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

[Der Effe]

Re:

Gilbert and Van Avermaet big favorites for the win though. They are good at both cobbles and hills. While Boom is only good at cobbles and Kelderman only at hills. Van Emden is reasonable on cobbles and bad on hilly terrain.

Gilbert and GVA did well to limit the damage that much

Kelderman was great on the cobbles 2 years ago and finished 7th in the GC

 

[jens_attacks]

Re:

Kelderman and Van Emden both faster then Malori. Good. So many people overrate Malori.

The route didn't favour him
But your guys put a magical performance, yes.

 

[jens_attacks]

I do agree that bmc will win this, too bad for rabo guys

 

[Flamin]

Boom did more than fine last year on the Ardennes stage. He has a better team now and the last 15k are pretty easy so Phil-Greg really need to put the hammer down from far out. If Boom has last year's shape it could be a very interesting battle.

 

[SafeBet]

BMC has numbers so difficult to beat them.
I'm curious to see what Felline can do after a promising result in today's ITT.

Wellens looks in good shape too.

 

[Billie]

Bonus seconds alone should be enough for Phil or Greg to win this

 

[Bushman]

GVA the top favourite, can't see BMC not winning.

I think Kelderman will do well and I actually think he will beat Boom in the overall.

 

[pablohidalgo7]

Re:

Gilbert and Van Avermaet big favorites for the win though. They are good at both cobbles and hills. While Boom is only good at cobbles and Kelderman only at hills. Van Emden is reasonable on cobbles and bad on hilly terrain.

Gilbert and GVA did well to limit the damage that much

Kelderman was very strong in the cobbles in 2013.
By the way, great performance today by jos and wilco.

 

[Flamin]

Yeah, Phil-Greg are slightly ahead as top favourites, though I'm very curious to see how they will race this. Bmc have tried to separate them as much as possible but here they are now as the 2 biggest contenders

 

[Tank Engine]

Re:

BMC has numbers so difficult to beat them.
I'm curious to see what Felline can do after a promising result in today's ITT.

Wellens looks in good shape too.

I was more impressed by Wellens' TT, since I rate Felline more highly as a TT-er (he did fine though). But it would be better for him if they reversed the Ardennes circuit.

Nice to see Keldermercx back.

Boom is in a good position, especially if he doesn't lose time in the Ardennes, but GvA and Gilbert will be in their element from now on. It will be interesting to see how BMC will play it from here. Etixx will be disappointed, but they've got a stage win and have good opportunities for more.

 

[yaco]

I'm interested in the performance of Alaphille with a view towards the 2016 Classics.

 

[Opalius]

Re:

If Boom has last year's shape it could be a very interesting battle.

He didn't ride well in the Tour of Denmark. Of course it is not as prestigious to win, but he was in the lead and threw the victory away. It could have been due to poor tactics from Astana though. He was left quite a bit to his own devices.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Meh, he won a stage and didn't really care much for GC. If you see the difference between his Denmark time trial and ENECO it's huge. ENECO motivates Boom much more than Tour of Denmark

 

[Der Effe]

Boom himself said he was still building up shape for Eneco in Denmark thus wasn't good enough to compete for the GC.

 

[Bushman]

Re:

Meh, he won a stage and didn't really care much for GC. If you see the difference between his Denmark time trial and ENECO it's huge. ENECO motivates Boom much more than Tour of Denmark

He was already out of gc contention in Tour of Denmark tt, not really comparable.

I know Denmark wasn't a goal for him for him but he wasn't anywhere near the best on stage 3. I don't think he is in good enough shape just a week later to keep up with GVA, Gilbert and Kelderman on the hilly stage.

 

[SafeBet]

Terpstra attacked earlier, now caught. Very fast pace so several riders being dropped already.

 

[SafeBet]

Le Bon and Van Baarle on the attack now, they have about 2 minutes on the peloton.

 

[Flamin]

RAIN!!!

 

[jsem94]

If these two are going to be caught, the peloton needs to step on it pretty soon.

 

[Jspear]

Gilbert and GVA have attacked.

 

[jsem94]

BMC double attack!?

 

[Flamin]

2" boni for Phil, 1" for Greg. The rivalry is clearly there

 

[Jspear]

Their attack was short lived....I guess just for a couple bonus seconds.

 

[jsem94]

Sick weather.

 

[Flamin]

Rain pouring down like crazy now!