Tour de Wallonie 2014 (2.HC), 26 - 30 July

[Dazed and Confused]

How the hell was there no time gap ? He won by a country mile. Thankfully that stage won't decide the race.

Even had time for bit of sponsor nursing:

Not a bad stage with quite a bit of action from a distance, perhaps all doomed but fun anyway.

Stage 4 coming up:

 

[Roude Leiw]

Hi all

To those knowing the race better, is this sth which will be won by a Lobato / Meersman kind of rider or is there a more selective stage? I am asking because when looking at the profiles i would have thought yesterdays stage should have created a few gaps, but actually no

Thx

 

[burgyv]

Hi all

To those knowing the race better, is this sth which will be won by a Lobato / Meersman kind of rider or is there a more selective stage? I am asking because when looking at the profiles i would have thought yesterdays stage should have created a few gaps, but actually no

Thx

Todays stage will be a little bit harder then yesterdays one. Comparative hills, but today it will be closer to the finish.
Tomorrow (the last stage) will be the hardest stage. This one can be considered as a miniature version of Liege Bastogne Liege.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Live now
http://www.frombar.com/20140722/vv53cd8e048debd6.64985951-853889.html
Meersman mopping up sprint points

 

[myrideissteelerthanyours]

this race is already infinitely better than the tour to watch

 

[Arredondo]

Beltran is in the chasing group. He is building his form for a monstreous second part of the season.

 

[roundabout]

Beltran is in the chasing group. He is building his form for a monstreous second part of the season.

Nice piece of sarcasm.

 

[SafeBet]

What a win by Van Ansbroeck.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

What a win by Van Ansbroeck.

Meersman always the bridesmaid.
Still leads GC though

 

[Czapiewski]

this race is already infinitely better than the tour to watch

For whom? Most boring stages of this year...

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Great stuff by van Asbroeck, a rider who seems competitive in just about all races he enters.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Stage 4:
1. 131 VAN ASBROECK Tom * BEL TSV 4:38:41
2. 62 MEERSMAN Gianni BEL OPQ
3. 83 KUZNETSOV Viacheslav RUS KAT
4. 2 DILLIER Silvan * SUI BMC
5. 27 VAN DER LIJKE Nick * NED BEL
6. 95 BRESCHEL Matti DEN TCS
7. 36 ROUX Anthony FRA FDJ
8. 55 VENTOSO AMBERDI F. ESP MOV
9. 54 LOBATO DEL VALLE J. ESP MOV
10. 16 MONDORY Lloyd FRA ALM

GC:
1. 62 MEERSMAN Gianni BEL OPQ 17:44:21
2. 54 LOBATO DEL VALLE J. ESP MOV 0:00:20
3. 2 DILLIER Silvan * SUI BMC 0:00:23
4. 131 VAN ASBROECK Tom * BEL TSV
5. 137 WAEYTENS Zico * BEL TSV 0:00:24
6. 91 JUUL JENSEN Christopher DEN TCS 0:00:28
7. 83 KUZNETSOV Viacheslav RUS KAT 0:00:30
8. 136 JACOBS Pieter BEL TSV
9. 16 MONDORY Lloyd FRA ALM 0:00:31
10. 42 LIGTHART Pim NED LTB

Too much armchair ride for Meersman, so I'm now going with Kuznetsov or Dillier for GC.

 

[Akuryo]

4 times second behind a different winner each time. Only question for tomorrow is: Who will win in front of Meersman, who will take the yellow jersey home without a stage

 

[TourOfSardinia]

4 times second behind a different winner each time. Only question for tomorrow is: Who will win in front of Meersman, who will take the yellow jersey home without a stage

Meersman emulating Sagan in collecting 2nd places?

 

[Roude Leiw]

Well another "selective" stage ending in a mass sprint. I find it quite disappointing for a race in the 2 HC category. They all should have a small ITT to get the GC together and make them fight for the win in the other stages. Seeing the terrain and the size of the bunch, this is not really raced...

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Well another "selective" stage ending in a mass sprint. I find it quite disappointing for a race in the 2 HC category. They all should have a small ITT to get the GC together and make them fight for the win in the other stages. Seeing the terrain and the size of the bunch, this is not really raced...

It would appear the "favorites" are all saving themselves for the final, i.e the last part of the last stage.

An Ardennes "classic" spread out over 5 stages.

Meersman, the race leader has barely been in the wind outside of sprinting for bonus secs and the line a few times.

There has been plenty of attacks over the last two stages, but mainly from "smaller" riders with HotSteppers' train closing the action down effectively.

Lets see about the finale today.

Stage 5:

 

[vladimir]

Lotto really needs to do something today. They have Vanendert, Wellens, Monfort and Ligthart all within 34 seconds of the leader on GC. They should certainly have the firepower to blow the peleton into pieces on the last three climbs today.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Lotto really needs to do something today. They have Vanendert, Wellens, Monfort and Ligthart all within 34 seconds of the leader on GC. They should certainly have the firepower to blow the peleton into pieces on the last three climbs today.

Lotto had a small dig on the last climb yesterday, but its was mostly for a bit of TV time I think.

Yesterday's winner:

More pics: http://www.trworg.be/tw/detail_photos.php?id=64

 

[Echoes]

...

For whom?

......

me.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

136km to go, situation:

Hugo Boule (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Vegard Stake Laengen (Bretagne-Séché Environnement), Julien Fouchard (Cofidis), Gijs Van Hoecke (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Kevin Van Melsen (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Maxime Anciaux (Wallonie-Bruxelles), Antoine Duchesne (Team Europcar)

1:17 Ludwig De Winter (Color-Code Biowanze)

3:18 peloton



Ticker: http://direct.directvelo.com/live-course/2040/tour-de-wallonie-etape-5-2-hc.html

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Trek helping HotSteppers keeping things under control:

3 minutes or so.

Trek because they have nothing better to do or?

 

[barmaher]

I hate the way lots of ProTour kits are so similar.

 

[Akuryo]

What a race from Stybar. Covering all attacks for a few days now. In this form he could well defend his title in the Eneco Tour.

 

[Arredondo]

How could you **** up a final so badly. Horrible route, while it's got so much potential.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Man, some poor racing from several teams today.

Race would have been much more exciting if Steppers went with Stybar.

A sort of "kittel" GC win for Meersman.