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Paris - Roubaix 2024, one day monument, April 7

Page 68 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.

Winner of PR?


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    138
Well, I agree that a pure sprinter race isn’t an ideal alternative.

I’m not saying there is something wrong with Paris-Roubaix as such. I’m just saying that the way this race and many others have played out in the last couple of years, is bad. Not for those who win, not for their fans, but for the sport and the audience in general. I can’t think of any sport that profits from lack of suspense concerning who is going to be victorious. I don’t think football would be better if there were three or four teams that would win every match 5-0 or 6-1 or 9-2. Fascinating to watch dominance? Maybe, to some, but personally I might want to just search for the highlights on YouTube afterwards.

I fully recognize different preferences here.

But as stated before I have the feeling that I am alone here with my goals and wishes.

I only watch YT recatch shorts and use of fast-forward due to need - Unfortunately, time is not on my side these years, fully booked on every front.
When I finally have the time, I really enjoy the possibility of slow-flowTV - where you can explore nuances on your own. Eg. if one avoids channels with commentators who fill the soundscape constantly chattering overanalyzing idle speech yelling streams.

For instance I watched this year's M-SR from start to finish. Agreed, not much happens in the first 90-93% of the race, but the value in the beautiful sunlit country capes, Brian Holm's robber stories and other morning gymnastics exercises as harbingers of spring and you get right down to speed and with calm camera control, i.e. from
cameramen and producers without sugar shock/ADHD, and the observation for the viewer can suddenly revolve around the close study of a particular rider's position on the bike and his pedal cadence - to P-R to closely study the style of different riders over the cobblestones in muddy weather...for me there are always nuances to look for. Unless the riders are ricing 200K on an eight-lane highway in a desolate desert landscape. There goes my patience and interest :D
 
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Sure.

Look young kids, no gloves!

694
resolution of image insufficient to judge early blister formation

well these women didn't fair so well, so maybe it's down to MVDP's ability to levitate

edit 2: and men
 
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I fully recognize different preferences here.

But as stated before I have the feeling that I am alone here with my goals and wishes.

I only watch YT recatch shorts and use of fast-forward due to need - Unfortunately, time is not on my side these years, fully booked on every front.
When I finally have the time, I really enjoy the possibility of slow-flowTV - where you can explore nuances on your own. Eg. if one avoids channels with commentators who fill the soundscape constantly chattering overanalyzing idle speech yelling streams.

For instance I watched this year's M-SR from start to finish. Agreed, not much happens in the first 90-93% of the race, but the value in the beautiful sunlit country capes, Brian Holm's robber stories and other morning gymnastics exercises as harbingers of spring and you get right down to speed and with calm camera control, i.e. from
cameramen and producers without sugar shock/ADHD, and the observation for the viewer can suddenly revolve around the close study of a particular rider's position on the bike and his pedal cadence - to P-R to closely study the style of different riders over the cobblestones in muddy weather...for me there are always nuances to look for. Unless the riders drive 200km on an eight-lane highway in a desolate desert landscape. There goes my patience and interest :D

Brian Holm didn't comment Milan-Sanremo.
 
well, the 1948 edition was the 7th fastest of all times.
So Rik Van Steenbergen would have handily beaten every single rider in the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s e.g. Merckx, Hinault, Ballerini, Museeuw, you name them.

can't beat that logic so no reason for backlash as in: don't feed the...
Just post war editions were fundamental different routes, starting from St.Martin, Paris to the coast near Somme and other, lesser pavées before fundamental change of route in 1955 with first sights of Pevéle.
My guess is that both route and nature had positive impact on Rik Van Steenbergen's avg. speed.
Although I ofcourse recognize that he was a hard sneeze :)
 
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Do you guys ride bikes? This year's Mons-en-Pevele was a headwind / tailwind / headwind... So far from best times, and also, not much action. MvdP's job here was go fast / consolidate but not risking to go over the limit.
Chaser's group with Polit 5:14 wasn't racing until the tailwind part (before that, they almost track-stalled). So an 'easy' half a minute gain for MvdP (but also not easy because of that headwind)
Cancellara was doing his decisive attack, ditching Leukemans out of that last curve and getting some motopacing, and, more importantly, an easter wind.

