Ronde van Vlaanderen: April 7th, 2019

[Lequack]

Oops:

 

[Frankschleck]

Chapeau Bettoil. What a win and what ride.

MVP is mighty scary, and looked 2 strongest in the race after our winner.
I have to say i am damn impressed by Valverde, that guy is a true racer.

 

[movingtarget]

Great first pro win for Bettiol and great team riding. Asgreen and Van Der Poel were huge rides also. But it seems to be pretty common now that when a rider goes off on his own and gets a reasonable lead within the last 10 or 15 kms, with a group of star riders behind him there is almost never any cooperation. The move was beautifully timed. Quickstep were not strong enough. Sagan looked to be struggling on the last two climbs as was Matthews. GVA wasn't good enough. Fully deserved win.

 

[Escarabajo]

So what happened to QuickStep?
I guess we should think they did OK, but the second place from Asgreen wasn't expected anyway. I was expecting more from Jungels. I would think he is good enough climber to match Bettiol, so we thought, we he wasn't. What about Gilbert.

 

[shalgo]

Re:

So what happened to QuickStep?
I guess we should think they did OK, but the second place from Asgreen wasn't expected anyway. I was expecting more from Jungels. I would think he is good enough climber to match Bettiol, so we thought, we he wasn't. What about Gilbert.

Gilbert has been sick. He pulled out of Dwars with stomach problems.

 

[yaco]

Despite having three riders in the chase group, QS rode for second place. Strange indeed.

 

[cellardoor]

I thought QS' tactics in the final were a bit odd as well. I'm not sure why they didn't decide who was their strongest and then have the other two kill themselves on the front of the group. There was actually a point were Lampaert, Kristoff, GvA and a couple of others were taking turns on the front and it looked like there might be some cooperation and then Lampaert decided to drift to the back of the group and the temporary alliance broke down. Not sure what QS were thinking really. Jungels said at one point they were working for a Lampaert sprint for 2nd, which seems a bit silly with Kristoff in the group.

 

[rghysens]

Re:

I thought QS' tactics in the final were a bit odd as well. I'm not sure why they didn't decide who was their strongest and then have the other two kill themselves on the front of the group. There was actually a point were Lampaert, Kristoff, GvA and a couple of others were taking turns on the front and it looked like there might be some cooperation and then Lampaert decided to drift to the back of the group and the temporary alliance broke down. Not sure what QS were thinking really. Jungels said at one point they were working for a Lampaert sprint for 2nd, which seems a bit silly with Kristoff in the group.

Imagine 2 riders of DQS were killing themselves to reel Bettiol back in. It would very likely come down to a group sprint, where it would be very unlikely that their 3rd man would beat Kristoff, Matthews, VdP, Van Avermaet,... There where just too many faster rides than any of the three DQS'ers. 2nd was the best they could get.

 

[bambino]

Re: Re:

I thought QS' tactics in the final were a bit odd as well. I'm not sure why they didn't decide who was their strongest and then have the other two kill themselves on the front of the group. There was actually a point were Lampaert, Kristoff, GvA and a couple of others were taking turns on the front and it looked like there might be some cooperation and then Lampaert decided to drift to the back of the group and the temporary alliance broke down. Not sure what QS were thinking really. Jungels said at one point they were working for a Lampaert sprint for 2nd, which seems a bit silly with Kristoff in the group.

Imagine 2 riders of DQS were killing themselves to reel Bettiol back in. It would very likely come down to a group sprint, where it would be very unlikely that their 3rd man would beat Kristoff, Matthews, VdP, Van Avermaet,... There where just too many faster rides than any of the three DQS'ers. 2nd was the best they could get.

This.

They did not have good sprinter among the 3 left. They probably calculated it is better to cool down the affairs and go for late attack for 2nd place than bringing the bunch back to Bettiol for sprint finish. Well calculated.

The late attack from Asgreen would've never succeeded if the bunch would've gone for the win. And in a sprint, Jungels, Asgreen and Lampaert would've been left to fight somewhere in the range of 8-15th place at best with Kristoff, VDP, GVA, Sagan, Valverde, Matthews et co in the mix.

