100th Ronde Van Vlaanderen - April 3rd, 2016 - 255.9k

[Kwibus]

Re:

2 weeks ago cries of Van Avermaet of all people being a wheelsucker and now Selfless Sep? What is this world im living in.

Incredibly huh? I have a similar post like this somewhere in this thread. Complete lack of any cycling knowledge by those people. Or hatred toward them? I have no idea where this is coming from.
Because GVA for once in his live profited from wheelsucking (first ever time in his life) and Vanmarcke being on his limit skipping turns (and maybe playing it a bit more tactical for once).

Crazy stuff.

 

[Billie]

it's a real shame people are calling Sep a wheelsucker now. haven't been a fan of his since he celebrated losing the sprint in '14 but he partially won me back today. Great ride. There's only one reason he wasn't relaying as much as Sagan and later Cancellara: the guy was clearly cooked.

 

[barmaher]

Great race. I really enjoyed it. Best RVV since 2011. Maybe longer. This year has been great so far.

Amazing that Cancellara didn't follow Sagan. That said, Fab worked less than Peter from 35km to 15km. Cancellara probably thought Sagan would tire, and he would reel him in over Kwaremont and attack him on Paterburg. The fact that he didn' t, nor could he chase him download in the final suggests to me that the winner would have won in almost any scenario.

Great ride by Vanmarcke. Love the way he buries himself in every classic.

Crazy last 40km really. I was amazed that Erviti stayed so close to the front for so long.

 

[ILovecycling]

Re: Re:

How about: even if Sep hadn't been suffering at all, he has several monument podiums now, at least twice he has helped Cancellara win, and he deserves some slack to selfishly ride for himself for once.

Yup, how can we forget 2013 Paris-Roubaix. You know what's funny? People were calling Sep dumb back then for not wheelsucking Cance.

Yup, its pretty funny. Actually I was surprised when I saw him today

Otoh the best won, gratz to Sagz

 

[ILovecycling]

Re:

it's a real shame people are calling Sep a wheelsucker now. haven't been a fan of his since he celebrated losing the sprint in '14 but he partially won me back today. Great ride. There's only one reason he wasn't relaying as much as Sagan and later Cancellara: the guy was clearly cooked.

yup, could not agree more, ...when I saw him on Pater and then on the flat griting teeth when Fabian pulled I knew I was wrong before

 

[trevim]

Re: Re:

I just hope sky realizes that their true classics leader is kwiat.

He finished 3rd of their 4 leaders today.

Also Moscon 77th, 7 minutes down is a shame.

Not everyone can be Benoot, I think he has a good future.

Benoot wasn't pulling on the front from 160km out to be fair. Sky's plan was obviously to use up the four helpers (Knees, Golas, Puccio and Moscon) to keep their four cards out of trouble at the front for the last 50km. They did that pretty well to be fair, it's just that like in virtually every monument they've ever raced they didn't have one of the strongest guys on the day who could win the race (Thomas was supposed to be that guy last year but he'd ran out of legs by Flanders). You have to be realistic. With Sky's current roster it was always going to be more likely than not that their winless streak in monuments was going to continue until at least 2017.

Sky has actually been doing a great classics season: Stannard was one of the few who even tried in San Remo to go from far out and Kwiat did a nice gamble today. Rowe has been steady has well so hats off to them.

 

[The Hegelian]

Re:

Great race. I really enjoyed it. Best RVV since 2011. Maybe longer. This year has been great so far.

Amazing that Cancellara didn't follow Sagan. That said, Fab worked less than Peter from 35km to 15km. Cancellara probably thought Sagan would tire, and he would reel him in over Kwaremont and attack him on Paterburg. The fact that he didn' t, nor could he chase him download in the final suggests to me that the winner would have won in almost any scenario.

Great ride by Vanmarcke. Love the way he buries himself in every classic.

Crazy last 40km really. I was amazed that Erviti stayed so close to the front for so long.

Agree.

Such a classy performance from Sagan - you'd usually back Cancellara over him in something resembling an individual pursuit (which is what the last 10k looked like), but the way Sagan held and then increased the gap was so compelling. What a way to finally land a monument.

 

[movingtarget]

Happy for Sagan and he looked emotional after the race. Great rides also by Cancellara and Sep. For a few minutes when the gap got down slowly to 14 seconds I thought Cancellara could do it but Sagan hung tough for a great win. It looked like Sep did not bother sprinting as he had nothing left and also maybe as a nod to Cancellara who did most of the chase work and in his RV. Cancellara looked the much fresher rider anyway.

