Paris-Roubaix 2012 - The Queen of the Classics (257.5km)

[Lanark]

Sadly we're looking for a way to explain his results in 255km classics, not general weakness, so I think you're barking up the wrong tree. If he was just not very good at all, his palmares would look rather different.

Doesn't have the engine for 250km.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Fastest average speeds ever:

1 Peter Post 1964 (45.129kmh) [old course, less cobbled]
2 Rik Van Steenbergen 1948 (43.612 km/h) [old course, less cobbled and shorter race]
3 Pino Cerami 1960 (43.532km/h) [old course]
4 Germain Derycke 1953 (43.528km/h) [old course]
5 Tom Boonen 2012 (43.480km/h) [new course, headwind most of the time and 60km alone]
6 Tom Boonen 2008 (43.407km/h) [new course]
7 Johan Museeuw 1996 (43.310km/h) [new course, Mapei sweep, "weird era"]
8 Francesco Moser 1980 (43.106km/h) [new course]

Unusually fast first 2 hours today.

 

[RedheadDane]

I've just found out what I hate about these races:

When it's over we have to wait an entire ****ing year for the next one!

Amazing race! Love Boonen's guts, and as a Dane I have to admire Mørkøv; that guy do love his breaks!




And don't forget; a Dane won the junior version!

 

[El Pistolero]

Sadly we're looking for a way to explain his results in 255km classics, not general weakness, so I think you're barking up the wrong tree. If he was just not very good at all, his palmares would look rather different.

Some people just don't have a big engine for the really long one day races... EBH should focus on what he's good at: all-rounder with a good sprint in him.

 

[maltiv]

So you know that the reason EBH failed today was energy problems due to bad food preperations. It haven't crossed you that he might just not be good enough at this point?

Well, it's the same **** in every single race. He's really strong until 240 km and then he cracks spectacularly. To me, it seems very plausible that this might be caused by the fact that he's more or less the only guy in the entire peloton who cannot eat energy gels, drinks, pasta or anything else containing lots of carbohydrates.

Also, it's time for him to get a real trainer instead of being trained by that god damn goldsmith (yes, his trainer is a goldsmith with no training experience or education). He's really wasting his talent at the moment.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Boom can only handle 257km.

That will be the new joke on this forum, aye?

Be happy, Boom and Terpstra both did very good rides today.

Yeah but, especially in Booms case. A podium would be deserved.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Doesn't have the engine for 250km.

Again, that's a metaphor which is both dead and doesn't fit.

You're saying he doesn't have the fuel take. An inability to refuel midrace is a pretty reasonable explanation for that, given we know he does have an inability to stomach the standard gels and drinks.

 

[hrotha]

I am just saying....

27, the first time he focused on these races.

You get the difference between not featuring because you're not riding, and not featuring because you're not the kind of rider for these races, right?

Hell, when he was EBH's age, Flecha was basically riding for Relax.

 

[Lanark]

Again, that's a metaphor which is both dead and doesn't fit.

You're saying he doesn't have the fuel take. An inability to refuel midrace is a pretty reasonable explanation for that, given we know he does have an inability to stomach the standard gels and drinks.

No, it's the engine. Plenty of people can handle 200km, 250 is different, gels or not. It's the tough final that seperates the good from the great.

 

[El Pistolero]

Yeah but, especially in Booms case. A podium would be deserved.

He looked very awkward on the velodrome though. I guess he has very little track experience?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

He looked very awkward on the velodrome though. I guess he has very little track experience?

No he just had cramps

 

[Peccio89]

Epic fail for Pozzato.
The God of cycling punished him with that fall, beacause he let Boonen go .

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

No, it's the engine. Plenty of people can handle 200km, 250 is different, gels or not. It's the tough final that seperates the good from the great.

You're using a ****ing motorracing metaphor.

If a Ferrari splutters to a stop after 90% of the race, it's because the 'engine isn't big enough'?


It's just terrible language. A Dead Metaphor which does not even say what people mean by it.

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

Some people just don't have a big engine for the really long one day races... EBH should focus on what he's good at: all-rounder with a good sprint in him.

Not everyone is born with a natural big engine (Boonen, Sagan)
Someone have to work with it for years, Hushovd for an example. It is STUPID to say that 1 of the strongest guys in the field should stop working on something, just becasue he doesn't have the engine at the age of 24

 

[goggalor]

No, it's the engine. Plenty of people can handle 200km, 250 is different, gels or not. It's the tough final that seperates the good from the great.

