E3 Harelbeke 2013, 209.5km

[cocteau_ireland]

Canc so strong. Has there ever been an experiment on the track where one guy competes against,say,five?

 

[serfla]

Looks like poor Sagan, being 23, reached the senior status of The Wizard of Peloton who names the winners - once Chancellor Cancellator defined the main tactics and people employ it (nobody collaborates with Sagan), it's up to S. to decide whether he leaves the eventual winner to break free (E3), or chases the breaks (MSR) and gives the win to the best sprinter of the group. He can still win when there are no real sprinters in the group, or there's some "unlawful" help of rain and slippery 30% slope.

If he could have followed Cancellara he would follow. It wasn't about Sagan's will, but power.
And one more thing. Sagan did have a mechanical, and it was at the bad moment, but if he had been with Boonen, Cancellara & co. on Taaienberg - the mechanical wouldn't be so important, if at all.

 

[RedheadDane]

Eeeh... forgive me for being dumb here, but I suppose the big bunch of DNFers were guys going "We won't get a change to do anything here, better stay fresh for Gent-Wevelgem."
Coz I think we'd have heard anything if that many people had crashed!

 

[Cancellator]

Eeeh... forgive me for being dumb here, but I suppose the big bunch of DNFers were guys going "We won't get a change to do anything here, better stay fresh for Gent-Wevelgem."
Coz I think we'd have heard anything if that many people had crashed!

I thought it's standard practice to abandon in one day races if you've got no chance for a good placement, or if you are a domestique and you destroyed yourself in the first half of the race. It's not like you need to make a time cut for the next stage.

 

[WinterRider]

Canc so strong. Has there ever been an experiment on the track where one guy competes against,say,five?

There's a great video somewhere of a male track rider up against a 3 woman team on the track. I think it was Taylor Phinney vs the Canadian Women's track team but I can't find the video so that might be a wild guess.

Anyway, 3 women were able to pace a top ranked male time trialist, so I would say that 5 against 1 men vs men is almost certainly going to crush the one.

The exception is at the end of a hard cobbles race. It takes more out of some riders than others. Throw in the lack of cooperation and that is why Canc can stay away. If you took the same 5 riders and stuck them on the track vs Canc with proper incentive to work together then he would not be able to stay away.

 

[WinterRider]

I think the presence of Sagan in the break was an advantage to Canc. I don't think he would be able to solo from 35km out, if the original 7-man group had permanently gapped the peloton.

No matter who is in the group there will be a fastest on paper guy that will result in the same calculations being made.

The problem for the riders in the chase group is that with Canc out ahead they know they have to ride all out to bring him back, but that leaves them exposed to anyone in the group who holds something back. This is true with or without Sagan.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Eeeh... forgive me for being dumb here, but I suppose the big bunch of DNFers were guys going "We won't get a change to do anything here, better stay fresh for Gent-Wevelgem."
Coz I think we'd have heard anything if that many people had crashed!

I thought it's standard practice to abandon in one day races if you've got no chance for a good placement, or if you are a domestique and you destroyed yourself in the first half of the race. It's not like you need to make a time cut for the next stage.

Lampre's DS Bontempi after today's race:

"Today we experienced a day lackluster, I saw the riders not present at the crucial parts of the race. Pozzato being shed and did not express the potential that we know about him. The comrades have failed to give an important contribution to the captain"

Rest of the stuff on Lampre's web here.

so GW aspirations, soft riders or end of duty? Hard to tell.

 

[garyhoop1]

Videos

Videos from todays E3 Harelbeke: http://bit.ly/WTVfsv

 

[The Hitch]

The last 50k of Roubaix are sure to be boring this year.

Where they all that last year?

Chavanel attacked trying to close the gap and because of that they dropped.

They were not waiting for Boonen, don't listen to the commentators...

Wasn't e3 a bit crap last year too?

 

[gruppeto993]

impressive cancellara. but no one should get their hopes up, he is going no where in tour of flanders or roubaix. he is going to be very heavily marked and sagan learnt the lesson that if you let cancellara go you wont see him until the finish. OPQS and Sky have too many strong riders who will chase fabian if he attacks while Radioshack is a one man team. where are the domestique's?!

I actually think EBH will be a good domestique for cancellara.

 

[Netserk]

No matter who is in the group there will be a fastest on paper guy that will result in the same calculations being made.

The problem for the riders in the chase group is that with Canc out ahead they know they have to ride all out to bring him back, but that leaves them exposed to anyone in the group who holds something back. This is true with or without Sagan.

Nope.

There will always be a fastest guy, but seldom a both fastest and strongest guy, with no other of similar speed or strength.

A group of Boonen, Canc, Sagan and Pippo would be able to work well together to catch a rider in front of them.

in 2010 Canc was also able to stay away partly because Boonen was both the strongest and the fastest in the chasing group.

 

[Museeuw]

I'm pretty confused what OPQ tactics was and even more confused what it should have been. Ok, Tom is still training and hopefully also was Chavanel. If not it really doesn't look good at all.

