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105th Ronde van Vlaanderen: April 4th, 2021

Page 25 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Great performance from Van Vleuten.
Congrats.

Thought for a moment she overdid it on Paterberg, but the courage paid off and she managed to hold the group off.

It's interesting how women's form lasts considerably shorter than men's... Niewiadoma, for example.


Excellent racing day.
A real Holiday.
 
Underdog thing again?

Except when Sam Bennett is racing, of course. ;):D

Pretty much.

I find it a bit awkward when one of the handful of riders I’ve more emotional investment in reaches the top of their sub discipline and starts being the usual big favourite. It’s an interesting novelty for a while but not for long. Bennett’s not even my favourite sprinter these days!

At least with a guy like Pinot I can be absolutely certain that he’s not going to start winning so predictably that it becomes boring...
 
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Pretty much.

I find it a bit awkward when one of the handful of riders I’ve more emotional investment in reaches the top of their sub discipline and starts being the usual big favourite. It’s an interesting novelty for a while but not for long. Bennett’s not even my favourite sprinter these days!

At least with a guy like Pinot I can be absolutely certain that he’s not going to start winning so predictably that it becomes boring...
There's still hope. Sam and Ewan have only raced head to head at UAE and MSR this year and Sam didn't make it to the sprint in MSR. But yeah, clearly Ackermann, Gaviria, and Viviani are shells of their former selves and a step below. We need the Dutch sprinters back.
 
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Thank goodness for the Men's race today.
The Women's was so boring.

Yes. Though, the Danish commentator thought it was exciting because there had been some battle for position and small breaks before the coverage began. Even when her co-commentator directly asked if the race had not been a bit overwhelming. But if a battle for position is enough to excite, then I guess you could never find a boring race...
 
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.
they tried dropping the weight in liquigas, it actually it put him on step back, then, they tried to continue it in tinkoff with even one step back further, then he came back to life and in 2019 they tried it again at Bora, that didn't work so well either. Let him just race in his current weight pls, unless he's "fat" of course
 
What's crazy to me is how MVP and WVA still only have 1 monument each.

You'd kind of wonder will WVA ever live up to his potential in the monuments at Jumbo. Let's face it, the Tour is always going to be the goal for a team like them with Roglic and WVA is probably the best help you can have in a GT so I'd imagine he'll always be going to it. Do Jumbo have the budget to build an incredible Tour team and a strong classics side? ATM, it seems not. The team around him throughout this year has been pretty pathetic tbf and have been nowhere when the action started (Van Hooydoonck had some good performances but that's it)

Alpecin are built around VDP then and outside of Merlier don't really have any other they're looking to race around at big races.
 
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This is by far EF's best result in a cobbled race this year!

It seems they kept their powder dry for the most important race of the spring!
 
Turgis is listed as Direct Energie for 2022. If I was a betting man, I'd say there will be an agent or two seeing how much argent it would take to get him on a WorldTour team for next year.

Livyns is another who's had good results across the races. Could be worth a step up for teams as a strong domestique in these races. Might not be in the potential winner category that Turgis is in, but would be a good adddition to teams like Jumbo or Alpecin.
 
I just watched since before Paterberg.
but I have become a Movistar fan since a few weeks when I discovered the @ganadohoy account on twitter, a petty bastard Spanish follower trolling Movistar. now I can´t help cheering for everyone of their, rare, wins.
Would have been alright if anybody had bought Cordon-Ragot or Paladin as serious threats, but as it was, especially when the bunch halved Audrey's advantage on the Kruisberg, it was kind of known that it was going down to the last two climbs. Anna VDB fired her bullets on the Oude Kwaremont, then Annemiek fired hers more decisively on the Paterberg.