Ronde van Vlaanderen 2021 ***Spoilers***
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MvdP - don’t believe the hype!0
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Accurateddraver said:Scenes in the Not a Doc Household right now...
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Fair play to Asgreen he seemed to be in every move of the day after the initial forlorn hope. Pretty sure he was in that original 10 man break with Rowe etc.0
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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 -
RichN95. said:
Does anyone know if the winner of the Women's Race gets equal prize vegetables? Or they just get the cauliflower?
They get the same vegetables, but are expected to cook them."Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.2 -
Carlton would have gone of on a tangent about them being the perfect base for a soup with some obscure pun about ladelling it up to the opposition. He'd be a nightmare to play a word association game with.RichN95. said:Does anyone know if the winner of the Women's Race gets equal prize vegetables? Or they just get the cauliflower?
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His true calling.Pross said:
Carlton would have gone of on a tangent about them being the perfect base for a soup with some obscure pun about ladelling it up to the opposition. He'd be a nightmare to play a word association game with.RichN95. said:Does anyone know if the winner of the Women's Race gets equal prize vegetables? Or they just get the cauliflower?
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Annemiek van Vleuten wins the women’s race. After the peloton was stripped down initially by van Vleuten on an earlier climb and then van der Breggen on the Kwaremont, van Vleuten attacked on the Paterberg, handing-off the barrier at one point when she lost her front wheel. With a 5 second gap over the top she took that out to about 15 seconds. On a couple of occasions it looked like the gap would close but she held them off for 13k as the chase couldn’t/wouldn’t organise, with Longo Borghini and Cavalli in particular sitting on the back. Brennauer took the sprint for second and Grace Brown third. Van Vleuten’s first win here since 2011.0
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Also in the Women's race, this wasn't a DQ despite being outside a littering zone
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Tubeless owners crying into their sealant.1
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I doubt Michael Schär will see the funny side.RichN95. said:Also in the Women's race, this wasn't a DQ despite being outside a littering zone
Typical UCI bureaucratic inconsistency.
Pathetic."Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.0 -
The time gaps shown throughout the women’s race were largely nonsense. Certainly when AVV was away.davieb78 said:Annemiek van Vleuten wins the women’s race. After the peloton was stripped down initially by van Vleuten on an earlier climb and then van der Breggen on the Kwaremont, van Vleuten attacked on the Paterberg, handing-off the barrier at one point when she lost her front wheel. With a 5 second gap over the top she took that out to about 15 seconds. On a couple of occasions it looked like the gap would close but she held them off for 13k as the chase couldn’t/wouldn’t organise, with Longo Borghini and Cavalli in particular sitting on the back. Brennauer took the sprint for second and Grace Brown third. Van Vleuten’s first win here since 2011.
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The fan holding a sign saying "pay attention here Julian" at the spot he hit a moto last year was pretty priceless.
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At 10km to go it was down to 8 seconds. Just did a count on the highlights show. So they weren’t miles off. But yes, the times are generally erratic in most races.stage_hunter said:
The time gaps shown throughout the women’s race were largely nonsense. Certainly when AVV was away.davieb78 said:Annemiek van Vleuten wins the women’s race. After the peloton was stripped down initially by van Vleuten on an earlier climb and then van der Breggen on the Kwaremont, van Vleuten attacked on the Paterberg, handing-off the barrier at one point when she lost her front wheel. With a 5 second gap over the top she took that out to about 15 seconds. On a couple of occasions it looked like the gap would close but she held them off for 13k as the chase couldn’t/wouldn’t organise, with Longo Borghini and Cavalli in particular sitting on the back. Brennauer took the sprint for second and Grace Brown third. Van Vleuten’s first win here since 2011.
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JA was a big factor in that win . Did a lot of spoiling"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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I really shouldn't have gone against my favourite rider in PTP. Really lowers the enjoyment of watching the race. Wonder how and when MvdP and WVA will figure out how to be able to work less in reduced groups and save their legs more. It's not a clear cut simple problem.
Was a decent edition of the race though. Worthy winner.PTP Champion 2019, 2022 & 20230 -
Isn't half of the problem that they both probably came into the race with tired legs? While Asgreen has done a lot of the same races as MvdP, he's only really been contesting races from E3, whereas MvdP won Strade Bianche, took two stages and a 2nd in Tirreno, was at the sharp end of MSR and E3 before taking it easier at Dwars. He said himself he was running on fumes a bit and was still right there. WvA was similar, as he's not finished lower than 13th place all season. Maybe they just need to dose their efforts more?m.r.m. said:I really shouldn't have gone against my favourite rider in PTP. Really lowers the enjoyment of watching the race. Wonder how and when MvdP and WVA will figure out how to be able to work less in reduced groups and save their legs more. It's not a clear cut simple problem.
