Ronde van Vlaanderen: April 7th, 2019

[tobydawq]

Sagan will start his amazing triple this Sunday. :lol:

Ronde (still undercooked) he will win with tons of luck from reduced sprint.
PR he will win on velodrome beating Stybar GVA Vanmarcke Naesen and Terpstra.
AGR will be his easiest win this year. I am pretty sure he will be in the monster form there.

Bora has been playing it perfectly so far. I do not remember when Sagan was so unmarked and underestimated since 2012. And I really like it. I always like the races where he and his team does not have to be fully responsible for all chasing.

The truth is, he is not on his best, but there is nobody of Cancellara strength in the present peloton who can get 15 seconds on Paterberg and never be brought back. And long-range attacks ala Gilbert or Terprsta will be brought back by huge strength of present peloton that learned his lesson last year.

The only question is: will he win also LBL and become an undisputed legend of the sport?

I fear that's a bit too optimistic but really hope he will be better than he has been so far. I agree that he should win Amstel rematively easily, though, especially if they can convince Schachmann to be a domestique for him (he doesn't like not riding for himself, Brian Holm has told us on Danish tv).

And welcome back

 

[gerundium]

Valverde to win this bike race

 

[Blanco]

Re:

I feel like because the race is harder QS only have 2 legit cards who can win here, Jungels and Stybar. Think that makes it a little harder for them

I would say that Gilbert is far more legit card to play than Jungels...

 

[Wvv]

Just give us GVA. He would deserve to win the race of his dreams after all those close results: 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th. Probably the best Ronde van Vlaanderen-rider that up till now never got to win it. I fear one of his biggest opponents is the strength of his own team, tho.

 

[Bardamu]

Re: Re:

Any chance Valgren and Cort will be in good shape this weekend?

No hope for Valgren, DD riders don't peak at all

How is Danish press writing about it, what's Rolfs opinion?

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

Any chance Valgren and Cort will be in good shape this weekend?

No hope for Valgren, DD riders don't peak at all

How is Danish press writing about it, what's Rolfs opinion?

They are completely ignoring it. Rolf hasn't been commentating any races since Paris-Nice. But he is never critical of the Danes in any case. Actually, he is hardly ever critical of anybody.

 

[pink_jersey]

Re:

Just give us GVA. He would deserve to win the race of his dreams after all those close results: 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th. Probably the best Ronde van Vlaanderen-rider that up till now never got to win it. I fear one of his biggest opponents is the strength of his own team, tho.

I think only Van der Poel from the favourites has a worse team than him.
Besides Schar, who's isnt very good on hellingens anyway all the others are average.
Van Keirsbulck and Wisniowski are really bad.

 

[Bardamu]

Re: Re:

Any chance Valgren and Cort will be in good shape this weekend?

No hope for Valgren, DD riders don't peak at all

How is Danish press writing about it, what's Rolfs opinion?

They are completely ignoring it. Rolf hasn't been commentating any races since Paris-Nice. But he is never critical of the Danes in any case. Actually, he is hardly ever critical of anybody.

I see. I had high hopes for Valgren and Cort this spring. Valgren has been a total letdown (all due to sickness/Dimension Data curse?), Cort atleast won in a convincing manner in Paris-Nice but still should be doing better in these classics.

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

Any chance Valgren and Cort will be in good shape this weekend?

No hope for Valgren, DD riders don't peak at all

How is Danish press writing about it, what's Rolfs opinion?

They are completely ignoring it. Rolf hasn't been commentating any races since Paris-Nice. But he is never critical of the Danes in any case. Actually, he is hardly ever critical of anybody.

I see. I had high hopes for Valgren and Cort this spring. Valgren has been a total letdown (all due to sickness/Dimension Data curse?), Cort atleast won in a convincing manner in Paris-Nice but still should be doing better in these classics.

Cort can't position himself at all. But in GW he was dropped for different reasons than positioning.

So yeah, things look bleaker than we might have hoped. But we still have four potential players.

 

[Bardamu]

Which four? Mads Pedersen, Kragh Andersen...?

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

Which four? Mads Pedersen, Kragh Andersen...?

Valgren and Cort. It's unlikely but not impossible.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Any chance Valgren and Cort will be in good shape this weekend?

No hope for Valgren, DD riders don't peak at all

How is Danish press writing about it, what's Rolfs opinion?

They are completely ignoring it. Rolf hasn't been commentating any races since Paris-Nice. But he is never critical of the Danes in any case. Actually, he is hardly ever critical of anybody.

