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

[SafeBet]

Re: Re:

Did we watch the same race? When Paolini went, there's no rider in the peloton who could do what you suggest, if they'd ridden as much as Vandenbergh already had. Ridiculous.

I'll rewatch the final, I could be wrong.
I did not have the impression he had nothing left.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Full results anywhere?

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Jebus, it's almost like some of you have never raced a bike, or watched much pro cycling before...there's a reason Paolini went when he did. and there's a reason nobody had the legs to get him...and none of those reasons are that somebody had the legs to do it,,and just didn't...

 

[TMP402]

Nice statistic for Paolini: the first Italian to win the race since Cipollini in 2002

 

[Beacon Hill]

Amazing race ... best of the year by a long way.

Fantastic Paolini.

Rather than criticise, just sit back and enjoy the afterglow of an awesome day.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Re: Re:

Did we watch the same race? When Paolini went, there's no rider in the peloton who could do what you suggest, if they'd ridden as much as Vandenbergh already had. Ridiculous.

I'll rewatch the final, I could be wrong.
I did not have the impression he had nothing left.

You need to rewatch the final 90K to see why, if there was anyone there who DIDN'T have the legs, it would be Vandenbergh. He outworked everyone there, by quite some distance.

 

[DirtyWorks]

Re: Re:

Great race ! and a wonderful win for Paolini..

15th career win for him at the grand old age of 38

Big fail to Quick Step. Terpstra should have attacked.

Terpstra did attacked and brought Paolini with him.

But what's wrong with Stijn AGAIN ???????? If he had the legs, he should have chase Paolini down, not save it for sprinting forth lol

Not much digging left at the end of a race like that. Paolini had a bit more for a couple of reasons.

 

[the asian]

Re: Re:

Great race ! and a wonderful win for Paolini..

15th career win for him at the grand old age of 38

Big fail to Quick Step. Terpstra should have attacked.

Terpstra did attacked and brought Paolini with him.

But what's wrong with Stijn AGAIN ???????? If he had the legs, he should have chase Paolini down, not save it for sprinting forth lol

Should have sticked to Paolini ,the 2nd time around too. He clearly had the legs today.

Big man Stijn did a lot of work earlier, and he's just a domestique. And he was struggling a bit in the final Kms.

You cannot expect him to chase down Paolini

 

[SafeBet]

Re:

Nice statistic for Paolini: the first Italian to win the race since Cipollini in 2002

And first italian to win a one day WT race since Pippo in Plouay 2013.

 

[Akuryo]

Re: Re:

Not a ton of wins in recent races, but they sure got a lot of WT points the last few weeks. Uran scoring points he did not at Tirreno or Catalunya last year, Kwiatkowski 2nd at Paris-Nice, 2nd and 3rd at E3 and today 2nd and 4th again.

sky is first with a large margin

I never said they scored the most, just that they scored a lot. Especially in stage races, where they usually fail to deliver. Bottom line was that even if they haven't won as much as they would've liked, they still were always in the mix.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Re: Re:

Such a tactical fail be Etixx - obvious they should have both got on the same bike

I think this is a ridiculous assessment if you watched the entire race. Vandenbergh buried himself well before the final KM's, and had nothing left to give, but kept his team in the race the entire last 70K. Paolini was just smarter than everyone else, but I don't see this as a fail by Etixx.

Yeah, this.

This is why I like the one-day races. Stage racing is largely a static formula.

Agree completely. Though I still love the Giro, GT's are getting really boring, and this was anything but that.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

again..ettix got outwitted by one rider. Unbelievable! Looks like number games aren't really the recipe of winning. What a great win by Paolini.

I don't know. That was an extremely difficult race. They got into the bitter end and played it well with Paolini just better.

Perhaps if they hadn't dropped their strongest and most on form rider for no apparent reason, they would have had better cards to play at the end.

 

[Netserk]

Re:

Jebus, it's almost like some of you have never raced a bike, or watched much pro cycling before...there's a reason Paolini went when he did. and there's a reason nobody had the legs to get him...and none of those reasons are that somebody had the legs to do it,,and just didn't...

You do realize that he got away because of hesitation in the group, right? First a false attack where G was on his wheel, then he drifted a bit before going again in the opposite side of the rest of the group. Then everyone looked at each other.

 

[LPP68!]

It's on of the older laws of cycling at work; when you want to escape from a group as todays, you have to make sure you are the first one to attack, but you have to do it as late as possible. Roelandts obviously was a bit early, but Paolini timed it well enough.

 

[rei_da_montanha]

Superb ride by Luca Paolini. GT is on fire, main favourite for Ronde.

