Baloise Belgium Tour 2023 (June 14-18)

[DNP-Old]

Thibau is special.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Could have caught Van der Poel easily, but he‘s overrated by the riders on long breakaways as well, apparently.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

That Vacek move backfired pretty badly for Trek.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

Wow I was expecting Wærenskjold to have no chance today, but this was impressive for the big man. He claims to be over 90 kilos, so incredible to race this well on a stage like this.

 

[postmanhat]

Hopefully that will be enough to persuade Soudal that Pedersen is too good to be wasted leading out Jakobsen.

Shame for Vacek after all that work

Waerenskjold looks like he has a big future ahead in the classics?

 

[KZD]

As a Van der Poel fan, I was not too impressed with his showing today even though the route was quite hard. Still, good for him to get a 'normal' win this season.

Nys with another great performance, he has a special talent for these hills indeed.

Wærenskjold impressive once again, he is a very versatile rider (reminds me of Van Aert a bit) and will have a bright future just like Nys.

 

[postmanhat]

That Vacek move backfired pretty badly for Trek.

In retrospect he probably should have hung around with malfunctioning group and maybe moved up a couple of places on GC. At least he gave it a go and made it a pretty decent race for the last 15k. Stuyven was on a bad day so he was their only option.

 

[Bushman]

Thank *** God Lampaert could not hold onto his podium place and Pedersen took it instead. That guy must be one of the most selfish riders in the peloton, I cannot stand him. He is not nearly good enough to be riding the way he is

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Could have caught Van der Poel easily, but he‘s overrated by the riders on long breakaways as well, apparently.

it's just the usual G2-ing. That's why people attack from far. IF you can get a good gap usually they will start doubting eachother anyway and throwaway the win.

It's not like VDP wouldn't have won otherwise. If he stayed in the group he would have obliterated them in an uphill sprint so. Doesn't matter either way.

 

[Bolder]

Wow I was expecting Wærenskjold to have no chance today, but this was impressive for the big man. He claims to be over 90 kilos, so incredible to race this well on a stage like this.

Yep, he's huge. His head alone is bigger than Nys.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

As a Van der Poel fan, I was not too impressed with his showing today even though the route was quite hard. Still, good for him to get a 'normal' win this season.

Nys with another great performance, he has a special talent for these hills indeed.

Wærenskjold impressive once again, he is a very versatile rider (reminds me of Van Aert a bit) and will have a bright future just like Nys.

can you imagine the standard we set for this guy. He wins solo 36km and it's almost a bad ride.

 

[Red Rick]

can you imagine the standard we set for this guy. He wins solo 36km and it's almost a bad ride.

I mean have you seen the field?

If Pogacar had gone to Tour of Slovenia and attacked on first Kolovrat today and won by 20s in the end we'd all be calling for him to skip the Tour and go to the Vuelta instead.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I mean have you seen the field?

If Pogacar had gone to Tour of Slovenia and attacked on first Kolovrat today and won by 20s in the end we'd all be calling for him to skip the Tour and go to the Vuelta instead.

VDP has imo never shown he is very apt or good at long solo's.
Definitely not on this terrain.

Despite the field. Therefore not very comparable to Pogacar who does this daily lol

they always follow a similar pattern as well:
-Tirreno, 3 minute lead evaporated to 10 seconds
-BB Tour, 50k solo big lead evaporated to like 10 seconds
-Belgium Tour, 1 minute lead evaporated to... 16 seconds

VDP is an acceleration merchant. Should have just waited until the last climb and blast em

 

[Red Rick]

VDP has imo never shown he is very apt or good at long solo's.
Definitely not on this terrain.

Despite the field. Therefore not very comparable to Pogacar who does this daily lol

they always follow a similar pattern as well:
-Tirreno, 3 minute lead evaporated to 10 seconds
-BB Tour, 50k solo big lead evaporated to like 10 seconds
-Belgium Tour, 1 minute lead evaporated to... 16 seconds

VDP is an acceleration merchant. Should have just waited until the last climb and blast em

Put a minute into the chasing group in De Ronde this year

Do I get some sort of reward for getting DT to argue MvdP is ***?

IMO this is much more along the lines of kind of mid right after an altitude camp. He wasn't good in Tirreno and was flying in the races after after properly resting up.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I just don't agree with you that he is *** or not good yet.

 

[theyoungest]

I just don't agree with you that he is *** or not good yet.

He was okay-ish in Hageland, now he's a little better, but I don't think we're seeing a great VDP yet. Next week at the Dutch nationals he'll be closer to top form, meaning it will be a very boring race

(I actually don't know if he'll be racing there, but why not)

 

[Blanco]

He's where he needs to be. He'll be fine for the Tour, and even better for the main goal after that.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

He was okay-ish in Hageland, now he's a little better, but I don't think we're seeing a great VDP yet. Next week at the Dutch nationals he'll be closer to top form, meaning it will be a very boring race

(I actually don't know if he'll be racing there, but why not)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btVmzMOkahs


also @Red Rick

In numbers of wattages compared to his own one of his best performances... (2:20)

So he directly contradicts that he isn't near his best based on the numbers he is seeing on his computer... yesterday was the same

 

[Red Rick]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btVmzMOkahs


also @Red Rick

In numbers of wattages compared to his own one of his best performances... (2:20)

So he directly contradicts that he isn't near his best based on the numbers he is seeing on his computer... yesterday was the same

Guess attrition wasn't that big then. Gaps are small across the board.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

VDP has imo never shown he is very apt or good at long solo's.
Definitely not on this terrain.

Despite the field. Therefore not very comparable to Pogacar who does this daily lol

they always follow a similar pattern as well:
-Tirreno, 3 minute lead evaporated to 10 seconds
-BB Tour, 50k solo big lead evaporated to like 10 seconds
-Belgium Tour, 1 minute lead evaporated to... 16 seconds

VDP is an acceleration merchant. Should have just waited until the last climb and blast em

I agree for the most part, even gave the same examples in the past when this was brought up, but I think he is still very much above average as a solo rider, just not in the league of Evenepoel, Pogacar... perhaps Healy recently. But it's nice to see a fan acknowledge it. I wouldn't go as far as calling him an acceleration merchant even if that's his forte, because it feels derogatory.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

well obviously he can solo for a bit. But more like MSR or Flanders.. 10/20km.
This was 36km on serious ardennes terrain.

 

[jmdirt]

MVDP with the win!

 

[Reemster]

VDP has imo never shown he is very apt or good at long solo's.
Definitely not on this terrain.

Despite the field. Therefore not very comparable to Pogacar who does this daily lol

they always follow a similar pattern as well:
-Tirreno, 3 minute lead evaporated to 10 seconds
-BB Tour, 50k solo big lead evaporated to like 10 seconds
-Belgium Tour, 1 minute lead evaporated to... 16 seconds

VDP is an acceleration merchant. Should have just waited until the last climb and blast em

Lmao. Acceleration merchant... You looked at the motor pacing the second group today? And he never did have that big of a lead in the BB tour. Also, there were pretty big watts chasing him there.

 

[shadowrider]

Thank *** God Lampaert could not hold onto his podium place and Pedersen took it instead. That guy must be one of the most selfish riders in the peloton, I cannot stand him. He is not nearly good enough to be riding the way he is

Agree.

 

[Didinho]

I rode the BXL Tour this morning, started raining just before the start. Weeks of 25-30°C and the hour of my first event the roads were soaking wet. Seen a lot of crashes and punctures.
Starting to get a bit of sun now, hopefully it will be dryer for the race.