I must say Matthews was disappointing.
IndiPac … sad for jesse carlson that he has pulled out also since he is the main organiser of the race.
BREAKING: @jessecarlsson has pulled out of #IPWR https://t.co/RAaZjPx48Y
— IPWR 2017 (@Indi_Pac) March 19, 2017
Bugger
Yeesh Matthews was super out of position when Sagan attacked.
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It was strange positioning by Matthews - Usually when your team-mate Dumoulin makes it hard for the sprinters, you are only a few wheels back.
Tour of Catalonia starts today - Reckon A.Yates can podium, especially if Orica nail the long,hilly 42 KM TTT stage tomorrow.
Chaves is back for the Pais Vasco which starts in 2 weeks - Will be riding with A.Yates, so expect Chaves to ease himself into the race - As I suggested previously S.Yates main goal is The Vuelta - Apparently will be riding the Ardennes .,
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Dwars Door Vlaanderen tonight
At lot of the climbs you’ll see in remaining Belgian classics; Kwaremont, Valkenberg, Paterberg …
This is the first year it’s a full WT event.
This is a bit more sprint friendly than E3 on Thursday, Sagan will be favoured though, Ewan is riding, it will be interesting to see how he goes.
Dwaars De Vlaanderen is tomorrow - A wide open race - I’ll take a swing at Colbrelli, Naesen and Demare.
Explains why I couldn’t find it in the TV guide!
E3 is on Friday.
Movistar pip BMC in the TTT at Catalunya, Orica Scott quite off the pace which is unusual.
It was a disappointing TTT by Orica, especially considering they had a better squad than in TA - As a point of reference, Orica beat Trek by 33 seconds in TA, but yet finished 12 seconds behind in Catalunya - It was interesting that Tuft and Edmondson finished a long way behind.
Question - Edmondson is supposed to be a Classics rider - So why is he riding Catalunya ?
Looks like Movistar penalized 1 minute for Rojas pushing two teammates.
That gives BMC a huge win (44 seconds) over Sky, with Movistar now 3rd.
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Tough decision to penalise the whole team - Matthews riding Dwars Door Vlaanderen - I wrote last year that Sunweb wanted him to ride cobbles.
Seems like a strange rule or interpretation. Rojas wasn’t actually helping his teammates by pushing them uphill. He pushed them to go in front of him in the lineup because he was sfuffed and struggling even to hang onto the tail of the train on the climb. Difficult to see how the pushing gave their team any unfair advantage - there is no requirement to maintain the same order in a TTT.
We’ve seen Chaves be permanent caboose in Orica’s TTT, although he calls the riders in by telling them when to switch across rather than by touching them.
Is this a rule just for TTT? I recall a few riders injured in stacks getting pushes from teammates to make the finish line or time cutoff of a stage.
The rule is quite unambiguous, the original jury decision just to penalize Rojas was incorrect.
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Lampaert wins DVV with a strong final move. Gilbert 2nd, controlled the other 3 to prevent the sprint. Fabulous ride from Durbo to finish 4th.
Just watching the end of the race again, and Durbo should have worked with Gilbert when he had the chance.
Although that would have just handed the race to Gilbert.
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Spot on with your assessment of Durbridge - Worked with Gilbert and Lampaert would have not gone back - Durbridge would have at least come second - Anyway it does open possibilities for Durbridge at Ronde Vlaanderen. Good ride by Docker to finish 9th and Hayman would have finished top 10 if he didn’t sit up in the last 200 metres - As expected, the Paterberg was too much for Ewan.
A.Yates finishes third in the uphill finish to stage 3 of Catalunya behind Valverde and Martin - And in stage 4, Impey sprints to third behind Bouhanni and Cimolai in a reduced peleton - Interestingly Edmondson was fourth in the stage and seemed to be lead out by Impey.
Stage 5 of Catalunya is the Queen Stage with a HC climb to finish. E3 Harelbeke is on today with the heavy hitters returning - A top 10 for Orica will be a good result.
E3 Harelbeke tonight
This has Peter Sagan written all over it. Especially as last year’s winner Kwiatkowski is not riding it for some reason.
Interesting to see how OS go with Durbo in great form and Magnus Cort looking to present some cobble credentials.
GVA wins E3 Harelbeke, from Gilbert.
Another fine ride from Durbo, to finish 4th.
Sagan missed (several) selections, and was tightly marked everytime he tried something. Wasn’t his best ride.
Sagan had a crash too, he was already out of contention at that time.
Impey takes stage 6 of Catalunya.
Another Belgian classic tonight. Gent-Wevelgem - In Flanders Fields
A bit of change of route this year with 3 additional “Pug streets” added to the course.
If this was a wet race, perhaps we’d see CX bikes. Pugstreets
Sagan/GVA/Stybar.