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

[Ripper]

Agreed. Sky were the only ones who had the strength to chase. The others just didn't have it in them to take any turn at all. In hindsight, Tom was so strong that they should have used their resources to target 2nd, not chase the win. That was their big mistake, but you can hardly blame them for having a go.

With the #'s SKY had, I would have expected better. Not like these are new riders. Then again, the SKY blinders are almost as strong as the BMC blinders.

Awesome racing by Boonen today. Crazy sprint for 2nd. I love Paris Roubaix.

 

[LugHugger]

Nah, you can.

You can also call anyone who doesn't ride for the win all the time a coward.

Often about the same people, on the same day.

I'm sorry I haven't followed the thread today but watched live and have to ask when are DSs finally going to understand how to win this race? Waiting to chase until the final 15 k was never going to pull back tommeke who absoltuely deserved his win and is for sure Roger's equal over the cobbles which matter. Bmc, garmin and rabobank should hang their heads in shame for their chicken **** rides today. I could not believe that with 40 k to ride and less than a minute to close down that they were prepared to ride for second. No guts whatsoever.

 

[King Of The Wolds]

With the #'s SKY had, I would have expected better. Not like these are new riders. Then again, the SKY blinders are almost as strong as the BMC blinders.

Awesome racing by Boonen today. Crazy sprint for 2nd. I love Paris Roubaix.

What else could they have done? Stannard and Hayman, top notch rouleurs both, buried themselves, and didn't even make a dent.

 

[Wallace]

It's amusing how many talk about this or that team FAIL yadda yadda. You're talking about one of the toughest races on the planet with the best riders in the specialty competing. You're talking about something that's incredibly hard and all kinds of s**t happens. Bad days, mechanicals, crashes on and on. Only one person wins and Boonen is at the top of the heap right now but I wouldn't call anyone else in this group a failure.

Armchair fans indeed.

Are you posting this as you ride over cobbles? I'd expect a lot more typos.

 

[trevim]

What else could they have done? Stannard and Hayman, top notch rouleurs both, buried themselves, and didn't even make a dent.

Maybe they aren't top notch roleurs after all I mean Cancellara and a few more are probably better then Stannard and Hayman. They looked cooked when they were trying to chase Boonen.

 

[King Of The Wolds]

Maybe they aren't top notch roleurs after all I mean Cancellara and a few more are probably better then Stannard and Hayman. They looked cooked when they were trying to chase Boonen.

Maybe you're right, but nobody else was strong enough to even take a turn.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Thank God I have a DVR. Most boring P-R in memory. Nothing much more to say for me.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

You're talking out of your **** again. It's still the same team, he didn't leave a thing.

uh no. it's not the same team. garmin and cervelo were two entirely different teams.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

What else could they have done? Stannard and Hayman, top notch rouleurs both, buried themselves, and didn't even make a dent.

Stannard had just chased up to the group, doing a lot of pulls, so with the benefit of hindsight we could say maybe they should have toasted Hayman first to let Stannard recover a bit, but then if they did that and Stannard fell off the back then it would have been a waste of a bullet. Maybe instead of having Stannard ride until he dropped then Hayman sit on the front and ride until the counterattacks happened, Flecha and EBH should have put their noses in the wind a bit more often, and them have set up a proper TTT relay.

However, to focus on what they should have done like that is to ignore the brilliant job Niki Terpstra did. Quite a few times we cut to the chasers, and Terpstra was there in second place, preventing the relay, slowing things down if they ever let him get to the front, and making sure anybody who did want to help Stannard (and later Hayman) on the front was going to have to expend energy getting around him to do so.

Niki Terpstra's ride in the chasing bunch today was almost as essential to Boonen's triumph as Boonen himself.

 

[personal]

Why they didn't rotate? Isn't it faster then riding long turns?
I know not everybody was able or willing but after seeing this is not working, and they are loosing time, why didn't they try something else?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

uh no. it's not the same team. garmin and cervelo were two entirely different teams.

indeed

garmin-chipotle/slipstream and cervelo test team

some of the cervelo riders joined garmin after the 'merger', but that isn't the same as 'staying at the same team'. Bascially the joined Garmin from a dead team

 

[trevim]

Maybe you're right, but nobody else was strong enough to even take a turn.

