Ronde Van Vlaanderen 2012

[Ryo Hazuki]

Lol

If it has nothing to do with cycling then why goes Boonen twice as fast as guys like Bettini?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmkC2FynBkU

But he can't handle the hills right.

bettini never focused on that race. he was always in topshape a few weeks later and late rin his career like there. he wa sonly in topshape around september

the koppenberg is ridiculous because only the first 5-10 riders can get over it without stepping of their bikes thus falsifieing the race as it's such a mess behidn with riders that can't stay on their bikes

 

[El Pistolero]

It's not a coincidence that the strong guys are always at the front of the peloton before the hills

Bettini wanted to win the Ronde in his career, he never made a secret about that. Bettini is just one name by the way, plenty of other big names going slow compared to Boonen.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Pozzato has never done great in races like Amstel Gold Race, so I bet he's in big trouble then.

The big battle takes place before the hills, not on the hills. That's where hilly riders will suffer more than Boonen.

pozzato has also almost never rode the amstel yet he won tirreno, boonen will never win that. pozzato is a better climber than boonen no doubt and I know the battle is before the hills and that's where boonen is best at but guys like cancellara and sagan are even better and there are others. gilbert would've humiliated boonen here would he have been in good shape

 

[online-rider]

Withe the new route i see pippo as one of the few riders able to follow Cancellara. Because i really think that this will be too hard for Boonen.

I agree. this race is more hilly race like agr now really. boonen stand no chance

Oh come on guys this is Belgium not the swiss alps!

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

It's not a coincidence that the strong guys are always at the front of the peloton before the hills

Bettini wanted to win the Ronde in his career, he never made a secret about that. Bettini is just one name by the way, plenty of other big names going slow compared to Boonen.

never mind talking to you. it's like talking to a wall. you are so far up in your nationalism it's getting pathetic really

 

[El Pistolero]

pozzato has also almost never rode the amstel yet he won tirreno, boonen will never win that. pozzato is a better climber than boonen no doubt and I know the battle is before the hills and that's where boonen is best at but guys like cancellara and sagan are even better and there are others. gilbert would've humiliated boonen here would he have been in good shape

Pozzato has ridden Amstel Gold race a lot actually... Petacchi nearly won Tirreno-Adriatico

Sagan is even better at it? How do you know? Boonen obviously has better results in the Flemish races(including Paris-Roubaix).

Gilbert in last year's shape would have humiliated everyone on this parcour including Cancellara. Let's face it, what he showed on the hills last year hadn't been seen for quite some time.

Boonen can get over hills just fine. He had no problem with the Cauberg in the Tour de France 2006. I'm looking forward to see how he'll do at the Amstel Gold Race this year. He won't win with the finish on the Cauberg of course, but who knows how far he'll get...

Besides, any comparison with Tirreno-Adriatico is futile. These aren't Italian hills we're talking about.

 

[Leopejo]

Eurosport isn't perfect, but they really do make an effort to make fans of niche sports (which cycling is in most of Central Europe) happy.

Cycling a niche sport in Central Europe? Only if you consider all sports besides football as niche.

Eurosport is investing too much in young sports and German/French viewers too, at the expense of traditional sports. See for example how strong biathlon has become at the expense of Nordic skiing.

Eurosport should also invest more in their internal race info, at least when showing Italian races. At least Italian, Finnish, Polish and even English commentators are clueless at times on what is going on in the race, and on what happened before the start of the Eurosport broadcast. There should be at least one international coordinator, who'd read online live tracking and preferably listen to the official race radio. Or who'd watch the more informed broadcast by the national TV, i.e. RAI in the case of Italian races.

 

[theyoungest]

Pozzato has ridden Amstel Gold race a lot actually... Petacchi nearly won Tirreno-Adriatico

Sagan is even better at it? How do you know? Boonen obviously has better results in the Flemish races(including Paris-Roubaix).

