Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2014, 1 March, 198km, 1.HC

[Alexiss]

Whaouh !!! A very very nice race with movements, a lot of suspense and cyclists who have hungry . Of course they are happy to run again this fantastics races it's good for us !
We can see somes outsiders in the first position or with a good form like the two Belkins Leaders , Boom and Vanmarke , Terpstra for Omega Quick Step , Greg Van Avermaet ( it's bad to fail for the victory ..) and of course the Sky Team cyclists .
I'll be glad the futures races as Paris Roubaix and Tour des flandres , and i thinks , it's possible to assist to beautiful races !

 

[willbick]

Its funny the way Stannard crossed the line as if he wasnt bothered about winning! He kind of flopped over the line almost apologetically and didn't celebrate at all.

 

[scholar]

I didn't see the interview, but I remember reading that he'd said he was concentrating on crossing the line first -- he wanted to avoid the situation in which he was celebrating while GVA came round him to claim the win.

 

[Christian]

I didn't see the interview, but I remember reading that he'd said he was concentrating on crossing the line first -- he wanted to avoid the situation in which he was celebrating while GVA came round him to claim the win.

marginal gains all the way baby

 

[Boardslide]

Its funny the way Stannard crossed the line as if he wasnt bothered about winning! He kind of flopped over the line almost apologetically and didn't celebrate at all.

He said he didn't want to take his hands off the bike incase GVA sneaked in round him, just wanted to make sure of the win plus his arm muscles were frozen he didn't trust himself to raise his arms.

 

[willbick]

hard to believe Stannard is 26. he could pass for about 42 lol, and at the finish line he looked about 65!!

 

[VeloHuman]

hard to believe Stannard is 26. he could pass for about 42 lol, and at the finish line he looked about 65!!

It's the premature baldness.

It bodes well for Sky's classics future though, with both Stannard and EBH still so young.

 

[LugHugger]

I didn't see the interview, but I remember reading that he'd said he was concentrating on crossing the line first -- he wanted to avoid the situation in which he was celebrating while GVA came round him to claim the win.

That's racing, n'est ce pas??

 

[jaylew]

Wow, loads of excuses from the QS camp. The weather, the motorbikes, no radios, EBH...

 

[Jspear]

Wow, loads of excuses from the QS camp. The weather, the motorbikes, no radios, EBH...

Motorbikes ain't no new excuse....they've been in the way plenty of times in the past. Still OPQS needs to own up to the lost(it's part of the sport even though we don't all like it), and win tomorrow!

 

[happychappy]

hard to believe Stannard is 26. he could pass for about 42 lol, and at the finish line he looked about 65!!

It's hardly surprising. Professional cycling isn't something people take up if they want to be models. Screwing your face up and riding every day all year in terrible conditions, pushing your body to limit isn't exactly the equivalent of a nice cosy 9-5 office job and regular "facials" at the local beauty palour.

 

[TourOfTexas]

It's hardly surprising. Professional cycling isn't something people take up if they want to be models. Screwing your face up and riding every day all year in terrible conditions, pushing your body to limit isn't exactly the equivalent of a nice cosy 9-5 office job and regular "facials" at the local beauty palour.

Yet David Millar manages to look so good!

 

[Jspear]

It's hardly surprising. Professional cycling isn't something people take up if they want to be models. Screwing your face up and riding every day all year in terrible conditions, pushing your body to limit isn't exactly the equivalent of a nice cosy 9-5 office job and regular "facials" at the local beauty palour.

Hey I think cyclist look pretty good with their very distinct tan lines, flat chest, and emaciated arms.

 

[Hitchey]

A potato is faster than Stannard? Ivan Basso would outsprint Stannard? Calling Stannard a *** for working?

I second the egg on face comments. As a matter of fact, there is so much egg on some faces that they've disappeared and can't breath well enough to eat some humble pie.

While I agree that GVA would normally be considered a quicker finisher to Stannard, this was not just a "race" but a race of almost 5 hours, in what appeared to be very cold conditions, and quite a hard race at that.

GVA rode a fantastic race, he was the only one out of quite a large group who latched on when Stannard attacked. The strongest (and apparently most cunning despite all comments to the contrary) man left in this race at that point won. Simple as that.

Sep and Terpstra together could not bring down a gap of near only 10 secs for many kilometers. What's that say about the state of the legs remaining in the race...

EBH sat on for so long and didn't exactly humiliate Sep in the sprint.
It was close.
All five of them finishing together? I think it would have been tight between Sep and GVA. More shared work, and thus fresher legs for GVA and Sep. While I believe based on past sprint finishes that EBH theoretically is the best sprinter in that group, the difficulty of the race would have taken enough speed from his legs that the finish would have come down to GVA and Sep, particularly since Stannard would have probably done an even more disproportionate amount of work to set EBH up and keep the group away, reducing the work for GVA and Sep.

It's sad to see so many down on GVA for coming in 2nd so often. I would trade my racing legs anyday for GVA's.

Some people need to go race their bikes more. It beats cleaning egg.

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

A potato is faster than Stannard? Ivan Basso would outsprint Stannard? Calling Stannard a *** for working?

I second the egg on face comments. As a matter of fact, there is so much egg on some faces that they've disappeared and can't breath well enough to eat some humble pie.

