Ronde van Vlaanderen: April 7th, 2019

[Lequack]

26 Big Photos from Tour of Flanders 2019 (more to come) — corvos
http://www.steephill.tv/2019/tour-of-flanders/photos/page-02/

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Strong ride by Van Gestel to make that selection

 

[IndianCyclist]

Problem with the this years race was that there were 10-15 favs including sprinters like Kristoff, Degenkolb, Sagan and Mathews, A group of 4-6 favs would have chased Bettiol down. Last year nobody wanted to bring Sagan to the finish but Terpstra was still the strongest.
For PR as well this may turn out to be same, a reduced group sprint or some body unexpected taking advantage. Unless the Hardmen like GVA actually drop the sprinters, it may turn out that way

 

[Pantani_lives]

Re:

Wasn't today also much warmer than all the other races they've been doing so far? Maybe that had some part to play.

Yes.

 

[OlavEH]

Re:

Problem with the this years race was that there were 10-15 favs including sprinters like Kristoff, Degenkolb, Sagan and Mathews, A group of 4-6 favs would have chased Bettiol down. Last year nobody wanted to bring Sagan to the finish but Terpstra was still the strongest.
For PR as well this may turn out to be same, a reduced group sprint or some body unexpected taking advantage. Unless the Hardmen like GVA actually drop the sprinters, it may turn out that way

The "problem" was that not one of the biggest favorites were able to follow Bettiol on Kwaremont. Van Avermaet, Van Aert and Stybar didn't have a top day, and Van der Poel spent too much energy on accidents and poor positioning. If two of those guys had been in peak shape, they could have come clear of the peloton and caugt up with Bettiol.

Great win by Bettiol, and he was probably the strongest rider today. But he was a bit lucky that the trio that beat him in E3 wasn't that sharp today.

 

[sir fly]

Congrats to Bettiol.
He was strong and determined, pulled the move perfectly and materialized his team's work.
Van der Poel probably was the strongest, but not the most careful and it cost him
Great showing from Valverde. Sagan still catching up the top form, and Van Avermaet didn't have that extra bit to make the winning move or bridge to Bettiol.
One of those editions when the tactical racing presents a chance for someone from the second echelon.

 

[AQETUYIOI]

Re:

Great job, Bettiol!
To say the chasers are stupid is assuming you wouldn't do that if you're in the situation, well...what would you do?

Working together can result in a win, why not give it a try? Worst that can happen is you help someone else win! If you don't win, at least you contributed to a race!

 

[tobydawq]

Number one and two in the race had no previous pro wins between them. Surely a first for a monument!?

 

[Pantani_lives]

Re: Re:

Great job, Bettiol!
To say the chasers are stupid is assuming you wouldn't do that if you're in the situation, well...what would you do?

Working together can result in a win, why not give it a try? Worst that can happen is you help someone else win! If you don't win, at least you contributed to a race!

Yes, but the others refuse to work. Would you ride 13 km with Kristoff and co. in your wheel?

 

[AQETUYIOI]

On another note, am I the only one who thinks the kwaremont was ridden really weirdly today? Usually on that climb the strongest rider goes to the front early and just rides rider after rider off his wheel with a huge but steady pace and at the end riders are all over the road. Today it seemed like the first half was almost softpedalled and with the exception of Bettiol who did a really explosive attack the group that came out on top was almost identical to the one entering the climb. It looked like some riders were holding something back, something you usually never see on that climb. I'd really like to see a comparison of the climbing times from today and previous editions.

If it was a head wind towards the finish, they thought trying, would be futile.

 

[AQETUYIOI]

Re: Re:

Yes, but the others refuse to work. Would you ride 13 km with Kristoff and co. in your wheel?

It goes for everyone, in those situations.

 

[yaco]

MVP won GP Denain which is the most similar race to PR - And MVP was a class above on the cobbles.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re:

Where is the Cykel Cille (Uttrup) interview please? - It is probably crazy

Here you go!

 

[alspacka]

Re: Re:

Disappointing race by Van Aert and Van Avermaet. Very disappointing by Stybar.

And after today's race. Who are the favorites for PR? Most open PR in many years?

Too bad van der Poel is skipping it.

Assuming no injuries, he should definitely reconsider.

His team is not invited

Ah, that'll do it. Shame.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

Congratulations to the eighteen people who voted "other". I'm sure you all had Bettiol in mind.

I'm one of those. Didn't exactly have Bettiol in mind. Just liked the idea of taking the entire field over the list of favorites. My thought was if a non favorite was able to get away and the favorites in a group looked at each other the one who got away would have a good chance to win.

 

[tobydawq]

Everybody always says that it takes a lot of experience doing Flanders before you can get a good result there.

But half of the top 8 is made up of debutants!! That's just crazy!

 

[Pantani_lives]

Re: Re:

By the way... There's a Dane in the top 5. Wasn't there a bet?

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

By the way... There's a Dane in the top 5. Wasn't there a bet?

Shhh... Don't worry. I'm gonna do it! I'm a man of my words, even though I am - in fact - a woman.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Cille disapproves of your joke.

All told though, Cille is one of the best things about cycling today.

 

[RedheadDane]

Man of my word. Woman of my word. Point is; I'm gonna do this.
Though, if someone had told me the Dane in the top-5 would be Asgreen I probably would have laughed quite intensely! I mean… I kinda made that bet because non of the "expected Danes" had been doing very well…

 

[Jungle Cycle]

Re: Re:

Where is the Cykel Cille (Uttrup) interview please? - It is probably crazy

Here you go!

i have no idea what she said but sounded awesome !!!
top 10 all time...

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

Where is the Cykel Cille (Uttrup) interview please? - It is probably crazy

Here you go!

i have no idea what she said but sounded awesome !!!
top 10 all time...

There's an English-language interview too - on the RvV Twitter account - unfortunately I don't know how to link from Twitter...

 

[Lequack]

Re: Re:

Where is the Cykel Cille (Uttrup) interview please? - It is probably crazy

Here you go!

i have no idea what she said but sounded awesome !!!
top 10 all time...

There's an English-language interview too - on the RvV Twitter account - unfortunately I don't know how to link from Twitter...

Here, an interview in English:
https://twitter.com/RondeVlaanderen/status/1114898860869074945

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

By the way... There's a Dane in the top 5. Wasn't there a bet?

Shhh... Don't worry. I'm gonna do it! I'm a man of my words, even though I am - in fact - a woman.

I think you should do Ringvejen from south to north if a Dane podiums next Sunday.

Ringgaden isn't even a punishment, that's just a standard commute route for people who study at the university!

 

[Lequack]

Some watts:

And after the race...