Omloop het Nieuwsblad 2012

[Tuarts]

◦Clinton Avery
◦Joris Boillat
◦William Clarke
◦Gang Xu
◦Gorik Gardeyn
◦Kun Jiang
◦Biao Liu
◦Pengda Jiao

I'm curious how the chinese riders will do. They will probably bounce off the road and DNF? Or cause some serious crashes and take out some of the big names for the spring season.

Avery! Good to see him riding with the pros again

 

[AussieGoddess]

Alessandro Ballan - semi-chief
Marcus Burghardt - Indian
Philippe Gilbert - chief
Thor Hushovd - chief
Taylor Phinney - Indian
Manuel Quinziato - Indian
Michael Schär - Indian
Greg Van Avermaet - chief

Works for me. Yes, super teams usually disappoint, and last year it wasn't any different with Garmin, but super teams also tend to be overrated to the point of myth. Haussler, Hushovd, Farrar are good, but not dominatingly good.

yeah - except I dont think GVA could be considered a chief. Semi-chief at best

 

[Panda Claws]

this awesome regardless of gilbert.
*facepalm*

sure, be ignorant.

 

[theyoungest]

yeah - except I dont think GVA could be considered a chief. Semi-chief at best

For this kind of race I think we could. But maybe he'll go into old GVA-mode again and disappear into Gilbert's shadow.

 

[kanari]

Gilbert? 3 Monuments, 6 classics
Ballan? 1 Monument and WC
Evans? FW and WC
Hushovd? WC and G-W
GVA? P-T

Hushovd has won Omloop as well. Thought it was fair to mention considering the thread title

 

[Netserk]

Is Offredo participating? I thought he was banned

 

[Nicosix]

It's a provisionnal startlist so it isn"t sure he will participate.

But he isn't banned until the french federation says so. He is still waiting for a trial...

Remember Contador?

And to answer another question, the startlist isn't full since we are missing some of the belgian teams

 

[Nicosix]

I've put the other invited teams if you want to check

 

[El Pistolero]

Really looking forward to this race. I think Boonen will finally win this one! It will be a hard battle between BMC, Quickstep and Sky in my opinion.

 

[Kvinto]

Really looking forward to this race. I think Boonen will finally win this one! It will be a hard battle between BMC, Quickstep and Sky in my opinion.

if only he doesn't prefer Kuurne yet again

 

[Anonymous]

Really looking forward to this race. I think Boonen will finally win this one! It will be a hard battle between BMC, Quickstep and Sky in my opinion.

Boonen looks pretty strong at the moment. And skinny.

I'm not his biggest fan but I hope he returns to his top form. Looking forward to Boonen, Phil, Thor, Canc and whomever is going well making the cobbled classics spectacular this year.

Especially looking forward to a wet P-R.

 

[Kwibus]

2 weeks to go!

Can't wait. Wet and windy is what I hope for.
Let's hope the winter leaves Europe soon. I wonder how this race will be if there is snow on the roads...

 

[jens_attacks]

2 weeks to go!

Can't wait. Wet and windy is what I hope for.
Let's hope the winter leaves Europe soon. I wonder how this race will be if there is snow on the roads...

cancelled

now seriously,can't wait!this will be good.flecha will strike big time

 

[dlwssonic]

This would be just the prologue for BMC's classics domination. I reckon GVA for omloop although gilbert or thor have great chances too.

 

[dlwssonic]

Their classics team is so amazing, if they don't win classics you can give them hell

if they don't win a monument, they can give them hell!

 

[Fetisoff]

I bet Paolini is a good bet to finish 4 or 5 or something again

Flecha to win or 2

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Maaskant to win

sure, be ignorant.

Yes. I'm the ignorant one.

Go behind a corner with your gilbert poster and leave us in peace please. chump.

 

[red_flanders]

10 days left to the start of the Belgian season!

 

[Duartista]

2 weeks to go!

Can't wait. Wet and windy is what I hope for.
Let's hope the winter leaves Europe soon. I wonder how this race will be if there is snow on the roads...

At the moment it's 7 degrees and raining in Belgium - back to normal really.

 

[MartinGT]

I hope the spring classics are just that rather than the early summer classics we had last year.

 

[Kwibus]

At the moment it's 7 degrees and raining in Belgium - back to normal really.

Forecast for 25 February is 10 degrees, a bit of sun, some clouds and a weeee bit of rain (1mm).

It's still 9 days to go, but I think it's fairly safe to say it won't be freezing.

 

[simo1733]

Champion system seem pretty crap for a pro conti squad.Plenty of Continental teams are stronger than that.

 

[durhamwasp]

Is this live on Eurosport?

 

[MartinGT]

Is this live on Eurosport?

Hope so! Ive tried finding out but to no avail

 

[hatcher]

Neither this, nor KBK are listed for British Eurosport. There will definitely be non-English streams though.