Soudal - Quick Step Thread

[Misterteujn]

What do we expect for the spring classics?
And who will be riding most classics? Gilbert / terpsta / stybar?

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

What do we expect for the spring classics?
And who will be riding most classics? Gilbert / terpsta / stybar?

I expect them to be the best team again, but with Burghardt, Bodnar, Oss and and Postlberger Bora will be kinda strong as well. So will Greg and his always solid crew at BMC, Kung is evolving and they got Roelandts instead of Oss. So the two best riders have pretty good teams

But to answer the question, I expect Gilbert to be at a very high level, says anything between the 3rd and 5th best rider on the cobbles (theres also Naesen, Vanmarcke, Moscon, Kwito..) I think his RVV victory was an outlier, it shouldn't be possible to be THAT strong, but I still think he will be half a level under Sagan and GVA (who I consider the best rider on cobbles - hilly or flat). Or maybe even as good. Terpstra and Stybar have a lot of experience and can be played out tactically. I don't expect too much from Gaviria in the flemish races, but I think he will be great at Roubaix and San Remo.

 

[Misterteujn]

Re: Re:

What do we expect for the spring classics?
And who will be riding most classics? Gilbert / terpsta / stybar?

I expect them to be the best team again, but with Burghardt, Bodnar, Oss and and Postlberger Bora will be kinda strong as well. So will Greg and his always solid crew at BMC, Kung is evolving and they got Roelandts instead of Oss. So the two best riders have pretty good teams

But to answer the question, I expect Gilbert to be at a very high level, says anything between the 3rd and 5th best rider on the cobbles (theres also Naesen, Vanmarcke, Moscon, Kwito..) I think his RVV victory was an outlier, it shouldn't be possible to be THAT strong, but I still think he will be half a level under Sagan and GVA (who I consider the best rider on cobbles - hilly or flat). Or maybe even as good. Terpstra and Stybar have a lot of experience and can be played out tactically. I don't expect too much from Gaviria in the flemish races, but I think he will be great at Roubaix and San Remo.

Yeah Stybar probably protected rider for Strade Bianche (and paris roubaix).
But with so many stars in a team, who will be riding in support during most flemish classics?
Keisse most of them probably right? Or senechal, morkov, deveneys, declerq? Who will be riding most of the classics as support you guys think

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Re: Re:

You can't run around having voids in your heart every time a rider retires, it happens all the time.
Besides, he's kinda earned his retirement.

Tell that to Contador fans...I guess Bonnen fans feel the same.

And that's why you shouldn't cast all your... fan-ing... on one rider.

You know that feeling when your favorite ice cream taste dissapears? Of course there are others but your favorite is gone and that stings.

 

[Misterteujn]

Who is going to be the sprinter in Milan Sanremo? Gaviria or Viviani? And will vivani also sprint in Scheldeprijs?

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

You can't run around having voids in your heart every time a rider retires, it happens all the time.
Besides, he's kinda earned his retirement.

Tell that to Contador fans...I guess Bonnen fans feel the same.

And that's why you shouldn't cast all your... fan-ing... on one rider.

You know that feeling when your favorite ice cream taste dissapears? Of course there are others but your favorite is gone and that stings.

I would be surprised if chocolate ice cream suddenly disappeared.
But, back to the sport; I prefer just enjoying the spectacle, rather than running around with "voids in my heart" almost a year after a rider retires.

 

[tobydawq]

I just stumbled upon a pretty incredible fact about QuickStep.

The team, which is known for its tendency to have a lot of different riders obtaining victories in a lot of different ways and races throughout the season is the WorldTeam with the highest number of riders without a single victory in their careers.

Sure, they have a lot of young riders who will probably soon win something but with 11 riders without victories they have quite a gap down to LottoNL and Katusha who share the second place by having nine riders with no victories according to my own highly thorough Excel sheet.

 

[SKSemtex]

Re: The Quickstep Thread

lol. Good job. It is lot of work that should be used for some fun pool or at least thread.
"Who will be first QS rider to get his first WT win this year"

 

[BalearicBeats]

Re:

I just stumbled upon a pretty incredible fact about QuickStep.

The team, which is known for its tendency to have a lot of different riders obtaining victories in a lot of different ways and races throughout the season is the WorldTeam with the highest number of riders without a single victory in their careers.

Sure, they have a lot of young riders who will probably soon win something but with 11 riders without victories they have quite a gap down to LottoNL and Katusha who share the second place by having nine riders with no victories according to my own highly thorough Excel sheet.

Wow, hadn't ever noticed that a great rider like Serry hasn't ever won a pro race. Guys like him and Senechal have it hard though, they're helpers except in small races like Ruta Del Sol right now, but in these races every stage is hotly contested

 

[tobydawq]

Sabatini is also winless which is a fact that does not make much sense given his speed and number of years in the peloton.

 

[Nirvana]

Re:

Sabatini is also winless which is a fact that does not make much sense given his speed and number of years in the peloton.

The problem for him is the lack of opportinities through his entire career. He started with Milram where there were Petacchi and Zabel and he collected only six top tens (with two coming from ITTs) in three years, then he rode six years in Liquigas/Cannondale where he had Bennati and Chicchi and then Viviani and Sagan and finally in Quick-Step where with multiple fast riders specialized himself as last man.


If we look at his results ha has some real occasion to ride for himself only in a couple of season at Liquigas and he got also some podium placing:

*2009 Catalunya
**3rd fifth stage
**2nd sixth stage
**3rd seventh stage

*2nd first stage of 2009 Vuelta

*3rd 2010 Costa degli Etruschi

*2010 Giro
**3rd second stage
**2nd tenth stage


But these can be considered only very occasional in a career that spanned a dozen of years.

