2015 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, 28th Feb, 200km, 1.HC

[Pricey_sky]

There were streams but yes, Nordic skiiing or whatever it was can f**k off.

Yes unfortunately I was busy today at work so couldn't catch a stream but could have at least caught up with the hour-long Eurosport highlights this evening had they shown it. Never mind, it looked a really great race!

 

[the delgados]

Exactly what I was thinking when I saw Stijn chasing Terpstra. That was a fukup of the year. What was he thinking?

He should just stay and follow Stannard and provide recovery time for Tom so they could attack once again if Terpstra was caught.

Stijn has a good engine but he has no brain because he is always the first one getting dropped close to the finish.

Rather than chase down his teammate, Lefevere claimed Stijn was merely trying to hang on as Terpstra came through to take a pull.
That's a very silly thing to say. Terpstra would have won this race if he wasn't chased down by his teammate.

 

[Jspear]

Rather than chase down his teammate, Lefevere claimed Stijn was merely trying to hang on as Terpstra came through to take a pull.
That's a very silly thing to say. Terpstra would have won this race if he wasn't chased down by his teammate.

Ya think? Let's say Terpstra had gone and Stijn hadn't followed. Personally I think Stannard would still have followed and Boonen still would have been dropped. Boonen looked cooked there at the end. Whatever; great win by Stannard.

 

[Yingge]

Shades of L-B-L in 2011 when the Schlecks towed Gilbert to his victory.

The difference of course being that in 2011 we all knew that Gilbert would win, where this time it was generally expected that an Etixx-QuickStep rider would win.

Lefevere of course is blaming everyone else (why are we not surprised). It would have been lovely to have been a 'fly on the wall' in the Etixx-QuickStep bus afterwards to watch and listen to the rant.

I wonder what will happen if an Etixx-QuickStep rider doesn't win K-B-K.

Congrats to Stannard and Sky.

 

[Hugh Januss]

I didn't watch the race so I don't know for sure but it seems to me Boonen and his teammates made just about every conceivable mistake in the last few Ks. If yoo have a 3 to 1 advantage in a break and you can't win then you suck, no doubts about it. Or Stannard came down with Bilhar....... in the off season.
Seriously unless all three Quick Step riders thought they should be the one to win how could you eff that up? Two guys drill it on the front the third keeps opening gaps to Stannard at the back. Rocket science?

 

[jaylew]

It was an unfortunate mistake, but as I said upthread I think it was a mistake for Terpstra to attack when Boonen was on the rivet. Boonen said as much in his interview with the 'they should have just kept working for the sprint' quote.

That's the thing - Terpstra is an opportunistic and selfish rider. When he was with Milram he was 'that guy who goes up the road and always gets caught, to the point that we roll our eyes about it', much like Voeckler circa 2006 was before he learned how to time it right or matured into a strong enough rider. Terpstra has learned how to time it right many times now (like, uh, Roubaix last year, which was perfect) but still goes when he shouldn't. This was one of those cases where he was just a bit selfish, his attack sucked enough that his teammate didn't think it was an attack, but it was enough to put Boonen irreperably in the red... basically a perfect storm of bad ideas.

I disagree - it was obviously an attack. Terpstra did the right thing, imo. He was fine to attack then, nothing selfish about it at all.

Boonen had to be the last man from Quickstep to go but he had no reason to go anyway, he could have watched his team mates attack and out sprint Stannard at the finish, they had a good gap and had some time to play around with.

Yeah, I pretty much agee. I just rewatched it a few times and while there were some mistakes made by Etixx, Stannard was going to win this unless it came down to a sprint vs Boonen. The guy was just super strong, partially because he was the only one of them who hadn't done any work for quite awhile.

Just have Niki and Stijn do all the work in the last 5-7k and let Boonen finish it off.

 

[Franklin]

I think Terpstra is a d*ck, but anyone who is maintaining Terpstra didn't obviously attack should pronto make an appointment to check their eyes.

And Yeah, Stijn made it in many ways much easier to catch Terpstra (and waste his own strength). All in all Lefevre clearly did want Boonen to win at all cost. This is why Boonen started to rag and rant about Terpstra. Nobody was supposed to do anything to disturb the glorious win of Boonen.

Painful observation: Boonen is strong, but likely weaker than Sepp, Greg etc. Considering the team tactics still revolve on letting Boonen win this is going to make some adjustments pretty tough.

