...big, mossy, slippery, rough and hard.The worst Tinder profile ever.
Dry, overcast and 19 Celsius on Sunday. No epic rainy edition this year.You trying to get yourself banned from Velorooms, or something? :angry
The wife said might take the kids with some friends they can cook some sausages play outside. You want to come.*se Jättebra! :cool :D
Me might do some stuff at home.
Wife ok cool see closer to Sunday.
Wife what flipping bike race is on
Me Roubaix
Wife ahh no chance you coming then
Me nice :lol
to be totally honest - he has never been even close to the same rider since his accident. I am glad he is riding this race as he does love it, but I dont know if he will ever get back to that levelI don't think he will.
first Star ratings in the papers today:
*be Het Nieuwsblad
:*:*:*:*:* Terpstra
:*:*:*:* Stybar, Sagan
:*:*:* Gilbert, Démare, van Avermaet
:*:* Vanmarcke, Stuyven, van Aert, Naesen
:* Lampaert, Degenkolb, Pedersen, Moscon, Trentin
t-72 will not approve :D
Shirt | Team | Name | Age | participatons | Best result | TOP 5 | TOP 10 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | BMC | Greg van Avermaet | 32 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
![]() | Quickstep Floors | Niki Terpstra | 33 | 10 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
![]() | Trek-Segafredo | John Degenkolb | 29 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
![]() | EF – Drapac p/b Cannondale | Sep Vanmarcke | 29 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
![]() | Quickstep Floors | Zdenek Stybar | 32 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
![]() | Trek-Segafredo | Jasper Stuyven | 25 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
![]() | Team Sky | Gianni Moscon | 23 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 1 |
![]() | Bora-Hansgrohe | Peter Sagan | 28 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 1 |
![]() | Groupama-FDJ | Arnaud Demare | 26 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 1 |
![]() | Quickstep Floors | Yves Lampaert | 26 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 1 |
![]() | AG2R | Oliver Naesen | 27 | 3 | 31 | 0 | 0 |
![]() | Mitchelton-Scott | Matteo Trentin | 28 | 5 | 36 | 0 | 0 |
![]() | Quickstep Floors | Philippe Gilbert | 35 | 1 | 52 | 0 | 0 |
![]() ![]() | Trek-Segafredo | Mads Pedersen | 22 | 1 | 95 | 0 | 0 |
![]() | Verandas Wilhelms | Wout van Aert | 23 | 0 |
first Star ratings in the papers today:
*be Het Nieuwsblad
:*:*:*:*:* Terpstra
:*:*:*:* Stybar, Sagan
:*:*:* Gilbert, Démare, van Avermaet
:*:* Vanmarcke, Stuyven, van Aert, Naesen
:* Lampaert, Degenkolb, Pedersen, Moscon, Trentin
t-72 will not approve :D
he is riding.Exactly. Which is a shame, but I don't blame him. His reconstruction included more than just the bone - it included joint and soft tissue. Nasty.
He rode Flanders last weekend, but didnt do anything of note.
to be totally honest - he has never been even close to the same rider since his accident. I am glad he is riding this race as he does love it, but I dont know if he will ever get back to that level
ed: beautiful Het Nieuwsblad cover
I notice Thomas has said that this (type) of race is where his heart lies. He needs to get a grip and have a word with himself because a couple of years ago it was all about being a stage racer. I think he's a better one day racer than stage racer (also less chances to crash if you're only racing for one day). I'd like to see him commit to being a classics racer going forward.
I also heard, and recounted, that in order to win in this race, you need at least 1 top 10 finish earlier. For the winners from the last 15 years, that is almost true. Stuart O'Grady won in 2007, without a previous top 10.
Now there's a lot of hype surrounding Wout van Aert especially, but I hope his management has done a good job of making him understand that a victory is highly unlikely, a top 5 is an exceptional debut (only Boonen managed this), and a top 10 is a very good start (Boonen/Bäckstedt/Stybar). If van Aeart really thinks he is going to win this, I hope he thinks "but maybe not this year".
