Recent content by gavia88

I have no clue where you see so many chances? Stage 2 is to difficult, stage 3 has more than 4000 meters of altitude, stage 4 is more a medium mountain stage with some "longer" climbs, than punchy hills, so also no. Stage 9 is a pure medium mountain stage, I don't see him survive there if...

exactly, especially this Tour without his type of stages, a waste of time. WC is to hard (with Pog in shape at least), EC probably the same as it will be Pogacer tailered. With this route I don't see him winning any stage in the tour. And normally he ends his season early. So, I'm not seeing him...

especially disappointing because in this years Tour the France he barely has any business. Exact for maybe the final stage, none of the stages is made for his type of rider. So, it's a waste to focus on the tour. Why not a full MTB season to give his WC dream a change? Next year the tour is...

I think that (winning from the break) was in the years we still had the world cup and LBL was still the next world cup race after Roubaix. So, it was considered less important for a while not being in the world cup, with winners like Mario Aerts, Astarloa and Rik Verbrugghe. Then they switched...

it seems smart tactical racing is dead. Peter Post would be turning in his grave if he knew race smartness these days.

after Flanders Classics took over. They demanded the Cauberg before the finish again.

I think it represent quit well the current status of the races. I would say 30 years ago LBL would have been third before RVV and Milano - San Remo. And Omloop het Volk definitely was more important than E3. Parijs Tours probably would have been on spot 7/8, around AGR. And the Züri-Metzgete...

it makes a big difference that Gent-Wevelgem is on a Sunday nowadays. On Wednesday between RVV and PR the best riders didn't target it. So, a lot of times it was just a (reduced) bunch sprint or B riders fighting for the win. It was still a nice win, because of the history, but nothing targeted...

well, I think the "6th monument" is always changing a bit. It used to be Paris-Tours, but nowadays that race is barely at the level of Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne. In general I think the combi Flanders and Roubaix has won a lot of prestige compared to the Ardennes racing and LBL specifically. In...

and that only because they want to gave the 'spectacular' Ronde van Limburg a more important spot :rolleyes:

it's not part of the Ardennes classics. For a long time it was even on the spot of Gent-Wevelgem and a preparation race for RVV.

it's still a very poor route this Giro

any significant improvements / deterioration compared to the route presentation?

to race on the MTB

Besides the Pau stage and the final stage in Paris, there really is not one single stage thats suits MvdP. He should skip the tour.