Ronde van Vlaanderen -23

[ak-zaaf]

Painful for the Belgians, only 1 guy in the first 20.
Also a lot of Latvians in there, does anyone have some insight on that?

 

[jens_attacks]

damn look at this latvian block.i hope to see them in the next 5 years.ugrumov and vainsteins are proud of them i guess.

did this ever happen?just one belgian in the top 20?!

 

[El Pistolero]

damn look at this latvian block.i hope to see them in the next 5 years.ugrumov and vainsteins are proud of them i guess.

did this ever happen?just one belgian in the top 20?!

http://www.cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race_history.asp?raceid=20271

Doesn't seem like a decent indicator for the real Ronde van Vlaanderen, but no, hasn't happened before.

 

[MADRAZO]

A bit surprising results I think, without having seen the actual startlist.

Very impressive also by 19 year old Lawson Craddock that looks super promissing and seems to be the next Taylor Phinney-type rider.

 

[joy118118]

Italian won RVV U23? wow

Latvia always strong in this race. Belgian/ German failed

has anyone got the startlist?

PS. never mind. i find the startlist now.

 

[theyoungest]

http://www.cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race_history.asp?raceid=20271

Doesn't seem like a decent indicator for the real Ronde van Vlaanderen, but no, hasn't happened before.

The fact that most of these names are fairly familiar suggests that doing well in the Tour of Flanders U23 is a good indicator of talent. Most of them have gone on to become pros.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

the tour of flanders u23 says absolutely nothing. in the past riders like gesink ahve done top 5 here.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Not top 5, but he did well yeah

2005:
20. [NED] GESINK Robert LOW 14" 0

2006:
7. [NED] GESINK Robert RB3 12" 4

So yeah, RVV u23 doesn't say much.
But you can find some familiar names in the top 10 who are doing well now.
Langeveld (2nd in 2005), Van Avermaet (8th in 2005), Sep Vanmarcke (3rd in 2007). Matthews and Degenkolb (top 10 last year)

etcetera

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

well I think he was in the group that sprinted for 4th place am I correct??

 

[ingsve]

Well, it's not a perfect predictor but it's also not true to say that it says nothing about future contenders. It's no surprise that Gesink has done reasonably well there. He had a good motor at an early age and is decently powerful. We have to remember that at the U-23 level the riders aren't as specialized as they get later on or rather you don't need to be as specialized at cobbles to do well. It does indicate what riders aren't complete non-talents on cobbles. Gesink as a dutch rider would be more familiar with cobbles than riders from other parts of the world which is also a reason for his results.