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Will Gilbert complete the "ardennes triple" by winning liege?

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Will Gilbert complete the "ardennes triple" by winning liege?

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Apr 12, 2009
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OK, what Gilbert did in FW was great, I really loved it, but let's put this in some perspective:

From the riders that ended in front of Gilbert last year, only 2 managed to get top 10 this year. From the 2009 & 2008 top 10, only one made it this year.
Evans, Contador, Gesink, Cunego,... doesn't have the top form yet Gilbert clearly has.

An other thing that payed in his favor: nobody dared to go early on the mur (I presume after what happened last year to Contador) -> first half was rather slow.

Normally this finish is always to hard for Gilbert. This by a combination of a lot of things (also Phill's own super form of course) made it possible for him to win.

In LBL, they won't wait for the Saint-Nicolas, I expect a better competition, and the race is more tactical. Gilbert definitely didn't win LBL yet!
 
Jun 7, 2010
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i hope he wins it! he totally deserves it! i hope he will win many more classics in the future! sanremo and flanders too! i will definetely support him on sunday!
 
Jul 16, 2010
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Buffalo Soldier said:
OK, what Gilbert did in FW was great, I really loved it, but let's put this in some perspective:

From the riders that ended in front of Gilbert last year, only 2 managed to get top 10 this year. From the 2009 & 2008 top 10, only one made it this year.
Evans, Contador, Gesink, Cunego,... doesn't have the top form yet Gilbert clearly has.

An other thing that payed in his favor: nobody dared to go early on the mur (I presume after what happened last year to Contador) -> first half was rather slow.

Normally this finish is always to hard for Gilbert. This by a combination of a lot of things (also Phill's own super form of course) made it possible for him to win.

In LBL, they won't wait for the Saint-Nicolas, I expect a better competition, and the race is more tactical. Gilbert definitely didn't win LBL yet!

But he rode faster on the Mur than Cuddles last year.

He distanced Rodriguez by 3 seconds(could have easily been 5-6 seconds). Last year Rodriguez stranded on Cuddles his wheel.
 
Apr 12, 2009
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El Pistolero said:
But he rode faster on the Mur than Cuddles last year.

He distanced Rodriguez by 3 seconds(could have easily been 5-6 seconds). Last year Rodriguez stranded on Cuddles his wheel.
Because Anton and Contador forced everybody to start too early last year.
 
Captain_Cavman said:
I voted, 'Yes'.

In order to stop Gilbert there probably needs to be a concerted anti-Gilbert tactic from all the big teams. I don't think we'll see it.

To compare with Cancellara again: I don't think there was a concerted tactic in the Ronde, it just so happened that BMC had the manpower and decided to chase. I didn't detect any will to chase from anyone else. And of course the only man down the road was Chavenel. But for Roubaix, the tactic was clear; every team kept sending men down the road until the break stuck, then sit on and let Cancellara bring them back on his own.

Lotto are too strong and the other teams too unconcerted to force a repeat of Roubaix. If Gilbert loses, it will be because an individual is stronger than him on the day. But that doesn't look likely at the moment.

Agree with this
although it may get insteresting if both schlecks are there towards the finish, just not sure which would stay with gilbert while the other attacks to force him to chase...

as for someone's voight theory/tactic, add Barredo, vanAvermat and Kolobnev and it could be a goer (maybe)

[edit]: reckon a pre-race thread that is separated from the actual race thread is a good idea
 
Mar 23, 2009
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Lanark said:
Not really, maybe fysically (altough I would say it would still favor guys like Vinokourov and Schleck more, Gilbert's strenght is explosiveness, not endurance), but tactically it will be hard if you have a group consisting solely of team leaders early on, and they'll look at Gilbert to do the work. If a large group starts at the Roche-aux-Faucons, Gilbert can reduce it to 3 or 4 guys, they'll have to cooperate to stay in the front, giving him the opportunity to drop the rest on the Saint Nicolas.


winning Het Volk with a 50k breakaway seems like pretty good endurance stamina to me ...
 
I still think that the Amstel and FW courses suit him better but he has a great chance. Could be another stalemate kind of race where the favourites don't fight out the finish because of the close marking. Then again you don't get average riders winning the LBL very often. The team tactics should be very interesting.
 
Jul 16, 2010
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LBL suits him perfectly. He was the strongest last year, he'll just have to play it very tactfully and that will be hard with people marking him.
 
May 24, 2010
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I strongly suspect each of the teams will neutralise each other till Roche-aux-Faucons because there are too many potential winners on too many STRONG teams, The Schleckys, Vino, Kolobnev and Wacky Rodriguez, Samu Sanchez plus Gilbert and more.

Till Roche they'll kill the race then it'll be down to whose strongest over the last 20ks which puts it straight back into Phillipe Gilbert's hands.

I voted yes, and damn good luck to him.
 
Jul 16, 2010
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roundabout said:
They lack a genuine GC leader but they have a strong supporting cast for stage races.

Meh, didn't really see any of that at P-N. If they don't win or do really well in LBL it could be game over for them next year in the World Tour.
 
Jun 22, 2009
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luckyboy said:
Looking at what he's done the past week, and remembering that people have said Cancellara can transform to take some Ardennes classics, there's no way he could beat Gilbert on these hills.

agreed.
I really hope gilbert puts more focus on RVV next year. I wanna see him take 4 of the monuments. Obviously needs to win MSR also. Lot easier then said.
 

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