Arenberg was full on tail wind (the hardest wind blowing in the last 30 years), so we have some top 10s on Strava, e.g. Mick Van Dijcke in the wheel of MvdP so among the fastest guys:

Orchies they went really hard (full tail wind and MvdP's attack) (Degenkolb 2:12, so MvdP something like 2:05)

Check strava files, check the wind...

Don't simply compare. It's nice to compare with the good old days and draw simple conclusions, but most of the time, those simple conclusions are plain wrong or, by luck, they're right.
Yeah, we all ride bikes, WTF does that have to do with the price of tea in China? I ride almost every day. I've raced bikes. I went well overboard on my comparison of P-R yesterday and the past. What I will not ignore, however, is that Every.Single.Major.Race.Is.Being.Won.At.The.Fastest.Time.Ever. Every one...and we know how some of the old race times were achieved.

If the dead dog starts to smell, maybe it's time to stop pretending it isn't dead. <- honsesty dictates that I don't put a question mark with a rhetorical question.

The thing is that it would take more time and analysis than any of us have to completely scrutinize every win and winner, of every years edition of every race. What is empiracly true is that the fastest time for every major spring classic (and massive amouts of stages in any given WT stage race) are being eclipsed (see what I did there). ALL of them. Stop trying to tell me the dog doesn't stink.

EDIT: Rico's responses have been most salient to the questions I raised. Good data...but even in that, there are still mountains of data to look at. What I also know is that it was the most boring edition of P-R that I've ever watched. I also know the chicane didn't play a significant role in what happened.
 
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Well, as MvdP might have said to Pedersen and the others, I Looked at You and then he did Light the my Fire in that race, although he eased up before The End. At the End of the Night, if some Back Door Man had stolen The Crystal Ship, he might have ended up in the Whiskey Bar. But fortunately, unlike in the 2019 worlds, Van der Poel had taken enough from the Soul Kitchen, so he closed The Doors on everyone else, who just had to Take It as It Comes.

See, all you Millenials, we Baby Boomers ( we Twentieth Century Foxes, if you like) have our cultural references that leave you just as stumped as you leave us.
I think he was so much better because of all that time at altitude in his Spanish Caravan
 
Tim van Dijke got relegated for leaving the cycle track at the finish!

Robert Bengsch indeed is an expert! :D
The funny part was that he didn't need to drop down that far, he had plenty of room to the next rider above him and he was in the straight so no distance gain. By the same token as Politt came out of the last turn leading out the sprint he moved out of the pole line and gifted Philipsen a straight shot to the line. You can kind of tell which guys never raced on the track.
 
We on the other side of the world rarely get to watch these races live. They are conducted at something like 1:30am - and needing to work (productively) the next day - Monday morning.

So a lack of suspense in the last hour is academic. Having said this, even if I lived in Europe I’d rate the physical and skill significance of MVDPs feat above the entertainment factor anyway. That’s just me.
On the contrary. I was up at 1:30am watching the finish and paid the price the next day as I attempted to stay productive. I loved mvdp winning but it was not an exciting final hour and that really burns at midnight!
 
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The funny part was that he didn't need to drop down that far, he had plenty of room to the next rider above him and he was in the straight so no distance gain. By the same token as Politt came out of the last turn leading out the sprint he moved out of the pole line and gifted Philipsen a straight shot to the line. You can kind of tell which guys never raced on the track.
Except Politt does race on the track (Bremen Sixdays). And he also raced in the Madison at the European jr championships in 2012. I believe his partner back then was a former team member of a friend I had in primary school who used to always beat me in little races we did through the neighbourhood... anyway, don't mind my rambling, getting sentimental there for a second...
 
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The funny part was that he didn't need to drop down that far, he had plenty of room to the next rider above him and he was in the straight so no distance gain. By the same token as Politt came out of the last turn leading out the sprint he moved out of the pole line and gifted Philipsen a straight shot to the line. You can kind of tell which guys never raced on the track.
...or even seen a race on the track.