2013 97th Ronde van Vlaanderen, 257km, Sunday 31th March

[barmaher]

WhereFlanders....Here is your route

When Easter Sunday, 10am CET.

Who

Like any right thinking man, I love three way.

And this Sunday, we have an epic three-way battle in prospect, over the cobbled hills and roadways of Flanders.

The Champ

Love him or like him, Tom Boonen is for sure one of the riders of his generation, and arguably the greatest cobbler of all time. He has a powerful engine, he is very tactically astute and he has a very, very good sprint. People like me may have thought that the new route would play against him, but he showed last year his versatility and class. His preparation has been interrupted, first by injuries over the winter, and then by a crash on Sunday. However, assuming he is over his knock from the weekend, his early attack on Thursday showed that he is reaching boiling point just at the right time.

Spartacus

Fabian Cancellara has shown this year that he is back. His breathtaking win in the E3 Harelbeke showed that he is back to something like the form that had everybody running for cover in 2010. Nobody will forget how he duffed them all up on the Molenberg and then did for Boonen on the Muur. And he now looks as if he has another string to his bow, as I think he is likely to be a bit more patient than he has been before.

The Terminator

Peter Sagan's seemingly inexorable rise looked to have been checked in the early classics of this season, as he seemed unable to turn his physical superiority into a classic win. However on Sunday in G-W he was breathtaking...making the right moves and then riding away from his companions in the final few kilometres. He could bludgeon his opponents to submission, or stick with the moves and burn them in a sprint.

 

[jaylew]

Sorry to steal some thunder from the other thread but if this is going to be the official race thread, we need a startlist.

Omega Pharma – Quick-Step
1. BOONEN Tom
2. CHAVANEL Sylvain
3. KEISSE Iljo
4. KWIATKOWSKI Michal
5. STEEGMANS Gert
6. STYBAR Zdenek
7. TERPSTRA Niki
8. VANDENBERGH Stijn

AG2R La Mondiale
11. APPOLLONIO Davide
12. BAGDONAS Gediminas
13. BELLETTI Manuel
14. CHAINEL Steve
15. HOULE Hugo
16. IGLINSKIY Valentin
17. MINARD Sébastien
18. MONDORY Lloyd

Astana Pro Team
21. BAZAYEV Assan
22. BOZIC Borut
23. GRIVKO Andriy
24. GRUZDEV Dmitriy
25. GUARNIERI Jacopo
26. IGLINSKIY Maxim
27. LUTSENKO Aleksey
28. MURAVYEV Dmitriy

Blanco Pro Cycling Team
31. BOOM Lars
32. FLENS Rick
33. LEEZER Tom
34. TJALLINGII Maarten
35. VAN EMDEN Jos
36. VANMARCKE Sep
37. WAGNER Robert
38. WYNANTS Maarten

BMC Racing Team
41. BURGHARDT Marcus
42. GILBERT Philippe
43. HUSHOVD Thor
44. OSS Daniel
45. PHINNEY Taylor
46. QUINZIATO Manuel
47. SCHAR Michael
48. VAN AVERMAET Greg

Cannondale Pro Cycling Team
51. BODNAR Maciej
52. DA DALTO Mauro
53. KING Edward
54. KOREN Kristjan
55. MARANGONI Alan
56. SABATINI Fabio
57. SAGAN Peter
58. VIVIANI Elia

Euskaltel – Euskadi
61. BILBAO Peio
62. GARCIA AMBROA Ricardo
63. KOCJAN Jure
64. RADOCHLA Steffen
65. SAEZ DE ARREGI Adrian
66. SCHULZE Andre
67. SEREBRYAKOV Alexander
68. TAMOURIDIS Ioannis

Equipe Cycliste FDJ
71. BONNET William
72. BOUCHER David
73. DELAGE Mickaël
74. DEMARE Arnaud
75. FISCHER Murilo Antonio
76. GESLIN Anthony
77. LADAGNOUS Matthieu
78. OFFREDO Yoann

Garmin – Sharp
81. BAUER Jack (?)
82. FARRAR Tyler
83. KLIER Andreas
84. MAASKANT Martijn
85. MILLAR David
86. NAVARDAUSKAS Ramunas
88. VANSUMMEREN Johan

