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The Best Weekend

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What was the Best Weekend

  • Italian

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    0
Parrulo

Parrulo

Aug 5, 2010
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So what was the best weekend?

What does the future hold for both weekends?

I reckon the meteoric rise in popularity SB has been showing will continue for a few more years making it the most important one day race out of the 5 monuments and the combination with Roma Maxima will eventually outshine the Omloop KBK combo.
 
D

Dazed and Confused

Jan 27, 2012
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Still going with the Cobbles weekend, but its very tight this time. Excellent race action on all four days.

SB has by far the most potential moving forward however. RM gives us a nice bolt on race for a solid weekend followed by T-A. All in Italy. Good package.
 
G

Gloin22

Apr 10, 2011
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Omloop = Strade in terms of excitement in most years to come I'd say/

It comes down to Kuurne or Strade, both races have mediocore profiles, but this year it was good racing in both, preferred Kurrne though slightly.

We don't have many cobbled races in the year, while there's plenty of hilly races in the calendar. That what will make the debut opening of Omloop always so special. Giving it the edge in my opinion.
 
scholar

scholar

May 23, 2013
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Parrulo said:
I reckon the meteoric rise in popular.ity SB has been showing will continue for a few more years making it the most important one day race out of the 5 monuments and the combination with Roma Maxima will eventually outshine the Omloop KBK combo.
Click to expand...

That's a brave call. More important than the Omloop, Scheldeprijs, Brabantse Pijl, Giro dell'Emilia, Milano–Torino and Paris–Tours, not to mention all the one-day WT races? I know importance is subjective, but even then there's certainly a long way to go.

As I said elsewhere, the great thing about the last two weekends is that we don't have to choose between them (and the other great thing is that they were both so good that it's difficult to choose between them). That said, I voted for Flanders, because like Netserk, Het Volk was what I'd been waiting for since Lombardia and Paris-Tours. And I think that good as the Strade Bianche were, they wouldn't have felt as good if they'd taken place before the opening of the Belgian season: if the weekends had been swapped round the Italian races would have felt like an appetiser to the real start of the season a week later, rather than part of the season proper, if that makes sense.
 
Pippo_San

Pippo_San

Sep 2, 2011
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Another reason to choose the best weekend:

BiS6nooIEAAFxbx.jpg:large



:p :p :p
 
Afrank

Afrank

Aug 16, 2011
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Very tough decision, like being forced to pick which bike you love more. I'm going to go with Belgian, but by the tiniest of margins. With Omloop being the official start of the season, action from far out in it as well as nonstop action, and KBK not ended up as just a mass sprint; it was a very exciting weekend of racing.

But like I said, tiniest of margins. SB was awesome in the way the field was shredded, the way Sagan blasted away from the peloton and Kwiatkowski was on him in seconds, and then dropped him like a rock on the final climb. And in RM it was great to finally see Valverde change from his habit of wheelsucking to get on the podium but instead attack for the win, do most of the work to hold off the pack, then outsprint his break companion.
 
D

Dazed and Confused

Jan 27, 2012
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Pippo_San said:
With such a field and those incredible landscapes, coupled with two thrilling finales, I'd say the Italian weekend wins hands down.

And by the way, Roma Maxima showed some cobbles here and there.
Click to expand...

Indeed, but in current version of the race they have very little impact, as the climb counts for 95% of the effort.

Race could add a 2-4km cobbles stretch with 15-20km to go:

Anient+Cobble+Stones.jpg


That would make the event even better imo.
 
Race Radio

Race Radio

Aug 13, 2009
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Good question. Very hard to pick.

SB is visually stunning and has been consistently good racing. KBK/HV is still #1 for me but in a few years I think that will change
 
Roude Leiw

Roude Leiw

Aug 3, 2009
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Voted Italian, mostly because of the scenery and because i think those have more potential as KBK was a bit out of the ordinary as an edition this year, even though teams should take a hard look at it and repeat.

Regarding cobbles in RM, those old roman roads seem worse than anything what Paris Roubaix throws at the peloton. Including them would change the character of the race and the likes of Pozzovivo might simply avoid going there in the future. Now if the pope could come out and cheer (as they passed in front of Castel Gandolfo) that would be awesome
 
Parrulo

Parrulo

Aug 5, 2010
11,027
89
22,580
I picked the Italian weekend but it was a really close call. Omloop saw great racing, as always, and KBK also had great racing, which was surprising. However the italian races just felt more special imo.

In terms of racing SB= Omloop, but RM > KBK because in RM you didn't know if Valverde and Pozzovivo were going to making it right till the end. The fact that one did and the other didn't just added to the drama.

Visually it's not even up to discussion and 5 minutes of any of the italian races would be enough to outshine everything the entire Belgian weekend had to offer.

As for the future, at this rate in a couple years every single big name except pure sprinters and some cobbled riders will be at the start line in SB to ride for the win. So the field will be much superior to the one on the belgian classics. RCS just needs to find a way to convince them to race RM as well the following day. Can you imagine this years roma maxima with Kwia, Sagan, Cancellara and Kreuziger?

Anyway i am not saying the Belgian weekend will lose it's prestige and importance, i just think it will be outshined by the italian weekend in terms of star power and scenic views. As for racing, it's hard to tell as i highly doubt RM can deliver this kind of racing every year (much like KBK) and SB it was the first time it really felt like a proper awesome classic.
 
Pentacycle

Pentacycle

May 28, 2012
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Both were good weekends of racing, why would we need a poll for this? Maybe at the end of the year we can decide which weekend was the best, after we've seen all races.
 
D

Dazed and Confused

Jan 27, 2012
13,552
612
24,680
Roude Leiw said:
Voted Italian, mostly because of the scenery and because i think those have more potential as KBK was a bit out of the ordinary as an edition this year, even though teams should take a hard look at it and repeat.

Regarding cobbles in RM, those old roman roads seem worse than anything what Paris Roubaix throws at the peloton. Including them would change the character of the race and the likes of Pozzovivo might simply avoid going there in the future. Now if the pope could come out and cheer (as they passed in front of Castel Gandolfo) that would be awesome
Click to expand...

yep, an additional stretch would need to be "gentle". Don't know if it can be found. Besides I think more GC riders should engage with cobbles races such as RVV.
 
Cimber

Cimber

Jan 3, 2011
4,594
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Both were great. But there is just something about the first cobbles and omloop was just amazing this year.
 
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