2018 La Fleche Wallonne

[May0maniac]

Bling 5th, impressive.
Nice to see Konrad in the top 10.

 

[Finn84]

Schachmann got 8th in the end.

 

[Jagartrott]

Re:

wait, wait, it turns out that the best puncheurs in the world know what they are doing when they wait for the Mur? But everyone here assured us that they are suicidal morons riding for Valverde?

Erm, Valverde still beat everyone else.
So there's one guy for whom waiting for the Mur really worked well.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Lotto rode like morons. Lost all respect for Benoot and Wellens.

But hell yeah, Alaphilippe wins! Previous editions of FW were raced too easy. Hard tempo appears to have killed Valverde.

Terrible post. Lotto finished 3rd - a strong result. And Valverde was 2nd - it hardly killed him. Alaphilippe was just on fire - a great performance from him.

They rode to lose.

If Wellens joins that break, he wins.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Lotto rode like morons. Lost all respect for Benoot and Wellens.

But hell yeah, Alaphilippe wins! Previous editions of FW were raced too easy. Hard tempo appears to have killed Valverde.

Terrible post. Lotto finished 3rd - a strong result. And Valverde was 2nd - it hardly killed him. Alaphilippe was just on fire - a great performance from him.

Lotto could have won had they raced more intelligently.

What a meaningless comment. Any team could have won if they raced more intelligently by that logic. Lotto finished on the podium and with another rider in the top 10. Their decision to close down the break was completely vindicated. 100%.

 

[El Pistolero]

Re: Re:

Lotto rode like morons. Lost all respect for Benoot and Wellens.

But hell yeah, Alaphilippe wins! Previous editions of FW were raced too easy. Hard tempo appears to have killed Valverde.

First podium for Lotto at Fleche since Evans in 2008

If you wanna troll, try harder so it's actually amusing

Lotto won this race in 2011.

Where am I even trolling?

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

wait, wait, it turns out that the best puncheurs in the world know what they are doing when they wait for the Mur? But everyone here assured us that they are suicidal morons riding for Valverde?

Erm, Valverde still beat everyone else.
So there's one guy for whom waiting for the Mur really worked well.

Yeah, and zero riders for whom an early attack worked.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

https://imgur.com/a/CdgH3

top 10

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Re:

Lotto rode like morons. Lost all respect for Benoot and Wellens.

Lol stop crying. They would've been 8th or so if they didn't try to close the gap with Benoot. Now they are 3th, what do you think they prefer?

The real mistake was to ride for Wellens and not for Vanendert, but who could've known Vanendert was gonna be this strong.

He was great in Itzulia and has a track record of peaking right for the Ardennes.
He's probably the best puncheur on the team, when he's in shape (only 3 weeks durning the whole season).

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Lotto rode like morons. Lost all respect for Benoot and Wellens.

But hell yeah, Alaphilippe wins! Previous editions of FW were raced too easy. Hard tempo appears to have killed Valverde.

Terrible post. Lotto finished 3rd - a strong result. And Valverde was 2nd - it hardly killed him. Alaphilippe was just on fire - a great performance from him.

Lotto could have won had they raced more intelligently.

What a meaningless comment. Any team could have won if they raced more intelligently by that logic. Lotto finished on the podium and with another rider in the top 10. Their decision to close down the break was completely vindicated. 100%.

And now they can sleep easy on their dumb mistake of not joining the break in the first place.

I swear that 95% of Fleche Wallone is watching dogs chasing their own tails.

 

[hoolaparara]

Okay Matthews finished 5th so must have been a bad day for Valverde

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Lotto rode like morons. Lost all respect for Benoot and Wellens.

But hell yeah, Alaphilippe wins! Previous editions of FW were raced too easy. Hard tempo appears to have killed Valverde.

Terrible post. Lotto finished 3rd - a strong result. And Valverde was 2nd - it hardly killed him. Alaphilippe was just on fire - a great performance from him.

They rode to lose.

If Wellens joins that break, he wins.

