So again this reputation that De Vlaeminck is a bitter man ! Unfounded, of course.
De Vlaeminck had always admired Boonen, ever since 2002, unlike Museeuw that he has always hated. Boonen's third rate competition, that's what he said in 2005 when Boonen outsprinted Hincapie and Flecha. Roger pointed to the fact that the best TT riders no longer race Paris-Roubaix, which makes the field depleted.
Last year, Merckx was the one who said if he were a rider of today, he would've won 10 Paris-Roubaix.
De Vlaeminck is not a bitter man. He's just a bit provocative, period. He's constantly said that records were there to be broken, that he would still feel at ease if his record was tied (in 2011) and that his time is gone. I really don't know where that reputation comes from. At age 65, he's got other worries than seeing his record broken.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=455-D0dOglI
He said 5 years ago that for him flat GT stages were hardly anything more than kermesses. It was in a book "Roger De Vlaeminck Top60", for his 60th birthday. He said this about his own GT stage wins. He would only save his 2 mountain stages of Giro '75. And the funniest is that he added "but be careful, in my time, kermesses were not easy to win"
Now in his own autobiography, published last year, he swears that at age 65, he would be able to follow a peloton on a flat GT stage, if he can draft wheel all the way, and if he does not get into the wind. A flat stage of 160km is not hard if you ride in a peloton.
De Vlaeminck had always admired Boonen, ever since 2002, unlike Museeuw that he has always hated. Boonen's third rate competition, that's what he said in 2005 when Boonen outsprinted Hincapie and Flecha. Roger pointed to the fact that the best TT riders no longer race Paris-Roubaix, which makes the field depleted.
Last year, Merckx was the one who said if he were a rider of today, he would've won 10 Paris-Roubaix.
De Vlaeminck is not a bitter man. He's just a bit provocative, period. He's constantly said that records were there to be broken, that he would still feel at ease if his record was tied (in 2011) and that his time is gone. I really don't know where that reputation comes from. At age 65, he's got other worries than seeing his record broken.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=455-D0dOglI
He said 5 years ago that for him flat GT stages were hardly anything more than kermesses. It was in a book "Roger De Vlaeminck Top60", for his 60th birthday. He said this about his own GT stage wins. He would only save his 2 mountain stages of Giro '75. And the funniest is that he added "but be careful, in my time, kermesses were not easy to win"
Now in his own autobiography, published last year, he swears that at age 65, he would be able to follow a peloton on a flat GT stage, if he can draft wheel all the way, and if he does not get into the wind. A flat stage of 160km is not hard if you ride in a peloton.
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