RATE THE RACE - Tour of Flanders.

tailwindhome

Cast your vote to rate the race.

Due to the limitations you're limited to whole numbers 1 - 10

Feel free to add comments explaining, justifying to the forum your mark.

If forum members seem interested I'll calculate an average mark for each race as we progress through the season and collate the average in a summary thread. I may even create some threads for previous races.

ellerslierd

Plenty of intrigue, but the fireworks display was too short...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/video/2011/nov/07/oban-fireworks-display-video

One for the purists: 6/10

LeicesterLad

Sh*te.

mididoctors

How many RVVs have people watched live would be a more illuminating poll

jimmythecuckoo

Wasn't one of the better editions for me. A combination of the weather and circuit.

chrisday

A solid and biased 10 from me - just back (and still carrying the hangover) from my first RVV visit and loved every minute of it
From Oude Kwaremont it was exciting - not sure if I'd have the same opinion if I'd been watching on TV, but in the flesh it was fantastic.

100 years of De Ronde, and (IIRC) this is my 100th post. I'm pretty sure I'm on for some kind of prize for the lowest post-to-time ratio of any member of the board: been a lurker here pretty much daily since I joined, almost never post.

Back in me box...

le_patron

Dull. A brief moment of excitement on the Kwaremont/Paterberg as the elastic finally snapped, but that was it. I'm not really sure the teams know how to ride this course.

Circuits are generally bad (unless it's the Worlds). I prefer the classic point to point route, where even with variations the race built to a final crescendo on the Muur.

Geraardsbergen needs to get back on the route pronto. But Oudenaarde seems to hold all the bargaining power these days.

rick_chasey

5


Race was more or less shut till the final loop and within 5 mins it went from shut to decided.

Then again it was an outstanding piece oc riding from Canc. Really impressive.

iainf72

2.7

E3 is the better race in Flanders now

Richmond Racer

Good to watch if you were up on Oude Kwaremont as I was, right at the top as it levels out. But a race cant just work as a spectacle for the spectators lucky enough to be on a choice part of the course.

Le Commentateur

A bit like the Ali v Foreman fight in the 70s. Big build up... nothing much appears to happen for ages... gets slightly better, then wham: it's over.

Macaloon

Greghenderson1 12:03pm via Twitter for Android
Good teams become great teams when the members trust each other enough to surrender the 'me' for the 'we'. @Lotto_Belisol

I believe the absence of a signifies that this gentleman is serious. Fun times at the back of the Lotto bus. Proclaiming a (very well engineered) podium in such terms suggests many riders accepted Cancellara and Sagan were effectively unbeatable. Time for more teams to head off up the road a la Team Greipel rather than waiting to lose to the Cancellara explosion.

5/10 for the Cancellara spectacle.

greeny12

4/10 for me - I agree with the sentiment about circuits not suiting an event of this stature...

ddraver

Léquipe gave it 4 stars, so an 8

iainf72

ddraver wrote:

Léquipe gave it 4 stars, so an 8

jeez

I guess they need to score turds high so they can do the same during duff Tours

No_Ta_Doctor

Question for those who think it was a bit of a duff race this year:

Is it the new parcours, or is it Cancellara?

Radioshack effectively shut the race down so that Spartacus could do his thing, pretty much exactly where, when and how everyone expected him to do it. Sagan only needed to stay with him to win (obviously he failed), Boonen crashed out (poor form anyway), Chavanel did nothing, Sky did nothing. Lotto got a podium by getting a few riders up the road.

We saw what the race looked like last year without Cancellara (where Boonen did something similar). We've also seen Cancellara win this way on the old course.

So what would the race have looked like without him this year?

DeadCalm

No tA Doctor wrote:

So what would the race have looked like without him this year?

Cannondale would have attempted to control it for Sagan although I don't think they would have been able to set the ridiculous pace that Radioshack managed so attacks would have got further up the road. It would also have been less of a certainty that Sagan would win so it would have been more exciting for sure. Whether it would have been a 'classic' is debatable.

mididoctors

europa car didn't help shutting it down early on

5

prawny

5 neither agree nor disagree

It was ok I guess, better than watching the snookerers, but it always felt like something was about to happen but never did. Sadly for me my first year watching the classics was 2009 so I had the Cav MSR and the epic boonen vs hushovd vs flechaand tthe rest at P-R so none of them have seemed as good since.

ddraver

iainf72 wrote:

ddraver wrote:

Léquipe gave it 4 stars, so an 8

jeez

I guess they need to score turds high so they can do the same during duff Tours

"Longtemps processionaire, le Tour des Flandres a finalement orchestré le duel annoncé entre Fabian Cancellara et Peter Sagan, tous deux a la hauter de l'événement et au meilleur de leur forme"

confused@BR

I enjoyed it. Only saw the last half but Cancellara's team turned up and put in a solid performance. It was never likely to be pretty with the weather they had and the 'two-horse' nature of expectation. Lotto provided a smart tactic to cope with the favorites and I hope that other teams take note.

The privilege of watching a great athlete at the top of his form is what I look for in a sporting event, sorted.

deejay

DeadCalm wrote:

No tA Doctor wrote:

So what would the race have looked like without him this year?

to set the ridiculous pace that Radioshack managed so attacks would have got further up the road.
Whether it would have been a 'classic' is debatable.

