57th Four Days of Dunkirk - May 4 to 8 2011 (with Zdenek Stybar)

[theyoungest]

Boom is, I think, also more for the hilly classics, or he was in the past,but somehow he thinks he is better on cobbles.

Or, conversely, Boom is more for the cobbled classics, but somehow you think he's better in the hills.

Still better than Bakeveld /Mart Smeets

Molkema, Kreuzinger, Taamarae... yes, you gotta love/hate Smeets.

 

[Echoes]

Niels Albert has tried on the road... he won a mountain stage of the Circuito Montáñes last year.

A point of order is needed here, I think.

EVERY cyclocross specialist is racing on the road. As a matter of fact they're forced to.

I remember Albert's win in the Circuito Montañes was discussed here and some argued that he was only racing with U23 and hence his win was overrated.


Albert has always been a very good roadie ever since the junior category when he could win something like 7 races in the 10 that he was racing. With the pros his best performance in my opinion was the queen stage of the Tour of Belgium in 2009 which he finished 5th after animating it. I had an issue with DT about that last year because I thought Albert was stronger than Boom that day and he thought the other way round. He was top15 in the GC, I think. And went on to win the prologue of the Boucle de la Mayenne and the Tour of Alsace (GC) in that same year.

But apparently he didn't want to be bothered with negotiating a contract with a road team like Stybar did, he feels at home with BKCP and I don't think BKCP can build up a top road team, and hence his road calendar won't change.


By the way, I really pity those who chose to watch the Giro yesterday and are still discussing about it here. I somehow feel a true cycling fan (unlike the gloryhunters/star worshippers) would have chosen Dunkirk, any day ! One of the most entertaining races I've seen this season.

And this, even if you are a Voeckler hater like me.

 

[El Pistolero]

Actually, Stybar is a guy for the hilly classics. (proven that as espor already).
Boom is, I think, also more for the hilly classics, or he was in the past,but somehow he thinks he is better on cobbles.
Albert is more a climber. A real climber. Also good at short ITT's.. I think he'd be a good stage-racer, at least for 1 week races. Hard to tell.

Well when Albert wins he usually does it by riding 50 min alone, so I guess he does have good endurance. But how that translates in endurance over a week or 3 weeks, who knows.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Or, conversely, Boom is more for the cobbled classics, but somehow you think he's better in the hills.


Molkema, Kreuzinger, Taamarae... yes, you gotta love/hate Smeets.

Have you seen Boom racing at the espoirs? Or another good example, Tour of Belgium ardennes stage 2009?
Or Vuelta medium mountain stages?
As junior he was even 2nd in the Clasique des Alpes in front of Andy Schleck..

Anywho, I really believe he has much more potential for the hilly type races than cobbles. Plays much better to his ability to accelerate.

 

[palmerq]

Kittel wins again, very easily, i think galimzyanov was 3rd :S

looked like the katusha rider started from very far back .

 

[greenedge]

good work by kittel, come on voeckler you are an inspiration

 

[El Pistolero]

So what's next on Voeckler's program?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Racethread should have been renamed

"4 days of Kittel (with Thomas Voeckler)"

 

[Rechtschreibfehler]

Racethread should have been renamed

"4 days of Kittel (with Thomas Voeckler)"

Yeah.

It'll be interesting to see if Kittel will manage to get a win in a TT as well this year. As this discipline is where he began to shine in.
In general this week might point to a great career. There aren't to many riders who are very fast and very strong. But still, he has "only" beatan Huratovich and others yet. I hope he'll be at least a Casper.