 

[Volderke]

One other thing to keep in mind: Boonen had to work too hard on the cobbles.
Vandenbergh and Terpstra alone weren't enough to keep distance to Vanmarcke. You see him pushing on every section of cobble stones and that cost him in the end.

 

[Tank Engine]

Exactly what I was thinking when I saw Stijn chasing Terpstra. That was a fukup of the year. What was he thinking?

He should just stay and follow Stannard and provide recovery time for Tom so they could attack once again if Terpstra was caught.

Stijn has a good engine but he has no brain because he is always the first one getting dropped close to the finish.

I certainly wonder what was going through Stijn's brain when he followed Terpsta.

However, as for being the first to get dropped close to the finish in such races, it's because he's used as a high-powered domestique for Terpstra and, in particular, Boonen. It was logical that Stijn did the most work in the break to keep away from VanMarcke and GvA. That would have been team orders rather than Stijn's individual tactics.

I was amazed when Boonen attacked. OK, it's normal to attack when you have the numerical advantage, but the way the race panned out, it should have been clear that Stannard would have been the strongest (apart from sprinting) and Stijn the weakest. Stannard was the one who kept his nerve. He's calculated reaction to Boonen's attack was particularly impressive.

Why did Terpstra led out the sprint? Stannard had to keep pulling to keep ahead of Boonen.

Anyway, VanMarcke's bad luck was certainly good luck for Stannard, but the scenario still required his iron nerves and tactical errors from from the Etixx guys in order to win.

 

[Vesica]

Boonen lied about the thing that Terpstra went first. Terpstra was just riding hard in front and Stannard let a small gap, nothing more. Boonen was the one with the first real attack.

Anyway, great win by VanStannardt

 

[jens_attacks]

after i watched it again, i think the only big mistake was that of terpstra leading the sprint. again,i'm not sure he would have won if he let ian go first.
the rest, stan was just the strongest, the freshest. etixx did well though to distance sep, otherwise most likely it was him who would have won.
overall, just an awesome bloody race

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Let's assume that, with the work they had done to keep clear of Vanmarcke and Van Avermaet, Terpstra and Vandenbergh were destined to come 3rd and 4th. Once Boonen had manoeuvred himself into 4th wheel with about 8km remaining, that seemed inevitable, and Etixx looked to have no ambition of a 1-2 by that point.

So why did that not happen? I have not done as much reading of obscure magazines in Flemish as some of you, and claim no knowledge of his mindset or personality, but that attempted escape at 5km to go looked to me like pure hubris: "I could simply beat him in a 250m sprint, but I want to have my head up and my arms raised for those last 250m and to take this in style."

When that failed, Terpstra seemed to recognise that the plan had changed, and was ready to exhaust Stannard with multiple chases for the remaining distance. Vandenbergh, I suspect, rather than thinking "anyone other than Terpstra" as has been suggested, was still operating on plan A and underestimated how much the failed attack had taken out of Boonen. As far as he was concerned, his job was still to operate a two-man derny so that Boonen could win the sprint, and he was probably wondering why Terpstra had pushed quite so hard.

Stannard did well to take advantage of the confusion and had the strength to bring it down to one on one by the end, but still needed a third Etixx mistake, that of Terpstra either totally forgetting last year's finish in the same race (Stannard can outsprint a potato after all) or thinking that he is better at a long sprint than Van Avermaet. Surely Stannard could not believe his luck when Terpstra took over the lead as early as he did.

Great calm head, and great strength by Stannard, but he still could not have won without the Vanmarcke/Van Avermaet threat behind, and the pride of Boonen/Terpstra. And the lack of race radio to tell Vandenbergh that the situation and plan had changed.

 

[Krebs cycle]

I don't see what Boonen's attack had to do with it as Stannard pulled him back without any help.

But anyhow, Boonen attacks - Stannard chases him - Terpstra attacks (Vandenbergh's brain freezes) - group comes together - Stannard attacks. That's the sequence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQRSisiaC9A#t=371

You can start watching from here

^This! Whether or not Boonen did the right thing to go earlier is irrelevant to what came after. He couldn't hang on for the counter, so at that point it should have been clear that Vandenbergh had to get on Stannard's wheel immediately after Terpstra went. Then to top it off, Terpstra manages to get back on Stannard's wheel but instead of keeping the advantage he decides to come around and lead him out for the win before coming off his line and trying to push Stannard into the barriers.

For years to come they will show the last 5min of this race at level 1 cycling coaching courses as an example of what NOT to do when you have a 3 on 1 fast break.

