2023 Brabantse Pijl, April 12th

[tobydawq]

I do not mock him or his previews, he mocks himself. Well, I do mock him for a lack of a hairline, but that's something different. The man is omega try harding, has a weird, ridiculous case of reverse FOMO. I can hear sweat trickling down his cheeks, in constant and utmost fear of not having named a rider who might win. He is capable of naming Ceriel Desal to win Roubaix. Who? Precisely.

I very much doubt it.

 

[Didinho]

thanks, no idea why they don't use it then. This course without it is actually pretty easy, I'd say, even it was was selective the past two editions. 1st one had van Aert, and last year's bad weather to make up for it.

But looks like there could be rain again tomorrow as well.

Yes it will be raining for the whole night until the afternoon. After 2pm also more wind, but that's not relative in this race.

For the new finish I think it has to do with logistics and/or they love the new design indeed. The run-up to the Schavei is also a smaller bit of the town on a narrow road. With the S-turn around the church (like in the WC) I think they maybe want to stay there in the bigger part of the town. I liked the previous finish better, it's a lot harder than the 1km straight they do now.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Cosnefroy, Bagioli, Hermans, Cavagna, Simmons, Kron, Dewulf, Strong, De Lie, Skujins, Trentin, Hirschi... And somehow Healy is 3rd favorite according to the bookies?

Drifted to joint fourth now (behind Cosnefroy, Strong and Hermans, tied with Bagioli, De Lie and Kron), but yeah. Not saying I agree either (British/Irish riders usually get overrated by the bookmakers because of the amount of betters there), but that still would have been unthinkable in previous editions.

For the new finish I think it has to do with logistics and/or they love the new design indeed. The run-up to the Schavei is also a smaller bit of the town on a narrow road. With the S-turn around the church (like in the WC) I think they maybe want to stay there in the bigger part of the town. I liked the previous finish better, it's a lot harder than the 1km straight they do now.

I'm actually kind of fond of this finish, since the Liège finish returned to Liège there wasn't really a significant race that ended with the kind of drag to the line that feels much longer than it is anymore. However, this kind of fits the bill, whereas the Schavei feels a bit more generic (though still fine) to me. Also means it's less safe for the strongest puncheur to wait for the final kilometre. My only real gripe with the current route is that the bulldozing of the Moskesstraat for the 2021 Worlds has nerfed both the climb and the final circuit in general, but there isn't much to be done about that.

 

[jaylew]

I really like this race. A shame the men's field is a little meh but it should still be good.

Otoh, the women's race has a really great field and should be fantastic. I'm really curious to see how Fem goes tomorrow.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

He is capable of naming Ceriel Desal to win Roubaix. Who? Precisely.

I'd have been delighted: pulled his name in the club sweepstake.

 

[Didinho]

I really like this race. A shame the men's field is a little meh but it should still be good.

Otoh, the women's race has a really great field and should be fantastic. I'm really curious to see how Fem goes tomorrow.

She got a good chance for the win I think. This race suits her well. Don't know how much she has ridden in a peloton though. If she's up here, I put her also with the favorites for the Waalse Pijl.

 

[proffate]

is it normal that this race is missing so many WT teams?

 

[search]

looks more like a lack of big names than big teams to me. From the usual suspects Jayco (went to Sicily instead) is missing, but 11 is not a super low number of WT teams. Pre-covid it were rarely more than that

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I think it's more that this was a race which had been improving in field and standard year on year, so this field feels like a step back in momentum for it. It's not an unreasonable field for the race on the balance of things, but it had been seeing some very strong fields in recent years as a great sort of balancing halfway house that made the classics into a continuum moving toward Amstel Gold rather than there being a distinct "northern Classics / hilly Classics" separation as had felt like the case a few years ago where there was a fairly low amount of overlap in field between the two sets of races.

 

[Pantani_lives]

The weather looks splendid! I mean horrific! I mean splendid for lazy TV watchers and horrific for the riders!

 

[search]

I think it's more that this was a race which had been improving in field and standard year on year

it never had its normal surroundings in the calendar those past couple of years, though. 2020 Amstel was cancelled, 2021 Roubaix, and last year their dates were reversed. So I guess BP also somewhat benefitted from that.

 

[RedheadDane]

2020 Amstel was cancelled, 2021 Roubaix, and last year their dates were reversed.

I think Sonny Colbrelli will be very sad to hear that 2021 P-R was cancelled. And then wonder what the heck he was doing on October 3rd.
I know what you meant.

