P-R riders that are never there, but should be.

[ergmonkey]

Ya, I agree that Hushovd could have had a much diffrent palmares had he made some other choices in his career than he did. Still it's hard to argue with what he has accomplished with the route he did take.

Right now my concern is with EBH and whether he will make the same choices Hushovd did to focus on stages and green jersey at the Tour rather than winning big one day races. I would prefer it if EBH takes the route that Hushovd didn't take and aim at the classics before anything else.

My biggest concern for EBH is that he rides for a mega-budget team that thinks Bradley Wiggins is capable of serving as the team leader.

 

[auscyclefan94]

My biggest concern for EBH is that he rides for a mega-budget team that thinks Bradley Wiggins is capable of serving as the team leader.

And can't do a sprint leadout to save themselves! Sorry dim, had to take a cheap shot!

 

[ingsve]

My biggest concern for EBH is that he rides for a mega-budget team that thinks Bradley Wiggins is capable of serving as the team leader.

Well, if they thought Wiggins could win RVV or P-R then perhaps I would be worried about that but I think Sky has a pretty good setup for the classics especially with Knaven coming in.

 

[simo1733]

And can't do a sprint leadout to save themselves! Sorry dim, had to take a cheap shot!

A sprint leadout for PR! Good idea, you really know your stuff.The main problem with their sprint leadout is they don't have a sprinter on the end of it.

 

[hfer07]

Sylvain Chavanel

 

[Echoes]

"He who does not finish Paris-Roubaix is no cycling rider" (Charly Mottet)

Actually here in Belgium they have a show called Flandriens and they talk about the 2 cobbled monuments from the 60s till now with footage.

All of them called Flanders harder. 2 names I can remember that said Flanders was harder were Boonen and Merckx.

What???

Merckx never said that on that show. Quite on the contrary, he hated the Tour of Flanders. In Flanders, there are far too many turns which slow down the pace, compared to Milan Sanremo (very underrated race) where he can hold a 50kmh pace and which in his time exhausted the sprinters like Leman, while in Flanders, they could always come back (in his days, there were fewer climbs of course).

Two friends of mine did Paris-Roubaix as amateurs and they would tell me that Flanders is nothing compared to Paris-Roubaix. Not only are the cobbles much nastier but the section are longer and it's flat. This means that there are no climbs but also no descents and after cobbled sections of 2/3kms you'd surely want to take a rest freewheeking in a descent, but you can't. It's flat so you still have to push on the pedals till the next section. In Flanders, the climbs on the cobbles (less than 1km) are in themselves very hard, you need to sprint before and on it but at least afterwards, there are descents. Relief !

 

[auscyclefan94]

A sprint leadout for PR! Good idea, you really know your stuff.The main problem with their sprint leadout is they don't have a sprinter on the end of it.

Ouch!!!!!! Though I like your sentiment!

 

[El Pistolero]

"He who does not finish Paris-Roubaix is no cycling rider" (Charly Mottet)






What???

Merckx never said that on that show. Quite on the contrary, he hated the Tour of Flanders. In Flanders, there are far too many turns which slow down the pace, compared to Milan Sanremo (very underrated race) where he can hold a 50kmh pace and which in his time exhausted the sprinters like Leman, while in Flanders, they could always come back (in his days, there were fewer climbs of course).

Two friends of mine did Paris-Roubaix as amateurs and they would tell me that Flanders is nothing compared to Paris-Roubaix. Not only are the cobbles much nastier but the section are longer and it's flat. This means that there are no climbs but also no descents and after cobbled sections of 2/3kms you'd surely want to take a rest freewheeking in a descent, but you can't. It's flat so you still have to push on the pedals till the next section. In Flanders, the climbs on the cobbles (less than 1km) are in themselves very hard, you need to sprint before and on it but at least afterwards, there are descents. Relief !

Merckx did say the Ronde is harder to win than Paris-Roubaix. So did Boonen. Both called Paris-Roubaix quite easy to win. There's a reason why he hates Flanders... He only won it twice.
And I ignored the rest of your post after you called Milan-San Remo an underrated race.

 

[insideout leadout]

Surprised nobody mentioned Ryder Hesjedal after the Arenberg stage at TDF. Yes he was in the long breakaway but managed to stay away solo much longer than expected by riding some sections as fast as the Cancellara group. I know he's a former mountainbiker but he's bigger than they use to be which is to his advantage over the cobbles. Despite his obivious strengths he seems to focus only on the Ardenne week and to my knowledge he never raced (or finished?) PR. Since Garmin got an even stronger team for the cobbles next year his priorites will probably stay the same.

 

[Martin]

Sven Nys, Zdenek Stybar, Niels Albert

 

[El Pistolero]

Sven Nys, Zdenek Stybar, Niels Albert

Znedek Stybar is probably going to Quick step, so doesn't really belong there. Sven Nys has ridden P-R before.