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

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The new King of Flanders will come from what team?

  • Another team

    Votes: 10 7.1%

  • Etixx

    Votes: 10 7.1%

  • Lotto Soudal

    Votes: 7 5.0%

  • Trek

    Votes: 45 32.1%

  • Sky

    Votes: 15 10.7%

  • Tinkoff

    Votes: 30 21.4%

  • LottoNL

    Votes: 7 5.0%

  • BMC

    Votes: 8 5.7%

  • Katusha

    Votes: 6 4.3%

  • Astana

    Votes: 2 1.4%
  • Total voters
    140
  • Poll closed .
liamito

liamito

Jul 6, 2011
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Cannibal72 said:
Scarponi said:
Surely Rowe has to be Sky leader over Thomas?
Click to expand...

Kwiatkowski, no? Rowe's better suited to Roubaix, it strikes me, and Kwiat's my number one favourite: he's in form, he should have an excellent team behind him (who are racing with a tactical aptitude putting EQS to shame) and De Ronde seems to suit him. I know Thomas wanted to win this race, but I don't think he can, and his illness may well be a blessing in disguise if it means he doesn't demand leadership and instead works for Kwiat. The Lion of Essex could lead, I guess, but he hasn't raced much recently.
Click to expand...

Kwiat number one favourite? :confused: Kwaremont is really hard for him and Paterberg will sunday also be a climb where you have to ride the cobbles.
 
K

kareeem

Jul 23, 2011
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Re: Re:

Alexandre B. said:
kareeem said:
IIRC riders first over the Patersberg have never been caught by the group behind, right?
Click to expand...

In 2014, Van Avermaet was caught by Cancellara and Vanmarcke.
https://youtu.be/Fzt9JXT6EFE?t=1h3m15s
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True but he basically waited for those three to join him after the downhill section. Anyway, I was thinking more of a bigger group chasing the breakaway rider(s) in last 12 kms after Paterberg. 2012 - Ballan, Pippo, Boonen went on Kwaremont, 2013 - Fabian drops Sagan and soloes to the finish line, 2015 - Kristoff and Terpstra on Kruijsberg. So I guess the answer is yes.
 
C

Cannibal72

Feb 6, 2016
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liamito said:
Cannibal72 said:
Scarponi said:
Surely Rowe has to be Sky leader over Thomas?
Click to expand...

Kwiatkowski, no? Rowe's better suited to Roubaix, it strikes me, and Kwiat's my number one favourite: he's in form, he should have an excellent team behind him (who are racing with a tactical aptitude putting EQS to shame) and De Ronde seems to suit him. I know Thomas wanted to win this race, but I don't think he can, and his illness may well be a blessing in disguise if it means he doesn't demand leadership and instead works for Kwiat. The Lion of Essex could lead, I guess, but he hasn't raced much recently.
Click to expand...

Kwiat number one favourite? :confused: Kwaremont is really hard for him and Paterberg will sunday also be a climb where you have to ride the cobbles.
Click to expand...

I partially wrote that out of contrarianism, partially because I really like him, but I think he has more potential on cobbles than most people allow.
 
PremierAndrew

PremierAndrew

May 9, 2014
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For all the talk about Sagan choking before GW, he's been mightily strong on the cobbled climbs - he's looked no weaker than Canc. The difference between Sagan and Canc comes on the flatter sections, where Canc's skills as a rouleur are far superior. But it's going to be difficult for Canc, because although I think he'll be able to do it, I'm not sure he can drop Sagan on a climb right now.

GVA has to be a top favourite for sure as well, he looked mightily strong before his illness, and even when ill on Sunday, he almost bridged to the leaders' group.

In terms of team strength, Sky are looking just as strong as Etixx in terms of numbers, with Stannard, Rowe, Thomas and Kwiat all confirmed to start. Can Thomas or Kwiat match Canc Sagan and GVA on the cobbled climbs though? Thomas has not peaked for RVV, whilst Kwiat, although impressive in E3, attacked on a tarmac climb, and was never really seriously attacked on the cobbles (good luck staying in Canc's wheel up the kwaremont)

***** Cancellara, Sagan
**** GVA
***Kwiat, Stybar, Terpstra, Vanmarcke, Thomas
**Kristoff, Roelandts, Benoot, Stannard, Boonen
*Stuyven, Boom, Trentin, Rowe, EBH, Oss
 
D

del1962

Oct 16, 2012
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Re: Re:

del1962 said:
Velolover2 said:
Stannard confirms that him and Rowe will play the role as super-doms for Kwiatkowski and Thomas in Flanders but will lead the team in Roubaix.

