UKC

Stannard = Beast!

That is all.

In reply to DaveHK:

youtube.com/watch?v=-I9Rv5YcwIM&

In reply to DaveHK:

He did well. Strength in numbers is good, strength in legs is better.

In reply to JLS:

The 2 best performances I've seen by a British rider in a 1 day race were both him in Het Niewsblad!

In reply to DaveHK:

To be fair Etixx guys must have been fcuked after their 40km TTT. I loved how the gap to Boonen sat at 30m for ages. He (Boonen) must have been killing himself right to the end to do that. Hard to believe these guys are going to get up tomorrow and do it all again.

In reply to JLS:

No wonder Lefevre is fuming - EQS had 3 against 1 and they somehow managed to blow it. Still can't quite work out why.

So I make that 3 stage races and 2 classics for british riders and we're still in February. Not a bad start to the year, let's hope it continues

In reply to JLS:

I think the biggest cock up was Terpstra deciding to lead Stannard out.

In reply to DaveHK:

Great racing by Stannard and an awesome effort to get the double win.

Sky certainly seem to have got off to a great start this season and the team appears to have some real depth it should make for an interesting year.

In reply to Chris the Tall:

>"Still can't quite work out why."

They just didn't have the legs at the end to mount the series of attacks that should have inevitably saw Stannard crack.
I guess they figured their odds where so good with 3 against 1 is was worth working hard to hold off the chasers.

It didn't help when Vandenbergh tried to go with Terpstra and inadvertently nullified his attack. Obviously Stannard should been made to close that gap then have to deal with an immediate Vandenbergh attack but I guess by then it was all too late anyway, Stannard had the legs to deal with anything they could still muster.

In reply to DaveHK:

What a beast was exactly what I was thinking. Only caught youtube highlights with 3:1 and thought ach, that's it. But what a finish!

In reply to JLS:

It's also a good example of why race radios should be banned at world tour level - it's far easier for a DS to make decisions in front of a TV than 3 riders knackered at the end of a race trying to work out for themselves who should take which role and when. Wouldn't it be great if we saw this sort of unpredictabilty more often ?

In reply to JLS:



Easy to speculate sat watching that clip at home, but I thought Boonen was meant to be a better sprinter, and so could perhaps have left his attack until almost the last moment ?

In reply to Chris the Tall:



Make that 3 of each

In reply to Chris the Tall:

Delighted though I am with today's result, I'm damned if I am going to allow you to bump up to classic status every victory by a Brit.

In reply to Mike Highbury:

I know there is a tendency to call any one day race a "classic" - embarrassingly the worst examples were the wincanton Classic and the leeds Classic in the 90s - but I thought OHN and KBK were long enough established to deserve the moniker. Or does it only apply to world tour races ?

In reply to Chris the Tall:

Semi-classic is probably a better term for those races.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_cycle_races

In reply to Chris the Tall:

I see DK's link puts the E3 in, but that too is a bit modern.

I've just watched the last 5km from yesterday again, now Mapei would have got 1,2,3 from that position.

In reply to Mike Highbury:


E3 modern ? - I thought they were stuck in the 70s !


If Stannard had been dropped I'm sure a few would have said history was repeating itself

As to the classics, the fact that these 2 aren't on the World tour does imply they are lesser standard to the likes of Amstel Gold and Flèche wallone in the list of non-monuments, so maybe semi-classics is about right

In reply to DaveHK:
How The Race Was Won - Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2015 http://t.co/D5rNUm3KfN

In reply to Chris the Tall:

Thanks for that. I was hating it until the comment at 1:52 about a real bike race.

In reply to DaveHK:
So what do we think of Cav's win yesterday?

He seemed to come from a long way back in a less than ideal position so must be in pretty good shape. I was a bit worried for him when the young Columbian was thrashing him in Argentina and Kristoff was winning lots.

Anyone rate him for this years Milan San Remo?


Edit: Also intrigued by the effect on his "morale" from his DS's suggestion that perhaps EQS shouldn't ride for the sprint. I bet he was raging!

In reply to JLS:


Has got to be the favourite, but that may also be his curse. He seems to be in better shape than he was a this stage last year. Furthermore he only decided to do the race last year when they changed the route late on. I've got a feeling the route isn't quite the same as it was when he won it (less sprinter-friendly), but is the same as last year - when he was in the final selection but too knackered to sprint. Kristoff and Degenkolb likely to be the main challengers