Welcome to Ronde Van Vlaanderen, this year. Our second monument for the season and probably one of the most looked forward races, especially in Belgium. Myriads of fans are already waiting eagerly for the race to start, both in front of TV and at the sidelines.
It’s a bright day, but only two riders escape the peloton. Seems like most other teams wanted to save their power still a bit, of course obligatory a rider of Lotto Soudal is present. It’s Vliegen. Also Russian champion Porsev makes up the other half of the BOTD.
After over 100 kilometers, Vliegen and Porsev are the first to enter the crucial parts of the race. The famous cobbled climbs of De Ronde are waiting, the Hellingen will be the key factor in today’s race. Thankfully the sun is up and hardly any clouds are in sight, the race will be tough enough as it is. With a lead of almost 9 minutes, Porsev and Vliegen can’t feel the breath of the peloton yet.
The first cobbled climb has had already managed to split up the field a bit, the first few punches were thrown with Omega Pharma and Trek at the front. SKY is also involved in the pacing effort as per usual. No big names are caught behind, maybe Haussler is worth mentioning at that point though.
Bozic and Vansummeren take advantage of the lower pace at the moment and attack 124 kilometers from the finish. They quickly gain time on the peloton and soon join together to make hunt on the BOTD. FDJ’s Offredo is a rider who shortly later makes a burst out of the peloton.
With Offredo having joined the lead as well, there’s now a strong five man BOTD up the road. Leukemans from Vacansoleil also dreams about joining the break, but he’s about still 2 minutes on down at this point. In the peloton, the pace has increased and the general confusion in the hills makes for some big splits. Riders like Breschel are caught a bit behind and are certainly in the peloton’s chasers group, with some luck they may make a connection again, which is likely.
We are in the midst of the hilly middle of the race, ideal point for Rudy Verboven of Euskaltel-Euskadi to make a push forward. Petit of Cofidis has escaped earlier from the peloton but was caught a bit ago, that’s Verboven’s plan too now. A notable high number of solo jumps to the breakaway, just shortly after Verboven’s attempt Sagan attacks and looks to make a strong duo with the young Belgian.
De Ronde is full on by now, SKY and BMC have increased the pace notably and are in wild chasing mode, the peloton has shrinkeed to 52 riders and it seems like that by the minute new riders get dropped.
It’s up the Oude Kwaremont! Whilst Sagan is pushing the BOTD, Cancellara is working in the peloton behind. Well, you know the saying, “when you want something done…” Phinney, Boonen, SKY duo Eisel and Thomas, and Khamphan follow in next places.
Big split at the Oude kwaremont transition, Cancellara was very strong, but so was Sagan. He has dropped all of his former break companions bar Bozic and Vliegen, who have managed to hang on and refused any cooperation with the multi-purpose missile. Pedersen, Khamphan and Verboven are the EPIC riders in this small group. Boonen is still with this group too, but not interested in helping Cance yet.
No worries for most other big riders like Vanmarcke and Phinney though, the next group is about to join shortly later.
The Paterberg made it possible for Cancellara to get clear of all the riders now, whilst BMC is coming strong from behind with Belgian National Champion Gilbert and Van Avermaet, last year’s winner. Vanmarcke is leading the next group, some seconds down. Pedersen is there too, and as a tactical measure Eisel and Thomas drop out of this first chasing group. At the front, Vliegen couldn’t hang on to Sagan, but Bozic is still with the Slovakian.
As the rain slowly comes down, and the sky has turned to grey clouds, Cance joins Sagan and Bozic upfront here. Still 46 kilometers to ride, roughly a minute on six man strong Group of Boonen, Van Avermaet, Khamphan, Leukemans, Gilbert & Verboven.
Great ride by the former World Champion Gilbert, he is cutting down the lead… well, or keeping Cancellara at least in sight. Around 40 seconds is the lead of the swiss TT machine, Sagan isn’t much help to Spartacus right now anyway. Khamphan and Verboven are riding strong, but it will be probably down to Van Avermaet and Boonen to get Cancellara for real.
In the big chasing group behind, kristoff and Roelandts try to break out. Vanmarcke, Pedersen and some other riders, including Stybar, intend to follow. Paris-Roubaix winner Vanmarcke is already 1’40’’ down on Cancellara.
Kristoff managed to make his attack stick, and is about to join Group Boonen. Roelandts couldn’t quite hold the Norwegian’s wheel over the previous Helling, but he is riding strong too.
For Stybar and Vanmarcke is all in those Hellingen right now, 38 kilometers from the finish. They are still quite down on Group Boonen, but it is not impossible to make the bridge. Leukemans and Vliegen will be of little help to them though. The Belgians must be disappointed shorty later though: Stybar gets out of the Hellingen alone, he has dropped Vanmarcke there and joins Roelandts soon. Strong ride by Haussler who is a bit behind Vanmarcke following next.
Kristoff has joined Group Boonen now; Gilbert was clearly on the limit as Cancellara has increased his lead to 50 seconds again, however when Boonen took over the pacing now, immediately you saw a drop in Cance and Sagan’s lead. Cancallara is still doing all of the work in the front group, no cooperation at all with Sagan.
Khamphan, Van Avermaet and Verboven have distanced Boonen, the still recovering Kristoff and Gilbert in a hill climb. They have about 25 seconds on Boonen Group, where Stybar is also part of the pack now.
We head another time into the Oudw Kwaremont, Boonen is suffering from a lot of work he has done. The next fall of a favourite today after Vanmarcke’s disappointing performance? Roelandts has joined the Gorup Boonen too, there Stybar is currently pacing.