 

[gregrowlerson]

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

Glad that I took a couple of minutes to watch this. What an awesome personality!! "Put the hammer down!" :lol:

 

[el chava]

Re:

I know Im definitely in the minority, but I have a bit of a hard time watching her interviews. I like her and I understand the reaction after such a great performance in such a big race (La Course last year also springs to mind), but for some reason I don't really know I switched to Eurosport hallway through the interview on Danish TV. Guess Im not used to it. Its hard to explain tho - it just seems a bit over the top to me, altho I know for a fact that she's being 100% authentic and I should love that because she's also such a great character and me being a Dane and all.

I saw the live interview on Danish Television (just as Asgreen was powering away, argh), and it was downright insufferable. Of course it is better than the scripted nothingness we are used to, but still. Yeah, and that's not because she's a woman or whatever, I also switch channels when Peter Sagan is interviewed.

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

I watched that interview and didn't become a Cille fan.

But that's only because I've been a Cille fan for years (yes I'm cycling hipstering people, I liked her before it was cool - I started following her from her gutsy riding in the hills of the Tour de Féminin Krasná Lipá in 2016, before I learnt that she was just as, if not more, crazy and entertaining off the bike than she was on it). She is just about the best thing in cycling right now, a character that's simply natural and likable - but not bland, quite the opposite! - at a time when that's at a premium in the sport (it's not necessarily that we lack characters, but that several of those characters are people like Sagan and Moscon, whose characters make me want to cheer against them, not for them), and if that draws a bigger audience to women's cycling then that's fantastic. She's the kind of person that's ideal for the sport for that reason - hard not to like her, enthusiastic, positive, entertaining even when things are going wrong, rides in a never-say-die manner, and a loose cannon in interviews. I just fear that live broadcasts may be reluctant to place a live microphone in front of her face because while Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig interviews are one of the best things about the sport, her tendency to drop profanities into her excitable monologues may worry network executives and other tiresome people with clipboards and spreadsheets who understand marketing-speak but don't understand why unpredictable, off-the-cuff loose cannons like that are so beneficial (for the same reason as interviewers and press execs took years to figure out why Kimi Räikkönen was the most popular interview with fans, not despite but in fact because of his monosyllabic, disinterested responses and refusal to engage).

But if she does, I will still reserve the right to get my cycling hipster "I liked her before it was cool" on

You don't think that comparing these two is just a tiny bit over the top?

 

[Bardamu]

Re:

In my honest opinion, Asgreen's ride was probably the ride of the day. How often do you see a rider on domestique duties (as in leading a 150 rider peloton with 140k to go, fetching bottles and responding to attacks) early in the race who despite this huge workload still finishes 2nd???! I have never seen anything like it.

MVDP was also very impressive, but some of his problems were self-inflicted and detracts a bit from my evaluation of his race.

Shout out to the winner, Bettiol, who launched one of the strongest attacks I have seen since Cancellara pulvarized the field there in 2013 E3.

And ofcourse Valverde whose class, you suspect, could net him him a top position in just about any one day race on the calendar

Asgreen didn't work at all with van Baarle & Sep so he was able to recover during the finale.

 

[SKSemtex]

For me great edition and absolutely deserved winner. He was a little bit lucky that MVP was overexcited and overconfident but he won like a true champ.

The biggest positive: my once bellowed Cannondale team now EF, beating quicksteppers in their home playground. Riding as a real team. Great afford from all members. Welcome back Vanmarcke.

Biggest negative: BORA as a team. It is the time that DS starts to act as DS in this team.

Biggest surprises: Degenlkolb redundant attack and Mathews finishing on the front group

MVP is scary good.

Kristoff - Hulk on the bike. Amazing brutal strength. He had to train like Rocky IV this winter.