Was a decent edition of the race though. Worthy winner.1 -
Van der Poel wasn't exactly taking it easier at Dwars - he got dropped and had to work hard to get back on. Then put in a big turn with about 2km to go. Think he was just already knackered and could have done without it.phreak said:
Isn't half of the problem that they both probably came into the race with tired legs? While Asgreen has done a lot of the same races as MvdP, he's only really been contesting races from E3, whereas MvdP won Strade Bianche, took two stages and a 2nd in Tirreno, was at the sharp end of MSR and E3 before taking it easier at Dwars. He said himself he was running on fumes a bit and was still right there. WvA was similar, as he's not finished lower than 13th place all season. Maybe they just need to dose their efforts more?m.r.m. said:I really shouldn't have gone against my favourite rider in PTP. Really lowers the enjoyment of watching the race. Wonder how and when MvdP and WVA will figure out how to be able to work less in reduced groups and save their legs more. It's not a clear cut simple problem.
Was a decent edition of the race though. Worthy winner.1 -
Can't think of two people better at judging racing at the weekends with time off in between than WvA and MvdP.
Their problem is that everyone knows exactly how strong they are and so doesn't work with them...which is a problem as old as cycling...We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
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It's a good job they're not on better classics teams.
In fairness to Alpecin - they got badly shaken out of the crash at 70km and in one swoop MvdP lost 2 or 3 teammates.
What I can't work out is if PR suits either of them better or not.0 -
PR doesn't usually go to the 5 star favourite if there are enough 4 stars in the race, which is what we've got now.
The 2 times it's happened in the last 10 editions are 2010 and 2012. 2012 it was Boonen with a load of 3 stars and 2010 there wasn't enough help for Boonen once Canc made his move (and he probably wasn't good enough to beat him that year either)0 -
It'll be interesting to see how they both fare at the Worlds as a) it's a course that suits them both and b) they'll be on two of the strongest squads in the race.rick_chasey said:It's a good job they're not on better classics teams.
In fairness to Alpecin - they got badly shaken out of the crash at 70km and in one swoop MvdP lost 2 or 3 teammates.
What I can't work out is if PR suits either of them better or not.
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It will be an odd dynamic with them racing with the other's teammates for a dayandyp said:
It'll be interesting to see how they both fare at the Worlds as a) it's a course that suits them both and b) they'll be on two of the strongest squads in the race.rick_chasey said:It's a good job they're not on better classics teams.
In fairness to Alpecin - they got badly shaken out of the crash at 70km and in one swoop MvdP lost 2 or 3 teammates.
What I can't work out is if PR suits either of them better or not.0 -
its a pity we have to wait till late in the year0
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Things that caught my eye were:andyp said:This is a decent little film from DQS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSoJsZ-UqL0&t=3s
Race briefing in English, I don't know why considering the mix of languages but I assumed it would be in Flemish.
That the DS was happy for it to go to a sprint and was confident Asgreen could win that way.
The comment on WVA? I think that he 'always does that but has to recover over the top' or something along those lines.
Love the ambient sound of racing, especially over cobbles. Hearing the rattle and the gear changes. They don't seem to have that option on ES player any more.0 -
Absolutely. I see it the same way, but that's rather unavoidable if you want to win Strade Bianche, MSR, RVV & P-R. MvdP should have probably just skipped that 60 km solo in TA.phreak said:
Isn't half of the problem that they both probably came into the race with tired legs? While Asgreen has done a lot of the same races as MvdP, he's only really been contesting races from E3, whereas MvdP won Strade Bianche, took two stages and a 2nd in Tirreno, was at the sharp end of MSR and E3 before taking it easier at Dwars. He said himself he was running on fumes a bit and was still right there. WvA was similar, as he's not finished lower than 13th place all season. Maybe they just need to dose their efforts more?m.r.m. said:I really shouldn't have gone against my favourite rider in PTP. Really lowers the enjoyment of watching the race. Wonder how and when MvdP and WVA will figure out how to be able to work less in reduced groups and save their legs more. It's not a clear cut simple problem.
Was a decent edition of the race though. Worthy winner.
Being the favourite has happened to others before as well. Question is, if they were able to manage that better than WVA and MvdP or if the expectations are just much higher now.
I think the Olympic ambitions of MvdP are still hampering his road career. He stated in an interview recently that his training base was not as broad as he'd have liked it to be for the road. He is simply pulled (pulls himself) in too many directions with cross, MTB & road.
Asgreen greatly benefits from being in QS (like Terpstra before him etc.). While he pulled towards the end of the race, he took short pulls or skipped them entirely for large parts of the race while Alaphilippe was still in contention.PTP Champion 2019, 2022 & 20230 -
It's far too easy to manoeuvre WvA and MVDP into doing the work. And Quickstep are absolutely brilliant at manufacturing a reason not to work.
I mean who from this lot could you legitimately say you were waiting for behind, or could be sent up the road for others to chase?
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