2013, Paris - Roubaix: 254Km

[Carols]

Top 5 myths dispelled today

5 Canc can't sprint
4 Sep isnt reaching his potential
3 Canc is boring
2 Canc only has 1 tactic. Can't possibly win any other way than tt.
1 This race needs Boonen

Indeed! It was an Awesome edition of PR The champion finds a way to win, totally guts himself but what a Beast!!!

 

[Silhouette]

Hushovd had one broken gear, two flats, and then he crashed into EBH. Not exactly the best of days for the Norwegian riders.

EBH has been struggling with a knee injury the last 2 months.

 

[The Hitch]

Though I see you're ignoring my other posts, you know I'm right.

2010 lombardia you said that nibalis crash was simply because he wasn't as good a descender as Gilbert. You also said that scarponis mechanical was meaningless because Gilbert would have won anyway. Now I agree Gilbert probably would have won anyway but here you are telling me that stijn Vandenberg crashing while essentially in g2, was cancellara lucking out.

 

[burning]

2010 lombardia you said that nibalis crash was simply because he wasn't as good a descender as Gilbert. You also said that scarponis mechanical was meaningless because Gilbert would have won anyway. Now I agree Gilbert probably would have won anyway but here you are telling me that stijn Vandenberg crashing while essentially in g2, was cancellara lucking out.

Gilbert had terrible luck when he crashed out last year in Lombardia though

 

[SKSemtex]

The race was fantastic but the discussion here is super fantastic. So much fun. I´d love to see emotions and hate here after Sagan winning this raceafter wheel sucking Cance for last 10 km.

I thought Cance was playing poker but now I am sure he was pretty beatable here today. ( crashes could be the factor)

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

new record average speed of the race by the way. beaten boonen's last year by much.

1. Fabian Cancellara (SUI) 44.190 km/h (27.458 mph) 2013
2. Tom Boonen (BEL) 43.476 km/h (27.015 mph) 2012
3. Tom Boonen (BEL) 43.406 km/h (26.971 mph) 2008
4. Johan Museeuw (BEL) 43.305 km/h (26.908 mph) 1996

those older records(peter post) were made on a different,much easier route. so can't compare them

crazy!

Love the notion that we can calculate race speeds to the nearest metre/s.
For that to be tenable, we would need the race distance to be accurate to within 5 metres.

 

[JRanton]

Roelandts -> flatted 2 times at horrible moments according to Lotto DS
Pozzato -> caught behind a fall but never looked good. He did return in the group Chavanel and Boom (also flat/mechanicals) but there he simply got dropped...
Hushovd -> not good enough (did have 1 mechanical early on though)
Chavanel -> like i said, mechanical (flat i believe)
Sky -> thomas fell, stannard fail, EBH fail.

Stannard fell too. Quite badly by the looks of this pic: http://www.teamsky.com/gallery/0,27401,17548_8623983,00.html#photo=9

 

[hiero2]

Maybe an argument could be made that Cancellara was lucky today, . . ..

. . .
Cancellara won because he was the strongest rider (with the best luck) from a strong team. Vanmarcke did not because he was the strongest rider (with the best luck) from a less strong team. None of the Omega nor BMC riders placed because while strong teams, they did not have good luck - they still rode strong.

Unlike MSR, LBL, and GL, RVV and PR require quite a bit more luck. And that is why they are such interesting races year in and year out.

Gutted for Stybar. Perhaps had a genuine chance to win that. Still, he'll have other chances for sure.

Certainly not sorry to see Fabian win - he had to earn that one for sure. Vanmarcke did everything right but blinked first on the velodrome.

Chavanel's run of bad luck in Roubaix continues.

Especially PR does require some luck, but not just luck. We have only to revisit last year's race for Canc to validate the luck part. However, the strongest, and this time, the most canny and clever, racer won. When Stybar took that clip and bounced across the road like a billiard ball - he was directly behind Vanmarcke and Canc. Any one of those three could have taken that hit. Although - being last in line did make it a LITTLE more likely. I've been in that spot in the pack before, and been the only one to hit the pothole directly and flat, too.

I've also placed in races using the wheelsuck-the-really-strong-guy trick, but I always pulled when I could, just out of respect. I liked Vanmarcke's attitude. Stybar was brave - actually many riders were brave in today's PR.

Canc surprised Vanmarcke a little when he hit the brakes in the velodrome the first time, and Vm had to take the lead, or do a track stand. He wasn't ready for the track stand, and had to move. Watching their effort at the end, watching them play cat and mouse the last 5k, Vanmarcke wasn't bought, he was all-in, imo. When he stopped driving to the line, he was just dog tired, and Canc was already passing him - he believed he was 2nd by then. He rode a tremendous race - both did, actually.

 

[Highlander]

I just looked through the results and it lists Visconti as disqualified. I don't know if this was addressed before and I don't feel like searching through 130 pages of posts, but does anyone know what did he do to get DQed?

 

[hiero2]

The race was fantastic but the discussion here is super fantastic. So much fun. I´d love to see emotions and hate here after Sagan winning this raceafter wheel sucking Cance for last 10 km.

I thought Cance was playing poker but now I am sure he was pretty beatable here today. ( crashes could be the factor)

I agree that Canc was beatable today, as he has often been the past couple years. When somebody can stick on his wheel to the finish, it often hasn't turned out well for Canc. Personally, I was glad Sagan was not there today, but I am a fan of Canc. If Sagan had managed to avoid the crashes and bad mechanicals, he would probably have made it a different race.

