2015 Eneco Tour (2.WT), Aug 10 - 16th

[Gigs_98]

Wow, Boonen
That was impressive

 

[alspacka]

Re: Re:

Tomeke not scared today

Low speed like today he doesn't get scared and easily wins even when he was in the wind way too early.

Champ

?? He came around Demare in the last few m.

 

[Billie]

Re: Re:

Tomeke not scared today

Low speed like today he doesn't get scared and easily wins even when he was in the wind way too early.

Champ

?? He came around Demare in the last few m.

He was in the wind in front with 300 metres to go before Demare went

 

[Mr.White]

Re: Re:

Boonen has started to go backwards as soon as he's launched his sprint a couple of times this year, but wow, this one was ridiculously bad

Boonen by his own admission has never felt comfortable in large bunch sprints since Suisse 2010 crash with Cav/Haussler.Doesn't mean he can't win an odd one but not really his thing these days which is understandable.

So why does he bother trying?

You saw why!

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

How on earth did Greipel get 6th place?

 

[jaylew]

All of the Boonen/Démare victories this year have been over each other. Well, all the sprint victories. Boonen won Köln from a breakaway.

 

[Flamin]

Quite surprising to see Boonen win. Though it was kind of a chaotic and messy sprint, his turn of speed wasn't bad at all.

 

[Tryphon]

A text book sprinting win by Boonen. His haters must be hiding behind a rock.

Yes,quite.

One or two posters conspicious by their absence.

 

[shalgo]

Re:

How on earth did Greipel get 6th place?

He started the sprint way too far back.

 

[alspacka]

Re:

How on earth did Greipel get 6th place?

As far as I could see on grainy stream, there was a big hesitation with noone willing to take the front right before Demare tried to jump. All that hard work to string it out in the final, just to let it bunch up again with 200m to go

 

[Flamin]

Boucher kicked out of the race by his own team because he went into the early break, which was against team orders. Legend

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Re:

Boucher kicked out of the race by his own team because he went into the early break, which was against team orders. Legend

throw the guy out because he generates a bit of action. lol.

 

[Flamin]

He was told last week his contract won't be renewed so for all we know he has been acting like an idiot since. But funny nonetheless

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Re:

He was told last week his contract won't be renewed so for all we know he has been acting like an idiot since. But funny nonetheless

This makes it even worse imo. Look you're fired and don't you dare doing anything during the race. Good plan.

 

[Tank Engine]

Re:

How on earth did Greipel get 6th place?

Greipel was a long way down coming into the last k. He made up a lot of ground, but blew up just before the end and lost a couple of places. Viviani came from behind to beat him in the last few metres for the second time in three days. Unfortunately for him, Greipel's wheel was the wrong wheel to be on today.

Etixx did really well to blow it apart and give Tom a chance, but he still had to take it.

 

[jaylew]

Re: Re:

Boonen has started to go backwards as soon as he's launched his sprint a couple of times this year, but wow, this one was ridiculously bad

Boonen by his own admission has never felt comfortable in large bunch sprints since Suisse 2010 crash with Cav/Haussler.Doesn't mean he can't win an odd one but not really his thing these days which is understandable.

Sounds like he might be trying to get his mass sprint chops back as he says he'll be focusing on sprinting for himself for his races leading up to Worlds.

"I know I don't have a lot of results this year after my crash at Paris-Nice. That's why I really wanted to train again for my sprints, to see what I could salvage out of the last part of my season. Also, in the next races before the UCI World Championship, it's only about sprinting for myself.

"So, this one gave me some important confidence in that area. I still want to do well on Friday and Sunday. Let's hope we can get more good results in the next days.

"This year I have already done some good sprints, but I was second a few times. The past few weeks I have very consciously trained my sprint, with a focus on the Eneco Tour and the races in the next few weeks.

"Perhaps I take less risks and touches the brakes a little earlier but I do not feel that I have lost any speed. On the contrary. According to my tests, I have never been faster or more explosive."

"I've never been a sprinter like McEwen, Cavendish and Freire. I'm much more than that. Some riders do lose speed, I've always been sprinting on power and I have not lost that power.

