E3 Harelbeke March 26, 2021

[Boes]

a crosser obviously refers to Heino.

Nah, the crosser we've al been waiting for is Fabio Aru

 

[hayneplane]

I hope MVP will not attack before ES broadcast will start.

Going to be pretty hard for him to wait until 6.30pm for British Eurosport to show it on TV

 

[Keram]

Going to be pretty hard for him to wait until 6.30pm for British Eurosport to show it on TV

No live coverage?

 

[hayneplane]

No live coverage?

Nope. Catalunya live on ES1 and ski jumping live on ES2

 

[Samu Cuenca]

No live coverage?

It looks like it's only shown live on ES Player/GCN Race Pass because of ski jumping from Planica.

 

[hayneplane]

No live coverage?

Same on Sunday with only 1 hour highlights for the men’s Gent-Wevelgem though at least the woman’s race has 2 hours live coverage.

I guess the main culprit is the very late agreement from Flanders Classics over broadcasting rights.

 

[search]

I guess the main culprit is the very late agreement from Flanders Classics over broadcasting rights.

not that it makes any change for us as a spectator, but E3 is not part of the same package as Gent, and it's also not Flanders Classics who deals with TV stations. They sold the rights to broadcasting companies (Eurovision in E3's case, Infront for most others) and Eurosport needs to buy sub-licenses from those.

 

[tobydawq]

There can be little doubt that the best thing to emerge in 2021 so far was my negative start list for the Omloop, and this race is another one which deserves such a list. So here it comes:

Benoît Cosnefroy
Tony Gallopin
Bob Jungels
Alex Aranburu
Fabio Felline
Alexey Lutsenko
Jakob Fuglsang
Matej Mohoric
Peter Sagan
Maximilian Schachmann
Lukas Pöstlberger
Christophe Laporte
Julian Alaphilippe
Magnus Cort
Michael Valgren
Arnaud Démare
Valentin Madouas
Filippo Ganna
Michal Kwiatkowski
Gianni Moscon
Luke Rowe
Geraint Thomas
Tom Van Asbroeck
Tim Wellens
Amund Grøndahl Jansen
Casper Pedersen
Mike Teunissen
Giacomo Nizzolo
Lukasz Wisniowski
Marc Hirschi
Tim Merlier
Jasper Philipsen

So, there are six active former winners of the race but only three (Stybar, GVA, Terpstra) will take part as Sagan and G are otherwise engaged in Catalunya, while Kwiatkowski is injured.

 

[Breh]

Geraint Thomas won E3.

It's so ridiculous I tend to forget it.

 

[tobydawq]

Geraint Thomas won E3.

It's so ridiculous I tend to forget it.

Why was it ridiculous? He had been top four twice before and was just the best on the day...

 

[RedheadDane]

There can be little doubt that the best thing to emerge in 2021 so far was my negative start list for the Omloop,

Really? "The best thing"? At least you didn't start an extra thread for Omloop to post your negative startlist.

 

[tobydawq]

Really? "The best thing"?

Obviously.

 

[BlueRoads]

I'm giving van Aert the edge here over van der Poel.

9 people know who will win but won't tell us! Not very social! (But I guess it's because the spoiler rules are to be enforced stricter than before.)

 

[will-10]

Geraint Thomas won E3.

It's so ridiculous I tend to forget it.

He was more fun before he got skinny

 

[Keram]

It looks like it's only shown live on ES Player/GCN Race Pass because of ski jumping from Planica.

If it is on ES player I am ok with it then.

 

[RedheadDane]

Obviously.

You seem very determined to try to deny the existence of that other thread.

 

[tobydawq]

You seem very determined to try to deny the existence of that other thread.

Not really.

 

[RedheadDane]

Not really.

That was the best thing to emerge so far this year. And I'd be surprised if it ever gets outdone.

 

[tobydawq]

That was the best thing to emerge so far this year. And I'd be surprised if it ever gets outdone.

Not from my point of view. Honestly, it has just become one of the few threads that often appears with new posts but which I never open, a bit like the design thread. Sure, it was fun at first but it seems a bit pointless by now.

 

[BlueRoads]

Not from my point of view. Honestly, it has just become one of the few threads that often appears with new posts but which I never open, a bit like the design thread. Sure, it was fun at first but it seems a bit pointless by now.

You don't need to open it, we can take it for what it is: Your gift to us. Obviously we all needed an alternative reality thread.

 

[Volderke]

Not from my point of view. Honestly, it has just become one of the few threads that often appears with new posts but which I never open, a bit like the design thread. Sure, it was fun at first but it seems a bit pointless by now.

Wasn't it a bit pointless from the beginning?
And wasn't being pointless the very reason the thread is still alive?

 

[RedheadDane]

Wasn't it a bit pointless from the beginning?
And wasn't being pointless the very reason the thread is still alive?

For me it was the attempt at making us forget about it by changing the title. People frequently make "double threads", and then just ask a mod to merge the threads.

 

[tobydawq]

Maybe I should make a negative negative start list since Matthews hasn't been mentioned a single time in this thread! After last year's schedule debacle he ended up doing only three one-day races the whole year (Worlds - 7th, MSR - 3rd, Bretagne - 1st) and last time he rode a race in Flanders was when he was 6th in De Ronde. Write him off at your own peril.

 

[RedheadDane]

So, a negative negative startlist is riders who are starting, but never mentioned?

 

[MartinGT]

GvA FTW!