Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde 2.HC 26th-28th March 2013

[ChewbaccaD]

What a great sprint. I normally don't like them, but that one was quite good.

 

[spalco]

Wow, really long sprint it looked like, that finishing stretch was much longer than it looked.

 

[HoinkDoink]

Greipel fail

 

[pedromartins]

Greipel was trying tio bring cav down...

 

[TeoSheva]

2nd Viviani
3rd Chicchi

 

[pedromartins]

kristoff doing what he does... 5th.

 

[Afrank]

1. Cav
2. Viviani
3. Chicchi
4. Demare
5. Kristoff
6. Planckaert
7. Feillu
8. Jarc
9. Arndt
10. Van Asbroeck

Hey! Specialized finally has a win they can use to brag about their new aero helmet with.

 

[ILovecycling]

Great sprint by Viviani and Chicchi,and Cav of course awesome,bad position but incredible power.Very bad finish by Greipel though

Btw.What did Boonen say to Mark?

 

[SKSemtex]

Really nice one for Cav. Quite long one. He is too good. Well done Viviani. Well done Peter quitting early .

 

[forkboy84]

Great sprint by Viviani and Chicchi,and Cav of course awesome,bad position but incredible power.Very bad finish by Greipel though

Btw.What did Boonen say to Mark?

According to the Eurosport guys it was along the lines of "I thought you weren't meant to be feeling good today?" but I missed it myself.

 

[b.broadhurst]

What will OPQS train be for the Tour?

I'm thinking - Cav, Boonen, Chavanel, Grabsch, Martin, P.Velits, Kwiatkowski, Devenyns and De Weert

 

[Dazed and Confused]

exciting sprint. Love it when trains fail and the sprinters delivers like this.

Pretty close call, but Cav shows why he wins so many times. Squeeze a little more power out when needed.

 

[garyhoop1]

Videos

Videos from Three Days of De Panne including todays Stage 2 - http://bit.ly/16VPDk7

 

[theyoungest]

What will OPQS train be for the Tour?

I'm thinking - Cav, Boonen, Chavanel, Grabsch, Martin, P.Velits, Kwiatkowski, Devenyns and De Weert

It doesn't really matter if they're all gone in the final 500 m. Cav really needs Mark Renshaw back.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

It doesn't really matter if they're all gone in the final 500 m. Cav really needs Mark Renshaw back.

Plenty of time for them to sort this sort of nonsense out - they have a few guys who could do the job. An issue like today is more to do with men pealing off too soon earlier on. You need 5 men left at 3km as an absolute minimum.

 

[theyoungest]

Plenty of time for them to sort this sort of nonsense out - they have a few guys who could do the job. An issue like today is more to do with men pealing off too soon earlier on. You need 5 men left at 3km as an absolute minimum.

And you don't want Niki Terpstra as your last man. Why not use an actual sprinter, like Gert Steegmans?

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

And you don't want Niki Terpstra as your last man. Why not use an actual sprinter, like Gert Steegmans?

100% agree - I doubt they think this is a long term solution.

 

[roosters76]

I'm so impressed with Viviani. Juggernaut pull in last 100m.

Cannondale should give him more space and support for flat finishes, leaving Sagan "frustrated" and salivating for Classics and Tour stages with mountain finishes instead.

 

[theyoungest]

100% agree - I doubt they think this is a long term solution.

I don't know, Gert Steegmans is there and using Terpstra as the final leadout man was obviously on purpose.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

I don't know, Gert Steegmans is there and using Terpstra as the final leadout man was obviously on purpose.

Well, Terpstra was adequate in Qatar after Trentin cocked up a couple of times. I refuse to believe they're deluded enough to make it a long term plan though.

Anyway, getting a better plan on men 6-3 is the key point for success; avoid being swamped before 400m to go and Cav will normally be OK.

 

[kingjr]

Well, as long as Lotto is there to solve the problem for them...
Impressive sprint by Cav once again. Can't say I like to see him win, but he really is phenomenal.

 

[JRanton]

Well, Terpstra was adequate in Qatar after Trentin cocked up a couple of times. I refuse to believe they're deluded enough to make it a long term plan though.

Anyway, getting a better plan on men 6-3 is the key point for success; avoid being swamped before 400m to go and Cav will normally be OK.

One of the issues today was that Chavanel and Terpstra couldn't go flat out because of their GC hopes. That won't be an issue in the grand tours and Tony Martin will be a huge boost to the train in that 6-3 region. There are other great engines available too like Kwiatkowski and Velits.

They still need to find Cav a leadout man though and I wouldn't say the options are that great. Boonen would be best but will he be motivated to do it? Trentin is inexperienced. Steegmans has done it before but not really consistently for a few years now. Fenn is too young. Maybe Gianni Meersman is the wildcard. Perhaps experiment a bit with him in the Giro?

 

[theyoungest]

One of the issues today was that Chavanel and Terpstra couldn't go flat out because of their GC hopes. That won't be an issue in the grand tours and Tony Martin will be a huge boost to the train in that 6-3 region. There are other great engines available too like Kwiatkowski and Velits.

They still need to find Cav a leadout man though and I wouldn't say the options are that great. Boonen would be best but will he be motivated to do it? Trentin is inexperienced. Steegmans has done it before but not really consistently for a few years now. Fenn is too young. Maybe Gianni Meersman is the wildcard. Perhaps experiment a bit with him in the Giro?

To me it seemed like Chava and Terpstra went pretty flat out. And it gained them 8 seconds on all other GC contenders due to splits in the peloton, so now they're 17 seconds ahead before the TT.

Durbo will have to do a pretty good TT to still beat Chava. Terpstra seems less convincing to me.

 

[Geraint Too Fast]

A few splits in the peleton. Chavanel and Tepstra get another 8 seconds on Durbridge and Westra.

http://www.procyclingstats.com/race.php?id=114358

 

[JRanton]

To me it seemed like Chava and Terpstra went pretty flat out. And it gained them 8 seconds on all other GC contenders due to splits in the peloton, so now they're 17 seconds ahead before the TT.

Durbo will have to do a pretty good TT to still beat Chava. Terpstra seems less convincing to me.

Those 8 seconds could be crucial now. I fancied Durbridge with just a 9 second deficit but 17 seconds on Chavanel in just 14.75km is going to be difficult..