Paris Nice stage 1 Houdan - Houdan 154.5 km The Season Starts Here

[Jamsque]

Nice by the breakaway, de Gent owes Voigt a latter or two there.

Geraint pulling off the front - very strong at the end,

G has amazing power on the flat, he has to be one of the best sprint train riders in the peloton right now.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Leukemans, Devolder and Thomas.

What decent Dutchies do they have?

Caisse d'epargne was a French team too, but we all know it was Spanish

Poels, Westra, Hoogie, Ligthart, Van Leijen...
besides the point anyway. Vasc. is not belgium, again you get defensive when you have no ground to defend.

 

[Kazistuta]

De Gendt wins

Told you, it's mainly thanks to de Gendt that the break stayed away in the first place. He deserved the win

"Mainly"....yeah right! Why does it always have to be ONE rider that keeps the break in front? All three guys out there is proven breakaway artists, and from the footage I couldn't see any major difference in work ethic between those three.

Great win for De Gendt though, well deserved, I really like his style and "cohones"!

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Poor Jens got nothing out of it

Sob!

 

[Moondance]

Leukemans, Devolder and Thomas.

What decent Dutchies do they have?

Caisse d'epargne was a French team too, but we all know it was Spanish

Their money is Dutch. The guy who runs Vacansoleil (Daan Luijkx) is Dutch. More Dutch riders in the squad than Belgians. And the team is of course registered in the Netherlands. Ergo, Dutch squad.

 

[Jamsque]

Geraint Thomas hit the front at 1km to go and rode the HTC train clean off his wheel! He didn't get passed by the pack until 250m.

 

[Andy99]

Their money is Dutch. The guy who runs Vacansoleil (Daan Luijkx) is Dutch. Ergo, Dutch squad. More Dutch riders in the squad than Belgians. And it is of course registered in the Netherlands.

Half of Belgium is kind of Dutch anyway isn't it?

 

[Cobblestoned]

My bad....

better luck tomorrow, lol

 

[El Pistolero]

Poels, Westra, Hoogie, Ligthart, Van Leijen...
besides the point anyway. Vasc. is not belgium, again you get defensive when you have no ground to defend.

Poels yes, but the others?

It is a Dutch team, in the sense that people who speak Dutch make up most of the team. And Vacansolei has a lot of tv ads in Belgium.

It has a Dutch sponsor, true, but it certainly is a Belgian/Dutch hybrid team.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yeah...!

I don't deviate from my stance that flat stages with no wind and where HTC hold the break at a short distance constantly are tedious and should be banned.

Thankfully today there was just enough wind and road obstacles to break things up not much, but enough to tire out a lot of would-be chasers. I know HTC had at least 4 caught behind the split. Then the chasers were either tired from that combination or playing a bit of chicken, trying to make the others tire out their leadout train, and the run-in was just tricky enough to give the break the chance they needed.

Much better race than anticipated.

 

[Anonymous]

better luck tomorrow, lol

Any day I don't wake up in your shoes is a blessed day, lol

 

[Moondance]

Poels yes, but the others?

It is a Dutch team, in the sense that people who speak Dutch make up most of the team. And Vacansolei has a lot of tv ads in Belgium.

It has a Dutch sponsor, true, but it certainly is a Belgian/Dutch hybrid team.

Vacansoleil has 9 Dutch riders and 5 Belgians....

 

[Jamsque]

So how good is De Gendt uphill? He ought to defend his jersey easily tomorrow, does he have a chance of making it over the Cote de Bécop on Tuesday?

 

[El Pistolero]

Vacansoleil has 9 Dutch riders and 6 Belgians....

Yeah, so?

What other big hopes can they have besides Leukemans or Devolder? Like I said, Belgian/Dutch hybrid team in terms of the cycling part of the team.

If we're going to base our self on who leads the team than there's a lot of Belgian teams

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Their money is Dutch. The guy who runs Vacansoleil (Daan Luijkx) is Dutch. More Dutch riders in the squad than Belgians. And the team is of course registered in the Netherlands. Ergo, Dutch squad.

What Moondance said

+Poels, Hoogerland and Westra have proven themselves enough the last 2 years and I think Van Leijen, Mol (Qatar 2010), Mouris (groene hart), Ruijgh and Ligthart arent doing so bad either.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Poels yes, but the others?

It is a Dutch team, in the sense that people who speak Dutch make up most of the team. And Vacansolei has a lot of tv ads in Belgium.

It has a Dutch sponsor, true, but it certainly a Belgian/Dutch hybrid team.

I have no problem with this, in fact I'd like to see more dutch /belgium riders in the team, rather then them chasing riders like ricco.

There are some pretty talented dutch riders at vasc.
Hoogie had a poor schedule last year, but can be quality.
Ligthart is pretty quick. Westra, and especially Van Leijen are underrated i feel.

ANd yeah poels, still so young, massive talent.

 

[Scirea]

Yeah, so?

What other big hopes can they have besides Leukemans or Devolder? Like I said, Belgian/Dutch hybrid team in terms of the cycling part of the team.

It doesn't matter if they best rider is from another country. Do you think Saxo is Spanish because their best hope for wins is Contador?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Yeah, so?

What other big hopes can they have besides Leukemans or Devolder? Like I said, Belgian/Dutch hybrid team in terms of the cycling part of the team.

If we're going to base our self on who leads the team than there's a lot of Belgian teams

Poels has more hope than Leukemans (who'll never win anything big anyway)

 

[Havetts]

Hoogerland, Poels, Westra =/?

Edit - woa, suddenly 2 pages later..

 

[Libertine Seguros]

So how good is De Gendt uphill? He ought to defend his jersey easily tomorrow, does he have a chance of making it over the Cote de Bécop on Tuesday?

2nd in Brabantse Pijl is promising.
127th in Liège-Bastogne-Liège isn't.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

It doesn't matter if they best rider is from another country. Do you think Saxo is Spanish because their best hope for wins is Contador?

Exactly.

But El Pistolero is one of those hopelessly by Wuyts and Sporza brainwashed Flemish people.

 

[El Pistolero]

Poels has more hope than Leukemans (who'll never win anything big anyway)

He was third at Flanders. If people are saying Gilbert can win Flanders than so can Leukemans.

 

[Moondance]

Yeah, so?

What other big hopes can they have besides Leukemans or Devolder?

So what? Is Katusha Spanish because they have Joaquim Rodriguez?

I'll repeat: Dutch money pays for the team. Dutch dude runs the team. The team's legal personality is Dutch, and Dutch riders are the largest nationality group on the team.

But because Devolder and Leukemans ride there the Belgians can just claim it for theirs? Did the Italians lose their claim to Vacansoleil when Ricco left?

 

[El Pistolero]

It doesn't matter if they best rider is from another country. Do you think Saxo is Spanish because their best hope for wins is Contador?

Saxo is a one man team. Contador is the only one who's going to win them anything.

 

[Jamsque]

No-one cares what nationality Vacansoleil may or may not claim to be. They are an international cycling team, just like every other Pro Team (with the possible exception of EE).

Lol @ "The team's personality is Dutch."