While I agree that GVA would normally be considered a quicker finisher to Stannard, this was not just a "race" but a race of almost 5 hours, in what appeared to be very cold conditions, and quite a hard race at that.

GVA rode a fantastic race, he was the only one out of quite a large group who latched on when Stannard attacked. The strongest (and apparently most cunning despite all comments to the contrary) man left in this race at that point won. Simple as that.

Sep and Terpstra together could not bring down a gap of near only 10 secs for many kilometers. What's that say about the state of the legs remaining in the race...

EBH sat on for so long and didn't exactly humiliate Sep in the sprint.
It was close.
All five of them finishing together? I think it would have been tight between Sep and GVA. More shared work, and thus fresher legs for GVA and Sep. While I believe based on past sprint finishes that EBH theoretically is the best sprinter in that group, the difficulty of the race would have taken enough speed from his legs that the finish would have come down to GVA and Sep, particularly since Stannard would have probably done an even more disproportionate amount of work to set EBH up and keep the group away, reducing the work for GVA and Sep.

It's sad to see so many down on GVA for coming in 2nd so often. I would trade my racing legs anyday for GVA's.

Some people need to go race their bikes more. It beats cleaning egg.

The lack of race radios make things a lot more interesting. However, it is very easy for someone watching on TV to see (what they think is) the whole picture. We can see how much or how little (as the case was) EBH has had to work.

In theory Stannard pulling to force the chasers to work and give EBH an easy ride until they bridge is sound. But Stannard does not know how good EBH is feeling. He does, however, know how he feels and can probably get a decent reading on GVA. This is information that the viewer does not have.

EBH did not look that great sprinting for third and I agree with you that GVA probably suffered from the course and the weather. But Stannard did get the jump on him and arguably that is where he lost the sprint.

Can you win and have the wrong tactics? Yes.
Can you lose and have the right tactics? Yes.

But in the end it is the winning that everyone remembers.

 

[EnacheV]

OPQWhiners

Don't worry, there's more small races for them to rack wins.

 

[jens_attacks]

tough fuccin bike racing

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

Stop pulling Stannard you ****ing ***!!!!

Quality postings all over the place here. I'll have this one as my new signature maybe.

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

It's sad to see so many down on GVA for coming in 2nd so often. I would trade my racing legs anyday for GVA's.

Of course, but I doesn't work like that. Else I would trade them again for Sagan's

 

[Roude Leiw]

A potato is faster than Stannard? Ivan Basso would outsprint Stannard? Calling Stannard a *** for working?

I second the egg on face comments. As a matter of fact, there is so much egg on some faces that they've disappeared and can't breath well enough to eat some humble pie.

While I agree that GVA would normally be considered a quicker finisher to Stannard, this was not just a "race" but a race of almost 5 hours, in what appeared to be very cold conditions, and quite a hard race at that.

GVA rode a fantastic race, he was the only one out of quite a large group who latched on when Stannard attacked. The strongest (and apparently most cunning despite all comments to the contrary) man left in this race at that point won. Simple as that.

Sep and Terpstra together could not bring down a gap of near only 10 secs for many kilometers. What's that say about the state of the legs remaining in the race...

EBH sat on for so long and didn't exactly humiliate Sep in the sprint.
It was close.
All five of them finishing together? I think it would have been tight between Sep and GVA. More shared work, and thus fresher legs for GVA and Sep. While I believe based on past sprint finishes that EBH theoretically is the best sprinter in that group, the difficulty of the race would have taken enough speed from his legs that the finish would have come down to GVA and Sep, particularly since Stannard would have probably done an even more disproportionate amount of work to set EBH up and keep the group away, reducing the work for GVA and Sep.

It's sad to see so many down on GVA for coming in 2nd so often. I would trade my racing legs anyday for GVA's.

Some people need to go race their bikes more. It beats cleaning egg.

Nothing like commenting in hindsight... In the heat of the race (and it was quite a race) I was thinking too "what the hell is he doing, bringing GVA to the line" and let's be honest, it would not be the first time that he would have ended up empty handed after a magnificent effort.
I do not think that most of those who posted something in this sense meant any disrespect to Stannard as such, so your patronising comment seems a bit out of place.

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

Let's be honest, it was a tactical error that accidentally ended up positive for him.

 

[the asian]

Let's be honest, it was a tactical error that accidentally ended up positive for him.

Or maybe he knew about GVA"s reputation and was so confident that he would mess it up again.

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

Being confident about a reputation is hardly tactics.

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

That's nonsense. Stannard had no idea that EBH was behind. Why should he wait then? And even if he had known and the first groups came together the odds for Sky would have worsened from 50/50 (Stannard vs GvA) to 40/60 (Stannard, EBH vs. GvA, Vanmarcke, Terpstra).

 

[Netserk]

That's nonsense. Stannard had no idea that EBH was behind. Why should he wait then? And even if he had known and the first groups came together the odds for Sky would have worsened from 50/50 (Stannard vs GvA) to 40/60 (Stannard, EBH vs. GvA, Vanmarcke, Terpstra).

What crap logic is that? So Boonen only had 33% to win the Ronde sprint in '12?

And only 2% in e3?