Scheldeprijs v Fleche Wallonne

[Justico]

Solo attacks are very exciting. The anxiety , will it be caught or no ? watching the effort and the gap, i like long solo attacks.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

A change of heart, I see. Three weeks ago you wanted to break twice as many collarbones, and make the race ten times longer.

The comment you quote was from several months ago. I've mellowed in my consideration of the race distance in the months since, but clearly I've developed more bloodlust too.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

The comment you quote was from several months ago. I've mellowed in my consideration of the race distance in the months since, but clearly I've developed more bloodlust too.

No, 20 days.

You could have a better race by lining up 200 riders, karate chopping through the collarbones of 20 selected at random, and then having a 1km race between the other 180.

This race basically only exists to injure people.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

No, 20 days.

No, you weren't quoting my quote from the Scheldeprijs race thread 20 days ago (20 injuries, 1km) in this thread, but you were quoting a post I made in this thread. I posted THAT message (10 injuries, 100m) on April 17th 2013. This thread has lain dormant for a year but been bumped cos of the 2014 editions.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

My humblest apologies: now I understand (and am in fear of your increased bloodlust).

 

[Jagartrott]

There aren't worse races than Scheldeprijs. That race literally only exists to injure people. You could have a better event by holding a prize draw where the first ten riders whose race numbers are pulled out of a hat get their collarbones snapped, and the remainder then hold a 100 meter drag race.

I think no-one was injured this year, which goes to show it's not about the race, it's about how the riders handle the race.

 

[Richeypen]

Add LBL to the list

 

[Ferminal]

Bumping this for the newer members who may like a chance to have their say. Remember folks every vote counts!

 

[Scarponi]

Milan San Remo for me is the worst of the big one day races

 

[Hugo Koblet]

I'm dead serious when I say that Scheldeprijs is more entertaining than Fleche Wallone. Watching a flat sprint and the battle for position is way more fun than watching 20 riders going up the Mur de Huy without anything happening before the last 150 meters.

 

[Eli]

Re:

I'm dead serious when I say that Scheldeprijs is more entertaining than Fleche Wallone. Watching a flat sprint and the battle for position is way more fun than watching 20 riders going up the Mur de Huy without anything happening before the last 150 meters.

I am with you on this and I absolutely despise flat sprint stages. It's one thing having a boring race and quite another to have a predictable one. However to have both of them at the same time takes the cake and I'm afraid that's what FW has become these last few years

 

[loge1884]

I'll be honest: I never watched Scheldeprijs and I have no intention to do so in near or far future ... I do watch (not all of them, but some) TdF-stages which are prone to end up in a bunch sprint, but that is completely different: the main focus is on whether any of the GC contenders gets dropped due to crosswinds or a mechanical (hopefully not a crash - but sadly so happens as well) - so there is much more tension there ... and honestly: watching the QS-train with Kittel winning is quite boring ... with the former htc-train you at least had some headbanging action from Mark Renshaw at times ...

 

[Scarponi]

The problem with Fleche Wallone currently is that all the riders who were beating Valverde around 2008-2010 are retired and they used to go from 500m out not the current 100m. It is just a procession now.

 

[Koronin]

The problem with Fleche Wallone currently is that all the riders who were beating Valverde around 2008-2010 are retired and they used to go from 500m out not the current 100m. It is just a procession now.

At this point it seems almost the entire peloton has resigned themselves to racing for 2nd at Fleche Wallone and just handing over the winners trophy to Valverde before they even start the race.

 

[Gigs_98]

The problem with Fleche Wallone currently is that all the riders who were beating Valverde around 2008-2010 are retired and they used to go from 500m out not the current 100m. It is just a procession now.

At this point it seems almost the entire peloton has resigned themselves to racing for 2nd at Fleche Wallone and just handing over the winners trophy to Valverde before they even start the race.

Yeah, but they don't do so because valverde is unbeatable. Valverde has had thirteen seasons with over the 1000 cq points and won fleche in the last four of those. In the 9 seasons before he won the race once. The main difference is that guys like contador and schleck used to be up there in fleche while nowadays it seems like the only other riders caring for that race are people like alaphilippe who also prefer to wait for sprints but who when it comes to a sprint have no chance to beat valverde. Actually it's pretty much the same situation as with LBL with the difference that in fleche the climbers used to attack with 500m to go and now don't attack anymore at all, while in liege climbers used to attack with 20k to go and now don't attack anymore at all.

