Riis123 wrote:
Boonen favourite for PR now in my book. I don't think Sagan ever will win that race.
Sagan isn't that much suited to PR indeed, with his best result being a 6th place in 2014. And Boonen looked very strong today, and he has an extremely strong team to help him.
What a race! Great agressive riding wins it again.
Boonen looked really good, such a shame he gets a mechanical on his own hill. If Terpstr got back, he would've been there as well. He even looked good enough to follow Sagan/GVA/Naesen more or less.
Gilbert just wow, it's 2011 again. I'm not convinved the others would've gotten back without the crash, I'd say it was 50/50. Sagan's own fault to crash riding there, good GVA recovered enough for a 2nd place, but feeling really sorry for Naesen, I don't think he would've cracked. Great racing by Felline and Van Baarle as well.
Ollfardh wrote:
What a race! Great agressive riding wins it again.
Boonen looked really good, such a shame he gets a mechanical on his own hill. If Terpstr got back, he would've been there as well. He even looked good enough to follow Sagan/GVA/Naesen more or less.
Gilbert just wow, it's 2011 again. I'm not convinved the others would've gotten back without the crash, I'd say it was 50/50. Sagan's own fault to crash riding there, good GVA recovered enough for a 2nd place, but feeling really sorry for Naesen, I don't think he would've cracked. Great racing by Felline and Van Baarle as well.
Btw, just looking at Ollie's results, 19th in Paris-Nice. Dafuq.. and that consistency in the classics, pure bad luck that Sagan crashed and robbed him the opportunity of podiuming!
Did Phil already say if he rides Roubaix now or not? I think he once stated some time ago he wanted to win all five monuments. If that's the case, he has to ride Roubaix in a free role, skip Amstel and Fleche and go hard in Liege then, right right?
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Aquarius97 wrote:
Sagan has only ridden 3 times Roubaix since he is a world beater (not counting when he rode it back in 10' and 11'.
In 2014 he finished in the group who was fighting for the second place
In 2015, he had a mechanical in Carrefour de L'Abre and maganed to reach the second group, who fought for 8th
In 2016, he was left behind after a crash, and he had chances until Cancellara crashed.
He has not been lucky in the last two years, but that doesn't mean that he cannot win Roubaix
I think he less chances to win Roubaix then the Flemish classics. Because the Flemish classics have many hellingens( some of them even asphalted) while Roubiax has only cobbles. So while in Flanders there are only a few challengers to Sagan (GVA, Gilbert, and somebody else (Boonen,Vanmarcke etc.) when they have a super day or form of a lifetime). However in Roubaix Boonen, Vanmarcke, Stybar, Degenkolb, Terpstra, Stannard become big challengers already to Sagan in addition to GVA (perhaps even Kristoff can be a challenger, but he is usually bad at Roubaix). There are also riders like Keukeleire, Van Baarle, Lampaert etc. who can pull off a surprise attack when the favourites are looking at each other.
Shonak wrote:
Did Phil already say if he rides Roubaix now or not? I think he once stated some time ago he wanted to win all five monuments. If that's the case, he has to ride Roubaix in a free role, skip Amstel and Fleche and go hard in Liege then, right right?
He has Liege already, just needs Roubaix and San Remo now.
Shonak wrote:
Did Phil already say if he rides Roubaix now or not? I think he once stated some time ago he wanted to win all five monuments. If that's the case, he has to ride Roubaix in a free role, skip Amstel and Fleche and go hard in Liege then, right right?
He has Liege already, just needs Roubaix and San Remo now.
I know that. So, what? it'd be super weird if he skipped Liege in this form.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Shonak wrote:
Did Phil already say if he rides Roubaix now or not? I think he once stated some time ago he wanted to win all five monuments. If that's the case, he has to ride Roubaix in a free role, skip Amstel and Fleche and go hard in Liege then, right right?
He has Liege already, just needs Roubaix and San Remo now.
I know that. So, what? it'd be super weird if he skipped Liege in this form.
Ah right, misunderstood you there. I think his plan was to ride Amstel and Liege, but I think they'll be convincing him to ride Roubaix as well.
EDIT: Gilbert just said on live tv he would like to ride Roubaix.
Edited by Ollfardh on 02-04-2017 18:43
Shame about the crash but Gilbert was looking good at the time and great to see attacking riding rewarded. Ironic that the early Kapelmuur was decisive but even after that long initial escape it still left Gilbert with 55km solo as he rode away from the break on the Kwaremont
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