2014 Ronde van Belgian? (Baloise Belgium Tour), May 28 - June 1, 2.HC

[HelgeBlendet]

Read somewhere, that he had a fight with Vanmarcke...

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Btw, despite having a Van Der Poel avatar, I didn't even know he could sprint like this?

Maybe I'm ignorant or confused, but from the way in which he won the junior WC RR and his palmares with the juniors on the road consisting mostly out of GC results, I thought he was more of a climber with a decent TT. I didn't know anything about sprinting skills like this, even though this was a weird sprint. So either I got something wrong here, or this guy is an even more amazing talent than I thought.

 

[classicomano]

Btw, despite having a Van Der Poel avatar, I didn't even know he could sprint like this?

Maybe I'm ignorant or confused, but from the way in which he won the junior WC RR and his palmares with the juniors on the road consisting mostly out of GC results, I thought he was more of a climber with a decent TT. I didn't know anything about sprinting skills like this, even though this was a weird sprint. So either I got something wrong here, or this guy is an even more amazing talent than I thought.

Isnt it obvious? He can do it ALL! Hes Sagan 2.0.

 

[Akuryo]

Isnt it obvious? He can do it ALL! Hes Sagan 2.0.

Kwiatkowski 2.0 - Sagan can "only" sprint, hills and cobbles

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Kwiatkowski 2.0 - Sagan can "only" sprint, hills and cobbles

He might be even worse than Kwiatkowski, because Mathieu can apparently do everything on the road + CX
(although Sagan used to do CX too)

I'm curious to see how he will do in today's Ardennes stage though.

 

[Echoes]

Found back an old pic of Mathieu when he wasn't a legend yet, winning the 2012 Omloop van de Maasvallei on June 9, a 117.5km (rather long for juniors I guess). This was his first year as junior ! Shows that Mathieu likes uphill finishes.

 

[roundabout]

If I am not mistaken, that's 3 of the climbs on the last loop done. Signs point to a rather large group contesting the finish

 

[roundabout]

MVDP

 

[classicomano]

Wow Mathieu is so super strong.

 

[Der Effe]

Wow, just wow.

 

[dlwssonic]

OPQS killing the race...

 

[Roderick]

I think we have a big favourite for the "Worst stagerace of the year"-award

 

[Der Effe]

Tour de Picardie? World Ports Classic? It's not great, but I've seen much worse.

 

[Roderick]

Tour de Picardie? World Ports Classic? It's not great, but I've seen much worse.

Regarding the possible courses they could have designed, this was just terrible. A bunch sprint after an "Ardennes" race? that's just awful

 

[roundabout]

Did Tony get bored?

 

[Flamin]

Regarding the possible courses they could have designed, this was just terrible. A bunch sprint after an "Ardennes" race? that's just awful

Today had decent potential, but OPQS is simply too strong.

 

[Flamin]

Haha, awesome stuff from Tony.

 

[Roderick]

Today had decent potential, but OPQS is simply too strong.

15k flat after the last "hill"? that's just stupid

 

[dlwssonic]

Van avermaet was so much stronger on the flat and at the sprint than gilbert.. probably could have won the stage for himself.

 

[Flamin]

WTF, was that Boeckmans doing that *** move? Please exclude this guy from racing for a couple of months.

 

[Flamin]

15k flat after the last "hill"? that's just stupid

You think we would have had such a big bunch sprint if Martin was isolated?

 

[l.Harm]

WTF, was that Boeckmans doing that *** move? Please exclude this guy from racing for a couple of months.

Vanmarcke also made a move from the left to the right. Pretty stupid.

 

[Roderick]

You think we would have had such a big bunch sprint if Martin was isolated?

Actually yes, because Martin showed that he could answer all the attacks on the flat himself. And instead of Huy all climbs were not much. Stage-design was complete bull****

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Mathieu

He looked so crazy strong when closing the gap to the first group and later riding up to Van Avermaet. How is this even possible when you're 19.......

 

[Flamin]

Van avermaet was so much stronger on the flat and at the sprint than gilbert.. probably could have won the stage for himself.

That was kind of embarrassing. GVA did a great lead-out from 500m out, he finished 3th, Gilbert 6th