Paris-Roubaix 2014 "spoiler"

thegibdog

adr82 wrote:

The_Boy wrote:

adr82 wrote:

Degenkolb celebrating 2nd, that seems a bit silly.

Why? It's a pretty big deal, tbf.

Well sure it's a good achievement, but you don't really see many people celebrating that visibly when they cross the line 20s behind the winner. I'd have thought he'd have been disappointed that Terpstra escaped, otherwise he'd have had an excellent chance of winning the thing outright, but apparently he was happy to settle for 2nd...

To be fair at least Degenkolb did try to chase at the end, don't think he could have done any more.

above_the_cows

iainf72 wrote:

gpreeves wrote:

thegreatdivide wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

Well done Sir Bradley.

This.

Average race my ar$e. Might be time to stop following cycling ffs.

Agreed. Can't complain about any race that produces such a strong finish group with 5km to go.

The strongest guys being there at the end doesn't neccessarily make it an exciting race.

Would you rate this in the top 5 Paris-Roubaix's you've seen?

Personally in my opinion yes. While winning solo attacks from 50k to go are impressive, they're not as exciting as the last 20k of today. I prefer those kind of finishes rather than domination.

cal_stewart

It was a very hard closely matched edition, so it think it's one of the best in terms of performance for me. For drama no it was not one of the best, however for editions with drama they tend to have only 1 or 2 performances in them,If that makes sense

blazing_saddles

Action wise, it may not have been the most exciting race.
Tactics wise, it was fascinating.
I really, really enjoyed the race.
From Het Nosebleed to PR, the cobbles have delivered a classic, Classics season.

thomthom

A former policeman and Giant rider being 2nd in P-R is a positive sign as well. If you know what I mean.

above_the_cows

Alan A wrote:

The make up of the front group changed lots and lots in the final 70km.

Indeed. That's why I thought it was great.

frenchfighter

Just rewatched the Roulston crash - Cancellara didnt go down.

Just saw a crash with EBH - looked pretty bad which may be why he was lacking.

Turfle

This might be the first time I've actually seen Terpstra's face.

The_Boy

ThomThom wrote:

A former policeman and Giant rider being 2nd in P-R is a positive sign as well. If you know what I mean.

Degenkolb used to be a pig? In that case I retract my previous supporting comments.

gpreeves

iainf72 wrote:

gpreeves wrote:

thegreatdivide wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

Well done Sir Bradley.

This.

Average race my ar$e. Might be time to stop following cycling ffs.

Agreed. Can't complain about any race that produces such a strong finish group with 5km to go.

The strongest guys being there at the end doesn't neccessarily make it an exciting race.

Would you rate this in the top 5 Paris-Roubaix's you've seen?

Probably not, but I'd be surprised if this fell out of the top 5 days of racing I see this year. I love a race where any result is possible towards the end, and all those in contention at that point have really earned their right to be there.

frenchfighter

Boonen came up short this season so far in terms of results. Thought he looked amazing early season but only managed a win in KBK (which would have been amazing if he hadnt won given the situation).

G works so hard. Really deserves a big win next year. Maybe needs to hold his bullets until later in the race.

Greg le mond is good to listen to.

thomthom

It was a good race but not as good as people make it, I think. The last 30km were pretty good but the fact that a 80 riders big peloton was behind the front group with Boonen with what.. 30km to go tells that anything prior to Boonen's attack was disappointing.

oldwelshman

Some shite comments as usual, these guys are doing their job and try their best, and they ride to their strenghts and get criticized on here. Dekenkob is the fastest there so why would he chase? Canc is stongest so they all watch him, Sagan did great move but not quite work out. Sky brought Terpstra back on when he was dropped, this is racing just watch and enjoy or turn over to watch crap footie, you have the choice.

frenchfighter

Has Bak finished yet?

Degnkolb in Roubaix 2011:

above_the_cows

frenchfighter wrote:

Has Bak finished yet?

Cheeky :P

I think he crashed no?

Anyway I like Flecha as a pundit. I hope we see more of him.

frenchfighter

frenchfighter

Phinney and his dad:


What happened to him? Talks a big talk.

above_the_cows

So, is this the best cobbled classics season Sky have had thus far? Just to bring up an old chestnut.

While on the subject of Sky it was Rasch's retirement race today.

emadden

oldwelshman wrote:

Some shite comments as usual, these guys are doing their job and try their best, and they ride to their strenghts and get criticized on here. Dekenkob is the fastest there so why would he chase? Canc is stongest so they all watch him, Sagan did great move but not quite work out. Sky brought Terpstra back on when he was dropped, this is racing just watch and enjoy or turn over to watch crap footie, you have the choice.