Apart from Movistar, he has a hard time dealing with them not catching every break. Lmao. But maybe his old friend Sciandri will make him a little less frustrated with them.

They completely ignored the sickness of Kragh and Valgren the programme on the classics on TV2 play, that was a little odd to me, but not totally unexpected. I like Rolf alot tho, but have a hard time dealing with Staghøj for whatever reason.

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

Any chance Valgren and Cort will be in good shape this weekend?

No hope for Valgren, DD riders don't peak at all

How is Danish press writing about it, what's Rolfs opinion?

They are completely ignoring it. Rolf hasn't been commentating any races since Paris-Nice. But he is never critical of the Danes in any case. Actually, he is hardly ever critical of anybody.

Apart from Movistar, he has a hard time dealing with them not catching every break. Lmao. But maybe his old friend Sciandri will make him a little less frustrated with them.

They completely ignored the sickness of Kragh and Valgren the programme on the classics on TV2 play, that was a little odd to me, but not totally unexpected. I like Rolf alot tho, but have a hard time dealing with Staghøj for whatever reason.

I am also less than fond of Staghøj. The fact that he has blocked me on Twitter without ever having interacted with me doesn't help.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Yeah, Im also blocked. He is a little ***. :lol:

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

Yeah, Im also blocked. He is a little ***. :lol:

Lol, weren't you also blocked by Lars B? He blocked me because I was annoyed that he always has to shittalk Valverde and can't accept that it's not called Het Volk anymore :lol:

 

[Bardamu]

Re: Re:

Any chance Valgren and Cort will be in good shape this weekend?

No hope for Valgren, DD riders don't peak at all

How is Danish press writing about it, what's Rolfs opinion?

They are completely ignoring it. Rolf hasn't been commentating any races since Paris-Nice. But he is never critical of the Danes in any case. Actually, he is hardly ever critical of anybody.

Apart from Movistar, he has a hard time dealing with them not catching every break. Lmao. But maybe his old friend Sciandri will make him a little less frustrated with them.

They completely ignored the sickness of Kragh and Valgren the programme on the classics on TV2 play, that was a little odd to me, but not totally unexpected. I like Rolf alot tho, but have a hard time dealing with Staghøj for whatever reason.

Danish friend of mine more than once told me how Rolf tries to talk about his own victories in every broadcast, but that apart from that he's a good commentator.

 

[tobydawq]

He never does that. I don't know why that myth is so persistent. When he began he might have done it a bit but it's very, very rare he brings it up anymore.

And I wouldn't mind if he did.

 

[Bardamu]

Re:

He never does that. I don't know why that myth is so persistent. When he began he might have done it a bit but it's very, very rare he brings it up anymore.

And I wouldn't mind if he did.

I see, don't know him that well. He seemed like a nice guy in De Kleedkamer (Sporza) last week. Talked about how much it meant to him that Riis was willing to ride for him in Atlanta '96 and that that '96 Danish squad is still very close.

 

[search]

talking about Danish cycling... what's up with Matti Breschel?! Looks like he won't even get selected this year

 

[Salvarani]

Re:

talking about Danish cycling... what's up with Matti Breschel?! Looks like he won't even get selected this year

Maybe age/decline and that they think there are better options for the race probably

 

[Velolover2]

Re:

talking about Danish cycling... what's up with Matti Breschel?! Looks like he won't even get selected this year

Early bloomer. He hasn't even showed enough to be a dom. But I think him and Vaughters are personal friends.

 

[ciranda]

Re: Re:

As mentioned here viewtopic.php?f=6&t=30756&start=1160 something must be up, illness or conflict, or he would be in the team. Early bloomer is not really correct, he started with a couple of years with crashes and injuries, then a great period, then more injuries and bad luck, then a sort of return with the fourth place in world's 2014, then more injuries and misfortune since. Still hope for a real return but it's probably unlikely.

 

[search]

yeah, doesn't look too good, Breschel has also never really been a fully determined domestique anyway - now with no hope for good personal results anymore, he may also have lost motivation, I guess.

And with Phinney there's already one guy in the team who has had only one good race in three years or so.

 

[Kwibus]

Kragh was very ill after his strong Algarve which made him miss the opening weekend and strade. When he returned at T-A he suffered like hell, so he got thrown back real hard from that bad flu.

He said he felt better at wevelgem though.

 

[RedheadDane]

I'm confused… how did this become the "How are the Danish riders doing?" thread?