Paris Roubaix *spoiler*

dougzz

NapoleonD wrote:

CAPTION TIME! What's Chinny thinking?...

Why do I keep finding myself on steps lower than riders without even half my talent?

Anonymous

Lanky jammy ba5tard!

LangerDan

"You may have your cobble, but I have the Frenchfighter Seal of Approval"

cornoyemade

NapoleonD wrote:

CAPTION TIME! What's Chinny thinking?...

I should have joined Garmin.

thamacdaddy

I know that it was between leopard and sky for canc last summer and the lure of the team he has always been with held out for canc but I wonder how different the last fortnight might have been had he joined sky.

I mean over both races he has been impressive but today from 50k out not being able to shake Thor and knowing he had two up the road it was difficult to see how he could go about winning. If he towed Thor to the lead group he was sure to get a going over by garmin and sky and bmc also had support up front. O Grady put some work in early both weeks before canc put big attacks in but leopard is surely a gt support heavy team and leaving canc to fend for himself in the classics, I would expect he will still repay more than he is getting in the gts though.

Garmin had so many options in the final 50 and got their tactics spot on clearly changing the game plan with the options they had later in the race. Fair play.

disgruntledgoat

Is it possible that Cancellara is just a really, really high end headbanger?

LangerDan

Best. Helmet-hair. EVAH!



BTW, was van Summeren wearing a skinsuit (with pockets)? Father Vaughters has tried this with his minions in the past.

rick_chasey

Hypothosis - I recon Canc would have done the Roubaix Flanders double had he had a stronger team.

Canc suffered in the same way Boonen did last year - only he was a little better.

RichN95.

The 'Hard Man of the Day Award' has to go to Kurt Asle Arvesen. He rode the last 20km without a saddle.

See here: http://www.sporza.be/permalink/1.1000639

tailwindhome

NapoleonD wrote:

Sheeeyite! JvS punctured with 5k to go!

Woudl Cancellara have known that?

wicked

LangerDan wrote:

Best. Helmet-hair. EVAH!



BTW, was van Summeren wearing a skinsuit (with pockets)? Father Vaughters has tried this with his minions in the past.

What helmet hair? All I saw was a generously proportioned female!

shinyhelmut

NapoleonD wrote:

ShinyHelmut wrote:

Noclue wrote:

Sorry if it's already been covered some where else but i couldn't see it, but what bike was JvS riding? obviously a Cervelo one but the tubes looked pretty skinny on it and i didn't recognize it.

I suspect it's a standard R5, just in a huge size making the tubes look skinny in proportion.

Nah, it was an R3. According to garmin twitter they were all on R3s..

Hey this is the internet remember. Enough of your facts and leave me to my uninformed guesswork please.

Bronzie

Rick Chasey wrote:

Hypothosis - I recon Canc would have done the Roubaix Flanders double had he had a stronger team.

Canc suffered in the same way Boonen did last year - only he was a little better.

Can't disagree with that. If Leotard had a rider in the front group, Canc, Hushovd and Ballan could have worked together to bridge up without having the "team mate up front" issue. Mind you, whether Ballan and Hushovd WOULD have actually worked with is another matter.

Will be interesting to see for 2012 if:
a) Leotard will get some classics reinforcements in or stay focused on the Schleck TdF project
b) whether Fabian will show his hand quite to clearly in a "chipper" like the E3 Priijs

rick_chasey

Bronzie wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Hypothosis - I recon Canc would have done the Roubaix Flanders double had he had a stronger team.

Canc suffered in the same way Boonen did last year - only he was a little better.

Can't disagree with that. If Leotard had a rider in the front group, Canc, Hushovd and Ballan could have worked together to bridge up without having the "team mate up front" issue. Mind you, whether Ballan and Hushovd WOULD have actually worked with is another matter.

Had Boonen not had a mechanical, he'd likely have made that elite selection and he's always game to ride.

jibberjim

LangerDan wrote:

BTW, was van Summeren wearing a skinsuit (with pockets)? Father Vaughters has tried this with his minions in the past.

All the Garmin Cervelo guys should've been wearing the Castelli Speedsuit - a hybrid road/skinsuit outfit.

dougzz

Rick Chasey wrote:

Bronzie wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Hypothosis - I recon Canc would have done the Roubaix Flanders double had he had a stronger team.

Canc suffered in the same way Boonen did last year - only he was a little better.

Can't disagree with that. If Leotard had a rider in the front group, Canc, Hushovd and Ballan could have worked together to bridge up without having the "team mate up front" issue. Mind you, whether Ballan and Hushovd WOULD have actually worked with is another matter.

Had Boonen not had a mechanical, he'd likely have made that elite selection and he's always game to ride.