 

[Tank Engine]

Let's assume that, with the work they had done to keep clear of Vanmarcke and Van Avermaet, Terpstra and Vandenbergh were destined to come 3rd and 4th. Once Boonen had manoeuvred himself into 4th wheel with about 8km remaining, that seemed inevitable, and Etixx looked to have no ambition of a 1-2 by that point.

So why did that not happen? I have not done as much reading of obscure magazines in Flemish as some of you, and claim no knowledge of his mindset or personality, but that attempted escape at 5km to go looked to me like pure hubris: "I could simply beat him in a 250m sprint, but I want to have my head up and my arms raised for those last 250m and to take this in style."

When that failed, Terpstra seemed to recognise that the plan had changed, and was ready to exhaust Stannard with multiple chases for the remaining distance. Vandenbergh, I suspect, rather than thinking "anyone other than Terpstra" as has been suggested, was still operating on plan A and underestimated how much the failed attack had taken out of Boonen. As far as he was concerned, his job was still to operate a two-man derny so that Boonen could win the sprint, and he was probably wondering why Terpstra had pushed quite so hard.

Stannard did well to take advantage of the confusion and had the strength to bring it down to one on one by the end, but still needed a third Etixx mistake, that of Terpstra either totally forgetting last year's finish in the same race (Stannard can outsprint a potato after all) or thinking that he is better at a long sprint than Van Avermaet. Surely Stannard could not believe his luck when Terpstra took over the lead as early as he did.

Great calm head, and great strength by Stannard, but he still could not have won without the Vanmarcke/Van Avermaet threat behind, and the pride of Boonen/Terpstra. And the lack of race radio to tell Vandenbergh that the situation and plan had changed.

I agree with pretty much all of this. Maybe the lack of race radio had an effect on Vandenbergh's tactics, but I think he was so exhausted that after Stannard lifted the pace, he couldn't pace Boonen (Stijn dropped like a stone) and Boonen had tired himself out with his pointless attack on a relatively fresh rider with a high powered diesel engine, who he would have beaten in a sprint.

 

[Dr. Juice]

How can you attack with your best sprinter and sprint with your best rouleur?

Stannard's masterpiece was the fact that he didn't close the gap to Boonen immediately but catched him on pace. Let the rider who beats me in a sprint tire out at the front. That made the difference otherwise Boonen would have closed those 20 m.

And why was Teprstra panicking at the end? Afraid that Boonen makes it back and wins? All he should have done was to stay in Stannard's wheel and stick his nose out in the last 50 m.

 

[Volderke]

For years to come they will show the last 5min of this race at level 1 cycling coaching courses as an example of what NOT to do when you have a 3 on 1 fast break.

They will have to show the last hour. It is CRUCIAL to see how much effort they had to do to keep Vanmarcke at a comfortable distance.
They had 40 seconds with 10K to go. That could have been the moment to maintain the pace and even slow down a little bit. Boonen could have been sitting in the wheel comfortably, VDB doing most of the work, and Terpstra taking some pulls and doing the lead out.

Boonen lied about the thing that Terpstra went first. Terpstra was just riding hard in front and Stannard let a small gap, nothing more. Boonen was the one with the first real attack.

Anyway, great win by VanStannardt

That is not a lie. Watch again! Terpstra is not 100% to blame, but he went first. He went because VDB left a gap for Stannard to close. You see Terpstra looking back and going full! The next moment, they show a helicopter image of the Ghelamco arena in Ghent. At that moment, Terpstra had a 2-3 bike length gap and Stannard had to close the gap. Boonen was way too confident and thought that this little acceleration had worn out Stannard enough... Big mistake! But Terpstra really went first. It's a bit pathetic that Boonen tries to blame Terpstra for this, however.

But how is it possible that Terpstra was so fresh in the end? Did he do his job in the breakaway? I feel he let Boonen do too much work so he had his own chance in the end, thinking of a second Roubaix scenario...

 

[Kwibus]

Boonen not able to follow a Stannard attack?

Hahahahahahha

Looooooool

I just watched the race and was reading through the thread and this one is priceless.

 

[Kwibus]

Quicksteppers were underestimating Stannard badly. The reason why Boonen went first is simple. He wanted to win it badly. Not smart, but the reason imo.

The way we saw Boonen struggling after his attack also clearly showed that he was pretty much dead. So I'm certainly not confident he would've won the sprint vs Stannard who clearly has a very decent sprint.