Gilbert in last year's shape would have humiliated everyone on this parcour including Cancellara. Let's face it, what he showed on the hills last year hadn't been seen for quite some time.

Boonen can get over hills just fine. He had no problem with the Cauberg in the Tour de France 2006. I'm looking forward to see how he'll do at the Amstel Gold Race this year. He won't win with the finish on the Cauberg of course, but who knows how far he'll get...

Besides, any comparison with Tirreno-Adriatico is futile. These aren't Italian hills we're talking about.

What a nonsense argument. Surely you can do better than this? The question is whether on this course the succession of hills might be a bit too much for Boonen. And I think they have a point there.

 

[El Pistolero]

What a nonsense argument. Surely you can do better than this? The question is whether on this course the succession of hills might be a bit too much for Boonen. And I think they have a point there.

Since he has a better track record on these Flemish cobbled hills than anyone else in this peloton I'm going to say no

This isn't Liège-Bastogne-Liège you know

Freire can survive Amstel Gold Race and even Liège-Bastogne-Liège which has more hills in it than the Ronde. Yet he couldn't even survive on the old route of the Ronde. This is a totally different race. Ryo has shown to know little of the Ronde. No surprise there though. You guys are acting as if they're riding on the Suisse Alps.

There's still 10km of flat after the final hill. Everyone but Cancellara can be brought back there.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

come on man, the tdf stage had only 6 hills and ofcourse the cauberg is no problem then, it's actually a quite easy hill of only 1km at 5% average with a part of 12%. It's only hard when it's at the end of the AGR after 260km + 30 hills.

Very bad example. That's like saying Cavendish is an excellent climber because he survived a cat 2 col in the TDF and won the stage

 

[El Pistolero]

come on man, the tdf stage had only 6 hills and ofcourse the cauberg is no problem then, it's actually a quite easy hill of only 1km at 5% average with a part of 12%. It's only hard when it's at the end of the AGR after 260km + 30 hills.

Very bad example. That's like saying Cavendish is an excellent climber because he survived a cat 2 col in the TDF and won the stage

That year he had no problem getting over hills though

Boonen can survive the Amstel Gold Race till the foot of the Cauberg. That's a prediction I'm making.

 

[maltiv]

Boonen can get over hills just fine. He had no problem with the Cauberg in the Tour de France 2006. I'm looking forward to see how he'll do at the Amstel Gold Race this year. He won't win with the finish on the Cauberg of course, but who knows how far he'll get...

In P-N he was always dropped as soon as the hills started, even if he claimed he was going to help Levi. It's hard to know how motivated he was though, but he certainly didn't impress there.

Either way, there's no doubt that almost half the field in RVV would easily drop Boonen on regular hills, whilst they have no chance whatsoever on cobbled climbs. But could the quick succession of climbs change that? If it feels more like an Ardennes classics, then guys like Cancellara and GVA would have a big advantage over Boonen.

 

[El Pistolero]

In P-N he was always dropped as soon as the hills started, even if he claimed he was going to help Levi. It's hard to know how motivated he was though, but he certainly didn't impress there.

Either way, there's no doubt that almost half the field in RVV would easily drop Boonen on regular hills, whilst they have no chance whatsoever on cobbled climbs. But could the quick succession of climbs change that? If it feels more like an Ardennes classics, then guys like Cancellara and GVA would have a big advantage over Boonen.

He did actually help his team on the stages there which is why he got dropped. I hope you weren't expecting him on Mende?

Flemish hills range from 200 meters to a km at most.... Please don't compare hills from P-N with that, makes no sense. Most hills in LBL are longer than 1km with very steep parts. He would get dropped like a rock there.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

That year he had no problem getting over hills though

Boonen can survive the Amstel Gold Race till the foot of the Cauberg. That's a prediction I'm making.

No freakin hell. Unless it's a very weak edition where they don';t ride like 2005 when 50 guys went to the foot of the cauberg

 

[maltiv]

He did actually help his team on the stages there which is why he got dropped. I hope you weren't expecting him on Mende?

