De Ronde van Vlaanderen 2024 ***Spoilers***
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He was fourth in his first appearance in 2019 too, despite crashing a few kilometres before the Kwaremont and chasing back on solo over the next 10-15 kms.
I agree on Bettiol, he rode everyone off his wheel when the race was on and they couldn't bring him back.
To be honest, I can't think of a rider more suited to the Flanders parcours than Van Der Poel, he has all the right attributes needed to excel in the race so it's no surprise to me that he has dominated it in this era.
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Yeah. I just think it'd be nice if occasionally they arrive at the finish in more than a 1, 2 or 3 up.
I feel if it was the old route, MvdP would have had a harder tactical challenge than he did on Sunday.
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I was complaining about the barriers closing off the gutter on the Taaienberg, an iconic tactical weapon in the race. Until I realised that the the Taaienberg hasn't been raced properly in years, there's no group fighting for position as they come into it, they're in bits and bobs by then, literally everything is decided on Kwaremont now.
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Ja I think, ironically, having the gutter there makes the Taaienberg more selective, as positioning is absolutely vital as you can't really move up very easily at all if the gutter is present.
The Kwaremont - Paterberg combo is really hard and I think it is quite hard to get around that, tactically.
Interesting talking to Boonen about this (brag), he was saying how the almost dead-stop at the tight corner at the bottom penalises the bigger riders quite substantially in a critical part of the race.
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