The classics thread

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  • Crampeur
    Crampeur Posts: 1,065
    There's an incomplete one here: http://procyclingstats.com/race.php?id=150090&c=3
    Seems like most teams haven't confirmed who's riding.
  • okgo
    okgo Posts: 4,368
    Still even from that snapshot, a big hitting field.

    Kwiat smashed Sagan last year, left him for absolute dead.
    Blog on my first and now second season of proper riding/racing - www.firstseasonracing.com
  • greasedscotsman
    greasedscotsman Posts: 6,962
    Milton50 wrote:
    By the way, kind of related to the talk of punctures, cosmo catalano made the point last year that some of the 5 star pave sections actually have easy run-offs that riders can use.

    go to 3:50 in this video

    Does anyone know if the organisers have tried to do anything about it?

    You can see me in that paused bit. I'm crouching on the right hand side, taking a photo. Oh caption is wrong. That is sector 3 at Gruson, it's a 2 star, not a 5.

    Anyway, what they need is one of these...

    20130405-AM3P8746-659x440.jpg
  • salsiccia1
    salsiccia1 Posts: 3,725
    okgo wrote:
    Anyone seen start-list for Strade Bianchi on Sunday? All I can see on Steephill is last years one, its often a cracking race over amazing terrain. I've stayed in San Gimignano before, its lovely.

    This is where I trot out my well-worn story of having used to live in sight of there :( . And you're right, it is lovely.
    It's only a bit of sport, Mun. Relax and enjoy the racing.
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    okgo wrote:
    Still even from that snapshot, a big hitting field.

    Kwiat smashed Sagan last year, left him for absolute dead.

    Smashed him is an exaggeration. They both killed it then Kwiatek got the jump on him in the finale and Sagan cracked.
    Contador is the Greatest
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    Sep is THE cobbled rider of the new generation.

    I just hope he doesn't go down Devolder's route of doing nothing all year outside of the Classics, and even then it was only a couple of races.

    Definitely a proper pure racer though and one of my men. Interesting that you didn't have him as one of your men though.

    sep.jpg
    Contador is the Greatest
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    Anyone think that Sagan and/or Cancellara and/or Geraint would have changed anything over the last two races?
    Contador is the Greatest
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    greasedscotsman wrote:
    You can see me in that paused bit. I'm crouching on the right hand side, taking a photo.

    :D
    Contador is the Greatest
  • takethehighroad
    takethehighroad Posts: 6,820
    frenchfighter wrote:
    I just hope he doesn't go down Devolder's route of doing nothing all year outside of the Classics, and even then it was only a couple of races.

    Decent way to make a living as a Belgian that, see Devolder but also, Peter van Petegem, Leif Hoste, Wilfried Peeters, and that's just going back 15 years
  • okgo
    okgo Posts: 4,368
    frenchfighter wrote:
    okgo wrote:
    Still even from that snapshot, a big hitting field.

    Kwiat smashed Sagan last year, left him for absolute dead.

    Smashed him is an exaggeration. They both killed it then Kwiatek got the jump on him in the finale and Sagan cracked.


    He battered him. To ride away like he did was remarkable, considering Sagan was meant to be hot favourite with the others, the way he accelerated away was something else. A bit like when Cancellara destroyed him in Flanders that time.
    Blog on my first and now second season of proper riding/racing - www.firstseasonracing.com
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    okgo wrote:
    frenchfighter wrote:
    okgo wrote:
    Still even from that snapshot, a big hitting field.

    Kwiat smashed Sagan last year, left him for absolute dead.

    Smashed him is an exaggeration. They both killed it then Kwiatek got the jump on him in the finale and Sagan cracked.


    He battered him. To ride away like he did was remarkable, considering Sagan was meant to be hot favourite with the others, the way he accelerated away was something else. A bit like when Cancellara destroyed him in Flanders that time.

    Yeah when Kwia went, he had no chance at all of staying with him. A stunning powerful attack.
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,661
    Bit too much hyperbole about that one.

    Wasn't 'stunning'. Sagan was cooked, Kiwa wasn't. In first week of March.
    _
  • Yellow Peril
    Yellow Peril Posts: 4,466
    sjmclean wrote:
    okgo wrote:
    frenchfighter wrote:
    okgo wrote:
    Still even from that snapshot, a big hitting field.

    Kwiat smashed Sagan last year, left him for absolute dead.

    Smashed him is an exaggeration. They both killed it then Kwiatek got the jump on him in the finale and Sagan cracked.


    He battered him. To ride away like he did was remarkable, considering Sagan was meant to be hot favourite with the others, the way he accelerated away was something else. A bit like when Cancellara destroyed him in Flanders that time.

    Yeah when Kwia went, he had no chance at all of staying with him. A stunning powerful attack.

    I was in Sienna a couple of weeks later, those roads coming in are incredibly steep, I could never see Sagan matching Kwia on those
    @JaunePeril

    Winner of the Bike Radar Pro Race Wiggins Hour Prediction Competition
  • okgo
    okgo Posts: 4,368
    Question - I will. In paris on Roubaix day as the marathon us the same day and Mrs is doing it. I gear Parisians don't care much for cycling vs Belgians etc, is there somewhere that shows cycling in Central Paris I can go to after the Marathon? Must be somewhere..?
    Blog on my first and now second season of proper riding/racing - www.firstseasonracing.com
  • gsk82
    gsk82 Posts: 3,597
    okgo wrote:
    Question - I will. In paris on Roubaix day as the marathon us the same day and Mrs is doing it. I gear Parisians don't care much for cycling vs Belgians etc, is there somewhere that shows cycling in Central Paris I can go to after the Marathon? Must be somewhere..?

    leave the missus and get out to arenberg. if she's old enough to run a marathon she's old enough to hang around paris by herself for a few hours. :wink:
    "Unfortunately these days a lot of people don’t understand the real quality of a bike" Ernesto Colnago
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    Bit too much hyperbole about that one.

