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57th De Brabantse Pijl, 12th April (1.HC, 197km)

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Jul 16, 2010
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Arredondo said:
El Pistolero said:
Pathetic racing by Gilbert. Why did he even bother starting here? He let every single attack go.

Very boring race as well, only Colbrelli deserved to win here.

Matthews again does absolutely nothing except a sprint near the end.

It was a great race. You're just way too obsessed with guys like Matthews. Forget him.

If you didn't enjoy this race, i don't know what you rank as a 'entertaining race'. These races are not comparable to the races we have had the past weeks.

A race with zero attacks from the favorites and a mediocre break surviving isn't what I call entertaining.
 
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frisenfruitig said:
Maaaaaaaarten said:
Really nice race overall too.


Thought it was pretty boring compared to the cobbled classics tbh. Well deserved win for Colbrelli though. Looked like Gilbert didn't really feel like attacking with Matthews glued to his wheel
You'll always end up disappointed if you compare the Ardennes classics with the Cobbled Classics. I think the race was pretty good.
 
Jul 16, 2010
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Gigs_98 said:
frisenfruitig said:
Maaaaaaaarten said:
Really nice race overall too.


Thought it was pretty boring compared to the cobbled classics tbh. Well deserved win for Colbrelli though. Looked like Gilbert didn't really feel like attacking with Matthews glued to his wheel
You'll always end up disappointed if you compare the Ardennes classics with the Cobbled Classics. I think the race was pretty good.

It was also boring compared to Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo.
 
I wonder if Matthews is the kind of rider who already thinks he is in the top tier elite - alongside the likes of Gilbert. And that Subweb didn't want to show their hand ahead of Amstel and how it was a prep race for him. That's the only justification I can see for their tactics today.

Whereas, in reality, Brabantse Pijl would be comfortably the biggest one day win of his career.
 
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El Pistolero said:
Pathetic racing by Gilbert. Why did he even bother starting here? He let every single attack go.

Very boring race as well, only Colbrelli deserved to win here.

Matthews again does absolutely nothing except a sprint near the end.

There you are again with your extreme opinions :lol:. I can understand Gilbert didn't feel like attacking considering Matthews was right behind him constantly. Maybe he just wasn't feeling very strong?
 
Re:

El Pistolero said:
Pathetic racing by Gilbert. Why did he even bother starting here? He let every single attack go.

Very boring race as well, only Colbrelli deserved to win here.

Matthews again does absolutely nothing except a sprint near the end.
Training ride.
After his season so far, probably smart to give others of his team the chance of a win.

To call that 'pathetic' is pretty shortsighted.
 
Only got to watch the final 10km, but it was fun racing all the way from there to the end. Periods of both the break and the peloton being pathetically lethargic and unorganized, but that also allowed it to stay open and interesting until the very end. No doubt about Colbrelli deserving the win, though. He's instantly established himself as the man to beat on Sunday.
 
Re: Re:

El Pistolero said:
Arredondo said:
El Pistolero said:
Pathetic racing by Gilbert. Why did he even bother starting here? He let every single attack go.

Very boring race as well, only Colbrelli deserved to win here.

Matthews again does absolutely nothing except a sprint near the end.

It was a great race. You're just way too obsessed with guys like Matthews. Forget him.

If you didn't enjoy this race, i don't know what you rank as a 'entertaining race'. These races are not comparable to the races we have had the past weeks.

A race with zero attacks from the favorites and a mediocre break surviving isn't what I call entertaining.
The pre-race favorites were riders like Colbrelli, Matthews, Gerrans, Coquard, Haas, Vakoc and Gilbert. Of those you could really only expect Vakoc and Gilbert to attack. Instead we got offensive moves by Colbrelly and Vakoc and strong outsiders like Wellens and Benoot. I thought it was a pretty entertaining race all things considered.
 
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El Pistolero said:
Arredondo said:
El Pistolero said:
Pathetic racing by Gilbert. Why did he even bother starting here? He let every single attack go.

