Paris - Roubaix 2021 (03.10)

[mountainroad]

I gotta say I'm not a fan of riders who suddenly peak at the age of 31 but hats off to him. Smart and strong ride.

He is having his best season but Colbrelli didn't exactly come out of nowhere.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Very gracious interview from Moscon. Sad for him.

What else would he say? He lost because he crashed all by himself, it’s not like there’s someone else to blame

 

[BlueRoads]

How did van der Poel shower so fast?

 

[Danskebjerge]

Bad luck aside Moscon may ave won.

I've sort of stopped talking about "bad luck" when it comes to Paris-Roubaix. It's more a question of being lucky and smart to avoid crashes.

 

[Red Rick]

What else would he say? He lost because he crashed all by himself, it’s not like there’s someone else to blame

He was clearly riding with higher tire pressure on the other bike. So without the mechanical he probably easily wins.

 

[Extinction]

In this race its more of a case of minimizing the problems. Often even the winner has some.

Sure but you don't want to have TWO horrendous ones on the front, alone with only 3 chasers behind and within reach of the Roubaix velodrome.

 

[robmar696]

You especially.

Registered an hour ago, following forum for years.
What to say? The truth, mod.
Sadly to say, you are unfortunately one of the most succesful hater on this forum, poor old man.

 

[gregrowlerson]

I thought the clown rode well, the bike change upset his rhythm but he was going to be caught anyway.

Not sure about that. It's a little bit like the 2004 olympic men's marathon when the Brazilian race leader was tackled by a spectator (though I personally believe in that instance that the eventual Italian winner would have still won). We'll never really know.

 

[Mayomaniac]

The strongest rider of the day finished 4th.
It takes a ton of mental strength to keep pushing and to hang on to keep your 4th place after getting caught and dropped after having both a mechanical and a crash when you had the race pretty much in the bad.

 

[frisenfruitig]

Colbrelli is far from a stranger in the peloton, he's very talented and has always proven to be quite a complete rider (fast, powerful, can climb short climbs, can sprint very well in small/medium groups).

Nothing close to what he is doing this year though.

 

[bigcog]

He was clearly riding with higher tire pressure on the other bike. So without the mechanical he probably easily wins.

Yep Ineos blew it in that regard. A marginal loss.

 

[Red Rick]

Registered an hour ago, following forum for years.
What to say? The truth, mod.
Sadly to say, you are unfortunately one of the most succesful hater on this forum, poor old man.

That's a lot of extrapolation based on the occasional salty comment

 

[trevim]

How did van der Poel shower so fast?

Alpecin, German engineering

 

[BlueRoads]

Van der Poel and Vermeersch looked like they were at a funeral on the podium.

 

[dercuforever]

MVDP was strong, but Sonny was smart. No way he should have taken any pull after seeing that acceleration from Sonny in the carrefour de l'arbre.
Suck his wheel as he did suck Remco's in EC.
Incredible performance from Vermeersch as well, on the front all day long.

Overall the race was very interesting to watch, way less falls than what we could have expected. Why on earth did the big teams (DQST, Jumbo, Alpecin) let such a big group with top names take almost 3 minutes is beyong my understanding. Ok you have riders from your team in it, but don't let good riders freewheeling 3min in front of you.

9/10.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

No.

He didn't suck too much wheel.

He won.

Yes.

He sucked too much wheel.

He won.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

What an epic!

First I want to give credit to Moscon. IMO he had what it takes to win this race, maintaining his lead even on very difficult sections (like Mons en Pevele). A defect and a fall changed his fate, terrible luck. It was impressive that he was still keeping his lead afterwards but it may have costed him a medal (joining the chasers earlier would have enabled him to rest a bit).

The decisive moments of the race were very far away when Colbrelli (90 km to go) and then Van der Poel (70 km to go) attacked from the favourites group and joined the second breakaway group. Soon they built about a minute over Van Aert and QS guys, which proved to be decisive and excluded the rest of favourites from the fight for victory. VdP made some big efforts and was leading his group most but after elimination of many breakaway guys at the end he couldn't drop two guys: Colbrelli and Vermeersch. On Carrefour de l'Arbre they caught and passed unlucky Moscon and Corbrelli set a very strong pace - then I knew VdP had a problem as the Italian was still very strong and ready to sprint for victory. The rest is history. Muddy faces of the top guys, legendary celebration by the Italian and devastated lying VdP.

I'll check the news tomorrow to make sure nobody ended in a hospital (in case of the winner I mean mental)

 

[Ilmaestro99]

What an incredible race. Thanks to all the riders

I think VDP showed again his lack of intelligence in that Velodrome. But it's hard to make decisions fast in such a scenario. We all do mistakes.

Love the passion of Colbrelli.

I would give it 4/5 stars and just below 2016 in the editions of the last 10 years.

 

[Andy262]

What else would he say? He lost because he crashed all by himself, it’s not like there’s someone else to blame

Um, alot of riders wouldn't have come out at all. He was unlucky with the puncture then clearly got a bike with different spec, as he went from super confident to cow on ice on the cobbles. I think he would have won without the problems.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Do you ever get bored of making the same relentlessly negative comments

A bit harsh.

Red Rick's negative comments have a variety level worthy of their own monument.

 

[movingtarget]

Not sure about that. It's a little bit like the 2004 olympic men's marathon when the Brazilian race leader was tackled by a spectator (though I personally believe in that instance that the eventual Italian winner would have still won). We'll never really know.

Yeah I must have missed his crash. I saw the puncture but when I came back his lead had dropped. I thought he must have crashed. Well that was unfortunate ................

 

[Extinction]

I thought the clown rode well, the bike change upset his rhythm but he was going to be caught anyway.

He was 1:17 up when he punctured, lost about 30 seconds and then crashed and lost 30 more. Give him a minute back and unwavered concentration and I'm not so sure they would have caught him.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

No.

He didn't suck too much wheel.

He won.

And he deserved to win. It's Roubaix. Whoever crosses the line first went through hell to get there...I would have just like to see him pull more when they were chasing Moscon.

 

[Krokro]

Nothing close to what he is doing this year though.

He's having a great year but nothing surprising that a rider reaches his peak at this age tbf.

He had several top(or nearly)10 in classics/semi-classics if you check since 2017: MSR, Ronde, Brabantse, Omloop, KBK etc..

 

[Bonimenier]

Thanks for the info, i.e. I still didn't know who that unfortunate face planted Cofidis rider was who went into the ditch head first. Funny fact: he'll be riding with Wout van Aert on the same team next year.



Roglic haunts the minds of Colbrelli fans, i.e. they're not just content with wins (& monuments!), no, they must prove he's a saintly super nice person as well.

Unfortunately I like Roglic quite a bit more than Colbrelli.