I bet you inside Thor was desperate to ride, JvS maybe a team mate but another year slips by with no P-R.

rick_chasey

I'm sure he was too.

I do think he figured he was in a profitable position though.

It was, had Ballan taken turns, the only way to eat from Cancellara's plate.

frenchfighter

RichN95 wrote:

The 'Hard Man of the Day Award' has to go to Kurt Asle Arvesen. He rode the last 20km without a saddle.

See here: http://www.sporza.be/permalink/1.1000639

Haha, thanks. Didnt see him sit once on top tube. His legs must be smashed, especially after the previous kms. Good on him, not a quitter, although I am not quite understanding why his mechanics were not there. I guess it is possible they had no bikes or saddles left.

rick_chasey

frenchfighter wrote:

Good on him, not a quitter, although I am not quite understanding why his mechanics were not there. I guess it is possible they had no bikes or saddles left.

When riders are all over the place, the cars can only follow certain riders.

frenchfighter

Leukeman comments:
http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/8073/ ... ubaix.aspx

Boonen and Chavanel comments (Boonen hasn't had a flat in 10 years at Roubaix! And only fallen twice! Definite bad luck):
http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/8072/ ... -Step.aspx

Cancellara comments (note nice words for JVS):
http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/8071/ ... -good.aspx

JVS comments:
http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/8069/ ... r-win.aspx

frenchfighter

Imagine if Wiggins had tried to stay in the break like Tjallingii.

Nice video of Roubaix prep with Hushovd:
http://vimeo.com/21854107

Pross

Canc definately needs to be looking at getting the management to bring in more Classics support for next season. All his main competitors had people in the break and could legitimately make him do the hard work on his own. One of the great races though.

sportvan

The following prize money will be distributed:

PLACES PRIZES
1st € 30, 000
2nd € 22, 000
3rd € 15, 000
4th € 7, 500
5th € 3, 200
6th € 1, 700
7th € 1, 500
8th € 1, 300
9th € 1, 200
10th € 1, 100
11th € 1, 000
12th € 900
13th € 800
14th € 700
15th € 600
16th € 500
17th € 500
18th € 500
19th € 500
20th € 500
TOTAL € 91,000



The overall total amount of prize money distributed for the competition is €91, 000.

Robstar24

Cancellara comes across as a bad loser given his comments following RvV and Paris-Roubaix. his words about Nuyens last Sunday suggested he expects others to take him on in the way that enables him to crush them, and seems to think he has some weird entitlement to winning those two big races. good on nuyens for racing intelligently, he knew he couldn't beat the big boys at their own game so won his own way, showing a smart racing brain.

Pross

He was probably making those comments on purpose to try to stir riders into attacking him but I don't think the others are going to fall for that.

rick_chasey

If you replace Vansummeren with O'Grady and Cancellara with Boonen - it's a very similar story to '07.

frenchfighter

Bernard Hinault won it just the once, but did so on a day that would break anyone else. Hinault had 3 punctures and 7 crashes, and when the photographers’ motorbikes crashed ahead he ran through a boggy field with his bike over his shoulder. Hinault made a break 8km’s from the finish, but was brought back and then crashed into a dog. Joining the lead group just as they entered the velodrome, Hinault was in 6 man sprint against the likes of Moser and de Vlaeminck. He won by sprinting from nearly a kilometre out, almost winning by sheer intimidation.

From here. A great piece well worth a read:

http://www.cyclingtipsblog.com/2011/04/ ... r-du-nord/

tailwindhome

Another stupid newbie question


On several occasions when Cancellara put the pressure on and Thor was trying to keep up, he wasn't actually wheel sucking/drafting but actually on the other side of the road a bike length behind.

Why?

Also I'll ask my other question again..would Cancellara have known that JvS had a puncture before he made his last move?

iainf72

TailWindHome wrote:

Another stupid newbie question


On several occasions when Cancellara put the pressure on and Thor was trying to keep up, he wasn't actually wheel sucking/drafting but actually on the other side of the road a bike length behind.

Why?

They'd chosen different lines over the cobbles. And you want to keep going in a more or less straight line (well, let the bike go where it wants to go in as straight a line as it will let you) - Unlike on the normal road, you can't just move over into someones wheel on the stones

disgruntledgoat

TailWindHome wrote:

Another stupid newbie question


On several occasions when Cancellara put the pressure on and Thor was trying to keep up, he wasn't actually wheel sucking/drafting but actually on the other side of the road a bike length behind.

Why?

Also I'll ask my other question again..would Cancellara have known that JvS had a puncture before he made his last move?

On a surface like that its very difficult to change your line and will usually slow you up. If Cancellara goes and Hushovd is riding a different line he's just got to hammer it and hope he's there or there abouts by the time the surface calms down.