 

[exub]

Re:

Who is going to be the sprinter in Milan Sanremo? Gaviria or Viviani? And will vivani also sprint in Scheldeprijs?

Gaviria, Viviani, Alaphilippe, Gilbert, could be anyone.

 

[Sestriere]

Quickstep should be eager to find a seven-digit paycheck laying around somewhere to hire van Aert. Their classics armada is not getting younger and when Gilbert doesn't step up to his last year's uber-self I don't see them winning a big cobbled one day race this spring.

 

[can3478]

Re:

Quickstep should be eager to find a seven-digit paycheck laying around somewhere to hire van Aert. Their classics armada is not getting younger and when Gilbert doesn't step up to his last year's uber-self I don't see them winning a big cobbled one day race this spring.

Last July, while QS had a high altitude training camp in Italy, Van Aert was there having lunch with the guys. Again in Winter training camp, he was riding with Alaphilippe and Keisse. ???

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Re: Re:

Quickstep should be eager to find a seven-digit paycheck laying around somewhere to hire van Aert. Their classics armada is not getting younger and when Gilbert doesn't step up to his last year's uber-self I don't see them winning a big cobbled one day race this spring.

Last July, while QS had a high altitude training camp in Italy, Van Aert was there having lunch with the guys. Again in Winter training camp, he was riding with Alaphilippe and Keisse. ???

He also joined them during one of the pre race rides for the Milan San Remo a couple of years ago.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: The Quickstep Thread

Imagine Wout riding for QS. That would be awesome.

 

[Akuryo]

Re:

I just stumbled upon a pretty incredible fact about QuickStep.

The team, which is known for its tendency to have a lot of different riders obtaining victories in a lot of different ways and races throughout the season is the WorldTeam with the highest number of riders without a single victory in their careers.

Sure, they have a lot of young riders who will probably soon win something but with 11 riders without victories they have quite a gap down to LottoNL and Katusha who share the second place by having nine riders with no victories according to my own highly thorough Excel sheet.

You can take Cavagna off your list, as he won Dwars door West-Vlaanderen today.

 

[Geraint Too Fast]

Flat track bullies.

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

I just stumbled upon a pretty incredible fact about QuickStep.

The team, which is known for its tendency to have a lot of different riders obtaining victories in a lot of different ways and races throughout the season is the WorldTeam with the highest number of riders without a single victory in their careers.

Sure, they have a lot of young riders who will probably soon win something but with 11 riders without victories they have quite a gap down to LottoNL and Katusha who share the second place by having nine riders with no victories according to my own highly thorough Excel sheet.

You can take Cavagna off your list, as he won Dwars door West-Vlaanderen today.

Yes, I know. But they are still in the lead.

 

[Koronin]

Re: The Quickstep Thread

Imagine Wout riding for QS. That would be awesome.

I'd love to see him at Quickstep. He'd fit nicely. Classics rider on a classics team.

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

I just stumbled upon a pretty incredible fact about QuickStep.

The team, which is known for its tendency to have a lot of different riders obtaining victories in a lot of different ways and races throughout the season is the WorldTeam with the highest number of riders without a single victory in their careers.

Sure, they have a lot of young riders who will probably soon win something but with 11 riders without victories they have quite a gap down to LottoNL and Katusha who share the second place by having nine riders with no victories according to my own highly thorough Excel sheet.

You can take Cavagna off your list, as he won Dwars door West-Vlaanderen today.

It was actually a pick and choose situation, since neither Sénéchal nor Jakobsen had won a race beforehand either. In fact, only three of the riders in the top ten (Turgis, van Keirsbulck and Narvaez) had won a race before.

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

I just stumbled upon a pretty incredible fact about QuickStep.

The team, which is known for its tendency to have a lot of different riders obtaining victories in a lot of different ways and races throughout the season is the WorldTeam with the highest number of riders without a single victory in their careers.

Sure, they have a lot of young riders who will probably soon win something but with 11 riders without victories they have quite a gap down to LottoNL and Katusha who share the second place by having nine riders with no victories according to my own highly thorough Excel sheet.

You can take Cavagna off your list, as he won Dwars door West-Vlaanderen today.

It was actually a pick and choose situation, since neither Sénéchal nor Jakobsen had won a race beforehand either. In fact, only three of the riders in the top ten (Turgis, van Keirsbulck and Narvaez) had won a race before.

And with Jakobsen's win in Nokere Koerse, they are now tied with LottoNL.

 

[Bakkie]

Alaphilippe looks he is not at the same level like last year same moment.

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

I just stumbled upon a pretty incredible fact about QuickStep.

The team, which is known for its tendency to have a lot of different riders obtaining victories in a lot of different ways and races throughout the season is the WorldTeam with the highest number of riders without a single victory in their careers.

Sure, they have a lot of young riders who will probably soon win something but with 11 riders without victories they have quite a gap down to LottoNL and Katusha who share the second place by having nine riders with no victories according to my own highly thorough Excel sheet.

You can take Cavagna off your list, as he won Dwars door West-Vlaanderen today.

It was actually a pick and choose situation, since neither Sénéchal nor Jakobsen had won a race beforehand either. In fact, only three of the riders in the top ten (Turgis, van Keirsbulck and Narvaez) had won a race before.

And with Jakobsen's win in Nokere Koerse, they are now tied with LottoNL.

Hodeg wins Handzame! Damn, that was fast how they got out of that first place.

 

[jaylew]

I moved this from the Lesser Known Race Results thread:

The morale has got to be so high amongst the young guys. Learning from the best and all are still picking up their own results. Jakobsen, Cavagna, Hodeg, Narvaez, Schachmann, Mas, DePlus...