I'm not even criticizing Stannard and Hayman who are both good riders. And as Libertine pointed out, Terpstra hurt the chase a fair bit. But against this kind of Boonen only Cancellara (I think) would be a top notch rouler.

 

[Ripper]

What else could they have done?

Bwa ha ha ha ha! Nothing! Because they were not that strong ... all the hype and Sky blinders in the world did not help them. With all the fanboyisms about how Sky were just letting Boonen dangle, it looks like with 4 in the group they could not even manage a podium today.

Bwa ha ha ha

 

[Christian]

I only have one question. Who is going to make the "Anyone but Tom" avatars for next year now that dimspace is retired???

PS: Big congrats to Turgot and Europcar, huge result for French cycling!!

 

[Ripper]

I only have one question. Who is going to make the "Anyone but Tom" avatars for next year now that dimspace is retired???

PS: Big congrats to Turgot and Europcar, huge result for French cycling!!

Turgot was a stud!

 

[RHRH19861986]

I don´t like neither Boonen nor Cancellara (yet Boonen still more than Cancellara), but what Boonen did today, unbelieveably strong...
This performance, to me, seems even more classy than Cancellara in 2010 (where, however, I think Cancellara really had this motore engine in his frame anyways, which is another issue).

Winning San Remo has still to come, then he can and certainly will retire.
What a champion, hats off!

 

[blaxland]

That was an epic fail for team sky,4 riders in the break and they don't know how to swap turns....bmc failed miserably to make an impression as Ballan just followed wheels..turgot was a surprise and boo en was a beast.but without cancellara the race was a fail...

 

[ustabe]

Tommeke for the Hour Record?

Swell idea.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Rereading this topic is rather hilarious in retrospect. Going from "lol Boonen 53 km's... thinks he's Cancellara, lol"... over "meh, they just handed him the gap", through some insinuations of clinic talk and to round it off "Cancellara would have beaten him"...

funny stuff

 

[cyclopeon]

Disappointed Terpstra didn't make the podium , and delighted that Turgot did.
I love it when a group gets so caught up in their little sprint world of saving their energy, that they get overtaken and beaten at the line by a following group (pair).

 

[El Pistolero]

Yeah big fella isn't he?

Yeah, here in Belgium he has been compared a lot to Boonen already. They look very similar on a bike.

 

[_nm___]

is there any excuse for the team sky riders not taking turns at the front?

i was watching on french television; the motorbike journalist was asking himself the same question so he went to the sky car to ask the ds what bizarre tactics this was (obviously he didn't ask "what bizarre tactics is this?", he just asked "so what exactly is your tactic?"). the ds first started mumbling something understandable and then said he's too busy and it's too loud anyway. avoiding the question, i thought

i've just never seen a team chase like this, ever

(although, thinking about it, i have seen once or twice in the past a rider attack out of a peloton led by his own team and disorganise and destroy his team's effort this way, like Antonio Flecha did today. but this wasn't at the kind of level they show on television)

 

[Ripper]

is there any excuse for the team sky riders not taking turns at the front?

They were not strong enough

 

[Ripper]

Rereading this topic is rather hilarious in retrospect. Going from "lol Boonen 53 km's... thinks he's Cancellara, lol"... over "meh, they just handed him the gap", through some insinuations of clinic talk and to round it off "Cancellara would have beaten him"...

funny stuff

Yes, the "LOL" and the "let him dangle" comments began to slowly diminish at around 20km to go. Gee, I wonder why?

 

[gregrowlerson]

Thank God I have a DVR. Most boring P-R in memory. Nothing much more to say for me.

I don't understand the negativity about the race. I thought it was a herculeun effort by Boonen. I mean, a guy takes an enormous risk by attacking with just under 60kms to go when it's likely that he could have just sat back and waited to win in a small bunch sprint. Doesn't he deserve massive props for winning with real panache?