13th BinckBank Tour (2.UWT) 7.8 - 13.8

[Screecher]

Stage 1
Breda › Venray (179.7k) 7.8.2017

Stage 2
Voorburg › Voorburg (9k) ITT 8.8.2017

Stage 3
Brankenberge › Ardooie (186k) 9.8.2017

Stage 4
Lanaken › Lanaken (160.7k) 10.8.2017

Stage 5
Sittard-Geleen › Sittard-Geleen (164.9k) 11.8.2017

Stage 6
Riemst › Houffalize (196.9k) 12.8.2017

Stage 7
Essen › Geraardsbergen (193.5k) 13.8.2017

Startlist
Quick-Step Floors
1 TERPSTRA Niki
2 DEVENYNS Dries
3 KITTEL Marcel
4 GILBERT Philippe
5 KEISSE Iljo
6 LAMPAERT Yves
7 RICHEZE Ariel Maximiliano
8 VAKOC Petr
Lotto Soudal
11 WELLENS Tim
12 BENOOT Tiesj
13 DE BUYST Jasper
14 GALLOPIN Tony
15 GREIPEL André
16 MAES Nikolas
17 SIEBERG Marcel
18 VANENDERT Jelle
BMC Racing Team
21 VAN AVERMAET Greg
22 DRUCKER Jean-Pierre
23 KÜNG Stefan
24 QUINZIATO Manuel
25 SCOTSON Miles
26 VAN HOOYDONCK Nathan
27 SCHAR Michael
28 VLIEGEN Loïc
Team LottoNL-Jumbo
31 BOOM Lars
32 GROENEWEGEN Dylan
33 LEEZER Tom
34 VAN EMDEN Jos
35 ROOSEN Timo
36 TANKINK Bram
37 VAN HOECKE Gijs
38 WAGNER Robert
Team Sunweb
41 DUMOULIN Tom
42 ANDERSEN Søren Kragh
43 BAUHAUS Phil
44 CURVERS Roy
45 HAMILTON Chris
46 HOFSTEDE Lennard
47 TEUNISSEN Mike
48 STAMSNIJDER Tom
BORA - hansgrohe
51 SAGAN Peter
52 BODNAR Maciej
53 BURGHARDT Marcus
54 KOLAR Michael
55 PFINGSTEN Christoph
56 PÖSTLBERGER Lukas
57 SCHILLINGER Andreas
58 SELIG Rüdiger
Trek - Segafredo
61 STUYVEN Jasper
62 COLEDAN Marco
63 GUERREIRO Ruben
64 PEDERSEN Mads
65 RAST Gregory
66 BRÄNDLE Matthias
67 THEUNS Edward
68 VAN POPPEL Boy
Team Katusha - Alpecin
71 MARTIN Tony
72 BIERMANS Jenthe
73 MATHIS Marco
74 KUZNETSOV Viacheslav
75 PLANCKAERT Baptiste
76 WÜRTZ SCHMIDT Mads
77 POLITT Nils
78 ZABEL Rick
Team Sky
81 VIVIANI Elia
82 DIBBEN Jonathan
83 DOULL Owain
84 GEOGHEGAN HART Tao
85 HENAO Sebastián
86 STANNARD Ian
87 VAN POPPEL Danny
88 WIŚNIOWSKI Łukasz
Cannondale-Drapac Pro Cycling Team
91 VANMARCKE Sep
92 KOREN Kristijan
93 LANGEVELD Sebastian
94 MULLEN Ryan
95 SLAGTER Tom-Jelte
96 VAN ASBROECK Tom
97 VAN BAARLE Dylan
98 WIPPERT Wouter
ORICA-Scott
101 KEUKELEIRE Jens
102 DOCKER Mitchell
103 EDMONDSON Alexander
104 HEPBURN Michael
106 GERRANS Simon
107 KLUGE Roger
108 CORT NIELSEN Magnus
109 BEWLEY Sam
Dimension Data
111 RENSHAW Mark
112 FARRAR Tyler
113 GIBBONS Ryan
114 JANSE VAN RENSBURG Reinardt
115 SBARAGLI Kristian
116 THOMSON Jay Robert
117 THWAITES Scott
118 VAN ZYL Johann
Bahrain Merida Pro Cycling Team
121 GASPAROTTO Enrico
122 AGNOLI Valerio
123 ARASHIRO Yukiya
124 BOLE Grega
125 GARCIA CORTINA Ivan
126 INSAUSTI Jon Ander
127 PER David
128 PIBERNIK Luka
Astana Pro Team
131 DE VREESE Laurens
132 GATTO Oscar
133 GRUZDEV Dmitriy
134 KAMYSHEV Arman
135 MINALI Riccardo
136 FOMINYKH Daniil
137 TLEUBAYEV Ruslan
138 VALGREN Michael
UAE Team Emirates
141 GUARDINI Andrea
142 CONSONNI Simone
143 GANNA Filippo
144 KUMP Marko
145 POLANC Jan
146 SWIFT Ben
147 TROIA Oliviero
148 ZURLO Federico
FDJ
151 DÉMARE Arnaud
152 DELAGE Mickaël
153 GUARNIERI Jacopo
155 LADAGNOUS Matthieu
156 SARREAU Marc
157 VAUGRENARD Benoit
158 VINCENT Léo
160 ROY Jérémy
Movistar Team
162 BICO Nuno
164 DOWSETT Alex
165 ERVITI Imanol
166 QUINTANA Dayer
167 SUTHERLAND Rory
168 SÜTTERLIN Jasha
169 ANACONA Winner
170 IZAGIRRE Gorka
AG2R La Mondiale
171 NAESEN Oliver
172 BAGDONAS Gediminas
173 BAKELANTS Jan
174 BARBIER Rudy
175 DUVAL Julien
176 GOUGEARD Alexis
177 HOULE Hugo
178 JAUREGUI Quentin
Sport Vlaanderen - Baloise
181 ALLEGAERT Piet
182 DECLERCQ Benjamin
183 PLANCKAERT Edward
184 RICKAERT Jonas
185 STEELS Stijn
186 VAN GESTEL Dries
187 VAN HECKE Preben
188 VAN LERBERGHE Bert
Roompot - Nederlandse Loterij
191 ASSELMAN Jesper
192 LIGTHART Pim
193 REINDERS Elmar
194 TUSVELD Martijn
195 VAN DER HOORN Taco
196 VAN GOETHEM Brian
197 VERMELTFOORT Coen
198 WEENING Pieter
Wanty - Groupe Gobert
201 VAN KEIRSBULCK Guillaume
202 DEHAES Kenny
203 SMITH Dion
204 MCNALLY Mark
205 MEURISSE Xandro
206 VAN MELSEN Kevin
207 BACKAERT Frederik
208 VANSPEYBROUCK Pieter
Vérandas Willems-Crelan
211 VAN AERT Wout
212 DEVOLDER Stijn
213 DUIJN Huub
214 DUPONT Timothy
215 GOOLAERTS Michael
216 KRUOPIS Aidis
217 MERLIER Tim
218 CORDEEL Sander

