Baloise Belgium Tour 2023 (June 14-18)

[DNP-Old]

Man, please stop being so dumb Renaat.

 

[RedheadDane]

Man, please stop being so dumb Renaat.

Well, Brian Holm is making it sound like it was the other QS rider's decision to leave Jakobsen on stage 17 of last year's Tour, and not... you know... something they were told to do.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

MvdP beating Stuyven by 3 seconds doesn't exactly scream he's been working on his TT a hell of a lot.

 

[DNP-Old]

Are you really a stage winner if you do not get interviewed by Chris Picavet right after?

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

Chapea Wærenskjold!

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Strong TT by Waerensjkold, especially the second part which was headwind!

Van der Poel said he was happy with his wattages but hoped to be closer to the win. Tells you about the performance of the Norwegian youngster. Just outpowered them

 

[KZD]

Impressive time trial by Wærenskjold. Not only he is a good sprinter and leadout rider, he has everything to become one of the best time trialists in these flat TTs.

Tomorrow Van der Poel is the favourite but it won't be an easy stage at all.

 

[jmdirt]

Nice TT young man!

 

[postmanhat]

Looks like an ideal stage for MVDP tomorrow, so the podium spots could be decided by who can stay with him the longest?

ICW could play a big part. They have five riders clustered at 50-60 seconds back so will probably try to force a few selections.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

MvdP beating Stuyven by 3 seconds doesn't exactly scream he's been working on his TT a hell of a lot.

he contradicts you in the interview though. Said he even saved energy for the headwind part and was especially disappointed he lost so much time because he worked hard on his aero during the last few prep months. But acknowledged it was still far from good enough to win, despite doing what he wanted basically.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

for @Logic-is-your-friend , the literal quote in dutch:

‘MVDP’ blikte licht gefrustreerd terug op zijn tijdrit. “Ik had meer verwacht van de uitslag. In het tweede deel verloor ik bijna twee seconden per kilometer, terwijl ik dacht dat ik toen het hardst heb gereden. Het is frustrerend als je altijd goede wattages rijdt, en dan niet kan winnen. Ik heb afgelopen weken hard gewerkt aan mijn aerodynamica, maar blijkbaar niet goed genoeg.”

For non dutch speakers, literally what i said before: he worked hard on his aerodynamica and he saved power for the 2nd part but lost the most time there which surprised and frustrated him especially because he felt he done well and worked on his aerodynamics, but apparently he's not efficient yet.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

he contradicts you in the interview though. Said he even saved energy for the headwind part and was especially disappointed he lost so much time because he worked hard on his aero during the last few prep months. But acknowledged it was still far from good enough to win, despite doing what he wanted basically.

The TT he's done in ToB and TDF 2-3 years ago were actually a lot better than today imho. I don't buy for a second Stuyven can push the same watts, or Stuyven puts more time in TT position or is better suited to this distance. I did see MvdP nearly crash in the first section, but that doesn't explain his disappointing 2nd section.

 

[Rob5091]

Is a race number non-aero? Is it worth 100 Swiss Francs to take it off?

Mathieu Van der Poel fined after Baloise Belgium Tour time-trial

Mathieu van der Poel is the new race leader at the Baloise B

cyclinguptodate.com

The superstar Dutchman of Alpercin-Deceuninck has been fined 100 Swiss Francs it has been announced by the race jury following the conclusion of the stage. The reason why? Van der Poel raced without a number on his back. The reason why the 28-year-old did so, is not yet known.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

no i think he just forgot

 

[Red Rick]

for @Logic-is-your-friend , the literal quote in dutch:

‘MVDP’ blikte licht gefrustreerd terug op zijn tijdrit. “Ik had meer verwacht van de uitslag. In het tweede deel verloor ik bijna twee seconden per kilometer, terwijl ik dacht dat ik toen het hardst heb gereden. Het is frustrerend als je altijd goede wattages rijdt, en dan niet kan winnen. Ik heb afgelopen weken hard gewerkt aan mijn aerodynamica, maar blijkbaar niet goed genoeg.”

For non dutch speakers, literally what i said before: he worked hard on his aerodynamica and he saved power for the 2nd part but lost the most time there which surprised and frustrated him especially because he felt he done well and worked on his aerodynamics, but apparently he's not efficient yet.

They just don't have a good setup.

And I'm not sure MvdP doesn't kinda overrate his own TT on a non technical parcours.

 

[Didinho]

You see a lot of riders doing good in a 15k TT, like sprinters and classics riders. Philipsen, Sagan, Matthews if I think of some. Stuyven yesterday, was already strong on stage 1. It wasn’t that technical for Mathieu to gain seconds in corners or to get some recovery time.
Working on his aero position could also mean less power output untill you find a golden way in between.
But he said his power was normal so just beaten by someone better.

 

[Bolder]

It's got to be an equipment and aero thing. There is no earthly way a rider with his power can't be a consistent top 10 TT'er (except for specialized MTTs etc). If he can hold off the field for what, 80 km in the rain during T-A, surely he can crank out a great 15-30 km ITT.

The question is whether that's an area he should spend any time at all on. I personally don't care if he does a great ITT or treats it as a day off. I want to see him crushing one-day races and GT stages.

 

[stonerider]

It's not the watts that kills his TT abilities, it's those broad shoulders which makes his less aero than others. I'd prefer to see him concentrate on the spring classics, CX and MTB versus worrying about his TT abilities.

 

[Red Rick]

It's got to be an equipment and aero thing. There is no earthly way a rider with his power can't be a consistent top 10 TT'er (except for specialized MTTs etc). If he can hold off the field for what, 80 km in the rain during T-A, surely he can crank out a great 15-30 km ITT.

The question is whether that's an area he should spend any time at all on. I personally don't care if he does a great ITT or treats it as a day off. I want to see him crushing one-day races and GT stages.

Actually that TA solo isn't that great of a predictor for a flat 15 minute TT.

 

[ZamlinusYoutubeious]

Who cares. More cow, less cow. Any amount of cow will do!

In order to make above joke, i will pretend the way English commentators pronounce his name is correct.

Waqyu is the best or so i am told.

 

[KZD]

Van der Poel attacking.

 

[Tim Cahill]

Looks like that could be that

You might want to err.. chase or something lads

 

[Red Rick]

Van der Poel showing some eem... relatively cautious descending

 

[postmanhat]

It was sort of inevitable given the form he'd been showing. Should still be an interesting race for the other podium spots,

 

[Samamba]

It was sort of inevitable given the form he'd been showing. Should still be an interesting race for the other podium spots,

Given the form and just the overall low level here for this kind of parcours. I only expected a little bit better from Rota.