamperti
Tim Merlier
Arnaud Démare
Florian Sénéchal
Alexey Lutsenko
Benoît Cosnefroy
Pierre Gautherat
Mikkel Honoré
Laurence Pithie
Filippo Ganna
Michal Kwiatkowski
Thomas Pidcock
Geraint Thomas (he's a former winner, you know)
Jonathan Milan
Thibau Nys
Iván García Cortina
John Degenkolb
Mauro Schmid (is he ever going to ride anything ever?)
Filippo Baroncini
Tadej Pogačar
Florian Vermeersch
Hugo Hofstetter
Dylan Teuns
Magnus Cort
Alexander Kristoff
Søren Wærenskjold
Anthony Turgis (not even invited)

Thankfully, there are other good riders to look out for in one of the best races of the year!

More of half of your list include riders not having the capacitys to ride a podium in a "normal" E3-race. They would be blown away in the hill/cobbles zone.
This time, maybe, we could have a Gent-Wevelgem scenario. Due to the rain and the wind in front. So, with attacks from B-riders in the final or a (reduced group) sprint. Possibly not to be won by the fastest sprinter. So, a winner of the level of the not-participating riders of your list.

 

[DJO]

What are the weather conditions going to be like for this race?

 

[tobydawq]

More of half of your list include riders not having the capacitys to ride a podium in a "normal" E3-race. They would be blown away in the hill/cobbles zone.
This time, maybe, we could have a Gent-Wevelgem scenario. Due to the rain and the wind in front. So, with attacks from B-riders in the final or a (reduced group) sprint. Possibly not to be won by the fastest sprinter. So, a winner of the level of the not-participating riders of your list.

Of course, I'm not saying my list is constituted alone of possible winners.

 

[Samamba]

What are the weather conditions going to be like for this race?

Rain in 2nd part of the race probably

 

[Samamba]

Hagenes out, so Visma with 6.

 

[DJO]

Rain in 2nd part of the race probably

Thanks.

That's good. Says the cyclist who hates riding in the rain.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Hagenes out, so Visma with 6.

He truly got Stranded today.

 

[Netserk]

What are the weather conditions going to be like for this race?

Oudenaarde:

 

[Volderke]

Due to extremely popular demand, my yearly negative startlist of E3 (riders not participating (for any reason) who could have done well and has shown promise on these races before (hence, no Remco on the startlist)) will of course also be done today.

And before Netserk asks, it's sorted by team in order dictated by the (actual) startlist.

Filippo Baroncini

Thankfully, there are other good riders to look out for in one of the best races of the year!

Unfortunately broke his elbow in Grand Prix de Denain...!

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Due to extremely popular demand, my yearly negative startlist of E3 (riders not participating (for any reason) who could have done well and has shown promise on these races before (hence, no Remco on the startlist)) will of course also be done today.

And before Netserk asks, it's sorted by team in order dictated by the (actual) startlist.

Christophe Laporte
Quinten Hermans
Timo Kielich
Jasper Philipsen
Gianni Vermeersch
Laurenz Rex
Mike Teunissen
Luke Lamperti
Tim Merlier
Arnaud Démare
Florian Sénéchal
Alexey Lutsenko
Benoît Cosnefroy
Pierre Gautherat
Mikkel Honoré
Laurence Pithie
Filippo Ganna
Michal Kwiatkowski
Thomas Pidcock
Geraint Thomas (he's a former winner, you know)
Jonathan Milan
Thibau Nys
Iván García Cortina
John Degenkolb
Mauro Schmid (is he ever going to ride anything ever?)
Filippo Baroncini
Tadej Pogačar
Florian Vermeersch
Hugo Hofstetter
Dylan Teuns
Magnus Cort
Alexander Kristoff
Søren Wærenskjold
Anthony Turgis (not even invited)

Thankfully, there are other good riders to look out for in one of the best races of the year!

Large proportion of my Spring Classics CQ game team in there...

 

[tobydawq]

Unfortunately broke his elbow in Grand Prix de Denain...!

I know. There are several injured riders on the list. Florian Vermeersch for example, and Cort, Rex, Sénéchal and I assume Schmid.

 

[staubsauger]

Hagenes out, so Visma with 6.

There goes my tip for Dwars door Vlaanderen!

 

[Nick2413]

Who organizes a race on a Friday.

Since the main Belgian race in a given week is on a Sunday, I like that there is a day between them rather than the back-to-back setup of Omloop/KBK.

Gives us more to do at “work”