 

[Jspear]

Re: Re:

I have the strange feeling that Cancellara won't be able to win the Ronde, I trust my gut feeling, so if someone is interested in an Avatar bet, please let me know.

You're on!

Cancellara will win RVV. Do you have a certain rider in mind for the win? Or are you just betting on Cancellara losing? Either way I'll take the avatar bet. Loser has avatar of the winners choosing till the Giro?

No, just Cancellara loosing, so if I win you have the avatar that I choose till the start of the Giro, if you win I'll have the avatar that you choose till the end of the Giro, ok?

Sure thing! I've got to go find an epic photo.

You're a luck man, here's your new, super awesome Ivan Stevic avatar!

Got it! Just letting you know, I tried pm'ing...it wouldn't let me...maybe you have something blocked.

 

[RedheadDane]

Quite fitting that the World Champion won the 100th edition of the Ronde from a solo-break.

 

[Kwibus]

Re: Re:

I just hope sky realizes that their true classics leader is kwiat.

He finished 3rd of their 4 leaders today.

Also Moscon 77th, 7 minutes down is a shame.

Not everyone can be Benoot, I think he has a good future.

Benoot wasn't pulling on the front from 160km out to be fair. Sky's plan was obviously to use up the four helpers (Knees, Golas, Puccio and Moscon) to keep their four cards out of trouble at the front for the last 50km. They did that pretty well to be fair, it's just that like in virtually every monument they've ever raced they didn't have one of the strongest guys on the day who could win the race (Thomas was supposed to be that guy last year but he'd ran out of legs by Flanders). You have to be realistic. With Sky's current roster it was always going to be more likely than not that their winless streak in monuments was going to continue until at least 2017.

Sky has actually been doing a great classics season: Stannard was one of the few who even tried in San Remo to go from far out and Kwiat did a nice gamble today. Rowe has been steady has well so hats off to them.

I agree and I actually quite enjoy the Sky classic squad. Rowe has been a pleasant surprise for me this year. He showed incredible punch on bergs.
Today they did great as well it's just that Kwiats engine ran out of fuel not long after he initiated the winning move. A typical Kwiat action, it has happened before. It's as if he doesn't feel it coming.

 

[Kwibus]

http://youtu.be/9Rem9MV69cU

Nice recap by casto castalano (something like that).
His recap becomes quite good right after the koppenberg, before that I have mixed opinions.
Either way Cancellara was 6 seconds behind Sagan on the Oude Kwaremont. I believe about halfway.

So close, but then You can see Sagan watching over his shoulder and decided to raise the pace a bit and ofcourse Cancellara did a monster effort so he lost speed.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Wow six seconds. That makes me respect Sagan's strength a lot more yesterday considering he managed to pull it out from there (yes Vanmarcke helped, but Sagan was definitely doing most of the work, while Vanmarcke was on his limit)

 

[Echoes]

People calling Vanmarcke a wheelsucker.

I was on the contrary mad to see him doing so much work !!! Impossible to understand CN.

 

[saganftw]

People calling Vanmarcke a wheelsucker.

I was on the contrary mad to see him doing so much work !!! Impossible to understand CN.

i thought he was half dead bridging the gap to sagan,kwiatek attack then he hanged on but died again when sagan accelerated and when finally fabian caught him he was already diededed multiple times and couldnt do much

 

[Echoes]

Fact is, he started taking the pull shortly after bridging the gap while he had every reason not to. But that's Sep as we know him. Panache guy! I can't blame him for not being willing to make Sagan lose rather than win himself, though.

 

[Taxus4a]

I couldnt read most of the comments. My impresion is: Sagan was very strong and I think nobody could have droped him, and he is very fast.

But what I see is that Cancellara didnt take too much atention to him. He was more worried about Ettix, a powerfull team, flandien team who controled most of the race, but after Sagan and Kiato attack nobody of that team helped, just a little Astana, so Cancellara lost a very importat time, about 35 second, impossible to recover. He though with more teams working that distance would be 20 second, so he could get Sagan in Oude Kwaremont.

With Van Avermater in the race it would have been a different race.

 

[carton]

People calling Vanmarcke a wheelsucker.