It's not a playstation game. You can't just press a button and join whichever attack you want - it's a bit more complicated than that.

Lotto rode a good race.

 

[Laplaz]

Just read an interview with Mario Aerts, DS of Lotto-Soudal, and he believes Tim Wellens can outsprint Valverde on the Mur, and he should wait for the final climb. He should believe in it and not attack...

Rik Verbrugghe, DS of Bahrain-Merida, doesn't believe in a long range attack either. He sees 2 challengers for Valverde: Julian Alaphilippe and Dylan Teuns.

So yeah, borefest ftw! Until the final 4 minutes.

LOL, was going backwards altough being in great position.

 

[Rollthedice]

The king is dead, long live the king of Huy.

 

[infeXio]

:lol:

the Inner Ring
‏ @inrng
Alaphilippe: "I didn't even know if I'd won. I couldn't hear my radio too well, I was thinking Nibali was still up the road"

 

[RedheadDane]

Hmm... I was wondering why Alaphilippe didn't celebrate when he crossed the line.
He thought Nibali was still up front.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Re:

wait, wait, it turns out that the best puncheurs in the world know what they are doing when they wait for the Mur? But everyone here assured us that they are suicidal morons riding for Valverde?

QS never rode on the front of the peloton: UAE, Dimension Data and Lotto did.

Your point is entirely invalid.

Exactly. The only rider capable of beating Valverde was from the same team which would have won if the break hadn't been caught. If QS had played this race differently this break never would have gotten such a big advantage, Movistar hadn't been destroyed so early and Valverde even might have won. The short push with which he closed the gap to Alaphilippe is the exact same which dropped all his rivals in previous years. The only difference is that for the first time since 2013 the race was already on at that point.

 

[hrotha]

Turns out waiting for Valverde to launch his attack from his ideal distance was not smart. Who knew.

 

[jaylew]

Re: Re:

Lotto rode like morons. Lost all respect for Benoot and Wellens.

But hell yeah, Alaphilippe wins! Previous editions of FW were raced too easy. Hard tempo appears to have killed Valverde.

Terrible post. Lotto finished 3rd - a strong result. And Valverde was 2nd - it hardly killed him. Alaphilippe was just on fire - a great performance from him.

They rode to lose.

If Wellens joins that break, he wins.

I highly doubt that.

 

[Climbing]

Was still thinking it was in Lombardia. :lol:

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

:lol:

the Inner Ring
‏ @inrng
Alaphilippe: "I didn't even know if I'd won. I couldn't hear my radio too well, I was thinking Nibali was still up the road"

Rumor has it that Nibali is still climbing the Mur

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

wait, wait, it turns out that the best puncheurs in the world know what they are doing when they wait for the Mur? But everyone here assured us that they are suicidal morons riding for Valverde?

Erm, Valverde still beat everyone else.
So there's one guy for whom waiting for the Mur really worked well.

Yeah, and zero riders for whom an early attack worked.

Exactly.

Any tactic can only ever produce one winner. Riders select a tactic to maximize their chances of being that winner. If you are one of the best puncheurs in the world, that tactic is waiting for the Mur. If you aren’t one of the best puncheurs in the world you may have to get more creative, but your chances are very slim.

 

[May0maniac]

MVP Schachmann, what a ride by him!

 

[El Pistolero]

Re:

Turns out waiting for Valverde to launch his attack from his ideal distance was not smart. Who knew.

Indeed. Courtesy of Nibali & Co for smoking Valverde's team.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

wait, wait, it turns out that the best puncheurs in the world know what they are doing when they wait for the Mur? But everyone here assured us that they are suicidal morons riding for Valverde?

QS never rode on the front of the peloton: UAE, Dimension Data and Lotto did.

Yes they did. They pushed a ferocious pace in the last 5km of the race - especially Jungels, shaving about 20 seconds off the advantage of the break. Even chasing down their own team-mate (who may have won otherwise!).

They clearly would have done that move at whatever point they deemed it necessary to get Alaphilippe into a winning position.