"Stannard came home three minutes down on Tuesday's opening stage of the Three Days of De Panne as he felt his way back into action. He will be expected to assume the mantle of leadership for Sky at Paris-Roubaix – "It's more the one that suits me, I guess" – and he will likely set out from Bruges on Sunday in a supporting role at the Tour of Flanders, where E3 Harelbeke winner Michal Kwiatkowski and Paris-Nice winner Geraint Thomas will top the bill for the British team.

"Kwiatkowski showed the other day what he can do on these climbs, which is awesome and gives us more strength. Geraint is coming in too and he really wants to go for Flanders, so we're going to have a good strong team to support those guys," he said. "Luke [Rowe] was up there on Sunday as well, so that bodes well for this weekend.""
Click to expand...

What they need now is to replace Fenn or Viviani with Moscon
Click to expand...

Moscon is riding along with Golas
 
P

pedromiguelmartins

May 26, 2015
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Guys, no one can accuse me of being a fanboy, here. RVV and PR are my 2 favorite races and Fabian and Peter are my 2 favorite riders. Having said that...

Sagan was never as strong as he is now. You can say what you want, but I think that I wasn't blind every time I saw Peter a) Matching Fabian in each climb, sometimes the only one doing it; b) Creating the winning move in every race, sometimes leaving Fabian behind; c) Putting the hurt in Cancellara in the last cobbled climb at GW, before matching him on the flat and annihilating him in the final.

Strade was the last race where Sagan was an weaker rider than Cancellara, in my humble opinion. Every misstep in those finals after that were about problems in his head.
 
Lexman

Lexman

Jul 2, 2011
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Kwiatowski said somewhere that will try RVV but since it's longer and the hills are tougher than in E3 he still prefer the Ardens..

Thomas : he rode especially some small stage races like PN, Catalunya, did he ride this year already on cobbles?

As long as the riders make it a great race I don't mind ho wins.

What about the weather? it seems it will be nice temperature, around 16 degrees C but maybe rainy?
 
R

rehy90

Apr 15, 2014
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I think it will be a similar race to the 2013 edition, with the final fight between Cancellara and Sagan on the Paterberg. Ettix should try the same thing as last year with Terpstra to have a chance for the win, they have no rider to match Fabian's acceleration in the end of the Paterberg. There are two overwhelming favorites for this race, lets just hope they wont rule themselves out by watching each other.
 
B

Bushman

Jun 3, 2012
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My biggest concern is that Cancellara and Sagan will cancel each other out and let a weaker rider slip away with the victory. I really would love to see Cancellara one last time blowing the race apart and riding away from everyone. On the other hand I feel Sagan is stronger than ever and his time has come. If one of those two win I'm happy, though I would prefer Cancellara.

Cant really see anyone but GVA and Vanmarcke realistically following them on Kwaremont and Paterberg and I wouldnt be surprised to see Cancellara and Sagan a level above everyone else.

I dont think Cancellara has the explosivity anymore to get rid of Sagan on Paterberg, so he has to ride hard on Kwaremont and then attack again at Paterberg and over the top and hope that the continuous tough efforts will crack Sagan in the end.

Will be a great race.
 
Gigs_98

Gigs_98

Feb 18, 2015
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Re:

Bushman said:
My biggest concern is that Cancellara and Sagan will cancel each other out and let a weaker rider slip away with the victory. I really would love to see Cancellara one last time blowing the race apart and riding away from everyone. On the other hand I feel Sagan is stronger than ever and his time has come. If one of those two win I'm happy, though I would prefer Cancellara.

Cant really see anyone but GVA and Vanmarcke realistically following them on Kwaremont and Paterberg and I wouldnt be surprised to see Cancellara and Sagan a level above everyone else.

I dont think Cancellara has the explosivity anymore to get rid of Sagan on Paterberg, so he has to ride hard on Kwaremont and then attack again at Paterberg and over the top and hope that the continuous tough efforts will crack Sagan in the end.

Will be a great race.
Click to expand...
I don't really expect this to happen. If they two are in front after the Paterberg they surely wont look at each other, because they know they both have an almost equal chance.
Edit: And on the Kwaremont/Paterberg itself, they will give everything anyway because otherwise you can't distance the majority of the favorites.
 
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