 

[myrideissteelerthanyours]

SB < Hammer Series < Cadel Evans RR < Scheldeprijs < Fleche Wallonne

 

[Red Rick]

It used to be that hilly classic dudes were more inconsistent as well. Valverde used to have entire years where he'd be plain bad in the Ardennes.

Most of his winning times are a few seconds slower than before he started dominating the race, so there's very few riders who could go faster by pacing it differently, and none of them who used to do it are active right now.

Valverde actually has the record on the Mur, but it's still only 3s faster than Gilbert who basically celebrated the last 200m in 2011

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Currently?
Scheldeprijs > Fleche Wallone (and no, not because I'm flemish).
The Scheldeprijs brings slightly more exciting racing.... (slightly)

 

[tobydawq]

SB < Hammer Series < Cadel Evans RR < Scheldeprijs < Fleche Wallonne

Right, because nobody cares about that race, which makes all the domestiques being blown away early, making it a long fight between famous riders, which makes most people think it's a good race, while in reality it's just because all the other riders are bad, not in shape or don't care.

Wasn't that the reasoning you used.

I think you're joking but otherwise, you're a worse troll than Crash Bandicoot.

By the way: Flèche Wallonne by far. There are attacks in that race, people just don't seem to think they count since they figure they will be futile (which they always end up being), which is a flawed logic.

 

[myrideissteelerthanyours]

SB < Hammer Series < Cadel Evans RR < Scheldeprijs < Fleche Wallonne

Right, because nobody cares about that race, which makes all the domestiques being blown away early, making it a long fight between famous riders, which makes most people think it's a good race, while in reality it's just because all the other riders are bad, not in shape or don't care.

Wasn't that the reasoning you used.

I think you're joking but otherwise, you're a worse troll than Crash Bandicoot.

By the way: Flèche Wallonne by far. There are attacks in that race, people just don't seem to think they count since they figure they will be futile (which they always end up being), which is a flawed logic.

Did you watch the hammer series? Its non stop action on par with yesterday's monument.

 

[tobydawq]

SB < Hammer Series < Cadel Evans RR < Scheldeprijs < Fleche Wallonne

Right, because nobody cares about that race, which makes all the domestiques being blown away early, making it a long fight between famous riders, which makes most people think it's a good race, while in reality it's just because all the other riders are bad, not in shape or don't care.

Wasn't that the reasoning you used.

I think you're joking but otherwise, you're a worse troll than Crash Bandicoot.

By the way: Flèche Wallonne by far. There are attacks in that race, people just don't seem to think they count since they figure they will be futile (which they always end up being), which is a flawed logic.

Did you watch the hammer series? Its non stop action on par with yesterday's monument.

But still below Scheldeprijs?

 

[Scarponi]

How about this new echelon version of scheldeprijs

 

[johnymax]

I need hills or mountains in my life so FW definitely.

 

[myrideissteelerthanyours]

SB < Hammer Series < Cadel Evans RR < Scheldeprijs < Fleche Wallonne

Right, because nobody cares about that race, which makes all the domestiques being blown away early, making it a long fight between famous riders, which makes most people think it's a good race, while in reality it's just because all the other riders are bad, not in shape or don't care.

Wasn't that the reasoning you used.

I think you're joking but otherwise, you're a worse troll than Crash Bandicoot.

By the way: Flèche Wallonne by far. There are attacks in that race, people just don't seem to think they count since they figure they will be futile (which they always end up being), which is a flawed logic.

Did you watch the hammer series? Its non stop action on par with yesterday's monument.

But still below Scheldeprijs?

Yeah tradition counts for something. Otherwise the world tour might as well be cyclists jumping through a series of flaming hoops and then the winner can be scripted like fake wrestling.

 

[Blanco]

Tro Bro Leon>Paris-Roubaix
Le Samyn>Ronde Van Vlaanderen
More exciting racing, slightly...