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After losing the Paris Roubaix, SD Worx team will want some payback. But now they also have Vollering to deal with, and Longho Borghini is back from injury in Flanders as well. Lots of climbing so it should favor the climbers. Winner of PR, Pauline, is sitting this one out.

Notable riders: Vollering, Kopecky, Longo Borghini, LAbous, Balsamo, Vos, Muzic, Niewiadoma, Lippert, Bredewold


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Live video stream available on Eurosport/GCN alternatives (TNT/Max/Discovery).

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I am beyond over this pathetic course. I hate it, truly despise it. This circuit was awful for racing in 2012 and it's only got worse since.

Wiebes to atone for last year, resulting in far less hilarity and an equally dismal spectacle thanks to the garbage circuit nullifying all racing.
 
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Hey whatever happened to Marta Cavalli? One time she was everywhere, another there is no sign of her?

She's riding races and seems happy and those are the most important things after the tough years she's had since the 2022 Tour. In Sanremo she didn't lose contact with the front group until the last 500m, so I'm looking forward to seeing whether she's improved since then.
 
Early start again. Is the new/old route harder than last years? Don’t know much anymore about how the race went before the sprint, but if Wiebes could sprint for the win.

Longo vs Demi. Part 1 of 3.

Edit: oh yeah it was the shortened version last year.
 
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Marty introduces us by giving a rundown of last year, and "what a drama-filled race we had".

Just, no. We had a drama-filled last 200m where Longo Borghini nearly put Wiebes in the barriers, then Wiebes pulled a Zabel, but the rest of the race was dogwater.

Dani mentions Anna VDB was in a crash earlier which probably explains her abandon.
 
Not sure that unless they can get the distance up to the kind of level that the women seldom do (like, 180km or something) it makes that much of a difference as long as the race is basically a circuit race on this loop, it's so difficult to make anything count other than the Cauberg.

And there's now - as sometimes happens in AGR - a group that has representation from pretty much all the big teams, so there's a chance that anybody not up there already is just happy to save their legs. Even though quite a few of these teams really ought not be so happy with the composition of the break (FDJ and Canyon in particular, although Canyon have committed Cille to the poursuivant group), nobody seems to have bit the bullet and committed to chasing it down. Or to disrupting it, for that matter.
 
Think you will find that a crash disrupted the race, hence, why SDWrx had AVV trying to bring it back togetehr.
Sure, but I'm just saying, I don't think the fact the race was shortened last year drastically changed the outcome, as the racing on this circuit isn't greatly changed by the difference in distance until they reach an abnormally long one, and assume you were meaning AVDB in the team car or Demi on the road when you say AVV?
 
This group should obviously be strong enough to stay away, but I'm not sure it will. CSR don't seem to trust Bradbury.
And there you have your reason, group splits and Wiebes hangs on while a bunch of others you might expect to hang on do not. Run-in brings most of them back together, but now it's a bunch of looking around going on while they wait until the next time they get here.
 
And there you have your reason, group splits and Wiebes hangs on while a bunch of others you might expect to hang on do not. Run-in brings most of them back together, but now it's a bunch of looking around going on while they wait until the next time they get here.

It looks much better for the front group now, but it also seems like they will have a hard time getting rid of Wiebes.
 
Sure, but I'm just saying, I don't think the fact the race was shortened last year drastically changed the outcome, as the racing on this circuit isn't greatly changed by the difference in distance until they reach an abnormally long one, and assume you were meaning AVDB in the team car or Demi on the road when you say AVV?

Are you serious? 100 kms less make it a much easier race. Anyway, the lead group need to make multiple attacks to get rid of Wiebes.
 
Are you serious? 100 kms less make it a much easier race. Anyway, the lead group need to make multiple attacks to get rid of Wiebes.
Yes I'm serious. The circuit here only has the Cauberg as an obstacle that can create gaps from a large bunch, so if the bunch is interested in contesting it, it will come down to the Cauberg 99/100 times.

Today it seems the bunch aren't interested in contesting it, so it's down to the break to play games with each other and figure out who can win from here.