Ronde van Vlaanderen 2019 ***spoilers***
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I dont understand this bettiol is a lucky nobody rubbish.
He attacked at the pivotol point and smashed them off his wheel, like many other solo wins he was aided by indecision behind but indecision or not, nobody is ever at the pointy end of a classic unless they’re a bit special.
Great race and i only dozed through about ten minutes
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Bettiol has been looking good all year. Surprise winner yes. Shock result no.Napoleon, don't be jealous that I've been chatting online with babes all day. Besides, we both know that I'm training to be a cage fighter.0
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Was a bit of a strange race. Normally you might have someone out front but the last lap normally reduces the chasing group to the favourites. At which point they “normally” have some sort of agreement to work together.
This year there was a much bigger chasing group than normal. QS has multiple men in the group but committed no one to the chase, while the other riders will look at QS to lead the chase as they have multiple men.
I thought someone would go for glory or bust on the patterberg but no one really attacked. It was just everyone grinding and so the group came back together.
I think mvdp will definitely win in the future. He led off the top of the patterberg but was right at the back of the group at the bottom. So he had to go hard to pass the group. If he’d started the climb second or third man I think he would have got a decent gap. I guess that will come with experience though. An example was gva elbowing the EF rider out the way at the bottom of the patterberg so he had a clear run.***** Pro Tour Pundit Champion 2020, 2018, 2017 & 2011 *****0 -
He rode away from a bunch that contained an awful lot of the best riders in the world right now.
Can’t argue with that. It was a superb move and a thoroughly deserved win.0 -
I think folks are forgetting that it's one thing to pop on the front and chase after 150kms of racing, but a whole different ball game to do it after 250kms.
Sure QS had a couple of "spare" riders, but both their leaders were already cooked and Asgreen was running on fumes after being out front for a sizeable chunk of kms.
Ten teams finished in the top 10.
Bettiol clearly the top rider on the day."Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.0 -
...and EF/vanmarcke did some serious riding at the front in preparation for his escape, so the signs were all there.Half man, Half bike0
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Ridgerider wrote:...and EF/vanmarcke did some serious riding at the front in preparation for his escape, so the signs were all there.
Ja and Langeveld did well to disrupt too.0 -
Rick Chasey wrote:Ridgerider wrote:...and EF/vanmarcke did some serious riding at the front in preparation for his escape, so the signs were all there.
Ja and Langeveld did well to disrupt too.
Yup, I don’t think that it would be too far wrong to say Ef were the best team standing by the end stages.
Great to see the underdogs out classing the big favourites teams0 -
I thought EF were surprisingly well drilled. Not sure what happened to Sky, they seemed to be controlling the front a the foot of one of the final bergs with van Baarle in the break then at the top they had all disappeared. My prediction that DQS won't win either RVV or PR is looking quite good now.0
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Yeah I thought Vanmarcke put in a great ride. There were a few times when he looked blown and then was back on the front again, he had a good pain face on.
And as mentioned a lot Langeveld did some sterling glass cranking in the chase.0 -
def, a really good example of team work from EF0
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Ah the only thing that makes me go 'meh' to the team work is that it wasn't an enormously select group.
That in part was what made his attack so impressive and so decisive; almost impossible to get organised when it's that big.0 -
Meh to a point but they rode well to get him there in the first place, and then to keep him off the front, given how underrated EF are.0
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Rick Chasey wrote:Ah the only thing that makes me go 'meh' to the team work is that it wasn't an enormously select group.
EF aren’t the team to be whittling a bunch of the world’s best classics riders at the crux point of a Monument. They’re the team that can occasionally win with someone who isn’t Sep Vanmarke.0 -
Rick Chasey wrote:That in part was what made his attack so impressive and so decisive; almost impossible to get organised when it's that big.
Yeah. The faces of the line out as GVA was pulling in response to Bettiol’s attack was a picture. And Bettiol was pulling away. Awesome.
Weirdly, Bettiol’s face was the least contorted of anyone over the top onto the main road.0 -
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Cosmo's take on this edition of de Ronde https://cyclocosm.com/2019/04/how-the-r ... ders-2019/
Rule No.10 // It never gets easier, you just go faster0 -
Rick Chasey wrote:Belgian TV very deflated that such a nobody won.
