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Paris - Roubaix 2021 (03.10)

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There should be a Paris Roubaix special addition for riders unde 60kg. I wanna see Porte, Pozzovivo, Nairoman battle on cobbles
The cobble stage in the 2015 Tour was a good one. Nairo, Froome, Nibali all trading attacks from the group of cobble experts before Tony Martin escaped for the stage win.

Van der Poel has the Evenepoel syndrome. Towing riders to the line and getting out sprinted by bike lengths.
“Poel” is a Dutch word meaning “slow finish.” It also explains Adri’s 7 silver and bronze medals in CX worlds.
 
Maybe I don't get your point but perhaps you have never hurt yourself enough on a bike to understand, maybe just keep an open mind? If Paquot did cry then I am pretty sure it would have zero to do with if he had a sad life or not.

Truthfully none of us have any idea, so you can't speculate either way. Maybe he does have a sad life? You don't know.

What I won't do is veer off onto a meta conversation about a "crying conversation". I simply remarked on a small specific detail in a Tweet.

Every pro rider should be required to ride Paris-Roubaix once, like a rite of passage. In the past the greatest champions also coveted it for their palmares, even one how despised it like Hinault. It's the very essence of brutal cycling.

That's funny because I was watching & thinking... the complete opposite. I mean thank god many riders (including my favorites, i.e. the climbers) nope out of this butchery.

This race cannot even be healthy (or at least far less than usual), i.e. imagine the sheer amount of muck & mud & dirt inhaled & swallowed yesterday? And the burning eyes (some like van Aert admitted they made a mistake in taking off their glasses to see better). Riders usually say they sleep like babies after a very demanding race. I doubt many of them slept well last night (especially the numerous riders who crashed themselves).

So I love their bravery, I love the visual & cultural impact it has on the sport (i.e. cementing cycling as "the" toughest sport in the world), but let's leave it for the specialists to have their fun.

It's bad enough when they include cobbles in the Tour de France & the yellow jersey fight can become a lottery.
 
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Yesterday's PR was the best possible advertisement for pro cycling possible. What other sport offers a natural arena in which competitors battle the conditions, bad luck, the terrain as well as each other, plus team tactics and a 100-year-plus tradition?

Really, it had everything.

I've done some crazy VTT races in which I was caked in muck, my lungs were coated in dust and I coughed for a week afterward -- but it's something you look back on with pride. I bet MvDP, Colbrelli and Vermeersch won't have to buy a beer in northern Europe (or in Sonny's case, Italy) for the rest of their lives.
 
Those saying Colbrelli wheelsucked VdP forget that Colbrelli attacked alone to get up the road towards the head of the race, before VdP followed. That was smart tactics.

VdP still does too much in these long races, and has little left at the end. It's a real pattern now.

Crazy race, 80% of the field out of the race by the end of Arenberg. I'd backed 4 riders and had Walscheid and Moscon at the head of the race at that point, so shame they both hit problems.

Another of my bets, Kristoff, seems to have been the race's ninja. Don't recall seeing him or hearing his name all day then pops up in 14th. Pollitt was my 4th for the record.
 
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Those saying Colbrelli wheelsucked VdP forget that Colbrelli attacked alone to get up the road towards the head of the race, before VdP followed. That was smart tactics.

VdP still does too much in these long races, and has little left at the end. It's a real pattern now.

Agree re VdP, but like Sagan, it's hard to see how he'll break that pattern. He is always going to be the animator in any race he enters to win so other riders have to key off him. At this point he doesn't have a DQS-like team to act as a buffer up the road or back in the final selection. So unless he's Cancellara-strong, or gets away with Wout, he's going to be pulling guys like Colbrelli to the line more often than not.
 
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Those saying Colbrelli wheelsucked...

are simply right.

Whether that's smart, astute, dumb, brave, not brave, canny, popular, not popular... doesn't matter.
It was a master class in wheel sucking, and I don't remember any winner of Roubaix ever winning this way (in the last 30 years: maybe Guesdon was closest as he was under the radar, but I don't remember that edition very well).

It seems it's very hard for a good sprinter to just follow moves and beat other riders on the velodrome. So in a way, Colbrelly pulled off a feat that is quite rare.
I feel it was only possible because MvdP allowed him (and everyone else) to stay in his wheel as long as they wanted to be, and because of the head wind, so wheelsuckers could save energy in the finale.
 
Those saying Colbrelli wheelsucked...

are simply right.

Whether that's smart, astute, dumb, brave, not brave, canny, popular, not popular... doesn't matter.
It was a master class in wheel sucking, and I don't remember any winner of Roubaix ever winning this way (in the last 30 years: maybe Guesdon was closest as he was under the radar, but I don't remember that edition very well).

It seems it's very hard for a good sprinter to just follow moves and beat other riders on the velodrome. So in a way, Colbrelly pulled off a feat that is quite rare.
I feel it was only possible because MvdP allowed him (and everyone else) to stay in his wheel as long as they wanted to be, and because of the head wind, so wheelsuckers could save energy in the finale.
Not gonna give any attention to people commenting on wheelsucking. Only thing that I noticed was that when Van Der Poel made that last attack before Moscon went down and Boivin could not close that gap to Van Der Poel anymore by himself Colbrelli really looked done as well. But Colbrelli closed that gap and came back. That was the winning move in my opinion.
 