Rookies in the Top 10 during the past 15 editions:According to ProCyclingStats, Cancellara participated in 2003 with DNF result, so he should not be on that list, if that is correct ?[/list]
- Zdenek Stybar 6th in 2013
- Martijn Maaskant 4th in 2008
- Bjorn Leukemans 4th in 2007
- Staf Scheirlinckx 10th in 2006
- Fabian Cancellara 4th in 2005
- Arnaud Coyat 10th in 2005
Stybar could have come pretty close to winning it as a rookie hadn't he crashed into that spectator late in the race though.
According to ProCyclingStats, Cancellara participated in 2003 with DNF result, so he should not be on that list, if that is correct ?
(Take away stars from van Aert, Gilbert, give to Stybar :D ).
What about Wiggans? He was top 10 in his first participation .... or had he ridden it quite a few years ago?
I tried to improve the map of the cobbled sectors , just because :)
The secteurs are color coded according to difficulty (star rating) + added a few key names for reference.
(https://i.imgur.com/O2IaQ57.png)
Pay attention to the Saint-Python and Querenaing areas, before the Arenberg. These are two areas of many intermediate difficulty cobbled sections with little space in between them. To the riders they will feel more like two long cobbled sections with short rest points. If you rate the cobbles on difficulty*length instead if difficulty alone, these areas score higher than the Arenberg(!)
If you see #mitchelton Matt Hayman sneaking away on one of these sections :-x ...it's his last lap! He's the most experienced rider here now, and he won one of the most exciting vintages of the last few years, on the velodrome! Be warned!
Boring race this year.
And then #sky Gianni Moscon... lost his mojo or what?
Great edition, really pleased for Dillier he deserved to get something out of that and knew by committing to Sagan fully was his best bet.
Talking of bets Thomas crashed. I should have bet my mortgage on that.
If you think that was boring, I wouldn't waste time watching the next fortnight's races.Ah, MV, I caught you sneakin' that yawn in about the last 10k!
Time for a wrap-up post:
. . .
Just updated my statistics with the results of those we thought were the favorites + this year's top 10 performers not mentioned. The general conclusion is still valid. To win the P-R you need to qualify in the P-R.
- at least a handful of P-R starts before winning (This was Sagan's 6th attempt).
- at least one previous top 10.
Applying these rules, riders that made top 10 for the first time this year are added to the list of potential winners for 2019 and on. This includes:. . .
- #ag2r Silvan Dillier
- #katusha Nils Politt
- #ef Taylor Phinney
Great edition, really pleased for Dillier he deserved to get something out of that and knew by committing to Sagan fully was his best bet.
Talking of bets Thomas crashed. I should have bet my mortgage on that.
yes, another tragic loss. May he rest in peace.Definitely, RIP Michael Goolaerts.
The way I understood it yesterday he had a heart attack on the bike - is that correct? Most mass media seems to have picked it up in the way that he died due to the consequences of the crash.
On a lighter note...:lol
Terpstra checking Sagan's tyre pressure
https://www.instagram.com/p/BhUseS_F6sP/?explore=true
(https://www.instagram.com/p/BhUseS_F6sP/?explore=true)
One of those cycling days when it really doesn't matter what else happend. flipping awful.
I don't really know why, but somehow I feel it's more difficult to cope with a fatal race incident. It's sad of course to see such a young person die, but the way it looks like (although the autopsy is still to come) this probably could have happened any day, also in training, so for me personally I somehow see it pretty unrelated to the race itself.I am quite sure that most of the teams have regular heart checkups more frequently than required these days. Of course, I don't know about all of the smaller teams, but with the topic having come up before, some WT teams have responded in interviews and whatnot that they do more as part of their routine. I believe I recall that a few riders have even had heart surgery in recent years, to correct problems that would have gone under the radar with an old-fashioned stethoscope routine. Goolaerts, though, was on one of the smaller teams, and who knows how extensive their testing was.
