2015 Gent - Wevelgem, 29/03, 239km 1.UWT

[TheGreenMonkey]

Haussler won his TDF stage in the rain and that was hilly as well. Perhaps a dark horse in bad weather.

 

[DBotero]

He is in decent form maybe it's his time:

 

[Jagartrott]

240 km riding through this weather = seriously tough. Not only a lot of wind, also a lot of rain and only 9-10°C. I don't expect many to make it to the finish.

 

[GP Blanco]

Re: Gent-Wevelgem

Mods can we have a proper name like:
Gent Wevelgem 29/3 (3/23) 239km 1.UWT

I know this rule, but my internet connection was working against me.

 

[TMP402]

Wiggins needs to do more than just pull a bit in the first quarter of the race, or we can say he has no chance of winning in two weeks time.

 

[Kwibus]

Re:

No way for Cav with that wind. Vanmarcke, Terpstra, Kristoff, Degenkolb or Stybar.

Personally I think it will be won by one of the two first mentioned.

Cav always tends to be in the first echelon so saying Cav is doomed because of the wind is a bit strange.
Besides the wind there is also a lot of rain and hills as well and that in combination with a very serious wind I seriously doubt Cav will be at the front at the end of the race.

Also the wind is favourable for attackers today. Hurray!

 

[GP Blanco]

Gusts of winds of about 50 to 60 kilometres per hour. They even speak about gusts up to 90 kilometres per hour from about three o'clock p.m.

 

[Netserk]

Re: Re:

No way for Cav with that wind. Vanmarcke, Terpstra, Kristoff, Degenkolb or Stybar.

Personally I think it will be won by one of the two first mentioned.

Cav always tends to be in the first echelon so saying Cav is doomed because of the wind is a bit strange.
Besides the wind there is also a lot of rain and hills as well and that in combination with a very serious wind I seriously doubt Cav will be at the front at the end of the race.

Also the wind is favourable for attackers today. Hurray!

It's not because of cross-, but tailwind that I don't think Cav will contend.

 

[OlavEH]

Re:

240 km riding through this weather = seriously tough. Not only a lot of wind, also a lot of rain and only 9-10°C. I don't expect many to make it to the finish.

Great! Perfect conditions for Kristoff. He's probably the rider in the peloton which excels most with weather like this. If he isn't involved in any accidents, he will be a major favorite today.

 

[Popchu]

Peloton already in three parts due to the wind, according to the ticker.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Lol apparently the peloton has been split into three pieces already in the first few km. Of course it will come back together again, but I guess this does testify to the nice weather.

Also, apparently there's a break with Timmer, Gougeard, Dowsett, Brutt, Sergent, Van Goethem and Tedeschi in it.

 

[Flamin]

This could be a great race, but I hope the guys stay safe and we don't lose another contender for Ronde and Roubaix.

 

[Beacon Hill]

Stannard Weather

Hopefully Vanmarcke will get something to show for his strength.

Outsiders ... Trentin or Edward Theuns.

 

[Netserk]

Break:

So it's just up to Etixx and Katusha to chase?

 

[Bushman]

Who the hell is Broett? Brutt?

 

[Netserk]

Yeah. Don't know why they spell his name like that :O

 

[TheGreenMonkey]

The rain must be heavy because it has somehow caused there to be a number of punctures.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Re:

Who the hell is Broett? Brutt?

Haha, lol I didn't notice it before, but yes it's Brutt. Both Netserk's picture and my post, which had Broett were copy pasted from the Sporza ticker, which is in Dutch. In Dutch the digraph <oe> represents the same sound as <u> in most other languages (that will <oo> in English, because English also has a silly orthography). Sometimes when transcribing the Cyrillic alphabet to the Latin alphabet in Dutch media/literature/etc, they do it with a very Dutch orthography, which can be a bit different from how these names are usually transcribed to the Latin alphabet; like in this case, where they made it into 'Broett', when you would normally expect 'Brutt'.

 

[Yingge]

Lovely Belgium "Spring" weather it seems. On top of one less hour in a warm cot too as the clocks changed overnight.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Also apparently Tim Kerkhof is also in the break.

 

[TheGreenMonkey]

How long until we will get pictures?

 

[infeXio]

An hour I think

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re: Re:

240 km riding through this weather = seriously tough. Not only a lot of wind, also a lot of rain and only 9-10°C. I don't expect many to make it to the finish.

Great! Perfect conditions for Kristoff. He's probably the rider in the peloton which excels most with weather like this. If he isn't involved in any accidents, he will be a major favorite today.

Kristoff is the new Freire, in a normal sprint he will go well but more often than not won't be a winner, but when it gets longer and tougher he comes into his own.

Stannard is the king of the awful weather though. His biggest weapon is his ability to really suffer and keep going full bore in the most appalling conditions. This might be too pleasant a day for him.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

They're going through a very open area with crosswinds now. They're reporting echelons and the peloton being split in four groups.

 

[Jagartrott]

"Cyclingnews' Flemish expert Brecht Decaluwe' spoke to Sep Vanmarcke (LottoNL-Jumbo) before the start. He was one of the few riders who seemed very keen to get out and race in the rain."

Sep