Very boring race as well, only Colbrelli deserved to win here.

Matthews again does absolutely nothing except a sprint near the end.

It was a great race. You're just way too obsessed with guys like Matthews. Forget him.

If you didn't enjoy this race, i don't know what you rank as a 'entertaining race'. These races are not comparable to the races we have had the past weeks.

A race with zero attacks from the favorites and a mediocre break surviving isn't what I call entertaining.
One of the favorites won, attacking from afar.
 
Re: Re:

El Pistolero said:
Arredondo said:
El Pistolero said:
Pathetic racing by Gilbert. Why did he even bother starting here? He let every single attack go.

Very boring race as well, only Colbrelli deserved to win here.

Matthews again does absolutely nothing except a sprint near the end.

It was a great race. You're just way too obsessed with guys like Matthews. Forget him.

If you didn't enjoy this race, i don't know what you rank as a 'entertaining race'. These races are not comparable to the races we have had the past weeks.

A race with zero attacks from the favorites and a mediocre break surviving isn't what I call entertaining.

Colbrelli was a favourite. Vakoc and Wellens attacked too, as did Benoot. Just because Gilbert let his teammates have go and didn't attack doesn't mean it was a bad race.
 
People keep comparing cobbled classics to ardennaises which is useless. The quality gap between top riders and regular riders is way bigger in the cobbled classics. On the hills there is maybe 2% different between the top riders and the number 90. So logically you are not going to create much difference with attacks from afar. So yeah, the races will be 'boring' if you expect 90km finales or even 30km finales.
A small group might or might not get away 10/5km from the line and that's about as exciting as it will get. As long as you manage your expectations it won't be 'boring' to you
 
Jul 16, 2010
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frisenfruitig said:
El Pistolero said:
Pathetic racing by Gilbert. Why did he even bother starting here? He let every single attack go.

Very boring race as well, only Colbrelli deserved to win here.

Matthews again does absolutely nothing except a sprint near the end.

There you are again with your extreme opinions :lol:. I can understand Gilbert didn't feel like attacking considering Matthews was right behind him constantly. Maybe he just wasn't feeling very strong?

If you're never going to attack because someone is in your wheel then you should just retire and go home.
 
While Colbrelli was celebrating an info-thingy appeared on the screen stating something about a record; 1st win, and something about World Tour. What was that about?

Also, someone has been pretty quick with updating the top-corner info box on Wikipedia (the English version), so Colbrelli is already listed as the most recent winner.

As for Matthews and his team not working in the finale; well... there weren't really any Sunweb guys other than Matthews...
 
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RedheadDane said:
While Colbrelli was celebrating an info-thingy appeared on the screen stating something about a record; 1st win, and something about World Tour. What was that about?

Also, someone has been pretty quick with updating the top-corner info box on Wikipedia (the English version), so Colbrelli is already listed as the most recent winner.

As for Matthews and his team not working in the finale; well... there weren't really any Sunweb guys other than Matthews...
The problem is that he did nothing. He was acting like another Bahrain-Merida rider.

I hope Colbrelli congratulated him in the finish line, along with Bole and Gasparotto.
 
Jul 16, 2010
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Dekker_Tifosi said:
People keep comparing cobbled classics to ardennaises which is useless. The quality gap between top riders and regular riders is way bigger in the cobbled classics. On the hills there is maybe 2% different between the top riders and the number 90. So logically you are not going to create much difference with attacks from afar. So yeah, the races will be 'boring' if you expect 90km finales or even 30km finales.
A small group might or might not get away 10/5km from the line and that's about as exciting as it will get. As long as you manage your expectations it won't be 'boring' to you

Yeah, because Bert-Jan Lindeman is such a beast in hilly races. :eek:

The fact he and others were still there in the finale says a lot about the level of racing here.

None of the favorites put in a serious attack, so obviously they aren't going to create much differences. Too many cyclists in these kind of races that are too afraid to attack.
 
