Dwars Door Vlaanderen (188.6 km) goes straight through Flanders

[RedheadDane]

I'm guessing he's from a country where the keyboards have an umlaut. That rules out English as a mother tongue.

It's actually really easy to add umlauts over letters. Even I can do it:
Küng.
You just have to hit the key with the two little (horizontal) dots at the same time you hit the letter-key.

Or are you saying that an "English-language" keyboard doesn't have those?

 

[Slavique Nuke]

'To pull the chestnuts out of the fire' is that really an expression in English? It is in Danish, but I don't think you're a Dane. A surprise to me that that expression can be used in other languages.

It is originally French. From La Fontaine's fable of The Monkey and the Cat - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkey_and_the_Cat

 

[Wvv]

I hope Wout can find the confidence he'll need to take it up against Mathieu coming Sunday.

 

[SafeBet]

In German as well.

And in Italian. Might be easier to find a European language without that expression

BTW @RedheadDane method to add the umlaut doesn't work on an Italian keyboard (I guess we don't have that key). After a brief google search this should be the easiest way with an Italian keyboard:

1. ä = ALT + 132
2. Ä = ALT + 142
3. ü = ALT + 129
4. Ü = ALT + 154
5. ö = ALT + 148
6. Ö = ALT + 153

So yeah I won't feel guilty for not using it.


Back to the race: with Visma being shorthanded and VdP not racing, a few outsiders have their biggest chance at a cobble win today unless Lidl goes berserk early with the whole team.
I'm going with Pithie and Lazkano.

 

[tobydawq]

It's actually really easy to add umlauts over letters. Even I can do it:
Küng.
You just have to hit the key with the two little (horizontal) dots at the same time you hit the letter-key.

Or are you saying that an "English-language" keyboard doesn't have those?

It has to be before you hit the letter key.

 

[RedheadDane]

It has to be before you hit the letter key.

Never realised that you can actually completely lift your finger from the "dots key" before hitting the letter key... I've always just kinda... left my finger on the key.

 

[Gratemans]

Well, this turns out to be the most educational thread on the forum so far.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Essentially skipping all the hard hills we know from Flanders and E-3. Thats disappointing, but it will probably still be a very good race. Even the 'lesser' Flandrian races usually are that, but no doubt many of these riders still racing this with Sunday in mind..

Wout victory or Lidl-Trek? Maybe Philipsen?

 

[Zoetemelk-fan]

BTW @RedheadDane method to add the umlaut doesn't work on an Italian keyboards (I guess we don't have that key).

Now, that surprises me a bit.

The infamous Signore Günther Steiner (from a completely different sport) is from Merano, South Tyrol, Italy.

Are you saying that Günther as a boy had to crawl over the Ötzthaler Alps all the way to Austria to pick up an 'ü' every time he had to spell his name?

Edit: Oh, I didn't realize I did it. On his way crawling he even had to pick up an 'Ö' on the Austrian side if he met someone asking for location. Hopefully that person didn't get lost on the Italian side of the border.

 

[tobydawq]

Never realised that you can actually completely lift your finger from the "dots key" before hitting the letter key... I've always just kinda... left my finger on the key.

I in turn didn't know you could do that...

 

[danielovichdk2]

WvA is not racing this to win. Benoot, Milan, Kragh Andersen are my picks today.

 

[Rob5091]

Küng, Madouas and Pithie should be an interesting combination, but Trek are here with the A-team, so a Trek v Visma race seems likely.
I see no Démare - if he's another one with a "stomach bug", I'm going to start to get suspicious.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

It is also is an expression in Dutch.

I believe the origin is French, (edit: Slavique Nuke beat me to it) so interesting that it is found in at least three other languages. I wouldn't say it is common usage in English, and the meaning is perhaps not what Staubsauger really intended. Pulling chestnuts out of the fire is about doing something unpleasant or harmful that is to the benefit of somebody else, who doesn't really deserve such a favour (In de la Fontaine's fable, cat burns its paws pulling chestnuts from the fire, but a monkey eats them all).

I suspect that staubsauger might have meant that van Aert might pull the cat out of the bag.

I also suspect that Potomac has a very strange idea of human anatomy.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Surprised to see Capiot on the startlist considering he broke his collarbone 11 days ago

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Surprised to see Capiot on the startlist considering he broke his collarbone 11 days ago

He didn't sound happy about it at all on Belgian TV.

 

[Berniece]

Surprised to see Capiot on the startlist considering he broke his collarbone 11 days ago

Pressured by the team to start, he didn't want to himself.

 

[repre]

Surprised to see Capiot on the startlist considering he broke his collarbone 11 days ago

Senechal broke it month ago and was already racing last week at Coppi Barttali. Arkea is desperate for results...

 

[SafeBet]

Now, that surprises me a bit.

The infamous Signore Günther Steiner (from a completely different sport) is from Merano, South Tyrol, Italy.

Are you saying that Günther as a boy had to crawl over the Ötzthaler Alps all the way to Austria to pick up an 'ü' every time he had to spell his name?

Edit: Oh, I didn't realize I did it. On his way crawling he even had to pick up an 'Ö' on the Austrian side if he met someone asking for location. Hopefully that person didn't get lost on the Italian side of the border.

South Tyrol is mostly a German speaking region, so my guess is that they use a different keyboard layout (QWERTZ) but someone like @Mayomaniac could probably clarify this.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Senechal broke it month ago and was already racing last week at Coppi Barttali. Arkea is desperate for results...

Senechal is a bit more understandable - this is very much his time of year, especially Paris-Roubaix coming up soon and you could imagine he would want to return ASAP

 

[Brullnux]

Pressured by the team to start, he didn't want to himself.

Wtf? I feel like this is the stuff Hansen's rider union should be making more of a fuss about, rather than descending when it rains.

 

[Berniece]

Wtf? I feel like this is the stuff Hansen's rider union should be making more of a fuss about, rather than descending when it rains.

To quote him correctly, in his pre-race interview he said the following:

The fracture has not moved and the pain is not too bad, although the cobblestones and vibrations will hurt. It is not optimal, although training still works reasonably well

There was some pressure from the team to start here. I don't really understand why either. I would have waited another week and put everything on Roubaix for maximum recovery. That seems the most logical to me, yes, but apparently not.

 

[repre]

Senechal is a bit more understandable - this is very much his time of year, especially Paris-Roubaix coming up soon and you could imagine he would want to return ASAP

Yeah, but my point was that Arkea is speeding up recoveries from their cobbled racers, cause they haven't got desired results from 'star' signing Demare and Senechal so far. Though Albanese and Mozzatto were good last week and Luka also scored biggest Arkea victory this season, so not all is bad for them

 

[Brullnux]

To quote him correctly, in his pre-race interview he said the following:

Still, though, this is exactly where a rider's union can help.

 

[ice&fire]

Let's see who can hang in oier lazkano wheel on his traditional pre-Ronde training ride

Oier Lazkano is earning his right to feature in this thread

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Just my twö ¢'s
https://github.com/samhocevar/wincompose gives you a compose key on Windows

A compose key allows to easily write special characters such as é ž à ō û ø ☺ ¤ ∅ « ♯ ⸘ Ⓚ ㊷ ♪ ♬ using short and often very intuitive key combinations. For instance, ö is obtained using o + ", and ♥ is obtained using < + 3.