They had a hard time explaining how their superstar Van Aert could be beaten by such a nobody. Which of course is easier than admitting there is not too much difference between the two.0 -
Too many sprinters in the chasing group. Discouraged the group working to bring him back. He was the strongest thou.... Blew everyone off his wheel when it mattered"If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm0
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Come on PR. Then i can go out on a Sunday again0
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Thoughts on riding the sportive:
- Muur van Geraardsbergen was awesome, great crowd, it's very short and the cobbles aren't too bad
- I saw so many fallers out there, it was like a war of attrition at times
- All the climbs were fine although I had to walk up the Koppenberg as someone from Devizes CC fell right in front of me
- It was very well run, it was an open road sportive but it felt like a closed road one due to the excellent marshalling.
I intended to go watch the pro race but got side tracked and watched it in a bar in Ghent run by Iljo Keisse's parents who were brilliant hosts, there was a fantastic atmosphere and I imbibed many great Belgian beers.0 -
Joe Totale wrote:Thoughts on riding the sportive:
- Muur van Geraardsbergen was awesome, great crowd, it's very short and the cobbles aren't too bad
- I saw so many fallers out there, it was like a war of attrition at times
- All the climbs were fine although I had to walk up the Koppenberg as someone from Devizes CC fell right in front of me
- It was very well run, it was an open road sportive but it felt like a closed road one due to the excellent marshalling.
I intended to go watch the pro race but got side tracked and watched it in a bar in Ghent run by Iljo Keisse's parents who were brilliant hosts, there was a fantastic atmosphere and I imbibed many great Belgian beers.
Ja it’s great isn’t it?
Helps with nice weather...
If you get to see them late on in the race you can see how absolutely f@cked they are.0 -
Sounds brilliant - hoping to do something similar myself next yearJoe Totale wrote:Thoughts on riding the sportive:
- Muur van Geraardsbergen was awesome, great crowd, it's very short and the cobbles aren't too bad
- I saw so many fallers out there, it was like a war of attrition at times
- All the climbs were fine although I had to walk up the Koppenberg as someone from Devizes CC fell right in front of me
- It was very well run, it was an open road sportive but it felt like a closed road one due to the excellent marshalling.
I intended to go watch the pro race but got side tracked and watched it in a bar in Ghent run by Iljo Keisse's parents who were brilliant hosts, there was a fantastic atmosphere and I imbibed many great Belgian beers.0 -
I was stood on the top of the Kwaremont, the speed van der Poel bridged across to the front group really was something to behold.0
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Rick Chasey wrote:Joe Totale wrote:
I intended to go watch the pro race but got side tracked and watched it in a bar in Ghent run by Iljo Keisse's parents who were brilliant hosts, there was a fantastic atmosphere and I imbibed many great Belgian beers.
If you get to see them late on in the race you can see how absolutely f@cked they are.
Are you suggesting that Iljo Keisse's parents can't handle their beer?Warning No formatter is installed for the format0 -
No tA Doctor wrote:Rick Chasey wrote:Joe Totale wrote:
I intended to go watch the pro race but got side tracked and watched it in a bar in Ghent run by Iljo Keisse's parents who were brilliant hosts, there was a fantastic atmosphere and I imbibed many great Belgian beers.
If you get to see them late on in the race you can see how absolutely f@cked they are.
Are you suggesting that Iljo Keisse's parents can't handle their beer?
Ah c’mon everybody! What’s Flemish for “chapeau”?0 -
philbar72 wrote:Beatmaker wrote:I was stood on the top of the Kwaremont, the speed van der Poel bridged across to the front group really was something to behold.
totally this from what I saw he made it look easy. monster.
The dude is the phenomenon to usurp a fading Sagan.
And what with Evenepoel about to take over all the GTs, the Italians back to winning stuff in the spring and Alaphilippe mopping up everything else for the French.... all of that horrible unseemliness we’ve had to endure of upstart nationalities muscling in on the Traditions will be behind us.
I mean- FFS, Kenya, Wales and Slovakia!?!0 -
Obviously, there will be some scraps left over for mahogany 4ft 10” Spaniards and the occasional Colombian.0
