What's new

Cobbles

Phil

Maximum Pace
Sep 1, 2007
1,816
55
It's almost April, and that means, for me anyway, the best month of racing in the year:

04.04.2010 Ronde van Vlaanderen / Tour des Flandres (Belgium)
05.04.2010 Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco (Spain)
11.04.2010 Paris - Roubaix (France)
18.04.2010 Amstel Gold Race (Holland)
21.04.2010 La Flèche Wallonne (Belgium)
25.04.2010 Liège - Bastogne - Liège (Belgium)

Tour of Flanders coverage starts at 19:40 on J sports 1
4月4日(日)19:40~ J sports 1

Quickstep has been the power to beat recently, but I'm hoping someone (Gilbert? Hoste?) from Omega-Pharma Lotto can deliver an upset...
 
Bookies odds:

Boonen, T 4.50
Cancellara, F 4.50
Pozzato, F 9.00
Breschel, M 11.00
Flecha Giannoni, J-A 16.00
Gilbert, Philippe 17.00
Devolder, S 25.00
Gasparotto, E 35.00
Ballan, A 35.00
Ivanov, S 35.00
 
My little brother on the cobbles and the MUUR

back in Belgium is doing the full Ronde van Vlaanderen course (for amateurs - same as for the pros) tomorrow !!

Read also this excellent story (immensely beautifully written !!).

1zcognm.jpg

my little brother 10 years younger and 10 cm taller...
20u4g01.jpg

my little brother checking out De Muur...
a8kd3.jpg

DE MUUR (Kapelmuur) !!!
5r8jt.jpg

"Chapel Wall"...the apotheosis of De Ronde van Vlaanderen !
 
Great pics Tom, thanks. I would love to ride those roads some day. Although the allure of the Dolomites and Alps is strong, if I could have just one European cycling trip, there's a good chance I'd end up picking beer and frites over wine and pasta.
 
Cancellera just exploded away on the Muur, eh? Complete dominance.

It'll be harder to get away from Boonen on the Paris-Roubaix cobbles, though--it looks like it's going to be a great showdown next weekend between two very in-form riders.
 
Cancellera just exploded away on the Muur, eh? Complete dominance.

It'll be harder to get away from Boonen on the Paris-Roubaix cobbles, though--it looks like it's going to be a great showdown next weekend between two very in-form riders.

Yes, Boonen is improving with every race after his poor 2009 and Cancellara is riding better than ever.

I hope somebody else can give them a run for their money to add a bit more spice.
 
Well, Roubaix is even more a war of attrition, but the selections aren't quite as sharp or emphatic as those Flanders hills, so hopefully there'll be a group left to fight it out as they approach the velodrome... There would have been last year but for the two crashes near the end.

Still, hard to pick anyone other than those two for the win...

4月11日(日)20:40~ J sports 1
 
That wasn't nearly as exciting as I'd hoped. Hard to have a thrilling finish when the winner just decides to ride away with 45km to go! Was really hoping some kind of chase would get organized, but kind of like 2 years ago, the presence of Boonen just seemed to dissuade anyone from doing any work...

Anyone catch the sarcastic applause Flecha had for Hushvold when the latter came round him for second place?
 
Excellent performance by Cancellara, but not exciting at all. As much as I root for the CTT Hushovd's move was predictable and extremely cheap.
 
It seemed to me that Flecha did jump up and accelerate at the finish, attempting to sprint, maybe, so I don't see why Thor should not have answered the challenge - looked ok to me.

But yeah... Cancellara seemed to have destroyed his rivals even before the race started - very dominating, but not too exciting for sure.
 
Cancellara is having an awsome year.... He looks to be stronger in the legs too. Thighs were much bigger than I've seen on him before.
As for Thor... when the hill climbers break away from him on hills he probably calls that cheap as well. Sprinters have to take what is on offer...

Was sad to see everybody sucking Boonen's wheel as well. Nobody strong enough to help him and break him at the same time....

Too bad it didn't rain. They all looked too clean at the end.
 
I think Flecha was more irritated by the fact that Thor didn't do any pulling the preceding 20kms than the inevitability of him claiming second. When they came into the velodrome together, I reckon everyone knew, including Flecha himself, that 2nd would be contested and that Thor would take it. Podium spots don't get gifted in a monument...

Anyone think Cancellera can take any more this month? He showed at the Tour de Suisse that he's skinny enough now to maybe handle the climbs of LBL...
 
Amstel Gold up next

4月18日(日)21:15~ J sports 1
 
Creative use of the pedestrian footpaths on this race!
 
Back
Top Bottom