2024 Classics thread - Not a spoiler thread
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Well, since the forum was down, here are my thoughts on Omloop (men's).
1). When MvdP and or Pog don't ride, it becomes the Visma show.
2) It seems now pretty standard playbook to rip it up at around 100-70km to go and force a selection much earlier. This in turn leads to the finale happening much later
3) I absolutely missed how the lead group was caught at 10km to go. Baffled me. I guess it goes to show it's always worth chasing behind these things. Made it into an exciting race in the end
4) Skujiņš surprised himself with how good he was on the Berendries and both marked himself out and wasted the good legs
5) Tratnik obviously massively profited from having 3 or 4 of his mates up the road from 70km to go.
6) It felt a lot less attritional than previous years - presumably this was because of the relatively mild and calm weather
7) Visma are channelling their baddie vibe with the black socks and shoes combo ala USP. Not good.
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I think those who fear the impending Visma domination need to remember that they've not won a monument since 2020.
Unless you've got an outstanding individual their established playbook of arriving with as many hitters as possible doesn't seem that far removed from what Quickstep were doing a few seasons ago.
I think this season will be their last chance to dominate spring: UAE seem to be arriving mob handed these days, I can only see Red Bull Bora improving, Lotto are regenerating and MVdP will do MVdP things with Jesper potentially expanding his one day repertoire.
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Cake is just weakness entering the body0 -
It was good to see the second group didn't give up. There were a few times where I thought that they'd messed up any chance and were just going to sit up. I think it was UAE that finally stirred them up, it was just a shame that Tratnik managed to go with Pollitt as it would have been highly amusing if Visma had failed to get the win from that situation.
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Are we spoilering a thread that specifically says "Not a spoiler thread" in its title here?
I mean I've seen both races this weekend, so I'm not bothered, but seems a bit weird to just start discussing them here. Mind you, I'm not sure why this was supposed to be no spoilers in the first place
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If 4 wins out of 4 races, these past two opening weekends isn’t dominant, it’s only because as Rick mentioned, MvDP and Pog turn out for the monuments.
A 1-2 in Gent Wevelgem, E3 and Dwars victories is a large slice of the cobbles pie.
"Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.0 -
I'm sure if Pog (& his sponsors) wanted to win sh*t small classics, he'd ride sh*t small classics.
Wouldn't rule it out if he got bored of winning other races.
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Cake is just weakness entering the body0 -
Men's Omloop was good. Woman's Omloop was better. Worth watching.
PTP Champion 2019, 2022 & 20230 -
Do you mean Marion Rousse's ex husband Phillipe Gilbert's new wife has an opinion about her husband's ex-wife?
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The counter attack to VLAB ripping it up from 100k to go is that other teams will let them go, keep things together and pull them back after wasting energy, a la Saturday. Obv have to still have the numbers to make this work but it could've worked on Sunday if Alpecin had have kept themselves together a bit more
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Van Aert probably should have tried to keep the group of 6 together longer. He only managed to drop a single non-Visma rider at the cost of two teammates.
That aside, the timekeeping seemed really dodgy. They were a minute ahead forever, then they get to the foot of Muur van Geraardsbergen and the peloton are right on top of them.
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Despite it all going a bit Hello magazine here, wasn't Rousse's previous partner Tony Gallopin? I don't think she was ever in a relationship with Gilbert and she definitely wasn't married to him.
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Coincidentally, JA is on the latest episode of the GTCC podcast. Just downloaded, will listen to it later.
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I am also far from certain why on earth you would be reading a cycling forum if you were trying to avoid a result
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Ah so it was. I knew she was involved with someone previously
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No, I've never got that either. I suppose with so many races you might have one you've seen that you have a burning desire to talk about while there's another you're saving to watch when you have time
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It's a proper classic, as Rick was at pains to point out, when I posted this in the SSR thread-and it's today.
"Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.0 -
Barriers on Boonenberg.... Feels very wrong
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Gap going out now in the man v man race between MvdP and WvA.
WvA looks a bit blocked - probably the crash hasn't helped.
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So is this according to plan for WVA and he still needs a few days for the altitude adaptation to set in? Or is it missing race fitness?
PTP Champion 2019, 2022 & 20230 -
Think he just isn't as good as mvdp.
"Unfortunately these days a lot of people don’t understand the real quality of a bike" Ernesto Colnago0 -
I don't think the plan involved him falling off.
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Looking at the fall, I think he torqued himself out of potential victory there. He'd made back all but about 10 seconds before the lights went out.
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Cake is just weakness entering the body0 -
Yeah though he was definitely struggling to hold MvdPs wheel in the accelerations on the Taaienberg and Stationsberg already.
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His positioning seemed suspect too, and despite having allegedly the best team, his team mates didn't seem to do a lot for him in that respect.
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Is he still the best rider of the 21st century?
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At least we had a bit of a race. Without WvA it would have been another 40km solo victory.
The gap between the big riders and the rest is growing.
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Without the fall, I think it's possible wva could have got back to mvdp. Then it's a very different race, even though mvdp was clearly the strongest on every hill.
If pog was riding next week, i think wva would have no chance, but he's in with a chance.
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