Devolder punctured just before Ronse and the Kruisberg and then came all the way to the front to set a reasonable tempo for a long time. The speed couldn't have been great for him to do that.
No I don't like this circuit racing but Spartacus did well over the Paterberg as Sagan hit a wall near the top and lost 30 seconds.

Anonymous

My 1st start-finish 1 dayer. 6/10. Not the most exciting spectacle, but 1st time i've seen Cancellara (or anyone) ride off the front like that.

NOW I know what frenchie is talking about. Surprised to see Sagan crack (or not?). Amusing watching everyone falling over.
Hoping for more from Sky (Stannard, especially). Thomas did well to catch back up after falling off. Great performance from Lotto

DeadCalm

deejay wrote:

Devolder punctured just before Ronse and the Kruisberg and then came all the way to the front to set a reasonable tempo for a long time. The speed couldn't have been great for him to do that.

Hmm, what was the maximum time anyone was able to get over the Radioshack led peloton? Indeed, Haussler has said that the tempo they were setting made it virtually impossible to attack successfully.

This year's time was nearly identical to last year. This year there was a strong headwind. Last year there were 'Grey skies, little if any wind' according to the Cyclingnews report at the time.

I think it was Richard Moore who said that they 'out-Sky-ed Sky' or something similar.

ddraver

Hmmm, I was wondering if anyone was going to bring up that particular comparison. Apparently it's the route's fault if RSNT do it...

DeadCalm

ddraver wrote:

Hmmm, I was wondering if anyone was going to bring up that particular comparison. Apparently it's the route's fault if RSNT do it...

The 'out Sky-ed Sky' thing? Don't blame me, it was just a quote. And don't blame Richard Moore either, blame Edward Pickering...

http://www.cyclesportmag.com/news-and-comment/talking-points-tour-of-flanders/

DeadCalm

By way of an apology to Richard Moore, here was his take on the race...

http://www.cyclesportmag.com/features/radioshack-celebrate-biggest-win-at-tour-of-flanders/

ocdupalais

The utter brilliance of one clear joint favourite for RVV skewering the other joint fav at pretty much the exact point that it was predicted was brilliant precisely because of all that went before it. Boring was it? Don't watch long races then. Just watch a highlight programme. And it was utterly brilliant because after 250km of racing we got to see the redemption of the exponent of possibly the most sublime attacking style in modern one day racing. He displays what virtually every competitive cyclist who's ever lived has dreamed of experiencing if only for a moment...

I would love for a few current and former pro's to come on here and decimate all of this casual armchair criticism about the quality of races: this drumming of fists on table demanding entertainment for one's consumption! Fair enough; but if you discount the 70% or so of riders who are either bottle-carriers or just not up for it, that leaves the rest of elite pros doing what they can "under the circumstances". What gets regarded as the Truely Classic Classics both seem to change over time or are a result of a multitude of subtle and almost unde
finable qualities involving route, weather, rivals, teams, etc...

Lucky you Richmond Racer for being present at the spot where the young male lion pretender stepped up to one of the elder males and was found not quite up to the task of taking command of the pride... (then responds by squeezing the bottom of one of the traditional but antiquated symbols of victor's spoils. Stupid boy: on at least 2 fronts Sagan thought he went to work this weekend, where in fact he got schooled).

Can I have a handbag, please, Greased?

LeicesterLad

OCDuPalais wrote:

The utter brilliance of one clear joint favourite for RVV skewering the other joint fav at pretty much the exact point that it was predicted was brilliant precisely because of all that went before it. Boring was it? Don't watch long races then. Just watch a highlight programme. And it was utterly brilliant because after 250km of racing we got to see the redemption of the exponent of possibly the most sublime attacking style in modern one day racing. He displays what virtually every competitive cyclist who's ever lived has dreamed of experiencing if only for a moment...

I would love for a few current and former pro's to come on here and decimate all of this casual armchair criticism about the quality of races: this drumming of fists on table demanding entertainment for one's consumption! Fair enough; but if you discount the 70% or so of riders who are either bottle-carriers or just not up for it, that leaves the rest of elite pros doing what they can "under the circumstances". What gets regarded as the Truely Classic Classics both seem to change over time or are a result of a multitude of subtle and almost unde
finable qualities involving route, weather, rivals, teams, etc...

Lucky you Richmond Racer for being present at the spot where the young male lion pretender stepped up to one of the elder males and was found not quite up to the task of taking command of the pride... (then responds by squeezing the bottom of one of the traditional but antiquated symbols of victor's spoils. Stupid boy: on at least 2 fronts Sagan thought he went to work this weekend, where in fact he got schooled).

Can I have a handbag, please, Greased?

All very well and good, but Can I just point out that I am a cycling fan not a pro-rider. In order to be a fan there must be some form of entertainment. This is no judgement on the riders - it's a very hard race for very hard men, though I do think too many people are bottling it these days, happy with their top 10 finish - this comes down to the fact that the race wasn't very entertaining.

*Fan of entertainment wasn't entertained shocker*

Oh, and the final loop is sh*t.

iainf72

Ok, can I nominate Roger De Vlaeminck to offer his opinion?

It was a dull race - Compare it to E3, which had similar outcome but there were sections of very exciting racing. If you can't call a race boring, how will you know when racing is actually exciting?

cal_stewart

preferred the old finish.