Edvald Boasson Hagen - How Good Is He

[blackcat]

Peter Sagan, is the new Boason.

Boason is the poor man's stool carrier for Sagan.

/end thread

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

I didn't know much about Sagan before this season, but he's sure making a good impression.

 

[Cobblestones]

EBH is so last year.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

hmmm.. you must mean as in lazy to no offseason conditioning?

 

[joy118118]

He went to Sky for more freedom and didnt want to be Cav's lead-out anymore, but he wasnt more impressive than he was in HTC - even less. His wins in G-W and Giro were very impressive to me.

Last year he was injured and looked more like a sprinter. This year... With no injuries, he only shows like to be Sutton's lead-out and nothing more.

Edit: Forget about in Oman he is second behind Gesink. Maybe he wants to be a GC contender?

 

[ingsve]

Well, it's still very early so it's hard to draw any conclusions about his season yet. Oman was his first race of the season and you're not going to be really quick in your first race and he did show in Oman that he is still a very talented rider by how he rode Green Mountain. After that he has only done one sprint which isn't much to go on as far as his sprinting is concerned and in the classics he rode solidly and stayed in the main group with the favourites without any problems while Flecha took care of the attacking.

I think that thinking of him as mainly a sprinter is wrong. He's going to be a sprinter only in the sense that Boonen is a sprinter and even that is perhaps not accurate since EBH will likely split his time not only between sprints and classics like Boonen but he will probably target other types of races as well.

I view him as an allround rider who can mix it up fairly well in sprints at times.

 

[Ferminal]

Look to follow in Cancellara's footsteps. Does he have what it takes to be the #1 chrono in the world (post-Spartacus)?

 

[skidmark]

What's with him this season? I think Oman has shown that no matter how much Sky want him to be, he's not a sprinter, so what is he? His recent comments about Cav joining were a bit worrying, in that he'd probably become Cav's lead-out guy, but that's not very ambitious for someone who last year was the next Classics Great. Or are we going to see him reborn into the classics mould in the spring and he's just keeping a low profile?

Sean Kelly was 'not a sprinter' in the same way, but he was one of the greatest bike riders of all time. BH has the potential to do well in any race that has some sprints, a time trial and a bit of climbing, of which there are plenty.

Let's not jump the gun here, it's March 10th.

 

[canyonball]

It brakes my heart everytime I see boasson hagen sprints. It's painful, cloumsy and doesn't feel natural. I have knothing against him contesting sprints as he obviously has some good speed. But I think he could do much better. What that is...well I don't think he discovered that yet.

 

[NickBVK]

NOT a sprinter

Definitely a classics man, hope his team does not hold him back from achieving this

 

[Roland Rat]

Sean Kelly was 'not a sprinter' in the same way, but he was one of the greatest bike riders of all time. BH has the potential to do well in any race that has some sprints, a time trial and a bit of climbing, of which there are plenty.

Let's not jump the gun here, it's March 10th.

Yeah, the season's barely a week old

IMO it's an important season for him and just wondered how people thought his season might develop.

 

[maltiv]

Yeah, the season's barely a week old

IMO it's an important season for him and just wondered how people thought his season might develop.

He has 10 race days and has been in the top 10 7 times, including top 5s in tt , bunch sprints and even a MTF. Not a terrible start by any means. But his sprinting focus worries me, he recently said that his main goal was to improve his sprint. Not sure what has happened there because he used to fear the typical bunch sprint while he used to love TTs and breakaways.

Those who believe that Sagan is much better, well, Sagan would not have any wins yet with Edvalds race program.

 

[theyoungest]

Those who believe that Sagan is much better, well, Sagan would not have any wins yet with Edvalds race program.

You think EBH would have done better at last year's Paris Nice? Apples and pears, really. Although EBH didn't really seem much stronger at the Canadian races where they both figured.

 

[jmdirt]

Edvald Boasson Hagen

I can't believe that EBH doesn't have a thread...I didn't see it in the rider directory. Please move this to his thread if I missed it somehow.

EBH seems to be on great form of late I'm glad to see him battling at la TdF, and really mixing it up with the sprint specialists.

 

[Escarabajo]

I can't believe it either. He was supposed to replace Merckx few years back and something went wrong at Sky. Don't ask me why!

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

There has to be a thread somewhere. It's probably buried many pages back, from when he was a budding star. There was certainly a Sagan v EBH thread on the go at one point, which probably makes for some amusing reading now.

I'm glad to see him good again.

 

[Gloin22]

I don't think anything went wrong , Norwegians overhyped him after winning few stages in Britain and hype mode was forever since.

Doesn't help he has a fetish with classics when he's really just not very good at them, never was..

He also has zero racing IQ which doesn't help.

 

[Anderis]

Re:

I don't think anything went wrong , Norwegians overhyped him after winning few stages in Britain and hype mode was forever since.

I disagree.

In 2009 season, at the age of 21-22, Hagen won GW, a Giro stage and took a total of 7 Pro Tour wins including an ITT. He was classified 6th at individual CQ Ranking.

When you have a season like that at such a young age, it was logical to expect him to take even more quality wins at his prime, but he started taking fewer wins instead.

 

[vedrafjord]

Not to mention after becoming a free agent after Wiggins' crash in the 2011 Tour, he won both a straight-up one-day classic style long bumpy stage and a multi-mountain break. Joining Sky was a pretty bad idea. His selfless days as fifth-last Sky train engine count for squat compared to what he could have had as leader of a smaller team.

 

[Frankschleck]

hope they bring him to la vuelta, he needs to get back to his winning ways.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

EBH was a beast at High Road. Then sucked at Sky. Now slowly becoming a beast again at Dimension Data.

So many wasted years as some crude helper. Rowe is going the same way (can do much more then he does now).

 

[jmdirt]

Another good ride for EBH!

 

[Brullnux]

He will win the WC, mark my words. He surely has to be the leader for Norway since Kristoff has really tailed off since Paolini's suspension.

 

[Vasilis]

Re:

EBH was a beast at High Road. Then sucked at Sky. Now slowly becoming a beast again at Dimension Data.

So many wasted years as some crude helper. Rowe is going the same way (can do much more then he does now).

He wasn't bad at Sky, just from 2013 onwards.

 

[Nirvana]

Re:

He will win the WC, mark my words. He surely has to be the leader for Norway since Kristoff has really tailed off since Paolini's suspension.

You are late, i predicted him winning the WC four months ago in the 2017 predictions thread
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