Niki Terpstra thread

[Oliver]

Re:

Sep even more than Terpstra, who also has achievements outside the cobbles. He can on occasion do a good time trial, was able to win races like Eneco Tour, Tour de Wallonie or Qatar. Wallonie didn't even have a TT in 2015 by the way.

Sep isn't a winner. He always finds a way to lose. Terpstra is much smarter and better.

 

[Bardamu]

Re:

But I'm happy that all the pure rouleurs (Terpstra, Naesen and Vanmarcke) are riding Amstel Gold Race.

I hope that means early action again. The Ardennes classics are more beautiful when they ride them like a cobblestone race.

Mythic hills like Côte de La Redoute, Keutenberg and Eyserbosweg have been disrespected for too long.

Terpstra said he'd be working for Gilbert (and Alaphilippe) in Amstel because the team has worked for him quite a bit the last month.

 

[Leinster]

Re: Re:

Sep even more than Terpstra, who also has achievements outside the cobbles. He can on occasion do a good time trial, was able to win races like Eneco Tour, Tour de Wallonie or Qatar. Wallonie didn't even have a TT in 2015 by the way.

Sep isn't a winner. He always finds a way to lose. Terpstra is much smarter and better.

Niki has found ways to lose races that Sep hasn’t even dreamed of. He has only recently found ways to win.

 

[LiquidCrystalDynamic]

Re: Re:

Niki has found ways to lose races that Sep hasn’t even dreamed of. He has only recently found ways to win.

Niki has 22 total wins, Sep has 6. In 2012 Sep won Omloop and Niki won Dwars Door Vlaanderen, in the years since Niki has won 2 monuments and 15 total races, Sep has 5 victories. And though it does not need to be said, Niki has not just been racking up low quality wins.

 

[EroicaStradeBianche]

The Terpstra/Vanmarcke comparison says a lot about the differences between teams. They are physically similar, Vanmarcke 4 years younger, pure cobbles specialists, Terpstra is a better rouleur and Vanmarcke has maybe a better sprint.

Vanmarcke was the only one to resist Cancellara at PR 2013, 4th the year after, 3rd in Flanders and another time in the front group on PR in 2016. He demonstrated many times to be one of the absolute best riders on the cobbles. Problem is riding for QS is different from riding for Lotto/Cannondale. Even Museeuw said that if Vanmarcke was on QS he would've already won 1 Flanders/Roubaix. Vanmarcke has shown numerous times to be at the very top level like few others in these cobbled classic.
It would've been interesting to see Terpstra riding for the teams in which Sepp rode.
Now it's easy to say that Terpstra it's smarter and Sepp is a non-winner, but Niki was originally a non-winner also. Being on QS for so many years could have changed his mentality a bit.
Anyway I consider these two among the absolute best cobbles riders of he decade even if Niki won more

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Terpstra's talent is superior to Vanmarcke. Stronger mentality too.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Terpstra has been underrated his whole career.
Dutch teams thought Langeveld and Boom were far more talented than Terpstra (and going by early results, they looked like they were).
You are probably making the same mistake as the Dutch teams by thinking Vanmarcke has more talent.

He isn't. Terpstra just hit the wall so often in his career with ill-timed attacks, but that experience made him the better rider in the end. Boonen said in an interview this week that before Terpstra joined QS he hated his guts because he would attack at the weirdest places annoying the hell out of the top teams.

 

[hrotha]

Terpstra is obviously better than Vanmarcke, but that doesn't change the fact that, if the former qualifies as a "pur sang cobbles specialist", so does the latter. Cacaíto Rodríguez was as much of a pure climber as Pantani, even if he went slower uphill.

 

[jaylew]

Re:

Terpstra has been underrated his whole career.
Dutch teams thought Langeveld and Boom were far more talented than Terpstra (and going by early results, they looked like they were).
You are probably making the same mistake as the Dutch teams by thinking Vanmarcke has more talent.

He isn't. Terpstra just hit the wall so often in his career with ill-timed attacks, but that experience made him the better rider in the end. Boonen said in an interview this week that before Terpstra joined QS he hated his guts because he would attack at the weirdest places annoying the hell out of the top teams.

I just remember it seemed like Terpstra (along with Wegmann) was the only rider who was ever visible for MIlram in those days. He always seemed to be on the attack or in a break but was often unsuccessful.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

3rd today. Even if he followed Sagan he would not have dropped him so I think he can be happy

 

[Bardamu]

I think he really takes joy out of the fact he rode away from three guys who are faster than him.

 

[Red Rick]

Terpstra said that once Sagan had a gap and there was no cooperation it would be hard and when the gap grew to a minute he thought the battle for the win was over.

Then he said that at the end the Belgians were all attacking for 3rd place implying he waited a bit before making his move, leveraging his win in De Ronde

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

No win for Belgians in any of the classics if I'm correct?

The pressure is on for Wellens, Benoot and Gilbert to deliver in the Ardennes. Perhaps even GvA will continue again

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

No win for Belgians in any of the classics if I'm correct?

The pressure is on for Wellens, Benoot and Gilbert to deliver in the Ardennes. Perhaps even GvA will continue again

Dylan Teuns to destroy everyone in FW!

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

No win for Belgians in any of the classics if I'm correct?

The pressure is on for Wellens, Benoot and Gilbert to deliver in the Ardennes. Perhaps even GvA will continue again

Not unless you count Dwars Door Vlaanderen I think

 

[jaylew]

Re:

No win for Belgians in any of the classics if I'm correct?

The pressure is on for Wellens, Benoot and Gilbert to deliver in the Ardennes. Perhaps even GvA will continue again

Depends on your definition of classics as everyone seems to have a different one. Belgians won Dwars Door Vlaanderen and Strade Bianche.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Ah I forgot about Dwars.

I meant the Belgian cobbled classics. But yeah than Lampaert won one.

 

[Bardamu]

Does Terpstra actually consider riding the WC RR this year with this course? If not, what are his goals for the rest of the season?

 

[Akuryo]

Even though he did not win today, he was once again one of the best riders of the day. Now he's at 10 top teens in Ronde and Roubaix and a combined 6 podiums. Clearly one of the best cobbles riders of this generation. Will be interesting to see what he can achieve during the remainder of the year. Really impressive spring so far! He and Sagan basically dominated those races.

 

[SKSemtex]

Looking for batteries is Sagan´s bike?

 

[krakenKE]

Looking for batteries is Sagan´s bike?

haha, made my day :lol:

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re:

Does Terpstra actually consider riding the WC RR this year with this course? If not, what are his goals for the rest of the season?

Lol no chance in WC RR I think.

Probably Tour de France (cobble stage) and Benelux (BinckBank) tour

Even though he did not win today, he was once again one of the best riders of the day. Now he's at 10 top teens in Ronde and Roubaix and a combined 6 podiums. Clearly one of the best cobbles riders of this generation. Will be interesting to see what he can achieve during the remainder of the year. Really impressive spring so far! He and Sagan basically dominated those races.

Yeah Vanmarcke said from their group Terpstra was clearly the best. Everytime he went full on the cobbles it went a couple of km/h faster and it was hard to keep up according to sep