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Didn't colbrelli attack at around 90km left?
Every single rider in the top 10 tried to force it / attacked. That doesn't set Colbrelli apart from any other rider.
Didn't Moscon put on a show?
Didn't Vermeersch ride from 220kms out?
Didn't van der Poel ride more than 50% with his nose in the wind starting from Arenberg?

Yes, Colbrelli anticipated during a lull in the chasing group. He rode it very smart and tactically perfect. He only pushed hard when he had to (like when he had to take van der Poel back, or that last attack by Vermeersch).
It takes a very clear mind to ride it this way, in your first Roubaix. There are very few who could pull this off, and the weather made it even more complicated. So kudos to Colbrelli

So take it as you want, I have a very balanced view and respect for every rider finishing this race, but when it flies like a wheelsucker, quacks like a wheelsucker, well, it's probably not a duck. :p
 
Yes, but people like to pretend that he pulled a Gerrans...
It's an awful comparison and truly harsh on Sonny Colbrelli.

All day you had to be super focus on position, on handling, its mentally exhausting. He had the ability to be in the right positions early in the race and avoided trouble.

Then he attacks at 90km and forms a chase group behind breakaway. 20 kms later vanderpol bridges. If it wasn't for colbrelli we wouldnt have the VDP attack and final selection.

All through the final 50km on sliperry mud cobbles Colbrelli was being distanced and having to close gaps and he managed every time. He was on the limit.

And let's not forget it was Colbrelli's attack on Carrefour de l'arbre that distanced moscon. So he did an attack in the final 15km and people are claiming he did a Gerrans and wheelsucked.

I didn't see an attack from VDP in that final selection. So as far as I'm concerned VDP did as much as a Gerrans as colbrelli
 
Yes, but people like to pretend that he pulled a Gerrans...

It was completely different to Gerrans, but I also think he did quite some wheelsucking. Fair, allowed, but usually not the kind of winner people cheer for the most.
Compared to van der Poel, Moscon, Vermeersch he did the least work - part of that is on van der Poel, he could just have refused to drag him that whole part, he lead the group for a huge amount of kilometers. That doesn't mean Colbrelli did absolutely nothing, he did a few moves, but he wasn't one of the riders to do the most work and without van der Poel's behaviour they would probably never have caught Moscon again.
 
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When did people start disliking Sonny though?
Tour? EC?

In interviews he comes accross as the kind of person most would be indifferent to.
Let's build a rider.
Let's take Valverde's riding style (aesthetically beautiful), Roglic's personality (completely inoffensive, emotionally dead) and VdP's constant attacks and dragging riders to the line.
You'll still have some bitter twisted people.
 
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It was completely different to Gerrans, but I also think he did quite some wheelsucking. Fair, allowed, but usually not the kind of winner people cheer for the most.
Compared to van der Poel, Moscon, Vermeersch he did the least work - part of that is on van der Poel, he could just have refused to drag him that whole part, he lead the group for a huge amount of kilometers. That doesn't mean Colbrelli did absolutely nothing, he did a few moves, but he wasn't one of the riders to do the most work and without van der Poel's behaviour they would probably never have caught Moscon again.
That's a fair take and like you said van der Poel did nothing to make him work.
 
Every single rider in the top 10 tried to force it / attacked. That doesn't set Colbrelli apart from any other rider.
Didn't Moscon put on a show?
Didn't Vermeersch ride from 220kms out?
Didn't van der Poel ride more than 50% with his nose in the wind starting from Arenberg?

Yes, Colbrelli anticipated during a lull in the chasing group. He rode it very smart and tactically perfect. He only pushed hard when he had to (like when he had to take van der Poel back, or that last attack by Vermeersch).
It takes a very clear mind to ride it this way, in your first Roubaix. There are very few who could pull this off, and the weather made it even more complicated. So kudos to Colbrelli

So take it as you want, I have a very balanced view and respect for every rider finishing this race, but when it flies like a wheelsucker, quacks like a wheelsucker, well, it's probably not a duck. :p

I can't say if you are trolling, hope you are. Next we will call all the riders in the peloton for wheel suckers expect Tim De Clerq
 
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Colbrelli won the race through being the smartest. Van der poel lacks racing intelligence. Colbrelli attacked at least twice and won the sprint.

Van derpol worked too much in the final 30km but all day colbrelli was taking his pulls and doing his work in the groups he was in. Just watch the footage.
 
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Colbrelli won the race through being the smartest. Van der poel lacks racing intelligence. Colbrelli attacked at least twice and won the sprint.

Van derpol worked too much in the final 30km but all day colbrelli was taking his pulls and doing his work in the groups he was in. Just watch the footage.

I'd say van der Poel actually wanted it too much. That was his problem. Colbrelli meanwhile just seemed content to sit behind him & would have been indifferent had he lost. I'm not exaggerating here either, i.e. there's a reason some riders sit behind others & let them work: it's not always because they're outsmarting them, no, it's a literal game of bluff with some truth involved in the form of "you want it more, so work for it".

If van der Poel hadn't pulled, they probably would have been caught by van Aert's group (& maybe Colbrelli also fancied his own chances in that scenario as well).
 

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