When Stannard pulled Boonen back in an effort equal to Boonens attack afterall Terpstra went and Stijn who thought "This Stannard guy is dead anyways so I'll just follow Niki and we sprint for the win" .
This move was the biggest fail in the last 3km. Really Stijn? Nice closing the gap there....

Stannard then showed how strong he was by attacking himself and dropping Stijn and Tom and then keeping a high pace with Terpstra in his wheel and Boonen at 10metres so he couldn't hold back, yet he still won the sprint, because somehow Terpstra thought it would be a good idea to lead him out.

Etixx underestimated how strong Stannard still was while all 3 of them really had to make a huge effort to keep Vanmarcke back.

Omloop was freaking awesome again, what a race! I love the cobbles!!

 

[Kwibus]

Yeah they must have just freaked out about the possibility of a sprint and then that was that. Like, when Boonen dropped behind Stannard I was like 'smart move, he has good enough acceleration to cover a move and can wait for the sprint if not', and then Boonen went? And then Terpstra countered before Boonen could catch his breath - that was the real mistake I think, if the Boonen move wasn't, to let your best sprinter go into the red so far (which, maybe Boonen did himself on the attack). And then Vandenbergh realized 'oops, I don't have anything left' and then it was chaos. Just all fell apart.

Fantastically cool headed approach by Stannard, though. Definitely a QuickStep fail, but also a huge Stannard win.

Let Boone catch his breath? Then you also let Stannard catch his breath which is silly when it's 3 vs 1. Stijn shouldn't have closed that gap. Seeing Stannard attack himself right after just showed how strong he still was. Vanmarcke killed the aetixx guys.

 

[Kwibus]

They will have to show the last hour. It is CRUCIAL to see how much effort they had to do to keep Vanmarcke at a comfortable distance.
They had 40 seconds with 10K to go. That could have been the moment to maintain the pace and even slow down a little bit. Boonen could have been sitting in the wheel comfortably, VDB doing most of the work, and Terpstra taking some pulls and doing the lead out.


That is not a lie. Watch again! Terpstra is not 100% to blame, but he went first. He went because VDB left a gap for Stannard to close. You see Terpstra looking back and going full! The next moment, they show a helicopter image of the Ghelamco arena in Ghent. At that moment, Terpstra had a 2-3 bike length gap and Stannard had to close the gap. Boonen was way too confident and thought that this little acceleration had worn out Stannard enough... Big mistake! But Terpstra really went first. It's a bit pathetic that Boonen tries to blame Terpstra for this, however.

But how is it possible that Terpstra was so fresh in the end? Did he do his job in the breakaway? I feel he let Boonen do too much work so he had his own chance in the end, thinking of a second Roubaix scenario...

I wouldn't say Terpstra was fresh, but right now I think his endurance is better than the other 2. Let's be fair Boonen is past his peak. Terpstra has quite a decent sprint, but he didn't have much left in the tank as well.

Terpstra did what he had to do when VDB left a gap to close for Stannard. Ride hard and let Stannard close it with Boonen in his wheel.

If anyone rode smart it was Terpstra with the exception of the last 200mtr.

 

[rote_laterne]

Stybar showed a bit of class and didn't contest the sprint. He was even nice enough to do the leadout when GVA and Vanmarcke started looking at each other.

Thanks for answering. In the long run Stybar will gain more from acting like he did than he would if he sprinted for a (meaningless) 5th place.

 

[The_Juan]

Methinks the end is more simple than people think: Boonen puts in a good attack in the wrong place and is slowly brought back. Once Stannard gets to Boonen, Terpstra launches what is probably the dumbest attack in recent times, exposing Boonen AND Vandenbergh, instead of the Brit. Stannard makes a logistical assessment and realizes that his best option then is to ride with Niki to the finish line and beat him in a sprint. Terpstra non only obliges, he decides to pull him to the end.

That's all she wrote.

Man, Boonen must've been fuming during the team meeting. That was a really bad, intentionally spoiling bad, move on the part of Niki. Once it became clear they were not going to beat the Brit, they should've settled the race in a sprint. I suspect there's some interpersonal issues within the team, or that there's no clear leader for races like yesterday's.

 

[l.Harm]

Sorry, didn't see the race at all yesterday. Is there a nice vid for this race? Extended highlights or something. Apologies if it's already posted.

 

[Netserk]

Sorry, didn't see the race at all yesterday. Is there a nice vid for this race? Extended highlights or something. Apologies if it's already posted.

Last 20km

It's the longest I could find so far.

 

[Vesica]

last 10K

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQRSisiaC9A