Katusha Team
91. FLORENCIO Xavier
92. GUSEV Vladimir
93. ISAYCHEV Vladimir
94. KRISTOFF Alexander
95. KUSCHYNSKI Aleksandr
96. PAOLINI Luca
97. SELIG Rüdiger
98. SMUKULIS Gatis

Lampre – Merida
101. CATTANEO Mattia
102. CIMOLAI Davide
103. FAVILLI Elia
104. FERRARI Roberto
105. GRAZIATO Massimo
106. PETACCHI Alessandro
107. POZZATO Filippo
108. VIGANO Davide

Lotto Belisol Team
111. BAK Lars Ytting
112. BILLE Gaetan
113. CORDEEL Sander
114. DEBUSSCHERE Jens
115. GREIPEL Andre
116. NEYENS Maarten
117. ROELANDTS Jurgen
118. SIEBERG Marcel

Movistar Team
121. AMADOR Andrey
122. DOWSETT Alex
123. ERVITI Imanol
124. GUTIERREZ Iván
125. ROJAS Jose Joaquin
126. SANZ Enrique
127. VENTOSO Francisco José
128. VISCONTI Giovanni

Orica GreenEDGE
131. COOKE Baden
132. DOCKER Mitchell
133. GOSS Matthew
134. KEUKELEIRE Jens
135. LANGEVELD Sebastian
136. MOURIS Jens
137. O’GRADY Stuart
138. TUFT Svein
139. BEPPU Fumiyuki

RadioShack – Leopard
141. CANCELLARA Fabian
142. DEVOLDER Stijn
143. GALLOPIN Tony
144. HONDO Danilo
145. IRIZAR Markel
146. NIZZOLO Giacomo
147. POPOVYCH Yaroslav
148. RAST Gregory

Sky Procycling
151. BOASSON HAGEN Edvald
152. EISEL Bernhard
153. PUCCIO Salvatore
154. RASCH Gabriel
155. ROWE Luke
156. STANNARD Ian
157. SUTTON Chris
158. THOMAS Geraint

Team Argos – Shimano
161. ARNDT Nikias
162. CURVERS Roy
163. DE BACKER Bert
164. DE KORT Koen
165. DEGENKOLB John
166. VAN RENSBURG Reinardt Janse
167. SINKELDAM Ramon
168. STAMSNIJDER Tom

Team Saxo-Tinkoff
171. BENNATI Daniele
172. BRESCHEL Matti
173. JUUL-JENSEN Christopher
174. AAEN JORGENSEN Jonas
175. KUMP Marko
176. LUND Anders
177. MøRKøV Michael
178. TOSATTO Matteo

Vacansoleil – DCM
181. BOECKMANS Kris
182. BOLE Grega
183. FLECHA Juan Antonio
184. LEUKEMANS Bjorn
185. LINDEMAN Bert-Jan
186. SELVAGGI Mirko
187. VAN POPPEL Boy
188. VEUCHELEN Frederik

Accent.jobs – Wanty
191. CAPPELLE Andy
192. COMMEYNE Davy
193. DRUCKER Jean-Pierre
194. JANS Roy
195. SCHEIRLINCKX Staf
196. VAN DIJK Stefan
197. VANLANDSCHOOT James
198. VERRAES Benjamin

Crelan-Euphony
201. PREMONT Christophe
202. BARBE Koen
203. BREYNE Jonathan
204. CLAEYS Kevin
205. HOVELIJNCK Kurt
206. JUODVALKIS Egidijus
207. PLANCKAERT Baptiste
208. VANTOMME Maxime

IAM Cycling
211. BANDIERA Marco
212. ELMIGER Martin
213. GODDAERT Kristof
214. HAUSSLER Heinrich
215. HINAULT Sébastien
216. KLEMME Dominik
217. LARSSON Gustav Erik
218. PELUCCHI Matteo

Europcar
221. CHAVANEL Sébastien
222. COUSIN Jérôme
223. GAUDIN Damien
224. GENE Yohann
225. JEROME Vincent
226. PICHOT Alexandre
227. TURGOT Sébastien
228. VOECKLER Thomas

Team NetApp – Endura
231. DEMPSTER Zakkari
232. DOWNING Russell
233. EICHLER Markus
234. JARC Blaz
235. SCHILLINGER Andreas
236. SCHORN Daniel
237. VOSS Paul
238. WETTERHALL Alexander