Now that it did happen in the biggest classic there is though, let's hope it will lead to some changes in regards of steady medical observation, heart disease screenings and so on at least.
edit: Cyclingtips had a piece about heart problems in pro cycling a while ago
https://cyclingtips.com/2017/01/are-elite-cyclists-at-greater-risk-of-heart-problems/
edit 2: ok, an annual heart test is mandatory already for WT and PCT riders. I didn't know
http://www.uci.ch/mm/Document/News/CleanSport/16/76/80/ProgrammeofobligatoryMM2013ROADE_English.pdf
for a moment, maybe we can return to what we love the most about Roubaix.
For example, this little story of #delko Evaldas Siskevicius, the broom wagon, and a broken down team car on the trailer. A video of 3 minutes, very worthy to watch :cool
. . .
I have been told that Burghardt was part of Terpstra's G2. If that is correct, and if he managed to slow the chase, even a little, that could have made all the difference. At 20km to go, Sagan-Dillier had pulled the gap out to 1:30. Between 18km and 8km Terpstra et al managed to gain back half of that - cutting the gap to :44 at one point, when it once again stabilized. It was only then that one could forecast with confidence that Sagan-Dillier looked to make it all the way.
only until Mons-en-Pévèle. . . .Ah, thank you. So Burghardt had 5 or 6 km to impact the chase. Not much, maybe something, maybe "every little bit helps".
Terpstra accelerates with Vanmarcke on his wheel (below the "45.6"), Gilbert closely behind. Van Avermaet in 4th gets out of the saddle to close the gap with a sprint, Bert de Backer on his wheel, somehow managing to keep up with him. Then we have Burghardt, Grondahl and Haussler. Haussler passes the young Jumbo rider on the right but gets blocked by Burghardt, leaving him with no chance to close the gap.
. . .
Ah, thank you. So Burghardt had 5 or 6 km to impact the chase. Not much, maybe something, maybe "every little bit helps".
There were a couple of occasions shortly after Sagan went that Burghardt was on the front of the following group. No one looked all that interested in passing him on one occasion so he would have helped the initial gap develop a bitI think, given that nobody jumped to catch Sagan, Burghardt played his part well. On the front at the right time. I heard elsewhere that Burghardt was on the front at the time Sagan jumped, meaning anyone wanting to chase would have to go around. One of the big boys said he was a bit back and blocked, and wondering why nobody was chasing Petr as he watched him go up the road. I forget which one. But it looks like Burghardt played the part to perfection for long enough, and Sagan timed it to perfection.
(...about Sagan...)
It is interesting that for all his talent in a sprint, his monument wins have both come by going solo.
"Sprint" always was a bit of a poor word to describe what happens in a finish of 7 hour long race. Road racing is primarily an endurance sport, and the best classics riders may be unmatched (on this planet) when it comes to stamina.
...
Aleksander Kristoff also won the Ronde van Vlaanderen on an attack (with Terpstra) rather than a sprint (if we agree sprinting against Terpstra doesn't count.)
. . . Sagan seems not to go clear of the favourites group with other riders very often - it's either clear alone or stalking the group waiting for the "sprint". Even with Dillier it seems to me that he benefitted from having a rider with him who both knew would be happy with 2nd, not a genuine pre-race favourite. If anything I suppose what I'm saying is that Sagan can trust in his sprint too much and never quite feel the need to make the race himself, but has actually found a lot of success when he does so.
. . . I don't know if Sagan's troubles are more related to him or to others, to his inability to marshall a group or the group's unwillingness to work with a rider who can outsprint anyone but the top flat-track boys a la Kittel etc.
. . . Burghardt . . . Sagan timed it to perfection.
I'm downloading recordings now to go back and take a look.