Flemish hills range from 200 meters to a km at most.... Please don't compare hills from P-N with that, makes no sense. Most hills in LBL are longer than 1km.

He was dropped really early on the stage Valverde won. At that point Boonen was only a couple of seconds away from a leader's jersey and did no work at the front. Rojas easily kept up, for example.

I'm very well aware that flemish hills are completely different, but I thought we were discussing Boonen's climbing abilities in general. Honestly, I don't think it will be a problem though, unless the course is even more difficult than it looks. But ultimately it won't matter, because Chavanel will win anyway

 

[El Pistolero]

No freakin hell. Unless it's a very weak edition where they don';t ride like 2005 when 50 guys went to the foot of the cauberg

Predicting the obvious is boring

If it was 2005/2006 he would stand even more chance to survive.

 

[El Pistolero]

He was dropped really early on the stage Valverde won. At that point Boonen was only a couple of seconds away from a leader's jersey and did no work at the front. Rojas easily kept up, for example.

I'm very well aware that flemish hills are completely different, but I thought we were discussing Boonen's climbing abilities in general. Honestly, I don't think it will be a problem though, unless the course is even more difficult than it looks. But ultimately it won't matter, because Chavanel will win anyway

Not me, I'm talking about his ability on the Flemish hills.(and AGR )

Because quite frankly, it doesn't matter if Boonen can't climb La Redoute, as long as he can climb the Oude Kwaremont(which is a Cancellara berg though).

 

[theyoungest]

Not me, I'm talking about his ability on the Flemish hills.(and AGR )

Because quite frankly, it doesn't matter if Boonen can't climb La Redoute, as long as he can climb the Oude Kwaremont(which is a Cancellara berg though).

Right. And this was the point. Cancellara gets three Kwaremonts in a short distance to drop Boonen. The question is whether Boonen can win Flanders, this doesn't work in his favour.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Just curios. What's the ofiicial argumentation for the course change? Why no Mur anymore?

 

[Lanark]

it's the accumulation of the hills that will make boonen suffer more than hillier riders overall

There's no quicker accumulation of hills compared to the past. The real race begins on the Oude Kwaremont, last year there were 12 hills left at that point, this year there are 10.

The race isn't really much harder this year. The difference is mainly that the last 50km are harder than last year, with the Kwaremont/Paterberg combo twice. The 80-50 km part of the race is easier, probably resulting in a more closed race.

I'm not sure if this is really that bad for Boonen. The last couple of years there were mostly asphalt hills before the Muur (Leberg, Valkenberg, Tenbosse, Eikenmolen), changing those hills to cobbled hills should suite Boonen more. The Kwaremont is a real Cancellara hill, that's true, but the Paterberg is probably more of a Boonen hill (short and steep, more of a 30 second sprint). In fact, I think the Muur was probably the hill that suited Boonen the worst, I can't remember him ever impressing there, at best he just followed.

 

[El Pistolero]

Right. And this was the point. Cancellara gets three Kwaremonts in a short distance to drop Boonen. The question is whether Boonen can win Flanders, this doesn't work in his favour.

Yes, Boonen can definitely win Flanders. Don't be silly. The Paterberg normally suits Boonen more than Cancellara.

 

[El Pistolero]

Just curios. What's the ofiicial argumentation for the course change? Why no Mur anymore?

Making money was the official argumentation. I'm not even kidding, they flat out admitted it. The Ronde was losing cash before the current organisation took over, now it makes profit.

 

[Kvinto]

Cancellaraberg is not an obstacle since Boonen will attack long before on the Boonenberg

 

[Bavarianrider]

Making money was the official argumentation. I'm not even kidding, they flat out admitted it. The Ronde was losing cash before the current organisation took over, now it makes profit.

Do towns know have to pay to be part of the route?

 

[Lanark]

Cancellaraberg is not an obstacle since Boonen will attack long before on the Boonenberg

A 150km solo