105th Ronde van Vlaanderen: April 4th, 2021

[Screecher]

Does he though? Only monument I can see him winning is MSR and that is with some very good luck...

Grande Kasper, what a ride! I think VDP was marginally stronger today, but Asgreen had more in the end.

MSR and Roubaix are certainly possible for Sagan. Lombardia and Liege never were and RvV looks like is too hard for him, he struggled a lot on the steeper climbs.

 

[kingjr]

Yeah I think he has better odds to grab a 4th World Championship somewhere actually. Those kinds of races it can actually be an advantage to have zero teammates because you can hide so much and the WC is often very closed anyway because Belgium, Italy or Spain try to control everything.

Edit: Also why does the Belgian commentator think Stuyven is faster than Van Avermaet? In my mental 'sprint power rankings' GVA is easily ahead lol but perhaps those are wrong.

Stuyven is probably faster in a flat bunch sprint.

 

[tobydawq]

MSR and Roubaix are certainly possible for Sagan. Lombardia and Liege never were and RvV looks like it's too hard for him, he struggled on lot on those steeper climbs.

Well, he isn't at his best form, so he was always going to struggle today. But yeah, he hasn't exactly been lighting the hellingen up since 2017.

 

[tobydawq]

I don't see it.

He could win, but 2nd favorite?

I guess it wasn't such a bad prognostic.

 

[ciranda]

Why did Kasper take turns? Because he rides like a grown up. It's the adult way to do things as opposed to some gesturing behind computer game tactics. Victory after resting in the wheels for the last 20 km would have sucked.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

MSR and Roubaix are certainly possible for Sagan. Lombardia and Liege never were and RvV looks like is too hard for him, he struggled on lot on those steeper climbs.

I don't think they 'never' were, after all you can look at some of the things like Grindelwald and Porto Sant'Elpidio that he won that suggest, he could have gone in those directions, but he would probably have needed to win all the rouleur monuments very early on, in order to justify dropping the weight to go targeting those events, as it is he's gone more the direction of flat power and sprint strength to pursue Roubaix and the maillot vert record, and it's probably too late for him to now turn into a realistic contender for the likes of Lombardia.

 

[Bonimenier]

Why did Kasper take turns? Because he rides like a grown up. It's the adult way to do things as opposed to some gesturing behind computer game tactics. Victory after resting in the wheels for the last 20 km would have sucked.

I doubt it would have sucked to win like that for him.

 

[Spine Concept]

I cheer for the underdog in pretty much every sporting event. One of the reasons why I watch road racing and not say cyclocross is that the strongest doesn’t reliably win. It doesn’t mean I’ve some deep loathing of the obvious favourite. Now run along and try not to take other people’s trivial preferences so personally

Tell yourself whatever you have to in order to sleep at night buddy.

You misread/misinterpret my initial post entirely, accuse me of fanboyism with 0 proof, use straw man argument to pitifully try and clutch to your "point". So how about you run along now cause it's getting tedious and quite honestly pathetic.

 

[tobydawq]

I doubt it would have sucked to win like that for him.

I think it would. He's a very hard-racing guy who seems to like to show his strength. I never thought he would stop working until the final kilometre.

 

[Bonimenier]

I think it would. He's a very hard-racing guy who seems to like to show his strength. I never thought he would stop working until the final kilometre.

Maybe it wouldn't have been as satisfying as how it turned out now, but no way he would have thought it sucked.

 

[Carrick-On-Seine]

Out of curiosity I looked at Asgreen's record in two-up sprints.
He's been involved four times, beating Van Gardenen, Stuyven and van Der Poel and only losing to Michael Morkov.

 

[jaylew]

I think it would. He's a very hard-racing guy who seems to like to show his strength. I never thought he would stop working until the final kilometre.

Right. I think he would still have thoroughly enjoyed his win but the inner, racer side of him would have felt a slight twinge of guilt.

 

[Spine Concept]

Tbh I think Vd Poel was very confident of his sprint and didn't think at all he could lose to Asgreen. Lesson learned, after 260km the strongest wins, not the fastest.

Asgreen already showed in E3. He was the strongest guy of the last 2 weeks.

Agree with this entirely. A sprint after 250kms is a whole different ballgame. Although I still feel as if his sprint last year was better than this year. Then again this year's edition was probably harder than last year. So there's that.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Why did Kasper take turns? Because he rides like a grown up. It's the adult way to do things as opposed to some gesturing behind computer game tactics. Victory after resting in the wheels for the last 20 km would have sucked.

lol come on. Asgreen judged his speed and strength perfectly and he deserves a huge chapeau from those of us who doubted him. But the idea that it’s “grown up” to lessen your chances of winning as a professional athlete is pretty silly. It’s a tactical sport.

 

[jaylew]

This is perfect for Trek. Cordon-Ragot has been super strong and aggressive this year.

 

[Screecher]

Why did Kasper take turns? Because he rides like a grown up. It's the adult way to do things as opposed to some gesturing behind computer game tactics. Victory after resting in the wheels for the last 20 km would have sucked.

I'm not sure how much thought riders do really put into whether it's better for them if they cooperate or not at the end of such a hard race with them obviously being extremely tired.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

This is perfect for Trek. Cordon-Ragot has been super strong and aggressive this year.

In accordance with the prophecy!

I like Audrey a lot, always outspoken and always hard-working, whether it be for herself or, most frequently, for others.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Tell yourself whatever you have to in order to sleep at night buddy.

You misread/misinterpret my initial post entirely, accuse me of fanboyism with 0 proof, use straw man argument to pitifully try and clutch to your "point". So how about you run along now cause it's getting tedious and quite honestly pathetic.

Jesus, you are still going.

 

[Spine Concept]

Jesus, you are still going.

The pot calling the kettle black? You are also still going no? Let it go, you got exposed. Bye now.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Is that Balsamo still in the group for Valcar?!

 

[Keram]

Good race. Ronde allways deliver. Surprising ending. But Asgreen was very confident it was his plan to stop pulling last kilometer-two and then surprise MVP in the sprint and he did it. Chapeau.

MVDP an Wout after early races underperformed after Tirreno. Wout won GW though. They should rest now especially Wout. Ala suprisingly bad today. They seemed like aliens at Tirreno but in cobbled classics they werent so superior.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Marty ignores the original move so that he can focus on the covering move, giving him more chance to say what is fast becoming his catchphrase, "Anna Henderson".

 

[ciranda]

lol come on. Asgreen judged his speed and strength perfectly and he deserves a huge chapeau from those of us who doubted him. But the idea that it’s “grown up” to lessen your chances of winning as a professional athlete is pretty silly. It’s a tactical sport.

I think it would have sucked, the DQSses were embarrasing for a couple of minutes when Alaph was also not working in the second group.

I mean he can decide not to take turns with van der Poel, ok they will slow down and everything comes together and maybe Senechal can win or more likely someone like Stuyven sneaks away. So his team's chances (but it's also a sport for individuals) would probably even be worse if he had refused.

 

[jmdirt]

A lot of debate about "tactics" on here today. One thing that I have always hated about road racing is negative racing, wheel sucking, whatever you want to call it. Yes, I understand it, but I hate it. FN race! I much prefer that KA did work on the way to winning as opposed to sitting on MvP's wheel on the way to winning. I know, it looks the same in the record books, but...

Disclaimer: I ended up having to read the final so I still haven't seen the last 20 K.

 

[Red Rick]

I guess it wasn't such a bad prognostic.

It was terrible clearly he should've been the #1 favorite.