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2019 Binck Bank Tour, 12-18 August (2.WT)

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Flamin

Flamin

Jan 4, 2011
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STARTLIST

Monday 12th Aug, stage 1: Beveren – Hulst (167,2 km)

A bunch sprint (prepare for some more).


binckbank-tour-2019-stage-1.png




Tuesday 13th Aug, stage 2: Blankenberge – Ardooie (169,1 km)

Surprise. A bunch sprint. Albeit, the traditional twisty finale in Ardooie has seen some gimmicks in the last 1-2km, like Trek leaving a gap last year in a chicane for Stuyven, who went on the win the stage.


binckbank-tour-2019-stage-2.png


Wednesday 14th Aug, stage 3: Aalter – Aalter (166,9 km)

A proper hattrick.


binckbank-tour-2019-stage-3.png



Thursday 15th Aug, stage 4: Houffalize – Houffalize (96,2 km)

The length is cringeworthy, but at least there's an Ardennes stage this year. Three laps around Houffalize with some proper hard climbing packed mostly in the first half of the loop.

I like the positioning of the stage, quite early in the race. Full on racing should be -nearly- guaranteed.


binckbank-tour-2019-stage-4.png



Friday 16th Aug, stage 5: Riemst – Venray (191,4 km)

Followed up by another bunch sprint.


binckbank-tour-2019-stage-5.png



Saturday 17th Aug, stage 6: Den Haag – Den Haag (8,4 km, ITT)

A pancake flat short ITT.


binckbank-tour-2019-stage-6.png




Sunday 18th Aug, stage 7: Sint-Pieters-Leeuw – Geraardsbergen (178,1 km)

The, in the meantime, classic final stage of the Binck Bank, including Bosberg-Muur and the finish on the Vesten.


binckbank-tour-2019-stage-7.png
 
Last edited:
Flamin

Flamin

Jan 4, 2011
6,167
140
17,680
Valv.Piti said:
Is this really the best they can come up with?

Looking forward to next week stage racing wise, but I'll use more of my time to watch Burgos and Utah which always are delivering some nice racing.
Click to expand...

No, but this race has more than once "overdelivered" in terms of racing though. Remember also last year, when there wasn't even an Ardennes stage.
 
Libertine Seguros

Libertine Seguros

Feb 20, 2010
32,224
13,694
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Really, really poor. There should always be a straightforward formula to the Benelux Tour.

1x Vlaamse Ardennen stage
1x real Ardennes stage (you know, one that wouldn't be considered overly short in women's cycling)
1x Limburg Amstel Gold-a-like
1x echelon-baiting Zeeland stage
1x ITT (12-15km)
2x flat stages, possibly one with a hint of cobbles or dirt roads

Ideally you could replace one of the flat stages with a stage in Luxembourg since they never get any stages.
 
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Finn84

Finn84

Sep 1, 2010
1,522
366
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Libertine Seguros said:
Really, really poor. There should always be a straightforward formula to the Benelux Tour.

1x Vlaamse Ardennen stage
1x real Ardennes stage (you know, one that wouldn't be considered overly short in women's cycling)
1x Limburg Amstel Gold-a-like
1x echelon-baiting Zeeland stage
1x ITT (12-15km)
2x flat stages, possibly one with a hint of cobbles or dirt roads

Ideally you could replace one of the flat stages with a stage in Luxembourg since they never get any stages.
Click to expand...

Vlaamse Ardennen means cobbled hills, right? In case I agree pretty much with you. I would add that one of Ardennes or Limburg stage should have a uphill finish like Amstel Gold had for years or Flèche Wallonne still has. And this could be rotated yearle between those two.
 
A

Anderis

May 10, 2013
5,454
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This race was very good when it used to have 3 selective stages. I think it was 2014-2015. Why can't we have that again?

I wonder how Bettiol will do in this race. A route with an ITT, a hilly stage and a cobbled stage seems perfect for somoeone with his skillset but during Tour de France his form didn't seem to be as good as in the spring anymore. I hope he hasn't lost the hunger after taking that big win in Flanders.
 
Red Rick

Red Rick

Feb 20, 2012
49,290
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Main reason why this race tends to overdeliver is that all potential GC candidates basically have one stage where they have to make the difference, and one stage where they kinda have to defend, and on neither stage you can wait for the last 2km. Also, teams are very light on climbers cause those climbers have other races to focus on, so the field gets shredded in the Ardennes a lot more easily than in the Ardennes classics.

Limburg is always bound to be a reduced sprint cause it's simply not hard enough unless you cram in a dozen hills. Overdoing the Ardennes would be bad cause it would reduce the race to a waiting game between Ardennes specialists.