    Wasn't 'stunning'. Sagan was cooked, Kiwa wasn't. In first week of March.

    Isn't that just every thing in cycling, one person slightly fresher than the other they beat?
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,661
    sjmclean wrote:
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    Bit too much hyperbole about that one.

    Wasn't 'stunning'. Sagan was cooked, Kiwa wasn't. In first week of March.

    Isn't that just every thing in cycling, one person slightly fresher than the other they beat?

    Sure, but sometimes you get a ride which really no-one can do anything about fresh or not. That's "stunning"

    http://youtu.be/aJintCgzG5o?t=4m16s

    Also, time of year matters, right? At that time of year it's a bit like infants competing. It's more about how far along the form curve they are. At the big races everyone's peaking or there abouts.
    _
  • takethehighroad
    takethehighroad Posts: 6,820
    That's the first time I've seen that, although I've read about it twice in the last month (procycling #200 & David Millar's book)
  • milton50
    milton50 Posts: 3,856
    Kwia was a couple of levels above Sagan that day and looking back it was a sign of the year he was about to have i.e. a breakthrough year
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    sjmclean wrote:
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    Bit too much hyperbole about that one.

    Wasn't 'stunning'. Sagan was cooked, Kiwa wasn't. In first week of March.

    Isn't that just every thing in cycling, one person slightly fresher than the other they beat?

    Sure, but sometimes you get a ride which really no-one can do anything about fresh or not. That's "stunning"

    http://youtu.be/aJintCgzG5o?t=4m16s

    Also, time of year matters, right? At that time of year it's a bit like infants competing. It's more about how far along the form curve they are. At the big races everyone's peaking or there abouts.

    Using evidence from a time when everything they did was unrealistic isn't great. churning huge gear up steep climb is EPO personified.
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,661
    :roll: you're right. Let's discount all riding that happened between 1993 and 2010.
    _
  • losmanos
    losmanos Posts: 5
    Ridgerider wrote:
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    Sep is THE cobbled rider of the new generation.

    Easily up there with grandad Cancellara and Boonen with ease and speed on cobbles. Needs better luck with punctures.

    Once they age/retire he'll eat the rest for breakfast on cobbles.

    Just needs to calm down a bit and get some better luck.

    Is it bad luck to get two punctures when those around get none. Surely that has something to do with reading the road/gutter/pavement conditions better...?

    No prizes for strongest legs.

    Can't help thinking that if Sep & GVA really were going to be the next dominant riders over cobbles they'd have won a few more races by now. I can't see much reason to rate their chances of dominating over Stannard and even Degenkolb.
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,661
    GvA sure. Sep is what, 26? Was the only rider to be able to handle Cancellara in the 2013 Paris Roubaix as a 24 year old.
    _
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    :roll: you're right. Let's discount all riding that happened between 1993 and 2010.

    Nah Rick, I'm not saying that, what I am saying is lets not use it as evidence against a riders dominance these days.
    Kwia, at the time he wasn't regarded for that, left Sagan, 2 times green jersey winner and many other one day races, for dust. It was a brilliant attack to watch.
  • milton50
    milton50 Posts: 3,856
    losmanos wrote:
    Ridgerider wrote:
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    Sep is THE cobbled rider of the new generation.

    Easily up there with grandad Cancellara and Boonen with ease and speed on cobbles. Needs better luck with punctures.

    Once they age/retire he'll eat the rest for breakfast on cobbles.

    Just needs to calm down a bit and get some better luck.

    Is it bad luck to get two punctures when those around get none. Surely that has something to do with reading the road/gutter/pavement conditions better...?

    No prizes for strongest legs.

    Can't help thinking that if Sep & GVA really were going to be the next dominant riders over cobbles they'd have won a few more races by now.

    Why? GvA isn't going to be the next dominant cobbles rider but Sep is going to be pretty close. He outsprinted Boonen to win the Omloop when he was 23 (that was the year Boonen won Flanders and Roubaix) and he is the only rider over the last two seasons that Cancellara hasn't been able to drop over cobbles.

    The day when he beats Cancellara isn't that far away.
  • deejay
    deejay Posts: 3,138
    sjmclean wrote:
    ........churning huge gear up steep climb is EPO personified.
    Must be talking about Jan Ullrich, but this is the Classic thread.?
    Organiser, National Championship 50 mile Time Trial 1972
  • FJS
    FJS Posts: 4,820
    deejay wrote:
    sjmclean wrote:
    ........churning huge gear up steep climb is EPO personified.
    Must be talking about Jan Ullrich, but this is the Classic thread.?
    It was a Gewiss trademark in the Ardennes and San Remo too, but yeah, let's not ho that way with this thread
  • deejay
    deejay Posts: 3,138
    .
    True, Didn't know it at the time but I won a few Quid on Berzin in Liege.
    .
    Organiser, National Championship 50 mile Time Trial 1972
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    FJS wrote:
    deejay wrote:
    sjmclean wrote:
    ........churning huge gear up steep climb is EPO personified.
    Must be talking about Jan Ullrich, but this is the Classic thread.?
    It was a Gewiss trademark in the Ardennes and San Remo too, but yeah, let's not ho that way with this thread

    I wasn't wanting it to go that way, it was a comment to make my point.
  • joelsim
    joelsim Posts: 7,552
    Sep is a massive talent, but he lacks the sprint at the moment. That will hurt him. He has a huge engine though, but I do get the impression that he will come 2nd lots of times.

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