ScheldeSPOILER

ddraver

Sporza feed - http://www.bvls2016.sc/stream3.html

90km to go, little point watching until the last 10

Dank miserable windy day in the Benelux today. Apparently they ve changed the finish route to make it a bit less crash prone

ddraver

#Gabba
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This is going so slowly I may not actually be able to watch the end

78.5, 1.55"
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All comes back together through Antwerp. A new break is currently forming from the smaller Flemish Teams (and AG2R) represented

46.5 14"
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Windy and rainy (club run is going to be quiet tonight) - looks like a brutal headwind for them

2 groups of 2 at 12s, 44ish back to the bunch

42 to go
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38km, 20 secs to Van Geothern and Bakaert out front. Big teams beginning to organise trains on the front. Whether looks terrible. Domestiques loosing contact
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Radios breaking in the rain...

These 2 are now the chasse patate of the day...

ddraver

20 odd to go - all together (start watching now)

Boonen and DD working on the front, stretching the bunch out

Sagan drops out, smiling and waving- no interest in this race.

Jumbo and Katusha behind
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EQS and Katusha take over the front and knock the pace out of the group.
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11 to go

Trek and Lotto inject some pace again, Sky very disorganised
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9 to go and Cannondale remind us all they exist

DD really want this, EQS have been hiding on the right side of the road for about 20k now, they hit the front over the cobbles ("cobbles")
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7 to go, Cav down to 1 leadout man. DD lead off the cobbles. Hard to believe they havent burnt a few too many matches here. Cancellara (I think) and Tommeke also drop back
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5 to go

Cannondale and EQS pulling. EQS doing an impressive job here, PIPPO!!! ('s team) appears...

Cofidis appear - didnt know there were there...

TheBigBean

Ah, the race is on the BIKE channel. 3km to go. Perfect timing.

ddraver

3 to go

Long line of mixed teams, no one in direct control...

2.3 - Lotto storm to front

2.2 - followed by EQS

Farrar looking after Cav

1 to go - EQS on front, Cav on kittel's wheel - no lead out men left

TheBigBean

Small peloton featuring everyone.

TheBigBean

Cav on Kittel's wheel. Not a place he has ever won from.

ddraver

EQS wind it up...

TheBigBean

Photo finish. Looks like Kittel.

gweeds

Balls......beaten again

ddraver

Kittel or Cav....??

Kittel by a wheel rim.

Have to say, really well ridden by EQS and also really well ridden by Cav who had no right to be there. That little turn right at the end could have been the difference

TheBigBean

Well, that's the closest Cav has got.

inseine

So Cav has still never beaten Kittel in a sprint?

gweeds

Not in a head to head no

rick_chasey

Oh Tom Tom Tom.

Getting dropped at 6km to go?

Some seriously high profile lead outs in this race.

Also, no big bunch crash!!!

ddraver

Rick - I don't think he was dropped, more that he dropped out to avoid the usual carnage (which miraculously did nt appear this year). He had been working hard before that.

Canc and Sags did the same

gweeds

Sensibly so.

milton50

What happened to Kristoff?

mechanism

Stannard also dropped out of race but quite a bit earlier - hopefully just to avoid crashes.

Anonymous

Cycling news stated that the big names noted above all deliberately sat up, putting in some work before 'the big day' but not wanting to get caught up in crashes etc.

Standard and Rowe are captain on Sun, Sagan did a big turn right up to the last few K. Cancellara practically did leadout for Trek doing a huge turn similar to Sagan. Boonen likewise no point doing anything silly.

Griepel 3rd by a way from the finishing shots I saw.

Crozza

close finish. the difference between Kittel and Cav might just have been that Kittel had the inside line around the corner.

Greipel third - hopefully not the last time those three share a podium this year

onyourright

Two-minute interview with Cavendish with footage of the sprint. To be honest, Cavendish seemed marginally faster when both of them were in the wind. Which is surprising. Perhaps the rain and decent length of that race suited Cavendish better than Kittel.

ddraver

Who does he say he would stay away from at Quickstep?

Something like Fit?

onyourright

Couldn’t figure that out either. Was starting to wonder if it’s not a rider but someone or something else? It’s at 1:50 in the video if anyone wants to have a go at deciphering the word.

ddraver

He had issues with Wilfred Peeters didnt he so i thought it cold be "Wilf" but I thought he meant he rode with the mystery name. Perhaps not and he meant Peeters was in the car?

Edit - Nah, it's not that, I guess it's a nickname

onyourright

Here’s a second mystery for someone to solve. What’s going on for about 20 seconds in this video starting here? (At 5 minutes in, in case my link doesn’t dump you there.)

ddraver

I'd go for feet of the barriers (as opposed to the safer ones)

RichN95.

ddraver wrote:

He had issues with Wilfred Peeters didnt he so i thought it cold be "Wilf" but I thought he meant he rode with the mystery name. Perhaps not and he meant Peeters was in the car?

Edit - Nah, it's not that, I guess it's a nickname

(De) Fitte - Peeter's nickname

(I confess to using Performance Enhancing Wikipedia for that one).

ddraver

Boom!

Can you tell what Bernie's complaining about too?

pollys_bott

Dan McLay got 10th, good lad!

EKIMIKE

RichN95 wrote:

ddraver wrote:

He had issues with Wilfred Peeters didnt he so i thought it cold be "Wilf" but I thought he meant he rode with the mystery name. Perhaps not and he meant Peeters was in the car?

Edit - Nah, it's not that, I guess it's a nickname

(De) Fitte - Peeter's nickname

(I confess to using Performance Enhancing Wikipedia for that one).

I thought he said De Frituur and subconsciously assumed he meant Peeters