Re:
armchairclimber said:
He's much better than Evenepoel, that much was plain to see.
Yeah, Boonen was better than Contador too... in cobbled races. I mean, are you seriously comparing these two? First of all, Philipsen is 2 years olde. Secondly, he was the leader at UAE yesterday, while Evenepoel had to work for his teammates, and had to bridge a gap to the first peloton on his own, after being held up in a crash. In the final 8k he had to close a few gaps in the back of the peloton. Thirdly, he is a classics type of rider, very much like Boonen was (they called him the new Boonen even two years ago, with Boonen posting a twitter of the two of them doing some training together with the message "the old one and the new one"). Evenepoel will very likely not participate in races such as these, in two or three years, while these are the races tailormade for Philipsen.
Which isn't to say i think Philipsen is a great talent. I think he will turn out to be a new-improved Jasper Stuyven. One that can actually finish it off, unlike Stuyven. His sprint on Nokere Berg was the fastest of the guys competing for the win, but he had to come from too far behind.