De Brabantse Pijl 2026, April 17

[Tim Cahill]

They should swap this round with Liege and have this as the Ardennes monument to encourage more people to come.

 

[Sciatic]

Depends on who shows up. If someone like laporte and a guy from Lotto was added to the breakaway today . i don't think there's enough peloton to come back for the sprint.

Also, according to Folgers it was a headwind on the long straight that allowed them to catch the break.

 

[Sciatic]

Who decided to break what didn't need fixing?

So you mean by shortening the distance . . . or by moving it later in the week?

 

[yaco]

That was a great death pull by Schmid to bring the break back. Foldager is good in these type of finishes. Very similar finish which he won at Slovakia and he finished 3rd in a reduced at catalunya which again had a punchy finish.

 

[Netserk]

They should swap this round with Liege and have this as the Ardennes monument to encourage more people to come.

go back to fleche and liege before amstel

sunday : roubaix
wednesday : fleche
sunday : liege
wednesday : pijl
sunday : amstel

 

[Red Rick]

So you mean by shortening the distance . . . or by moving it later in the week?

Mainly the latter.

 

[EddyMazzoleni]

The smaller distance made the race less selective and not every break is composed of Remco and WVA. Consnefroy and Gregoire were probably the strongest and still managed a good finish after beeing in the brake, TdG suffered a bit on the harder climb but I would say still a good performance.

 

[RedheadDane]

Foldager lost the bottle battle.

 

[Sciatic]

The smaller distance made the race less selective and not every break is composed of Remco and WVA. Consnefroy and Gregoire were probably the strongest and still managed a good finish after beeing in the brake, TdG suffered a bit on the harder climb but I would say still a good performance.

Yeah, Foldager said the shorter distance helped him so that was definitely a factor in the race outcome,

 

[Devil's Elbow]

go back to fleche and liege before amstel

sunday : roubaix
wednesday : fleche
sunday : liege
wednesday : pijl
sunday : amstel

The problem with that is that you eliminate the 20% of cobbles riders who extend their spring to Amstel. Even now, with Pogacar and Evenepoel tilting the balance in the opposite direction, you have Laporte, Hagenes, Del Grosso, Tim van Dijke, Gianni Vermeersch, Florian Vermeersch Mohoric, Madouas, Berckmoes, Van Baarle, Pluimers, Kragh racing either here, Sunday or both... that's a decent bit of field to sacrifice.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Burgaudeau looked pretty strong - wonder where he would have finished if he'd starting his sprint a bit later than a full km to go

 

[Netserk]

The problem with that is that you eliminate the 20% of cobbles riders who extend their spring to Amstel. Even now, with Pogacar and Evenepoel tilting the balance in the opposite direction, you have Laporte, Hagenes, Del Grosso, Tim van Dijke, Gianni Vermeersch, Florian Vermeersch Mohoric, Madouas, Berckmoes, Van Baarle, Pluimers, Kragh racing either here, Sunday or both... that's a decent bit of field to sacrifice.

i think just the opposite , that they can better extend the form and gain some freshness with another week without racing

and frankfurt will also better integrate with those races

 

[Devil's Elbow]

i think just the opposite , that they can better extend the form and gain some freshness with another week without racing

and frankfurt will also better integrate with those races

Comparing the 2022 field, when Amstel was in between Ronde and Roubaix, with this year's suggests the opposite.

 

[Red Rick]

i think just the opposite , that they can better extend the form and gain some freshness with another week without racing

and frankfurt will also better integrate with those races

I hadn't really thought of it that way. I'd always consider it just that the cobblers are washed for the spring after Roubaix, not that you can just take the extra week and recover well enough for AGR.

I think it does track pretty well with Van der Poel and Van Aerts results in Amstel and Liege.

 

[Netserk]

Comparing the 2022 field, when Amstel was in between Ronde and Roubaix, with this year's suggests the opposite.

are you talking about the startlist in amstel or pijl in 2022 ?

 

[Netserk]

I hadn't really thought of it that way. I'd always consider it just that the cobblers are washed for the spring after Roubaix, not that you can just take the extra week and recover well enough for AGR.

I think it does track pretty well with Van der Poel and Van Aerts results in Amstel and Liege.

i think the week after roubaix is very hard if you have done a full cobbles campaign

pogi was also at his worst in amstel last year

 

[Red Rick]

Regarding Brabantse Pijl, I really don't know what they were going for with the change in date. You're really just making sure good riders that are aiming for the AGR seriously don't want to race this one anymore.

If you shorten it and keep it on the Wednesday, you may improve your field and get a more aggressive race cause everyone is yoloing a 3h30 minute race they're gonna be recovering from by the time Amstel comes around.

This race should mainly appeal to those that mainly target RVV and Amstel but largely skip Roubaix, and now they're kinda failing that audience.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

All those times up Pøt Mølle, Overijse is no match for Foldagers punch.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

are you talking about the startlist in amstel or pijl in 2022 ?

Amstel.

 

[Netserk]

Amstel.

i dont see the big difference other than those who aimed for liege were less likely to attend

 

[Devil's Elbow]

i dont see the big difference other than those who aimed for liege were less likely to attend

Like half the Ronde field was there...

 

[Netserk]

Like half the Ronde field was there...

when they hadnt yet done roubaix ( and so not only had less racing in their legs but timed their peak shape on both sides of the race )

how exactly is that an argument for wednesday after roubaix being better than a week later ?

 

[KoopaCycling]

They should just ride this the wednesday after Roubaix, not on friday

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Regarding Brabantse Pijl, I really don't know what they were going for with the change in date. You're really just making sure good riders that are aiming for the AGR seriously don't want to race this one anymore.

If you shorten it and keep it on the Wednesday, you may improve your field and get a more aggressive race cause everyone is yoloing a 3h30 minute race they're gonna be recovering from by the time Amstel comes around.

This race should mainly appeal to those that mainly target RVV and Amstel but largely skip Roubaix, and now they're kinda failing that audience.

Also some guys preparing only for Ardennes classics could find Brabantse Pijl a good warm-up 4 days before AGR.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

when they hadnt yet done roubaix ( and so not only had less racing in their legs but timed their peak shape on both sides of the race )

how exactly is that an argument for wednesday after roubaix being better than a week later ?

Because it shows that the cobbles riders are more interested in Amstel when they don't have to extend their peak for it. Would not mind a return to that calendar.