 

[tobydawq]

Bodnar, Dowsett, Wellens, Dumoulin, van Emden, Küng, van Avermaet and Brändle were all among the bottom 13 today because the forecasts predict showers later on in tomorrow's afternoon.

God that is going to be a boring stage to watch with all important riders (bar Sagan) having ridden way before the television goes live.

But Sagan will win this bike race convincingly.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Excellent line up taking on a great parcours.
I like to see Terpstra back in business please.

 

[yaco]

Sagan fighting for a win in a mountainous stage in Poland on Friday, and then wins a flat stage on Monday in Holland. Wow !

Cort would have won the stage if he kept on Dockers wheel in the final.

 

[GuyIncognito]

That was one of the best leadouts I've ever seen. Absolutely fantastic.
Shame he was leading out Sagan instead of one of his teammates, but still...

 

[tomorrow]

Re:

Bodnar, Dowsett, Wellens, Dumoulin, van Emden, Küng, van Avermaet and Brändle were all among the bottom 13 today because the forecasts predict showers later on in tomorrow's afternoon.

God that is going to be a boring stage to watch with all important riders (bar Sagan) having ridden way before the television goes live.

But Sagan will win this bike race convincingly.

huuuuuge gamble, there are thunderstorms forecasted from 1pm to 2pm and from 4pm to 5pm. First rider goes 13:37 and last 16:40. This seem like to much of a risk to me. For TT guys maybe not, they're probably going only after stage win, but GvA should have tried to place himself as close to Sagan as possible. Sure, if it works he can earn maybe 10s. But, if it does not, this could cost him the race. With the time bonuses sagan will get, and if the road getting dry with the time tomorrow, he could easily by more than 30s behind sagan after thursday. I guess Sagan won't earn more than 20s in time bonuses, and those 20s would mean nothing on sunday, but over 30 would be too much.