Topsport Vlaanderen – Baloise
241. DE VREESE Laurens
242. JACOBS Pieter
243. NEIRYNCK Stijn
244. SALOMEIN Jarl
245. VAN ASBROECK Tom
246. VAN HOECKE Gijs
247. VANDOUSSELAERE Sven
248. WALLAYS Jelle

Vini Fantini
251. ANDRIATO Rafael
252. CHICCHI Francesco
253. DE NEGRI Pier Paolo
254. FAILLI Francesco
255. FINETTO Mauro
256. GATTO Oscar
257. HULSMANS Kevin
258. POZZO Mattia

For me, it's not a three-way battle. At least not with Boonen anyway. I just don't think he has the form. Really hard to look past Cancellara and Sagan but if they watch each other too much and other guys work against them it could go another way. I doubt it though. Spartacus ftw.

 

[jens_attacks]

alleeeeez!!!!!!!


oh how much i waited for this. more than 5 hours of great racing!

 

[Descender]

Profile???

Nevermind, I see you linked to it. Thus making lazy *******s like me have to actually click on it...

 

[RHRH19861986]

Katusha without their Samyn winner (Tsatevich or so)... He deserved his place for Flanders, IMHO.

 

[Afrank]

Cheering for Sagan to take his first monument!
Couldn't decide between him and Cancellara at first, I like them both. So Terminator FTW in RVV, and Spartacus FTW in PR.

I see Cance and Sagan as the two main favorites. If Sagan can't hang with Cancellara on the hills he has a good shot to TT away for the win, but if he does hang on then sagan has a good shot at winning the sprint. Either way, really looking forward to seeing Spartacus take on the Terminator in a duel over the cobbled climbs of Flanders!

Is Boonen recovered from his crash by the way? Or could it affect his chances here?

 

[Descender]

No way Sagan holds onto Cancellara's wheels on the hellingen.

It's Fabian's race to lose.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Hope Roelandts can somehow get over the crash and step up big times.

Gimme a mid race break with Voeckler and Stannard involved please.

 

[Netserk]

And again the year for the record 4th time

 

[barmaher]

Profile???

Nevermind, I see you linked to it. Thus making lazy *******s like me have to actually click on it...

Sorry. I could only find it in PDF form on the website...I couldn't find an image to copy + paste but if any mod can find it.

 

[Rousel]

a quick snapshot poll of who's expected to win:

http://www.gva.be/sport/wielrennen/...a-of-toch-iemand-anders-in-de-ronde-poll.aspx

I think Gilbert gets back on track at the Ronde. He's been very active and is going to be close to 100% form.


Tom Boonen 20.56%


Peter Sagan 11.42%


Fabian Cancellara 42.89%


Filippo Pozzato 1.78%


Sylvain Chavanel 10.41%


Greg Van Avermaet 2.03%


Jurgen Roelandts 1.78%


Philippe Gilbert 4.31%


Edvald Boasson Hagen 1.52%


Andere: (others) 3.3%

 

[Descender]

a quick snapshot poll of who's expected to win:

http://www.gva.be/sport/wielrennen/...a-of-toch-iemand-anders-in-de-ronde-poll.aspx

I think Gilbert gets back on track at the Ronde. He's been very active and is going to be close to 100% form.


Tom Boonen 20.56%


Peter Sagan 11.42%


Fabian Cancellara 42.89%


Filippo Pozzato 1.78%


Sylvain Chavanel 10.41%


Greg Van Avermaet 2.03%


Jurgen Roelandts 1.78%


Philippe Gilbert 4.31%


Edvald Boasson Hagen 1.52%


Andere: (others) 3.3%

What.

He's been in apalling form these past weeks.

 

[jens_attacks]

unfortunately no chance in hell for phil
and i think there is not enough time for boonen too

 

[RHRH19861986]

unfortunately no chance in hell for phil
and i think there is not enough time for boonen too

100% agree to both statements.

Honestly, I don´t understand Gilbert, who yet gave his excuse for not winning Flanders - said he can´t be 100% in both, Flanders and LBL.

