72nd Dwars Door Vlaanderen, 22nd March 2017, 204 km, WT

[yaco]

Durbridge will learn from this race - Once he neutralised Gilbert's final attack, then he should have worked with Gilbert, as this probably would have dropped Lampaert and Lutsenko.

Very interested to see how Gilbert performs in Ronde De Vlaanderen - The signs are good.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

Trek tweeted out that Reijnen is ok but doing x-rays to make sure.

TBH, the way it looked I wouldn't really care if he's broken multiple bones.[/

What do you mean by this RHD?

edited for proper html

I honestly feared it was life-threatening for a sec there...

 

[barmaher]

Great race. Yaco makes a good point about Durbo. He should have worked with Gilbert.

QS played it perfectly

 

[phanatic]

Kicking myself that I only caught a three minute highlight video when Quick-Step put on a clinic. Is Gilbert going all out for Flanders this year? He seems strong early.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Wonderful victory by Lampaert. Great race.
Hotsteppers....................

 

[DNP-Old]

I thought Gaviria looked really good on Taaienberg, his wrist doesn't seem as much of an issue (anymore). Hope he'll have better chances next Sunday, because his race was practically over shortly after.

 

[tomorrow]

Re: Re:

Quick step played with them.Bora,Canon BMC not exist.Is Sagan start to worry today?

QSF have to ride agressively if they want to take advantage of their strenght and disturb Peter.

well today, they did exactly what they should have been doing for years. Finally, they've got it right. However, it was against not the top opposition. They're sure a big danger to P. Sagan, but attacking so early might easily backfire. They need to make the race reasonably difficult, because 60 - 50km to the finish, they're be more favourites to close the gap, not only sagan. 40km to the finish, and with Sagan current shape and with them being too tired, one or two counterattacks, and Sagan goes solo. If Boonen has it to follow sagan in all out attack, then it's ok, cause he will obviously take no turns, but if not, they might not bring him back even if there are 4 of them in the catching group.

I can't wait for flanders, it could be very exciting this time, not like 2 or 3 years ago. Shame I won't be able to watch it this weekend.

 

[Jagartrott]

Well, QS have Gilbert now, and although he can be an egotistical ass sometimes, he does have loads of race instinct and intelligence.

 

[Mr.White]

Re: Re:

100000 times better then that "monument" Milan San Remo right here

Are you for real? its a completely different race

Yes one is exciting and one is the worst WT race

Le Samyn was way more interesting then both, if you know what I mean...

 

[gospina]

Carlos Betancur did great all things considering. Only 4+ minutes back. Same group as Sagan.
(Juraj, but still)

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Good race! Very entertaining. And nice win for Lampaert. Stybar looked really strong on Paterberg (wasn't it?) and I think he looks good for a podium in Flanders.

 

[the asian]

Good to see Gilbert so strong. Hope he can do well in Ronde.

 

[Kwibus]

Flanders classics(organisation) really needs to stop using the same hills in every damn race.
I read an interview with Boonen a while back where he was talkingg about a training ride where they raced lots of bergs that have never been used in any race and some of them were really hard.

If this doesnt change people will get burned out by these races while these races should be the best.

 

[frisenfruitig]

Flanders classics(organisation) really needs to stop using the same hills in every damn race.
I read an interview with Boonen a while back where he was talkingg about a training ride where they raced lots of bergs that have never been used in any race and some of them were really hard.

If this doesnt change people will get burned out by these races while these races should be the best.

It's not like there is an infinite amount of that kind of hills in Flanders though. Also who is getting burned out by these races? There are like 6 races that go over these bergs and then we're all done with them for the rest of the year.

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Flanders classics(organisation) really needs to stop using the same hills in every damn race.
I read an interview with Boonen a while back where he was talkingg about a training ride where they raced lots of bergs that have never been used in any race and some of them were really hard.

If this doesnt change people will get burned out by these races while these races should be the best.

Especially the use of Oude Kwaremont + Paterberg has become so boring. For many years they put Kalkhoveberg in between those two. Nice short cobbled sting, fun to watch.

 

[sQiD]

Flanders classics(organisation) really needs to stop using the same hills in every damn race.
I read an interview with Boonen a while back where he was talkingg about a training ride where they raced lots of bergs that have never been used in any race and some of them were really hard.

If this doesnt change people will get burned out by these races while these races should be the best.

He also said that's what makes Roubaix so unique and more prestigious. The Flanders bergs and cobbles are shared by a lot of races : OHN, KBK, DDV, E3 & GW, while you can only find those brutal cobbles in Paris Roubaix.

 

[Billie]

lol Lampaert and Lemoine did a flying relay at the top of the Valkenberg. (it was very obvious cause Sporza had it a big picture of it on their homepage all afternoon). I'm surprised bmc haven't started complaining yet.

 

[Valv.Piti]

*BMC filing a complaint*

 

[DFA123]

There was an anglo-saxon in the front group as well. Twitter will be on fire soon.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Great riding by Quickstep, particularly the textbook one-two attack by Gilbert and them Lampaerts. That's what you are supposed to do when you have numbers in a small lead group, although teams seem to botch those situations regularly.

In general QS looked completely dominant, but it's easy to look dominant when you have four of the six strongest riders in the race. It's not so easy - as Quickstep frequently demonstrate - when your super strong team is up against a number of leaders on other teams who are stronger than your own leader(s).

 

[Geraint Too Fast]

Nairo vs Caleb on the Oude Kwaremont.

 

[SafeBet]

Re:

@ZL: I get your point. Still, it was scary watching Stybar/Terpstra flying away from a group containing riders like Benoot/Vanmarcke/Van Baarle/Roelandts/Senechal/Boom (?). These are very good cobble riders. Maybe not elite, but close.

I think the message sent today was loud and clear.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

@ZL: I get your point. Still, it was scary watching Stybar/Terpstra flying away from a group containing riders like Benoot/Vanmarcke/Van Baarle/Roelandts/Senechal/Boom (?). These are very good cobble riders. Maybe not elite, but close.

I think the message sent today was loud and clear.

I think that of these probably only Vanmarcke is of the very top tier and he is recovering from injury. They were impressive and there were many excellent riders they smashed but it is a jump from this to dominance against the very best in Flanders/Roubaix form.

 

[tobydawq]

Does anybody know whether Gaviria had an accident or something? He looked exceptionally at ease on the earlier climbs but after the Taaienberg I had to leave home so I haven't watched the race bar the final kilometres and am quite surprised to see him have finished 90th.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

I don't think anything happened to him. His teammates were up the road, he hung around in the peloton in case someon brought them back.