It’s all happening in the Oude Kwaremont now! Van Avermaet made a push there, with only Verboven being able to hold on. Khamphan, who did a lot of work, looked like he can’t follow. Then Van Avermaet suddenly raises his hand and has to stop: Mechanical! At the worst time ever! Group Boonen passes him, and Gilbert is immediately waiting for his countryman. Verboven without the help of Van Avermaet, crosses the Oude Kwaremont as the first chaser to Cancellara, but has lost 40 seconds there… Khamphan gets joined by Kristoff and Stybar.
Sagan and Bozic are enjoying a free ride on Cancellara’s wheel. But with the pressure of Van Avermaet and Boonen gone, how long will he drag them to the finish? 15 kilometers left. If Cancellara doesn’t want to be simply outsprinted by Sagan, he will need to have to come up with something. The Paterberg was the last cobbled chance to do so though; maybe he trusts in his cunning and experience, whilst Sagan has the legs to outsprint him easily…
A quick look at the Paterberg as we remaind there: Verboven is the first chaser, followed by Kristoff, Stybar and Khamphan. Then follow Boonen and Roelandts. Next is in place are unfortunate BMC duo Gilbert and Van Avermaet. Vanmarcke is cooked and can barely keep himself of chasing Haussler. Ladagnous and Leukemans are there too, and Pedersen is struggling up the Pateberg big time.
No tactical change, no attacks. Just Cance getting wheelsucked, and more importantly: Cancellara allowing it. There's discussion spotted, yes. But Cancellara is dragging both of them to the line right now. Cancellara is leading ALL the way to Oudennaarde. What’s the point. He is clearly the strongest but he hasn’t even tried to drop them so far. Bozic and Sagan are making themselves ready for the sprint. 5 kms to go.
The last kilometers is up now. The tactical stalemate must be boring for some, whilst other feel the thrill of the finish sneaking up on them. Cancellara is playing it cool as we near the flamme rouge…
Bozic opens up the sprint, and Cancellara is immediately distanced. This is Sagan’s to take now as he passes Bozic!
Victory for Sagan and Cannondale. Bozic follows in second. The Ronde Van Vlaanderen is today the De Ronde Van Slovakia, with Sagan and Bozic countrymen. Cancellara comes third. A triumph of, and we have to say it unfortunately – of wheelsucking. But it’s Cancellara’s own fault, he did not make a single attack against them and tried to drop them by pacing constantly up the Hellinge and Kessingen.
Verboven finishes fourth to secure Euskaltel-Euskadi’s march into Flanders and himself being the best Belgian today, Kristoff wins the sprint of the group of 4 against Stybar, Khamphan and a completely empty Boonen. Roelandts finishes just ahead of unlucky guy of the day, Van Avermaet, at 9th.
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Today will be the decider of the GC. König has quite a good lead to defend, but the gap should not become too much if he wants to maintain it.
The first serious benchmark of today should be Durbridge (OGE). A time of 35'00 is not fastest though. De Maar leads with 34'58.
Next of the time trialists is Cancellara. Normally he should be the strongest today, but it's unsure how his shape is affected by his crash. At the line it becomes clear he's not strong enough. 34'28 is second, but it still is 20 seconds slower than Klöden's leading time.
Dumoulin is the next who fails to beat Klöden. He loses 11 seconds, good enough for provisional second.
Ferrari fails to convince. 5th time, losing over half a minute is not as good as he should be capable of.
Local hero Castroviejo is weak today. He loses a lot of time, which should be very disappointing for him. Luckily for him teammate Intxausti sets the best time.
Ion Izagirre should not suffer from bad positioning today. He shows his skills by setting a third time, of 34'11, losing 19 seconds to teammate Intxausti.
Van den Broeck loses 44 seconds to Intxausti. He also loses a spot to Izagirre in the GC as a consequence.
Westra fails to show his time trialing skills. He sets a provisional 17th, a minute slower than Intxausti. He'll lose two GC places.
Weening, unlike his fellow Frisian, does manage to convince. He sets a time of 34'00, which is good enough to place him in provisional second.
Mollema is even stronger than Weening though! 33'25 is an exceptionally quick time, enough to put him into the lead.
Spilak does not have his best day. He's a minute slower than Mollema, provisional 9th for him.
Arredondo is on paper the weakest time trialist of the top-10. He loses 1'24 to Mollema, and loses two spots in the GC, as also Spilak goes past him.
Costa won this time trial last year, and he's on track of repeating this performance. He sets a new best time at 33'22, which is 3 seconds quicker than Mollema.
Urán tries to limit his loss to Costa, and he limits it to 12 seconds. Unfortunately for him, this means he is passed by Costa.
König had to limit his loss to 44 seconds in the GC. However, he seems to have a bad day. He loses a minute to Costa, and drops all the way to 3rd in the GC. That must hurt.
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Yes!!! Another great victory for Sagan to add to his list. We would also like to thank Fabian for dragging us along. That is our hard win goal accomplished.
Great report as always Shonak.
Moser seems to be flirting with a BMC transfer, finishing 11th in the GC...
Ronde was a major disappointment, Vanmarcke obviously not his best day. The rest of the team happy to finish in the peloton. Must have been a +5 day for Bozic and Verboven, unfortunately it's Bozic who takes the big points and Rudy finishing on the most ungrateful place.
Mollema with a great time trial, coming close to the win. Nice job on achieving the goal and the point and team competition is a nice bonus!
Ronde Van Vlaanderen 2014 