Maybe we should buy you a box of tissues for every time you hear mention of a pro. Give us a break. Yes, they may be "doing their job and trying their best", but that was not a glorious race and the tactics at play weren't the best. Great win for Terpstra, but lets face it, there were probably three or four teams with riders with areal chance to win, and some of those teams rode conservatively.

alihisgreat

frenchfighter wrote:

Ridiculously strong top 10.

dolan_driver

The_Boy wrote:

ThomThom wrote:

A former policeman and Giant rider being 2nd in P-R is a positive sign as well. If you know what I mean.

Degenkolb used to be a pig? In that case I retract my previous supporting comments.

What gives you the right to call Degenkolb any kind of animal? He was a police officer not a pig. Your comment says more about you than him.

DD.

Yellow Peril

iainf72 wrote:

gpreeves wrote:

thegreatdivide wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

Well done Sir Bradley.

This.

Average race my ar$e. Might be time to stop following cycling ffs.

Agreed. Can't complain about any race that produces such a strong finish group with 5km to go.

The strongest guys being there at the end doesn't neccessarily make it an exciting race.

Would you rate this in the top 5 Paris-Roubaix's you've seen?

Hang on Iain I think I remember you smoking the Cancellara and Boonen long distance wins at the time for being over with X kilometres to go. Difficult to then give this edition a hard time.

I thought it was a great edition, any one from ten riders could have took that with 4km to go and Terpstra had the kahunas to take it on.

oldwelshman

emadden wrote:

oldwelshman wrote:

Some shite comments as usual, these guys are doing their job and try their best, and they ride to their strenghts and get criticized on here. Dekenkob is the fastest there so why would he chase? Canc is stongest so they all watch him, Sagan did great move but not quite work out. Sky brought Terpstra back on when he was dropped, this is racing just watch and enjoy or turn over to watch crap footie, you have the choice.

Maybe we should buy you a box of tissues for every time you hear mention of a pro. Give us a break. Yes, they may be "doing their job and trying their best", but that was not a glorious race and the tactics at play weren't the best. Great win for Terpstra, but lets face it, there were probably three or four teams with riders with areal chance to win, and some of those teams rode conservatively.

Maybe you should get a job as a DS then it would all be fine

emadden

frenchfighter wrote:

Phinney and his dad:


What happened to him? Talks a big talk.

I wonder how much Oakley is paying for this ongoing ridiculous product placement... The glasses are horrid. They are clearly trying to plug the cycling* gap after the lance love-fest



* not sure what %age of their business is cycling (probably small)... but every bit helps.

emadden

oldwelshman wrote:

Maybe you should get a job as a DS then it would all be fine

I've been trying Any leads?

The_Boy

Above The Cows wrote:

So, is this the best cobbled classics season Sky have had thus far? Just to bring up an old chestnut.

By a long way, imo.

I'm sure a proper analysis might reveal that they aren't doing *that* much better based on pure finishing positions, but I'd say the overall strength, danger in numbers and - more crucially - increased tactical awareness makes them an altogether more threatening prospect than in previous seasons.

frenchfighter

OPQS with 22 wins this season, GShim with 17, Movistar with 12

milton50

frenchfighter wrote:

Boonen came up short this season so far in terms of results. Thought he looked amazing early season but only managed a win in KBK (which would have been amazing if he hadnt won given the situation).

I agree he looked good early season. There's quite a good reason why his results haven't been up to his standards since then.

It was a good race but not as good as people make it, I think. The last 30km were pretty good but the fact that a 80 riders big peloton was behind the front group with Boonen with what.. 30km to go tells that anything prior to Boonen's attack was disappointing.

I completely agree with you that with over 30k to go it was pretty mediocre. But in my opinion from the 5th or 6th section to go it was a great race. The fact that Cancellara didn't have that one big attack like he did last year meant the result could have gone so many ways right up until 3km to go.

Boonen showed great heart today but I can't understand why he tried a long range effort in the first place, and why he then persisted with burying himself for the next 20km even when it was obvious they didn't have the legs to stay away.

knedlicky

frenchfighter wrote:

Has any lotto rider finished yet?

Highest-placed Lotto rider, Stig Broeckx, 58th at 7-06.

frenchfighter wrote:

Has Bak finished yet?

At 13-42, came in last of a group of 10 and I think was also last finisher overall – 109th.
Quite a high number of finishers really.

frenchfighter wrote:

Phinney and his dad: [image]
What happened to him? Talks a big talk.

30th at 2-55.

The_Boy

Dolan Driver wrote:

The_Boy wrote:

ThomThom wrote:

A former policeman and Giant rider being 2nd in P-R is a positive sign as well. If you know what I mean.

Degenkolb used to be a pig? In that case I retract my previous supporting comments.

What gives you the right to call Degenkolb any kind of animal? He was a police officer not a pig. Your comment says more about you than him.

DD.

Pig is a widely used pejorative for a police officer. I'll continue to use it as long as police forces continue to attract violent thugs and bigots.

Now, back to the racing.