 

[RedheadDane]

Bit of a weird question: Were the riders who also participated at the European Championships present at the team presentation? Surely not!


BTW, you need to add the "img" bracket around the link for the stage 2 profile.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re:

Bit of a weird question: Were the riders who also participated at the European Championships present at the team presentation? Surely not!


BTW, you need to add the "img" bracket around the link for the stage 2 profile.

Don't ask me how I know for a fact, I can confirm they were not.

 

[RedheadDane]

Yeah... it would've been physically impossible to make it, wouldn't it?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Actually I think this is a pretty lame parcours. This race has done surprisingly well in parcours stakes in the last few years but this looks pretty disappointing. The Houffalize stage is the main culprit, that needs to be markedly tougher, because for all the listed climbs, the Sittard-Geleen stage isn't likely to be that selective as the climbs around the town itself aren't very difficult or long compared to those earlier in the stage, and with the Lanaken circuits being run in the opposite direction to how I would have had it and a disappointing Houffalize stage, it does feel like it's going to be bonus seconds only bar a 9k TT and the Geraardsbergen stage that settle it, unless the weather plays ball.

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

Actually I think this is a pretty lame parcours. This race has done surprisingly well in parcours stakes in the last few years but this looks pretty disappointing. The Houffalize stage is the main culprit, that needs to be markedly tougher, because for all the listed climbs, the Sittard-Geleen stage isn't likely to be that selective as the climbs around the town itself aren't very difficult or long compared to those earlier in the stage, and with the Lanaken circuits being run in the opposite direction to how I would have had it and a disappointing Houffalize stage, it does feel like it's going to be bonus seconds only bar a 9k TT and the Geraardsbergen stage that settle it, unless the weather plays ball.

Agreed. I thought last year's parcours was a one-off because they apparently wanted to be a "perfect" warm-up race for the Worlds (as if that was necessary). But the 6th stage is very underwhelming and not at all Liège-Bastogne-Liège- like as it should be.

However, significant changes to the GC might happen on the final stage, as they did last year.

Luckily, there is no TTT this year.

 

[The_Beach]

Re: Re:

Actually I think this is a pretty lame parcours. This race has done surprisingly well in parcours stakes in the last few years but this looks pretty disappointing. The Houffalize stage is the main culprit, that needs to be markedly tougher, because for all the listed climbs, the Sittard-Geleen stage isn't likely to be that selective as the climbs around the town itself aren't very difficult or long compared to those earlier in the stage, and with the Lanaken circuits being run in the opposite direction to how I would have had it and a disappointing Houffalize stage, it does feel like it's going to be bonus seconds only bar a 9k TT and the Geraardsbergen stage that settle it, unless the weather plays ball.

Agreed. I thought last year's parcours was a one-off because they apparently wanted to be a "perfect" warm-up race for the Worlds (as if that was necessary). But the 6th stage is very underwhelming and not at all Liège-Bastogne-Liège- like as it should be.

However, significant changes to the GC might happen on the final stage, as they did last year.

Luckily, there is no TTT this year.

Agree. Stage 6 is very disappointing, and my hopes for stage 7 aren't high. In 14' we saw a 30 man sprint up the 600 first meters of the Muur and same in '15 just with a insignificant three man breakaway out front.

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

Actually I think this is a pretty lame parcours. This race has done surprisingly well in parcours stakes in the last few years but this looks pretty disappointing. The Houffalize stage is the main culprit, that needs to be markedly tougher, because for all the listed climbs, the Sittard-Geleen stage isn't likely to be that selective as the climbs around the town itself aren't very difficult or long compared to those earlier in the stage, and with the Lanaken circuits being run in the opposite direction to how I would have had it and a disappointing Houffalize stage, it does feel like it's going to be bonus seconds only bar a 9k TT and the Geraardsbergen stage that settle it, unless the weather plays ball.

Agreed. I thought last year's parcours was a one-off because they apparently wanted to be a "perfect" warm-up race for the Worlds (as if that was necessary). But the 6th stage is very underwhelming and not at all Liège-Bastogne-Liège- like as it should be.

