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Ronde van Vlaanderen - Tour des Flandres 2023, one day monument, April 2 (men's)

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I'm a WVA fan here, but I cannot look past MVDP. The man seems to be born for the Ronde. Those climbs suit him to the Tee.

WVA should however start as favourite for Roubaix. He's been really unlucky in the past few editions there.
 
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No one has ever been brought back on the final run in. Only Van Avermaert was in front alone at the top of the Paterberg and a group of 3 caught up to him but that was only couple seconds and they got back on the descent.
As I recall it, it was a while after the descent that Cancellara and Vanmarcke bridged up to the by then duo in front.

EDIT: Ah, I mixed it up with the attack by Van Avermaert after they were caught. You were right indeed.
 
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Why is Ewan riding Flanders ? He will be much better suited at the Limburg Classic on Saturday.

Even if that may be true, it would be a very lackluster team without both him in or De Lie in it for one of the biggest races of the season. They are also a team from Belgium, so it is one that is important for the sponsor and Ewan is probably still being paid the most on the team?

He probably dont have a chance of winning this one... but he did look pretty good in G-W tbf. He was just behind Van Aert and Laporte when they rode away, if I am not mistaken. He was one of the closest right behind them, I believe.

Eenkhoorn, Menten and Van Gils should be more than enough to get a good result in the Volta.
 
Why is Ewan riding Flanders ? He will be much better suited at the Limburg Classic on Saturday.
PR reasons?

the good old car order thing, I guess. With de Lie not around, he is Lotto's best placed rider in the UCI rankings, so moves up the team car a couple of spots.

edit: not by much, though. From 20th to 18th, going by the current PCS start list.
 
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So I'm thinking about how MvdP, Pogacar and Jumbo should play this. I don't think Pogacar wants to go super early but I think he and MvdP are kinda forced to do to drop Jumbo riders.

It'll be interesting to see if they ride away with 3 early if Van Aert is gonna take turns if he has a number of teammates close behind. It would help him a lot of if he can leverage his teammates to have to do less work.
 
So I'm thinking about how MvdP, Pogacar and Jumbo should play this. I don't think Pogacar wants to go super early but I think he and MvdP are kinda forced to do to drop Jumbo riders.

It'll be interesting to see if they ride away with 3 early if Van Aert is gonna take turns if he has a number of teammates close behind. It would help him a lot of if he can leverage his teammates to have to do less work.

You think they (JV) might try to put a rider in the early break or in a move a bit into the race?
 
Remco also preparing for Ronde

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So I'm thinking about how MvdP, Pogacar and Jumbo should play this. I don't think Pogacar wants to go super early but I think he and MvdP are kinda forced to do to drop Jumbo riders.

It'll be interesting to see if they ride away with 3 early if Van Aert is gonna take turns if he has a number of teammates close behind. It would help him a lot of if he can leverage his teammates to have to do less work.
I think UAE needs to endure the race very early, and make the selection the most fastest possible.
Then probably it will all about pogacar, van der poel, van aert and maybe other outsider. Then, pogacar needs to make really hard in all the climbs to try to drop everybody. That's the only way for him to win.
He can't wait for the last passage on patterberg to attack. He needs to attacks on the first passage of paterberg and koperberg.
 
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I think UAE needs to endure the race very early, and make the selection the most fastest possible.
Then probably it will all about pogacar, van der poel, van aert and maybe other outsider. Then, pogacar needs to make really hard in all the climbs to try to drop everybody. That's the only way for him to win.
He can't wait for the last passage on patterberg to attack. He needs to attacks on the first passage of paterberg and koperberg.

Thats sounds extremely difficult and might only make him the most tired.

Agreed that UAE needs to make the race hard and Pog will need to attack at some point.

A first blow on the Kwaremont, but if he cant get away an unexpected attack on the top of the hill or a descent/flat right after a big effort could be the winning move. He will only need a moment of hesitation from the others and they should be the most tired on top of a hill after a big effort, but so will he.

If he goes hard on the climbs but not able to drop them, he will be forced to try his luck in a sprint unless he can make an unexpected move somewhere and hope they look at each other.
 
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Thats sounds extremely difficult and might only make him the most tired.

Agreed that UAE needs to make the race hard and Pog will need to attack at some point.

A first blow on the Kwaremont, but if he cant get away an unexpected attack on the top of the hill or a descent/flat right after a big effort could be the winning move. He will only need a moment of hesitation from the others and they should be the most tired on top of a hill after a big effort, but so will he.

If he goes on hard on the climbs but not able to drop them, he will be forced to try his luck in a sprint unless he can make an unexpected move somewhere and hope they look at each other.
He needs to push everything he can in the last climbs. Fresh or tired he will lose in the sprint againt the other two.
 
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Pogacar should just sit up after the last knoll and not contribute anymore.

Either they're getting catched by the likes of Küng & Madouas because of it. But that already happened to Pogacar last year. Or he can just jump from the wheels of Van Art & Van der Poel, once they share the workload.
 
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MVDP gonne win barring any accident. Hes just to strong and power output beyond anything WVA can match.

Pogacar is the only one who stand a chance to stay with him...mark this post i know for a fact MVDP will go over the top on pogacar on Kwaremont - but then again he should have a hard time vs mVDP in a sprint usually
 
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I like MVDP, hopefully he can pull this off and give us similar emotion to when he won Amstel. But the competition is mega stiff. Pog will need to finish alone to win, stunning that a rider who has won two TdFs can even be in the discussion for this race..

The other guy I would be happy to see win is WvA. The other genuine contenders I don't know enough about their form and suitability to this parcours.

But I am just glad the 2023 season is in full swing and we are already talking about the second monument of the year. To me it seemed like a long off season :D
 

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