Now that’s how a one-day race is supposed to end. 30k of attacks while the creme de la creme try to whittle each other down. DiLuca and Schleck making the-all-or-nothing move at 4k; Valverde, stuck back in the group, trying to will the field back together; the daring jumps by DiLuca and Valverde as they realize their only chance of victory is solo; Frank Schleck, broken vertebrae and all, trying to churn through the lactate to fend off Valverde – sure beats the hell out of watching guys throw kid-glove attacks for 200k before having a mosh-and-weave contest up a 25% grade.
That’s why I don’t get it when Bernard Hinault says bonehead things like how expects Liege to have the same podium as Fleche Wallonne – honestly, dude? How many Fleche Wallonnes have Jens Voight and Alexandre Vinokourov contested? Or Michael Boogerd? Or Paolo Bettini? There’s far less podium overlap between Fleche and LBL than there is between Amstel and Fleche. And why is Phillippe Gilbert a favorite for everyone in these one-days? Other than last year’s Het Volk, what’s he got for credits?
I can say, though, that I’m impressed by Hinault’s alleged neutrality in the ongoing ProTour/Cartel debate, especially considering his frequently-employed podium presentation privileges at the Tour de France. If only the the international media showed such good judgment. Eurosport has a story on a pro teams’ organization meeting in which they decide to have a future meeting.
You might suspect Eurosport was just at a loss for something to cover, but check out this neat little video clip on the “new” T-Mobile. Nice, I know, but it completely overlooks the recent allegations against the team from the Telekom days. If I found it, why couldn’t they? Plus their RSS feed hasn’t functioned properly in weeks. Clearly, they’re just not trying hard enough.
Did you watch this race on cycling.tv? CN report (at least the part published with Horner’s sound bites) seems to paint a different picture; that it was too easy and too slow until the final climb – much like how you described Fleche in your previous post. Did you see (or read) to the contrary somewhere? Who were the attackers?
Y’Know, All this about everyone staying together til the end and people reading things into it… It was sunny not windy and 30 deg C – for all the classics this year. If that is going to be the weather then everyone will be together with lone guys attacking. Not even whipping winds would rip things apart.
There were actually some good attacks today – but no support for them. Schumacher looked good, but no one helped him. Horner went, again no help. To me a guy like Popovich should have been going with Horner for example. Schleck was awesome. That was the best part of the race. Schleck going wild and DiLuca killing himself to catch him.
https://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=4656
Paris-Roubaix in August.
The Badger’s little joke: “I’m neutral. But I’m against the ProTour.” Haha.
What a jerk – no, he’s a thug.