 

[search]

Het Nieuwsblad's star ratings:

**** * Cosnefroy
**** Bagioli, Barguil
*** Hermans, Kragh, Zingle
** Cavagna, Hirschi, Eenckhoorn, Kron
* Simmons, Honoré, Arndt, Bonneu, Trentin

not quite sure how Bonneu made the list instead of Kamp or maybe Strong. It also doesn't really strike me as a race for Arndt, or this long past his best version of Hirschi

 

[Salvarani]

Het Nieuwsblad's star ratings:

**** * Cosnefroy
**** Bagioli, Barguil
*** Hermans, Kragh, Zingle
** Cavagna, Hirschi, Eenckhoorn, Kron
* Simmons, Honoré, Arndt, Bonneu, Trentin

not quite sure how Bonneu made the list instead of Kamp or maybe Strong. It also doesn't really strike me as a race for Arndt, or this long past his best version of Hirschi

I think the answer to that lies in the origin of the source and where Bonneu is from.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Drifted to joint fourth now (behind Cosnefroy, Strong and Hermans, tied with Bagioli, De Lie and Kron), but yeah. Not saying I agree either (British/Irish riders usually get overrated by the bookmakers because of the amount of betters there), but that still would have been unthinkable in previous editions.

Lost another spot. Joined 5th. Simmons seems an interesting bet at those odds. Not sure about his current form though.

 

[Strawberry_Jams]

Cosnefroy is quitely building a nice palmares. would be nice if he added a spring classic to his Bretagne Classic and GP Québec. Has podiums here, amstel, fleche and paris-tours.

 

[theyoungest]

She got a good chance for the win I think. This race suits her well. Don't know how much she has ridden in a peloton though. If she's up here, I put her also with the favorites for the Waalse Pijl.

She's such a complete unknown on the road, I think even she doesn't know if she's more of a Kopecky than a Van der Breggen. If the former, these races (and certainly Fleche Wallonne) may prove to be a bit too hard.

 

[Samamba]

Het Nieuwsblad's star ratings:

**** * Cosnefroy
**** Bagioli, Barguil
*** Hermans, Kragh, Zingle
** Cavagna, Hirschi, Eenckhoorn, Kron
* Simmons, Honoré, Arndt, Bonneu, Trentin

not quite sure how Bonneu made the list instead of Kamp or maybe Strong. It also doesn't really strike me as a race for Arndt, or this long past his best version of Hirschi

Cause those guys probably don't even know who Strong and Kamp are. I really don't get the value of those star ratings.

 

[Gigs_98]

I think it's more that this was a race which had been improving in field and standard year on year, so this field feels like a step back in momentum for it. It's not an unreasonable field for the race on the balance of things, but it had been seeing some very strong fields in recent years as a great sort of balancing halfway house that made the classics into a continuum moving toward Amstel Gold rather than there being a distinct "northern Classics / hilly Classics" separation as had felt like the case a few years ago where there was a fairly low amount of overlap in field between the two sets of races.

I agree but I wonder if in the long term this continuum will rather weaken the standing of this race than strengthen it. I agree it neatly fits as a link between the Flanders and AGR (PR really is the odd one out here) but with the favorites of those two races now being mostly the same, the guys who would also be favored in Brabant will often leave it out as they would simply overrace themselves.

If they are more of a northern classics type they won't do this race in between Roubaix and AGR and if they are more of a hilly classics specialist they won't want to race too much before LBL. That basically leaves us with guys who would be good in both the AGR and the Ronde but neither focus on PR nor LBL and there just aren't that many such guys around. Don't know if that's a trend but least this year it's noticable.

 

[Didinho]

Cause those guys probably don't even know who Strong and Kamp are. I really don't get the value of those star ratings.

They just ask some guys in the office their stars and mix it together. Most of the time it's just the well known names as if they only watch the races/teams in Belgium. I just read these to know which big names are participating.

 

[Samamba]

They just ask some guys in the office their stars and mix it together. Most of the time it's just the well known names as if they only watch the races/teams in Belgium. I just read these to know which big names are participating.

Could just look at PCS instead tho?

 

[Samamba]

Not going to be as rainy as last year I think. Probably will get some heavy rain showers (could be hail even) later in the race but it should be dry most of the time.

 

[search]

personally I like those ratings, even if it's just as a starting point for a discussion about the favourites

 

[Didinho]

Could just look at PCS instead tho?

Yes offcourse but when I wake up and read the newspaper that's what strikes me. Quick look at their favorites. I'm not immediately on my screens.

No live images for the women race?

 

[Devil's Elbow]

it never had its normal surroundings in the calendar those past couple of years, though. 2020 Amstel was cancelled, 2021 Roubaix, and last year their dates were reversed. So I guess BP also somewhat benefitted from that.

But the calendar was normal in 2019 and then Van der Poel outsprinted Alaphilippe, Wellens and Matthews to take the win. Even if the biggest names dominate today, the top-4 will pale compared to that one.