Love the notion that we can calculate race speeds to the nearest metre/s.
For that to be tenable, we would need the race distance to be accurate to within 5 metres.

I also wonder what the point is - for a one day race like this? So much depends on who is there, who has mechanicals, what the weather is, how hard the guys there are trying - etc. You'd have to track the times for so many years, and see a stronger consistent change for it to mean anything at all. And still, after all that, you'd have to have some way to neutralize equipment differences over the years, etc etc.

 

[benpounder]

Love the notion that we can calculate race speeds to the nearest metre/s.
For that to be tenable, we would need the race distance to be accurate to within 5 metres.

Of course we can. Any race has a start line and a finish line. There is a known distance between both that, these days, is discernible probably down to the decimeter. In every race that I know of, the course that one takes from start to finish is rather well delineated. That that delineation varies widely from sport to sport - compare the 100m dash to a typical America's Cup course, or the Lauberhorn Downhill to La Mans Grand Prix - but they all are measured tracks, start to finish.

winning speed thusly tends to be the most valid measure when the course changes. Obviously there are other considerations, but I dont see your point in disregarding the average speed of Boonen, Cancellera, or of anyone else.

 

[cocteau_ireland]

'Cancellara just kept on throwing the anchor down in the group he was in. Jumping ship. Speeding away and leaving his rivals dropped.'

 

[SKSemtex]

I agree that Canc was beatable today, as he has often been the past couple years. When somebody can stick on his wheel to the finish, it often hasn't turned out well for Canc. Personally, I was glad Sagan was not there today, but I am a fan of Canc. If Sagan had managed to avoid the crashes and bad mechanicals, he would probably have made it a different race.


Last week I asked. "What are Sagan chances here?" I received two answers."Zero", "Only real men can race here". OK. I took it as a fact.

However after seeing Stybar there on the end I want to ask it again. I am just curious to know what makes him disqualified from the list of real contenders?

 

[El Pistolero]

2010 lombardia you said that nibalis crash was simply because he wasn't as good a descender as Gilbert. You also said that scarponis mechanical was meaningless because Gilbert would have won anyway. Now I agree Gilbert probably would have won anyway but here you are telling me that stijn Vandenberg crashing while essentially in g2, was cancellara lucking out.

I just mentioned Vandenbergh in the same sentence as Stybar. Nowhere did I say Vandenbergh would've won. I just mentioned him to be complete: a lot of riders had bad luck today. So Cancellara got lucky. Just like Phil got lucky in Paris-Tours 2009 because of the whole Bozic thing.

Vandenbergh crashed out on a spectator, not in a descent.

 

[thehog]

Best write up of the race here: http://inrng.com/2013/04/winning-moment-paris-roubaix/

 

[will10]

How can a guy like Cancellara be overrated? I really don't see it

How about if I say Cancellara is so good he will win the Tour.

 

[Carols]

How about if I say Cancellara is so good he will win the Tour.

That says something about you; not him

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Boom had a broken front wheel, he rode with it for quite a while but finally had to change it and then dropped to the Chavanel group. He said he didn't have last years legs though. Good day, but not super day

 

[hrotha]

That says something about you; not him

That's how overrating works.

 

[Roderick]

How about if I say Cancellara is so good he will win the Tour.

That would be just stupid by you

I know that some people said back in 07, 08 that Cancellara could even win the Tour when he lost some weight. But to be fair there weren't much clever people saying things like that. So it would be unfair to call him overrated because of that. You can only judge him on the races where he competes for the win

 

[Magnus]

Love the notion that we can calculate race speeds to the nearest metre/s.
For that to be tenable, we would need the race distance to be accurate to within 5 metres.

What?
Meter/Second is not a very accurate measure of speed (allowing for only integer meters and seconds).

Cancellara rode for 20733 seconds today. A speed of 12 m/s would correspond to 248,796 km and a speed of 13 m/s would correspond to 269,529 km.

 

[ultimobici]

new record average speed of the race by the way. beaten boonen's last year by much.

1. Fabian Cancellara (SUI) 44.190 km/h (27.458 mph) 2013
2. Tom Boonen (BEL) 43.476 km/h (27.015 mph) 2012
3. Tom Boonen (BEL) 43.406 km/h (26.971 mph) 2008
4. Johan Museeuw (BEL) 43.305 km/h (26.908 mph) 1996

those older records(peter post) were made on a different,much easier route. so can't compare them

crazy!

In what way was it easier? It was longer, the roads were generally poorer in quality and thee bikes were lower geared & several kilo's heavier. Add in the advances in nutrition & sports medicine (legal) and it is grossly unfair to discount Post's record.

 

[kjetilraknerud]

Are they going to fire their entire classics team? I'm starting to like EBH because of all the hate he gets here.

Winning Gent - Wevelgem as a kid was the stupidest thing he could do - this forum will always see him as a failure unless he wins a monument

 

[trevim]

I'm looking forward to see Van Avermaet saving BMC's Ardenne's campaign if (God forbid ) Gilbert fails.

 

[jens_attacks]

In what way was it easier? It was longer, the roads were generally poorer in quality and thee bikes were lower geared & several kilo's heavier. Add in the advances in nutrition & sports medicine (legal) and it is grossly unfair to discount Post's record.

how many kms of cobbled sections were back then?
you might be right but i find it important to remember that the routes were different that's all