"Saturday's stage is probably a little too hard for me, but on Friday and Sunday I want to go for the stage victory.

 

[Flamin]

Re: Re:

He was told last week his contract won't be renewed so for all we know he has been acting like an idiot since. But funny nonetheless

This makes it even worse imo. Look you're fired and don't you dare doing anything during the race. Good plan.

What? they still pay the guy but they should just allow him to do whatever he likes?

Madiot replied his job was to protect Demare and that he already didn't listen on Monday. So a perfectly reasonable decision. It's pretty pathetic from Boucher to then whine about it on twitter actually. That's what a little kid would do.

 

[RedheadDane]

First of all I should probably point out that all I've read about the Boucher-thing is what I read here and in the News Shorts bit on the front page.

When that's covered, though, I think FDJ are being really stupid. They threw him out because he went in the breakaway, and then Demare's sprint-train couldn't be assempled?
Hardly his fault the sprint-train couldn't be assempled. If he was so important for Demare's chances of winning then maybe they shouldn't have fired him.

 

[Carols]

Kudos to Boonen. But I must say I'm really loving Roompot and Jesper Asselman. Kid goes out in breaks 2 days to take advantage of the extra points and is still leading a WT race . Boonen helped him keep that jersey, thanks Tom!

 

[manafana]

van emden to get some home help on way to a tt victory?

 

[Gigs_98]

Brändle for the win tomorrow. I don't think it will happen but I would be extremely happy

 

[De Snelle Duif]

Re: Re:

What? they still pay the guy but they should just allow him to do whatever he likes?

Madiot replied his job was to protect Demare and that he already didn't listen on Monday. So a perfectly reasonable decision. It's pretty pathetic from Boucher to then whine about it on twitter actually. That's what a little kid would do.

They have the whole rest of the team to protect Demare, with the exception maybe of Offredo, and I've never ever seen FDJ do a proper sprint train so he's clearly not that needed (otherwie they wouldn't throw him out of the race and team) so I think it's supid to get angry at him for making a race more enjoyable. I think Madiot is just annoyed by his first tweets. And you know how stubborn Madiot is...

 

[nobilis]

Re: Re:

What? they still pay the guy but they should just allow him to do whatever he likes?

Madiot replied his job was to protect Demare and that he already didn't listen on Monday. So a perfectly reasonable decision. It's pretty pathetic from Boucher to then whine about it on twitter actually. That's what a little kid would do.

They have the whole rest of the team to protect Demare, with the exception maybe of Offredo, and I've never ever seen FDJ do a proper sprint train so he's clearly not that needed (otherwie they wouldn't throw him out of the race and team) so I think it's supid to get angry at him for making a race more enjoyable. I think Madiot is just annoyed by his first tweets. And you know how stubborn Madiot is...

Yeah and apparently he's not even essential to Démare's train, so having one guy like him getting in the breakaways and animating the race is a plus for fdj but as you said Madiot was more likely annoyed with Boucher's reaction over his contract not being renewed.

 

[Domulec]

Malori, Brändle or Van Emden today, I would say. Many outsiders, but I would be really surprised if it wasn't one of those three. The parcours isn't that technical either, so really something for the strong men today.

 

[Flamin]

Re: Re:

What? they still pay the guy but they should just allow him to do whatever he likes?

Madiot replied his job was to protect Demare and that he already didn't listen on Monday. So a perfectly reasonable decision. It's pretty pathetic from Boucher to then whine about it on twitter actually. That's what a little kid would do.

They have the whole rest of the team to protect Demare, with the exception maybe of Offredo, and I've never ever seen FDJ do a proper sprint train so he's clearly not that needed (otherwie they wouldn't throw him out of the race and team) so I think it's supid to get angry at him for making a race more enjoyable. I think Madiot is just annoyed by his first tweets. And you know how stubborn Madiot is...

So? What about these other 5 or 6 guys? If you're going to allow what Boucher did, then you can't expect those guys to listen either, can you? I sure wouldn't. Besides, 90% of the riders are told to stay in the peloton, save energy, protect a leader or get bottles. So it's not like they suddenly forced Boucher to do some kind of shitty job.