He has his beloved LBL in his palmares, had even his perfect Ardennes week in 2011, so why not turning the focus 100% to RVV, being Belgian, and knowing the day of RVV is probably the most important day of Belgium´s sports year?
Maybe because he´s no Flandrien, but from Wallonie?

 

[Lanark]

100% agree to both statements.

Honestly, I don´t understand Gilbert, who yet gave his excuse for not winning Flanders - said he can´t be 100% in both, Flanders and LBL.

He has his beloved LBL in his palmares, had even his perfect Ardennes week in 2011, so why not turning the focus 100% to RVV, being Belgian, and knowing the day of RVV is probably the most important day of Belgium´s sports year?
Maybe because he´s no Flandrien, but from Wallonie?

Well, Gilbert's 100% isn't the 100% he used to be. To be honest, even is he was at a 100%, I'd think he would have a really hard time winning Vlaanderen.

He used to live on the route of LBL, so I'm sure that classic has a lot more value for him than the Ronde.

 

[Netserk]

Remember how close Boonen was to win it in '11.

He will win it again

 

[BlenJones2]

1.Cancellara
2.Sagan
3.Thomas IMO

 

[Rousel]

Gilbert gets into trouble because his tactics put him into difficulty. Obviously the results are not there, but in Gilbert's case it's not a true measure of his form.

 

[RHRH19861986]

He used to live on the route of LBL, so I'm sure that classic has a lot more value for him than the Ronde.

Yeah, it were the greatest minutes of the year for him, speeding up La Redoute in front of lots of his supporters, back in his FdJ days. Great that he finally won in in 2011.

Makes me think of di Gregorio, BTW, who also once was on the attack near Remouchamps, when riding with FdJ. A shame he didn´t even get a decision on year after being moved out of cycling...

 

[Afrank]

100% agree to both statements.

Honestly, I don´t understand Gilbert, who yet gave his excuse for not winning Flanders - said he can´t be 100% in both, Flanders and LBL.

He has his beloved LBL in his palmares, had even his perfect Ardennes week in 2011, so why not turning the focus 100% to RVV, being Belgian, and knowing the day of RVV is probably the most important day of Belgium´s sports year?
Maybe because he´s no Flandrien, but from Wallonie?

For Phil a chance at winning all 3 Ardennes classics is probably better and more coveted than a chance at winning RVV. Plus he is just better suited to the Ardennes.
IMO, targeting the Ardennes instead of RVV is the best decision for him.

 

[RHRH19861986]

For Phil a chance at winning all 3 Ardennes classics is probably better and more coveted than a chance at winning RVV. Plus he is just better suited to the Ardennes.
IMO, targeting the Ardennes instead of RVV is the best decision for him.

I´d value a maiden RVV win higher than a second (and first rider to do so) Ardennes triple...

 

[gruppeto993]

1.Cancellara
2.Sagan
3.Thomas IMO

I think cancellara and sagan are going to end up 2nd and 3rd to be honest. They will attack and end up at the front together but cancellara will not work with sagan. It will be like MSR. They'll probably be caught by the likes of thomas, chavanel, stannard, van avarmaet, haussler and a few others.
They are both too big of favourites and the numbers of sky and OPQS will cancel them out the race. no one will let them go.
Plus, cancellara's team is absolutely crap...

 

[Roderick]

I´d value a maiden RVV win higher than a second (and first rider to do so) Ardennes triple...

But Phil doesn't. He has sais it many times before. If he had to chose betwee a first RVV or a second L-B-L, he will choose L-B-L 100% of the time

 

[the asian]

I'd like anybody other than Spartacus and Sagan to win. Especially guys who have yet to win a monument like Breschel, Chava, Paoloni, Flecha.

If Boonen's form isn't good Chava could very well be in the business end of things, and Breschel seems to be in decent shape, he was 13 in GW(3rd in the bunch sprint)

Flecha had a good training ride in GW, would love to see him win a big one.

 

[Lanark]

Gilbert gets into trouble because his tactics put him into difficulty. Obviously the results are not there, but in Gilbert's case it's not a true measure of his form.

The fact that he couldn't bridge the gap on the Langeveld group in the E3 is a true measure of his form, it's not there. Last year he was even worse at this time, and he almost won the AGR, it's not to late for that, but Vlaanderen seems virtually impossible.