Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 04/14/2019 03:03 PM |
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Deceunick comes up big again....
I honestly expected Sagan to come good today....a race better suited to him vs, his rivals and after a slow start, I thought he would on near full-boil by now. For a good chunk of the race, it was looking like this would be the case. Was pretty surprised when he ran out of gas when Pollitt and Gilbert attacked.
Kudos to Gilbert....he played the race to his strengths perfectly. Didn’t think he could ever win Roubaix, but he rode perfectly today. |
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longslowdistance
Posts:2886
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| 04/14/2019 04:51 PM |
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Yes a great win for Gilbert.
As for Peter Sagan: Current Sagan << Sagan of the last three years.
I wondered about his high speed crash in the Tour last year - and still do. Some injuries simply do not allow a full recovery.
Also observant forumite OC noted alternative or additional issues: PS's personal life has gone down the toilet, and some competing squads are suddenly better, perhaps suspiciously. |
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79pmooney
Posts:3189
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| 04/14/2019 04:55 PM |
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I wasn't surprised with Sagan. This race was very hard. Tailwind, fast and several splits early. Sagan did real work at several points. He really needed that last 5%.
Really happy to see Gilbert pull this off. Smart, gutsy ride. (Usually "smart" means sitting on wheels until others have set the stage. Gilbert did some of that but also a lot of stage setting.) Kudos to Politt for a super ride but I knew he had to play the end game with a smart and very experienced rider who had wanted that win for years. Politt didn't have a chance. Didn't help him at all that Gilbert had Lampeart not far behind. Credit Lampeart for being a great teammate today. (And all of DQS. 1,3,4,6 and 8. Not too shabby. They are redeemed after Flanders.)
I cannot type "DQS". My fingers always go to DSQ. Too many years racing sailboats. DSQ has been in my vocabulary since I was 12.
Ben |
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79pmooney
Posts:3189
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| 04/14/2019 05:18 PM |
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lsd, I think (maybe naively) today was not proof of drugs. Sagan is no better than 95% and between how the race played out and the large amount of work he did, he needed that last 5%, the 5% he had last year. DQS is simple a team born and bred to rule on the second Sunday in April. The other 364 days add up to about half as important. (The many weeks between the end of the Ardeenes and MSR are maybe 1/3 of that remain 50%.)
Flanders looked to me like almost a DQS rest day. Yes they rode quite hard but their brains and ambition were not fully engaged. Today the whole team, riders and support, were on. It seemed apparent that they had focus on the cobbles, using prep, eyes and experience to minimize punctures and mechanicals. They finished at least 5 of the 7 with one crashing midway. (Asgreen had to settle for 50th but I will give him a bye, He did more than a little work last week. Edit: if the DQS managemant was completely cutthroat, they would have started a fresher rider in place of Asgreen; Asgreen being both tired and French. I'm glad they didn't. Probably good long term strategy also. I think Asgreen's a keeper.)
So a happy Ben, DQS fan despite their huge blunder in Argentina (that I hope help will spur on real changes). |
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 04/14/2019 06:56 PM |
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Good win by Gilbert on terrain that isn't the best for him.but not a particularly entertaining race.
Sagan gassed and in end couldn't quite throw in the required competition. Same with van Aert we know why he was gassed. And then of course Sep's usual luck eliminating him from proper competition through a mechanical. Yawn. |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 04/15/2019 11:18 AM |
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OK, here is an equipment shocker that I didn't notice yesterday during the coverage....Wout Van Aert was using "old school" brake calipers and not discs for Roubaix.
Of all the guys who I would have assumed to be using discs, it would have been WVA, given his 'cross background.