However, significant changes to the GC might happen on the final stage, as they did last year.

Luckily, there is no TTT this year.

Agree. Stage 6 is very disappointing, and my hopes for stage 7 aren't high. In 14' we saw a 30 man sprint up the 600 first meters of the Muur and same in '15 just with a insignificant three man breakaway out front.

Regarding stage 7, much will depend on whether Sagan is in the lead, I think. But he will probably be leading and then not being aggressive on stage 7. Should he want to come out and play with the likes of Van Avermaet, they have the capacities to blow the race to pieces but if he rides to defend a lead, that is unlikely to happen.

 

[jaylew]

Did this race have a name change at some point? I don't remember it at all.

Edit: Ok, I feel dumb. This is Eneco.

 

[Lupi33x]

That golden kilometre was a waste of time.
There seems to be more enthusiasm for the beer jersey. The young Belgian rider seems up for about 8 cases.

Speaking of, is Piet any relation to the ultra distance rider Kristof?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

http://www.weersvoorspelling.nl/weer-nederland/voorburg/per-uur/19835

Light rain for the early starters
Medium/Heavy rain for the late starters.

Definitely a disadvantage for late starters if this is true

 

[liamito]

Re:

http://www.weersvoorspelling.nl/weer-nederland/voorburg/per-uur/19835

Light rain for the early starters
Medium/Heavy rain for the late starters.

Definitely a disadvantage for late starters if this is true

Why? Wet roads or very wet roads isn't that much of a difference.

 

[tomorrow]

Re: Re:

http://www.weersvoorspelling.nl/weer-nederland/voorburg/per-uur/19835

Light rain for the early starters
Medium/Heavy rain for the late starters.

Definitely a disadvantage for late starters if this is true

Why? Wet roads or very wet roads isn't that much of a difference.

actually stronger rain can be better then start of the light rain, because moist dust is very very very slippery, if the rain continues the dust will have been washed away by the end of the race.

 

[yaco]

i'll choose an outsider in Hepburn.

 

[Jagartrott]

Bodnar fastest so far, ahead of Wellens (yes, it's raining).

Edit: Küng now first, Dumoulin third. GVA crashed.

 

[Martin]

Re: Re:

http://www.weersvoorspelling.nl/weer-nederland/voorburg/per-uur/19835

Light rain for the early starters
Medium/Heavy rain for the late starters.

Definitely a disadvantage for late starters if this is true

Why? Wet roads or very wet roads isn't that much of a difference.

Looks like you was right. From BB Tour twitter account:
@GregVanAvermaet crashed and finished after 11:26 #BinckBankTour

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

I don't think the Ardennes stage is that bad. Those two climbs at a bit more than 20km from the finish are pretty decent and after that it's mostly narrow roads and a bit of up and down without real hills. There are some boni seconds to be earned after those climbs, so I do expect some attacks on those climbs by the GC riders who excel on the hills. Is it really that difficult to imagine a group getting away on hills of 1km @ 11% and a 1,2km at 8% (with a steeper ramp in the middle) making it to the finish over a bit more than 20km of mostly narrow and seldom completely flat roads, with a startlist that includes riders who are strong on the hills and have a big engine and don't shy away from ambitious attacks like Wellens, Gilbert, GVA or even Dumoulin?

I mean, I would have preferred a more difficult Ardennes stage as well and it's definitely possible that the favourites won't really be able to get rid of each other on the hills and then everything comes back together again and it ends in a reduced bunch sprint; but I definitely expect some big names (or at least Wellens) attacking on those hills ~25km out and if the right folks get a gap, it will be difficult to get them back.

 

[tomorrow]

Re: Re:

http://www.weersvoorspelling.nl/weer-nederland/voorburg/per-uur/19835

Light rain for the early starters
Medium/Heavy rain for the late starters.

Definitely a disadvantage for late starters if this is true

Why? Wet roads or very wet roads isn't that much of a difference.

Looks like you was right. From BB Tour twitter account:
@GregVanAvermaet crashed and finished after 11:26 #BinckBankTour

Good effort by GvA considering the fact he fell.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Van Emden missed one of the last corners (wrong direction) and still finished only about 15 seconds behind. He must be furious with himself. Could've beaten the top time

 

[Sestriere]

Apparently, Tony Martin and Nils Politt crashed as well.