Human's don't have engines, that's commentator-speak.

EBH was extremely disappointing today though. He's either wasting his talent, or didn't have that much talent for these races in the first place.

 

[The Hitch]

Turgot Ballan split.

Blue is bit i coloured in of red line that was significantly black when zoomed in, as it is part of Turgots wheel.

 

[maltiv]

No, it's the engine. Plenty of people can handle 200km, 250 is different, gels or not. It's the tough final that seperates the good from the great.

Engine meaning what? If the engine is empty, then why is it empty?

Such spectacular cracks (losing 8 minutes in 20 km) are usually always caused by being sugar empty. You probably don't cycle yourself, but if you did, you would know what I mean. When you don't get enough sugar towards the end of a long race, one just suddenly cannot keep turning the pedals anymore, even if one felt great 3 minutes earlier. It's really weird.

 

[DominicDecoco]

Boonen must quit it.

Boonen's got to sit up...

Boonen alone. 53k to go. This will never work.

Lol please guys boonen aint no cancellara the peloton can get him back whenever they want.

Boonen needs to knock it off and allow the group to catch him soon.

Boonen killing himself... Seriously a smart rider would just stop.

Boonen is not gonna win like this.

Now someone with nowhere near as much ability to do it is trying the same, it's definately stupid.

Haha lol Boonen might not win this because of his own ego seriously..

With Boonen's sprint he really should reconsider this.

If Sky was smart, they should leave Boonen dangling there.

dlwssonic is officially the new jinx-champion of the world. Well done.

 

[Trofinios]

Sadly we're looking for a way to explain his results in 255km classics, not general weakness, so I think you're barking up the wrong tree. If he was just not very good at all, his palmares would look rather different.

I don't follow you here. Performing well at PR and RVV at a young age like 25 is rare even if you are a talent like EBH. You can mention his problems with food preperation, but one can't forget that a more reasonable explanation for his "week" results might be that he just is too young and needs a couple of more years to build up strenght for +250k races. Several great riders didn't perform well in these kind of races until they were close to thirties.

 

[cineteq]

Epic fail for Pozzato.
The God of cycling punished him with that fall, beacause he let Boonen go .

It's not a fail, because he never had a chance to podium this race.

Now Sky, Rabo and BMC are a fail.

 

[Lanark]

You're using a ****ing motorracing metaphor.

If a Ferrari splutters to a stop after 90% of the race, it's because the 'engine isn't big enough'?


It's just terrible language. A Dead Metaphor which does not even say what people mean by it.

I don't see the problem. If someone's engine isn't big enough, he can't make it to the final of a real classic, someone like that get's progressively worse after 200km. I've been watching cycling for 15 years, and that has always been what that expression meant, and every cycling fan I know knows what that expression means. I don't get why you get so upset about the phrasing of the expression. Hagen's engine just isn't big enough.

 

[DominicDecoco]

Boonen must quit it.

Boonen's got to sit up...

Boonen alone. 53k to go. This will never work.

Lol please guys boonen aint no cancellara the peloton can get him back whenever they want.

Boonen needs to knock it off and allow the group to catch him soon.

Boonen killing himself... Seriously a smart rider would just stop.

Boonen is not gonna win like this.

Now someone with nowhere near as much ability to do it is trying the same, it's definately stupid.

Haha lol Boonen might not win this because of his own ego seriously..

With Boonen's sprint he really should reconsider this.

If Sky was smart, they should leave Boonen dangling there.

dlwssonic is officially the new jinx-champion of the world.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

It's not a fail, because he never had a chance to podium this race.

Now Sky, Rabo and BMC are a fail.

Rabo had 2 men there and no one able to win. They played for 2nd place from the beginning.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

I don't follow you here. Performing well at PR and RVV at a young age like 25 is rare even if you are a talent like EBH. You can mention his problems with food preperation, but one can't forget that a more reasonable explanation for his "week" results might be that he just is too young and needs a couple of more years to build up strenght for +250k races. Several great riders didn't perform well in these kind of races until they were close to thirties.

I'm just using occams razor. The observable facts are that he struggles in harder longer races, and that he can't consume the energy gels and drinks that everyone else does. These two facts seem to fit rather well together and not require recourse to anything else for explanation.

 

[The Hitch]

Yeah but, especially in Booms case. A podium would be deserved.

It was possibly the puncture that took it out of him.

I sympathize, but on the bright side, if he is ever in contention for the win, he might be glad that this misfortune came when he was contending for podium.

Unless he punctures again of course.