I agree though that they're really underdoing it this year.

My preferred route would be to have closer to 20km of ITT, make the Flemish stage the queen stage, and actually use some of the hardest hills in the Ardennes without too many other hills and put em down some 20km from the line. Making an uphill sprint/Murito finish on one of the other stages wouldn't hurt imo. Wouldn't mind a Cauberg uphill sprint in this race, but I would also prefer if they didn't do a Mur de Huy finish or something cause that's a bit too harsh on the rouleurs.
 
H

hayneplane

Sep 4, 2017
2,801
3,156
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If Dylan Van Baarle has carried his Tour form through to now then he could be poised to take the biggest win of his career.

Interested to see how Marc Hirschi goes as one of the most impressive young riders this year.

Could well be one of the usual storylines of Lotto-Soudal vs DQS vs Greg Van Avermaet for the overall.

It’s a nice field but an ugly parcours and I just hope they can outrace the route provided.

In the sprints (of which there are far too many in this edition) the battle will be between Groenewegen coming off the Tour and a theoretically fresher Bennett and Demare. With the latter pair the early stage bonus seconds could potentially put them in play to try and hang on for a tilt at a high GC.
 
O

OlavEH

Oct 19, 2011
2,893
1,582
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Libertine Seguros said:
Really, really poor. There should always be a straightforward formula to the Benelux Tour.

1x Vlaamse Ardennen stage
1x real Ardennes stage (you know, one that wouldn't be considered overly short in women's cycling)
1x Limburg Amstel Gold-a-like
1x echelon-baiting Zeeland stage
1x ITT (12-15km)
2x flat stages, possibly one with a hint of cobbles or dirt roads

Ideally you could replace one of the flat stages with a stage in Luxembourg since they never get any stages.
Click to expand...

Where is Vlaamse Ardennes? What kind of stages could you expect there?

And what do you mean by "echelon-baiting"? Is this a region bordering the North Sea with a good possibility of sidewind?

Anyway, this year's route is just awful. Absolutely crap design. They could at least have put in one hilly stage, somewhere in the Ardennes or perhaps Luxembourg. There are a lot of nice hills in Luxembourg which absolutely should have been used for this race regularly, at least every 2-3 years.
 
RedheadDane

RedheadDane

May 5, 2010
48,054
26,491
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Maybe Luxembourg doesn't want to pay for the expense of having a bike race. Just because it's a kind of small country, situated in-between Belgium and the Netherlands, doesn't mean those countries can just invade them for a bike race whenever they want.
 
TourOfSardinia

TourOfSardinia

Feb 16, 2010
14,936
5,357
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Anderis said:
I wonder how Bettiol will do in this race. A route with an ITT, a hilly stage and a cobbled stage seems perfect for somoeone with his skillset but during Tour de France his form didn't seem to be as good as in the spring anymore. I hope he hasn't lost the hunger after taking that big win in Flanders.
Click to expand...
Bettiol decided to No Show - can't really blame him given the parcourse
 
lemon cheese cake

lemon cheese cake

Sep 28, 2014
3,639
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OlavEH said:
Where is Vlaamse Ardennes? What kind of stages could you expect there?

And what do you mean by "echelon-baiting"? Is this a region bordering the North Sea with a good possibility of sidewind?

Anyway, this year's route is just awful. Absolutely crap design. They could at least have put in one hilly stage, somewhere in the Ardennes or perhaps Luxembourg. There are a lot of nice hills in Luxembourg which absolutely should have been used for this race regularly, at least every 2-3 years.
Click to expand...
Around Geraardsbergen, Oudenaarde and Ronse where the the Tour of Flanders etc take place
 
O

OlavEH

Oct 19, 2011
2,893
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lemon cheese cake said:
Around Geraardsbergen, Oudenaarde and Ronse where the the Tour of Flanders etc take place
Click to expand...

Ah, thank you. Just used to using only Flanders on that part of Belgium

Agree with Libertine on that. And I like the current format using Kappelmuur and Geraaardsbergen as the decisive point in stead of Kwaremont and Paterberg as several of the other Flemish races.

An absolute minimum should be the current cobbled stage around Geraardsbergen and a proper Ardennes stage. The latter has been completely ignored except for a couple of years when they finished close to Redoute.
 
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Z

Zinoviev Letter

Aug 18, 2010
11,435
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Nice work by Bennett. First win in his national champions jersey, ninth win of the season. It was a weird sprint though. I’ve no idea what UAE and Jumbo were playing at. UAE finished their leadout way too early, while Jumbo looked like they were leading Groenewegen out to an imaginary finish 200 meters after the real one.
 
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