If Chava is still training why in the hell OPQ was pulling so hard when Cance had attacked because if they would have been catch Fabian only outcome was that sagan will win. And if Chavanel wanted to succeed there was no point go all out in 5 man group when Langeveld was only one who also did same. Somebody could say that Chava and Langeveld rode bravely. I will say they rode stupidly.

So I didn't saw entire race. But what I saw was when Fabian attacked and OPQ tried to pull him back without Boonen in that group. Next time when I found working stream there was Cance vs. 5 man group and OPQ had disappeared except Chavanel. No matter what the reason was but I think that stop pulling first group was the best decision OPQ DS did during entire race. If that was the case.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

All the talk about Sagan here, you would almost forget Langeveld rode a great race also

 

[Panda Claws]

I'm pretty confused what OPQ tactics was and even more confused what it should have been. Ok, Tom is still training and hopefully also was Chavanel. If not it really doesn't look good at all.

If Chava is still training why in the hell OPQ was pulling so hard when Cance had attacked because if they would have been catch Fabian only outcome was that sagan will win. And if Chavanel wanted to succeed there was no point go all out in 5 man group when Langeveld was only one who also did same. Somebody could say that Chava and Langeveld rode bravely. I will say they rode stupidly.

So I didn't saw entire race. But what I saw was when Fabian attacked and OPQ tried to pull him back without Boonen in that group. Next time when I found working stream there was Cance vs. 5 man group and OPQ had disappeared except Chavanel. No matter what the reason was but I think that stop pulling first group was the best decision OPQ DS did during entire race. If that was the case.

You can't know for sure if Chavanel and Langeveld were the only 2 going all out, just because they could not follow Thomas and Sagan at the end.

 

[Panda Claws]

All the talk about Sagan here, you would almost forget Langeveld rode a great race also

Let me know when a Dutchie wins something.

 

[greenedge]

Langeveld was very strong- top 3 at Roubaix?

Congrats to Cancellara- he rode an amzing race and did not even have to attack more than once.

Sagan rode well and can probably win G-W.
Boonen i think will be back for P-R.

 

[Museeuw]

You can't know for sure if Chavanel and Langeveld were the only 2 going all out, just because they could not follow Thomas and Sagan at the end.

I prefer what I saw during last 30 km not 500m. I'm pretty sure Chava gave all he had when chasing Cance and Langeveld almost if not all. Sagan and Thomas were little bit saving energy. And Oss - not sure. I can easily be wrong but that's the way I saw it went.

 

[Lanark]

Langeveld was very strong- top 3 at Roubaix?

Congrats to Cancellara- he rode an amzing race and did not even have to attack more than once.

Sagan rode well and can probably win G-W.
Boonen i think will be back for P-R.

Langeveld sucks at Roubaix, too small and light. The Ronde van Vlaanderen is the classic where he has the best chance for a result.

 

[Pentacycle]

Langeveld sucks at Roubaix, too small and light. The Ronde van Vlaanderen is the classic where he has the best chance for a result.

In fact it's his only really important race of the year. And he has every right to do so, because at the age 23(same as Sagan now), in his debut in RVV, he was 10 seconds off a possible win. It's sad he had so many bad luck over the years. Typical Dutch rider...

 

[trevim]

Lampre's DS Bontempi after today's race:

"Today we experienced a day lackluster, I saw the riders not present at the crucial parts of the race. Pozzato being shed and did not express the potential that we know about him. The comrades have failed to give an important contribution to the captain"

Rest of the stuff on Lampre's web here.

so GW aspirations, soft riders or end of duty? Hard to tell.

Still better than the usual crap press releases of Saxo-Tinkoff. They follow the usual "all is well when it seems well". No critics whatsoever.

 

[Roderick]

Nope.

There will always be a fastest guy, but seldom a both fastest and strongest guy, with no other of similar speed or strength.

A group of Boonen, Canc, Sagan and Pippo would be able to work well together to catch a rider in front of them.

in 2010 Canc was also able to stay away partly because Boonen was both the strongest and the fastest in the chasing group.

Wrong. In 2010 Canc could stay away because he was 10 times as good as all the others combined

 

[Pippo_San]

Lampre's DS Bontempi after today's race:

"Today we experienced a day lackluster, I saw the riders not present at the crucial parts of the race. Pozzato being shed and did not express the potential that we know about him. The comrades have failed to give an important contribution to the captain"

Rest of the stuff on Lampre's web here.

so GW aspirations, soft riders or end of duty? Hard to tell.

Pippo's gonna destroy everyone in GW...you heard it here first.

 

[The Hitch]

Pippo's gonna destroy everyone in GW...you heard it here first.

well if there a race he cant **** up by missing the break in, its GW.

 

[SafeBet]

well if there a race he cant **** up by missing the break in, its GW.

I'm sure he'll find some creative way to mess it up

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Still better than the usual crap press releases of Saxo-Tinkoff. They follow the usual "all is well when it seems well". No critics whatsoever.

Point being that Pippo was not supported in the race. Pippo obviously did everything he could and finished the race. Everybody else on the team disappeared at the halfway point. Hopefully he will be better supported in RVV.

Saxo's riders in these races are placement boys and peloton fodder. A press release seems pointless.