95th Ronde van Vlaanderen - April 3 2011

[xmoonx]

Dang it!! Hoping Chavanel would take that. Great ride by him and Cancellara was out of this world, again.

Chapeau Nuyens!

 

[Christian]

When you're the only survivor of an early breakaway, and you get caught by the biggest favorite, you don't cooperate. Never.

Yes and especially if your captain is in the group behind ... in the end he maybe chose the wrong tactics but of course that's easy for us to say and afterwards you're always smarter.

Great race ... Cancellara really impressive but you can't win 'em all. Also great ride by BMC and Sky, too bad they didn't get a better result, they deserved it

 

[Granville57]

Riis gets the last laugh...

In that overhead replay it looked like Canc was driving for the barriers more than the finish line!

 

[beer_thirty]

Nuyens looked in fine form this spring to anyone who was paying attention. Surprise my foot.

He did look in really great form; maybe a lot of us didn't have the faith in him. I thought maybe his earlier good form was of the "I'm not the top of the top, so I'll be in shape a little early and pick something off before the other guys are 100%". Great ride by him today; I'll bet Bjarne CANNOT believe this one.

 

[thirteen]

So, how's this 'make cycling interesting' thing going for you, JV?

lol, tank you! i was trying to remember that quote...

JV? wherever you're lurking, we won't forget this!

 

[roundabout]

Cancellara not winning = surprise

Cancellara, Boonen or Gilbert not winning = very big surprise.

The original point is that Riis pulled a rabbit out of the hat. That Nuyens based on his spring form will be in the top 12 (or however many where there in the end) is not surprising. from then on it's a crap shot who will win.

 

[Francois the Postman]

Hate how UK Eurosport has 5 mins of talking then goes straight to some other sport. Went straight to a Belgian stream to see the podium/aftermath.

A commercial station that made sure it had no more ads to flick through in the last 40k of this race. Given the racing they bring to this part of the world, I love them!

 

[For The World]

Chavanel looks ****ed. Really ****ed.

 

[hrotha]

Boonen: good job screwing up this race, Tom. As it turned out, it's possible that without your move Cancellara wouldn't have blown himself up and he'd won easily, but your move was still idiotic. The situation was perfect for Quick Step, Cancellara had run out of domestiques and you'd been talking about how you only needed to stay with Cance and beat him in the sprint. Stupid.

Garmin: I thought the whole "negative tactics" only worked if they forced Cancellara to chase, not if he was the one being chased? What they did wasn't cowardly or anything, it was just stupid.

Boom: this isn't news but of course it was interesting to see again how he was everywhere until his legs decided the race had been too long already and he disappeared completely, being replaced by Langeveld. I think Boom and Langeveld are actually the same person.

Flecha: nice effort, but towards the end I think he should have been working for Thomas. He's faster and in a great shape, and he'd already done what he could until the situation turned unfavourable for him.

Pozzato: whole lot of nothing again. What a shame, with that kind of talent...

Gilbert: nice job, but he shouldn't have stopped. It wasn't a terrible decision, it just didn't work, but with the likes of Boonen being so close...

BMC: pretty great all day.

Chavanel: pity he made some mistakes during the sprint, he deserved to win. Still, hero of the day.

Nuyens: nice I guess? Meh.

 

[Rocksteady]

They had no one left to ride because the only guys they had left in that big group were Tyler and Thor. Seems like it was the right move. Neither of them had the legs even without working. Hushovd working when he did (just before the Boonen attack) was their worst tactical move. Anyway, the bottom line is they just didn't appear to have anyone strong enough to podium in any scenario save a group sprint.

+1 If they had Barbie there, different story, but Farrar (and Thor apparently) just don't have it on those climbs. Roubaix could be a different story.

What Garmin really needs to do is stop wasting effort at 60-70k and use those guys at 20-30k

 

[jaylew]

Well, I feel Chavanel was out front busting his *** for a long time before Boonen set Cancellara on him, tactically Chavanel done the right thing sitting on Cancellara otherwise he would have been toast.

Lets not get too mixed up, Cancellara is a much stronger rider than Chav but considering he was out in front most of the day, Chav almost winning was some ride. I think thats why he and Canc shook hands they knew they were the main men today.

Agreed. Chav would have been a deserving winner as well. Just not quite as deserving as Canc, imo.

 

[sktooo]

Winner of the day:

1)Nuyens
2)Chavanel
3)Cancellara
4)BMC teamwork

Loser of the day:

1) Garmin-Cervelo
2) Bonnen
3) pozzato again
4) Ballan

 

[spalco]

Btw. I can't wait for Roubaix - there should be lots of highly ****ed off riders and teams trying to make a point.

 

[luckyboy]

A commercial station that made sure it had no more ads to flick through in the last 40k of this race. Given the racing they bring to this part of the world, I love them!

Yeah they are great. I just want more!

Might try and learn dutch or something.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Boom did already do a lot better than last year. But this time it was 20km too long.

I still have more faith in Langeveld. He didn't have top form, he didn't have a super day, and still he was up there

 

[Granville57]

The fact that JV is ALREADY defending himself is crazy. Doesn't he have more things to contend with than public excuses within seconds of the finish?

He's gonna get shredded on this one.

 

[Jamsque]

Winner of the day:

1)Nuyens
2)Chavanel
3)Cancellara
4)BMC teamwork

Loser of the day:

1) Garmin-Cervelo
2) Bonnen
3) pozzato again
4) Ballan

What? Did you watch this race?

First of all, it's Boonen not Bonnen. Secondly, both he and Ballan had very good races. They were up at the front, working and attacking and chasing.

 

[Christian]

Lol just realized there are already 3 other threads about the race

 

[beer_thirty]

Gilbert: nice job, but he shouldn't have stopped. It wasn't a terrible decision, it just didn't work, but with the likes of Boonen being so close...

I don't think he stopped, he just didn't have it to stay away. If he's going to start winning races like this, he's going to need to be able to resist better once he gets a gap on the hills.

 

[sktooo]

What? Did you watch this race?

First of all, it's Boonen not Bonnen. Secondly, both he and Ballan had very good races. They were up at the front, working and attacking and chasing.

Its just my personal view.. no offence

 

[The Sheep]

The fact that JV is ALREADY defending himself is crazy. Doesn't he have more things to contend with than public excuses within seconds of the finish?

He's gonna get shredded on this one.

He was already tweeting during the race

 

[benpounder]

Shout out to BMC for not giving up at a key moment, and letting all of us discover that Cancellara wasn't invincible today. Without that burst of organization, it could easily have ended up as JV had "planned" it.

Agreed. And with exclaimation.

 

[Nearly]

Did you see just the last 20 km or something? Chavanel was in a breakaway, he was the only survivor there, shaking off every other companion. Then he managed to keep a steady pace while the peloton was losing chunks of time to Cancellara. And then, when they got caught, he was able to be in the leading trio. What else could he have done better?

Had he worked even a little with Cancellara (as Clarke did with him before that) they could well have stayed away and he would have won the sprint at the end.

 

[The Hitch]

This is why I think races should give out a 'best domestique' award, Geraint Thomas deserves some recognition for what he did today.

Not neccesarily that, but allow the team onto the podium with the winner like they do at the Giro.

Where did Ballan finish?

 

[Granville57]

It was honest mistake on JV's part.
Considering that this was their pre-season motor pacing crew, I don't think the boys did all that bad.