Peter Sagan - it is painful to see him out of the saddle in the middle of Paterberg and turning his head back after 5 seconds in the wind. I miss the days when he was behind 50 % of selections each race he entered but I am realistic. “Every day is not Sunday”. I doubt he can tune his form in one week for PR win, but he should be good in Amstel and a surprise in LBL. ( we still can dream, can´t we )

 

[Frankschleck]

Kudos to Breschel as well. Would have been my first bet on a DNF. Cannodale really good as a team today, especially Vanmarcke,Langeveld were good teammates, and then lets face it, Bettiol damn good.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re: Re:

I watched that interview and didn't become a Cille fan.

But that's only because I've been a Cille fan for years (yes I'm cycling hipstering people, I liked her before it was cool - I started following her from her gutsy riding in the hills of the Tour de Féminin Krasná Lipá in 2016, before I learnt that she was just as, if not more, crazy and entertaining off the bike than she was on it). She is just about the best thing in cycling right now, a character that's simply natural and likable - but not bland, quite the opposite! - at a time when that's at a premium in the sport (it's not necessarily that we lack characters, but that several of those characters are people like Sagan and Moscon, whose characters make me want to cheer against them, not for them), and if that draws a bigger audience to women's cycling then that's fantastic. She's the kind of person that's ideal for the sport for that reason - hard not to like her, enthusiastic, positive, entertaining even when things are going wrong, rides in a never-say-die manner, and a loose cannon in interviews. I just fear that live broadcasts may be reluctant to place a live microphone in front of her face because while Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig interviews are one of the best things about the sport, her tendency to drop profanities into her excitable monologues may worry network executives and other tiresome people with clipboards and spreadsheets who understand marketing-speak but don't understand why unpredictable, off-the-cuff loose cannons like that are so beneficial (for the same reason as interviewers and press execs took years to figure out why Kimi Räikkönen was the most popular interview with fans, not despite but in fact because of his monosyllabic, disinterested responses and refusal to engage).

But if she does, I will still reserve the right to get my cycling hipster "I liked her before it was cool" on

You don't think that comparing these two is just a tiny bit over the top?

I was not attempting to conflate them in the sense of saying "they have similar personalities", but using them as two separate examples of riders who are used as a counter-example to the argument that there are no "characters" in the bunch, but - for different reasons - whose characters are ones that mean I cannot and will not cheer for them, as opposed to Cille. I didn't want my post to be seen as a generic bewailing of there not being "characters" in the sport, which is an all-too-frequent complaint we see, because invariably somebody would bring up Sagan, who is undoubtedly a character, and I didn't want a post intended as a positive praise of one of my favourite riders to, by way of omission, bog us down in arguments over one of my least favourite riders again, which is why I mentioned him as a sort of caveat, acknowledging that he is a character but not one that attracts me to watch more of the sport (which ultimately is the effect I would hope Cille can have on some of the more casual audience, increasing the visibility and popularity of women's cycling) but rather the opposite.

 

[Anderis]

Page 9:

Van Bettiol will win this bike race.

Told you so...

 

[Leinster]

Re: Re:

I don't recall an edition as open as this one. When was the last time we had five equal favorites (Stybar, Van Avermaet, Van der Poel, Van Aert and Sagan) for a race of this magnitude? Can't wait.

I feel like Flanders is one that can just as easily go to someone from outside the top 5 favorites as often as not, though. Obviously you have the Boonen/Cancellara years in recent memory, but the history of the race has plenty of winners who you probably wouldn’t have considered (not for a cobbled classics anyway) at the start, or would have been well down the list; Cruquielion, Sorensen, Bugno, Argentin, Kristoff, Gilbert, etc.

Nuyens

Just quoting this because a) I feel that Nuyens was a different category, just a complete rank outsider, and b) I think Bettiol, depending on future results, has it in him to be in the company of those named above.

 

[Laplaz]

Page 9:

Van Bettiol will win this bike race.

Told you so...

Thanks
Could you also tell us who will win Paris-Roubaix?

 

[Anderis]

No, I won't spoil the race for you so you can cheer for your favourites and have fun.

 

[Koronin]

A photo I thought many here would enjoy. Figured this was the better place to put it instead of in either the thread for Sagan or Valverde.

 

[Leinster]

“Give it back.”
“No.”
“Give it back.”
“No.”
“Give it back.”
“No.”