I was on the contrary mad to see him doing so much work !!! Impossible to understand CN.

Well, the way I see it, Sepp does "wheelsuck". He always has, because he has to. He's said this himself: he can neither TT nor sprint as well as the other bona fide classics contenders. So he needs to get in a breakaway, but he can't stay away solo or beat the other guys in a "fair" sprint. His best shot is to save his legs and be the freshest rider at the end. But in any case his only shot is to win out of the break, so he can't not help the break stay away or he's going to have no shot. His tactics, given his skills, are actually fairly canny. Wheelsuck a bit, but not too much. Deplete himself less than the other riders, but not enough to doom the breakaway's chances. He'll have a small but not marginal chance in a fair amount of sprints, and win (very) few of them. And he's ok with that, which I respect. Plus he actually animates races by attacking and bridging and helping out every now and then, so he gets plenty of applause. And fair enough: if you like exciting racing and you don't fetishize winning, IMHO, you should be rooting Vanmarcke. I do. But not because he "doesn't wheelsuck". I think he "wheelsucks" just the right amount for his abilities.

 

[Billie]

Watching again I noticed that Sep already attacked on the Taaienberg and was alone for 5 kms only to be caught by Gatto and Devolder. Not a minute after he was caught Kwiat and Sagan attacked so that makes his move even more impressive.

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

Watching again I noticed that Sep already attacked on the Taaienberg and was alone for 5 kms only to be caught by Gatto and Devolder. Not a minute after he was caught Kwiat and Sagan attacked so that makes his move even more impressive.

Yeah, Sep is just awesome.
https://media.giphy.com/media/3o85g7V0Uc1TiDx8Pu/giphy.gif

 

[Flamin]

Re:

Watching again I noticed that Sep already attacked on the Taaienberg and was alone for 5 kms only to be caught by Gatto and Devolder. Not a minute after he was caught Kwiat and Sagan attacked so that makes his move even more impressive.

Don't forget he also hit the deck (twice?) and had two bike changes. This obviously cost him quite some energy as well. Amazing ride.

For me, he's easily on par with Canc and Sagan as top favourite for Roubaix.

 

[SafeBet]

Re:

I rewatched the race. When Kwiatek, Sagan and Vanmarcke got a gap, Trentin and Oss attacked trying to bridge. Then Cancellara overtook them and pulled the group for some time, getting very close to the trio. The gap was roughly 5 seconds at that time. But Cancellara decided to stop riding for some reason.


If he keeps going he can probably bridge in a couple hundred meters, it's gruppo compatto again and we get a whole different race. I think that's the moment he'll regret the most.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Re: Re:

I rewatched the race. When Kwiatek, Sagan and Vanmarcke got a gap, Trentin and Oss attacked trying to bridge. Then Cancellara overtook them and pulled the group for some time, getting very close to the trio. The gap was roughly 5 seconds at that time. But Cancellara decided to stop riding for some reason.


If he keeps going he can probably bridge in a couple hundred meters, it's gruppo compatto again and we get a whole different race. I think that's the moment he'll regret the most.

He was only a handful of seconds behind at the top of Kwaremont and it looked inevitable that he would get across to Sagan/Vanmarcke at that point but then he started to lose ground again and Vandenburgh (who had looked dead having been on the attack for the past half hour) rode up to him with Terpstra on his wheel. Sagan was so strong I just can't think of any way that he could have been beaten

 

[Kwibus]

Re: Re:

I rewatched the race. When Kwiatek, Sagan and Vanmarcke got a gap, Trentin and Oss attacked trying to bridge. Then Cancellara overtook them and pulled the group for some time, getting very close to the trio. The gap was roughly 5 seconds at that time. But Cancellara decided to stop riding for some reason.


If he keeps going he can probably bridge in a couple hundred meters, it's gruppo compatto again and we get a whole different race. I think that's the moment he'll regret the most.

What about the moment Kwiat and Sagan rode off? Devolder is going all out with Cancellara in his wheel trying to close the gap, but he can't get it down and when he realises it's not possible for himhe wants to give Cancellara a slingshot, but Cancellara looks behind him instead hoping the others will help. They were only at 15 meters at that moment. A few moments later Vanmarcke decides to close the gap.

 

[Panda Claws]

Cancellara should have at least gone with Sep Vanmarcke. When 3 of the strongest riders from the past few weeks attack you do not just let them ride.