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El Pistolero said:
Dekker_Tifosi said:
People keep comparing cobbled classics to ardennaises which is useless. The quality gap between top riders and regular riders is way bigger in the cobbled classics. On the hills there is maybe 2% different between the top riders and the number 90. So logically you are not going to create much difference with attacks from afar. So yeah, the races will be 'boring' if you expect 90km finales or even 30km finales.
A small group might or might not get away 10/5km from the line and that's about as exciting as it will get. As long as you manage your expectations it won't be 'boring' to you

Yeah, because Bert-Jan Lindeman is such a beast in hilly races. :eek:

The fact he and others were still there in the finale says a lot about the level of racing here.

None of the favorites put in a serious attack, so obviously they aren't going to create much differences. Too many cyclists in these kind of races that are too afraid to attack.

Once again, Colbrelli was a favourite. So was Vakoc. And Lindeman was the only really weak rider in the top 8. It's not like this race the best on the calendar, it's just the transition from cobbles to ardennes nowadays. It's a nice race though.
 
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One for Matthews and one for Gerrans to suck on. The wheel part is the tastiest.
 
Jul 16, 2010
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Brullnux said:
El Pistolero said:
Dekker_Tifosi said:
People keep comparing cobbled classics to ardennaises which is useless. The quality gap between top riders and regular riders is way bigger in the cobbled classics. On the hills there is maybe 2% different between the top riders and the number 90. So logically you are not going to create much difference with attacks from afar. So yeah, the races will be 'boring' if you expect 90km finales or even 30km finales.
A small group might or might not get away 10/5km from the line and that's about as exciting as it will get. As long as you manage your expectations it won't be 'boring' to you

Yeah, because Bert-Jan Lindeman is such a beast in hilly races. :eek:

The fact he and others were still there in the finale says a lot about the level of racing here.

None of the favorites put in a serious attack, so obviously they aren't going to create much differences. Too many cyclists in these kind of races that are too afraid to attack.

Once again, Colbrelli was a favourite. So was Vakoc. And Lindeman was the only really weak rider in the top 8. It's not like this race the best on the calendar, it's just the transition from cobbles to ardennes nowadays. It's a nice race though.

Joining a breakaway is not the same as attacking.

You're right, Wellens and Vakoc did attack and that was about it. Way too late as well.

I saw pretty much nothing from the likes of Gilbert, Matthews, Gerrans, Gasparotto, etc.
 
Colbrelli bridged to the break and attacked a few times after that. Gasparotto had Colbrelli up so why would he attack? Gilbert wanted his teammates to have a go for once, which was nice of him.

Gerrans and Matthews are Gerrans and Matthews.
 
Jul 16, 2010
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Brullnux said:
Colbrelli bridged to the break and attacked a few times after that. Gasparotto had Colbrelli up so why would he attack? Gilbert wanted his teammates to have a go for once, which was nice of him.

Gerrans and Matthews are Gerrans and Matthews.

Yeah, because that has worked out so well for QS. They almost always put the wrong riders in the break. Unless Gilbert told them his legs weren't good they should have sacrificed themselves for him. They're domestiques for a reason, because they're not very good at winning races of this caliber. Only Vakoc should have been a protected rider alongside Gilbert. The rest should have remained in the peloton to set up an attack for Gilbert on one of the hills... Unless he had bad legs of course, I'm still waiting for his post-race comments.

My first post said Colbrelli was the only deserving winner of this race, so I'm not sure why you keep mentioning him as if I've forgotten about him.
 
Yeah that's true re colbrelli.

I don't think every race is about winning for Gilbert. He's won this race before and it probably means more to Devenyns, Vakoc and De Plus than it does him at this point. They rarely get a chance to ride for themselves and this was a great opportunity for them. Gilbert had a nice training for Amstel and some other riders had a go. Vakoc came close but there was no chance he could beat Colbrelli in a sprint. Etixx did put the wrong guys up the road but I don't see why that means that they should have all worked for Gilbert.