Recent content by Duke_S

Total ITT distance over the years as a comparison.

Expectations: Spain, Belgium and Italy to blow the race apart. Valverde, GVA, Nibali to podium. Likely reality: 2014 LBL V.2 + Valverde podium of course. Only thing more certain is a Vos win/2nd place.

3min loss wont bother Nairo, just makes the race more interesting instead of waiting for last 2km sprints up the last mountain.

Induran destroying all. Top 3 after today.

The thing Sagan lacks most is strong support riders in a reduced peloton - other than De Marchi, and possibly Moser/Formolo in future. He also misses a good leadout guy in the final km, where Cannondale is almost always absent. For a future team, any ego clashing and joint leadership with his...

He will be one of the first over the top of that, even if he gets gapped by a few seconds, he will latch on during the descent. See.. Chieti, Muro di Sant'Elpidio

Induran to destroy all.

...instead of a bunch sprint or attack in the final km. 1. Ban race radios/one way radios - always good racing when there aren't race radios (eg. 2014 Omloop) 2. Smaller teams - 6 riders per team (eg. 2013 Tour of Poland) 3. Ban power meter/SRM - riders ride on instinct rather than what...

Best/your favorite spring classic in 2014?

The Lion of Flanders himself speaks to a reporter (VP). http://www.bikeraceinfo.com/oralhistory/magni.html Likely lost weight to focus on GT's after his '51 win. VP: In 1949 you started that wonderful run of 3 straight Flanders victories. You prepared your bike and equipment for the Flanders...

Boonen: Competition - Cancellara, his own team PR: 3,24,9,1,2,6,1,1,5,1,10 Moser: Competition - De Vlaeminck, Merckx, Maertens, Raas, Kelly PR: 2,5,2,13,1,1,1,3,10,3 Also note I said if they competed in the same era, in which case Boonen will have hard time dropping/outsprinting Kelly in...

Point system needs to be weighed much more towards PR and RVV, same points for PR as Dwars is a bit of a joke. Which of the favorites even raced, let alone tried to win those semi-classics back then? By stats, of course Boonen is the best. But if everyone raced in the same era as everyone...

5. Props to OPQS, but Terpstra only won because they had Boonen+Stybar in the bunch. Those who aren't one of the top marked favorites like Terpstra will be winning a lot more races. As soon as you have a gap in the last 10k, just solo away and everyone behind will look at each other and play...

Guesdon in '97 if 8-man sprint is considered large for PR. Seems '58 had 22 man sprint and '49 had 52 from bikeraceinfo.

Last of the cobbles, the big 1. Who will win?