 

[willbick]

Re: Re:

Such a tactical fail be Etixx - obvious they should have both got on the same bike

I think this is a ridiculous assessment if you watched the entire race. Vandenbergh buried himself well before the final KM's, and had nothing left to give, but kept his team in the race the entire last 70K. Paolini was just smarter than everyone else, but I don't see this as a fail by Etixx.

Yeah, this.

This is why I like the one-day races. Stage racing is largely a static formula.

Agree completely. Though I still love the Giro, GT's are getting really boring, and this was anything but that.

Erm.... I guess its pointless trying to make jokes here

 

[SafeBet]

Re: Re:

You need to rewatch the final 90K to see why, if there was anyone there who DIDN'T have the legs, it would be Vandenbergh. He outworked everyone there, by quite some distance.

This means nothing honestly. Debusschere worked zero for the entire race and was dropped like a stone by Vanderbergh himself in the final. I'm just saying that if he starts chasing Paolini the moment Paolini goes, there's a chance he keeps the group close enough for Terpstra to then catch him.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Re: Re:

Jebus, it's almost like some of you have never raced a bike, or watched much pro cycling before...there's a reason Paolini went when he did. and there's a reason nobody had the legs to get him...and none of those reasons are that somebody had the legs to do it,,and just didn't...

You do realize that he got away because of hesitation in the group, right? First a false attack where G was on his wheel, then he drifted a bit before going again in the opposite side of the rest of the group. Then everyone looked at each other.

You do realize that when that happened, there was still plenty of time for someone to have caught him...if they'd had the legs to do it.

But I appreciate your confirmation that Paolini attacked when he did for good reason...because I'm sure that in his many years of racing, he had no way to calculate that everyone else would hesitate to see who would chase him, because they were all destroyed too...

 

[Netserk]

It wasn't (just) because they were destroyed, it was because everyone was afraid of Thomas and wanted him to chase, while he had closed down all the previous attacks. If he had wanted, he could easily have caught Paolini, but he didn't.

 

[willbick]

I cant understand why every rider doesnt win every race - if only their tactics werent so bad.....

 

[DFA123]

Re:

It wasn't (just) because they were destroyed, it was because everyone was afraid of Thomas and wanted him to chase, while he had closed down all the previous attacks. If he had wanted, he could easily have caught Paolini, but he didn't.

Completely agree with this. Vanmarcke had nothing left to give, but the other four could have got onto Paolini if they weren't all looking for someone else to do the chasing.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Re:

It wasn't (just) because they were destroyed, it was because everyone was afraid of Thomas and wanted him to chase, while he had closed down all the previous attacks. If he had wanted, he could easily have caught Paolini, but he didn't.

They were all destroyed, including Paolini. That race was brutal, and they had all chased, suffered punctures, crashes, massive winds...to suggest that he could have easily caught Paolini is interesting, because if you watched, he did try at one point, but it was too late...but I guess that's just stupid luck on Paolini's part...no way he could have imagined that his attack would be the winning one...oh, wait, maybe he did have reason to think he could pull it off...you know, having ridden with everyone else in the group for a K or 2...

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Re: Re:

It wasn't (just) because they were destroyed, it was because everyone was afraid of Thomas and wanted him to chase, while he had closed down all the previous attacks. If he had wanted, he could easily have caught Paolini, but he didn't.

Completely agree with this. Vanmarcke had nothing left to give, but the other four could have got onto Paolini if they weren't all looking for someone else to do the chasing.

...there's a reason that others look for someone else to chase in a situation like that...maybe because they know that if they're the chaser, they have no shot at winning the race if they tug everyone else there...if they indeed have the legs to do it, which is anything but certain on a day like that...

 

[Arredondo]

This was the best race since the creation of mankind!

Thomas and Stybar are the two biggest favorites for the Ronde imo. Terpstra and Vanmarcke (he will be a little stressed by this result) 3rd and 4th in line.

Sagan will be ride to pieces next week. He just doesn't have it.

 

[Netserk]

Re: Re:

It wasn't (just) because they were destroyed, it was because everyone was afraid of Thomas and wanted him to chase, while he had closed down all the previous attacks. If he had wanted, he could easily have caught Paolini, but he didn't.

They were all destroyed, including Paolini. That race was brutal, and they had all chased, suffered punctures, crashes, massive winds...to suggest that he could have easily caught Paolini is interesting, because if you watched, he did try at one point, but it was too late...but I guess that's just stupid luck on Paolini's part...no way he could have imagined that his attack would be the winning one...oh, wait, maybe he did have reason to think he could pull it off...you know, having ridden with everyone else in the group for a K or 2...

Because I implied that he didn't

Perhaps you could pack your strawmen together and actually address what I wrote...