(Side note - dude had a helluva ride yesterday. Too bad all that chasing cost him so much energy.) |
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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Dale
Posts:1767
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| 04/15/2019 11:35 AM |
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| Speakin' of old school/ new school. Running tubeless on the cobbles? Like that's gonna turn out well.. |
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 04/15/2019 11:38 AM |
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Haha - Dale I was just going to comment that Kristoff's misadventures make me feel less like a retrogrouch for still running tubes.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/kristoff-regrets-big-risk-after-using-tubeless-tyres-in-paris-roubaix/
I was a little shocked seeing van Aert's extra brake levers. Not a very pro look haha. |
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79pmooney
Posts:3189
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| 04/15/2019 12:00 PM |
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Maybe the cross guys are figuring out that it isn't a CX race. No pit to dive into for a flying bike change. In fact the team car might be kilometers away. That maybe being able to run whatever wheel you get given could be a good thing. That a quick change is easy and reliable.
And tubeless? Isn't P-R the test ground they use to verify the "burping" phenomenon? (Not a tubeless rider so I am just guessing.) Kristoff should ride the next 3 or 4 P-Rs on different tubeless setups. Then he would have a good baseline as to what works and what doesn't.
Edit: OC, haven't CX levers been used in the past at P-R? I have thought for years that they made a lot of sense given how many ride the tops on the cobbles.
Ben |
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Dale
Posts:1767
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| 04/15/2019 12:08 PM |
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| OC, I noticed that! Old time cx set-up running levers on the bar tops. I used to have that on a Bianchi I raced. Ditched it when I did new cables and housing one time... really never missed it. |
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 04/15/2019 12:14 PM |
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| Ben - yes, pretty sure this is not a first. Just a little shocked someone as skilled and experienced with technical terrain as van Aert would be using them. |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 04/15/2019 12:30 PM |
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Yeah, my guess re: Kristoff's "flats" is that they were the result of "burping" more than actual punctures. I can't see getting any huge punctures on the cobbles that the sealant wouldn't address.
All his tests on tubeless were positive....raced Flanders and other races on them and he used them on recon rides last week. A good learning experience and worthy experiment, I'd wager....the question mark will forever be whether you want to "experiment" with one of the race favorites, I guess.
As for discs on the road vs. CX, there is very little question that discs are superior to calipers in almost every situation. Having ridden discs on the road now for ~9 months, I can't ever see a situation where I would go back to calipers. And remember, I live in pancake-flat Illinois.
And there is no "any wheel" option anymore, even with rim brakes. What system are you running, how many speeds (11 vs 12), rim width, etc. |
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 04/15/2019 12:43 PM |
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| Maybe the caliper versus disc question is that in P-R as a leader you may likely see yourself getting a wheel from a team mate rather than the car, which may make discs equipped wheels perhaps a bit too challenging to exchange. Something like that. |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 04/15/2019 12:56 PM |
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That's the thing though....they really aren't. Removing the thru-axle is now not much more complicated than having to loosen the QR levers. You aren't allowed to file down the lawyer tabs anymore, so you still have to back them out significantly to remove a (front) wheel.
Even a rear wheel isn't that bad to swap out....although i will confess as to be confused as to why teams are insisting on using 6mm allen heads instead of "QR" levers. Yeah, I get "aero" but c'mon.... |
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79pmooney
Posts:3189
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| 04/16/2019 01:05 PM |
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Has anyone attempted to summarize punctures, brakes and axles, and finishes? Maybe just list say the first 20 riders and their/their team's choices? It seems to me that P-R, more than any other race, wants really field interchangeable (fast) equipment since who knows where the team car or even teammates will be.
CK, are my bikes now illegal? I never filed down my lawyer's lips (that never got installed on my '73, '79. and '83 bikes, nor my more recent customs). Are the De Rosas the great Eddy rode now illegal? 
VeloNews started their tech gallery on the P-R bikes with the Skys and their shock absorbing device. Sky's best finisher was what? 18th, 20th place? (But no disc.) I would have appreciated seeing a DQS bike in that gallery so I could see what a winner rode. (Cables? Di2? Discs? Shocks?) I noticed Delenkalb's cockpit was very straight-forward.
It's always seemed plain to me that if you wanted to win P-r, you looked long at hard at what has worked in the past and what the winners are using. That it was the poorest race on the calendar to try things out. With all that vibration, if something can fail, it will. The last 5 star comes so late that you cannot recover from a mechanical and tie riders are so fried they cannot "nurse" failing equipment.
Ben |
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