Pro-cycling thread

That helmet can do one though. Eeessh.

Great finish!

Valgren’s first pro win outside of Denmark.

I should have known you would know. Carry on....

Honestly I thought that was thoroughly dull.

I got a 3 yrs for 90 quid deal from Nord VPN which is a chunk upfront but economical when you also consider they're one of the best out there. Plus nobody can buy a log of my midget pron habits so that's nice.

Bejnoot's failed I thought was the funnest bit, but it's still a joy to watch sunny cobbled racing on a cold Saturday afternoon

Really? A group of 12 fighting it out for the win, with only one team with more than one rider, and with the peloton close enough behind to still be a factor, it doesn't get a lot better in terms of watching the tactics unfold. Astana played a blinder too, used their numerical advantage to great effect.

Also Danish victory taste sooooo sweet

best ever finish of any race I've seen was stannard in the omloop few years back...vs boonen, terpstra and vandenberg...was shouting at the telly laughing hysterically when he won

Out of interest what would they have had to of done to prevent the Astana win?

To me it looked like they got caught with their pants down and just chucked in the towel. Why were they reluctant to chase him down?

he got a good jump on them and anyone who drives the chase is gonna be knackered and easily outsprinted for the line - anyone who chases will lose so nobody chases

He timed it beautifully, got a good gap immediately and, as @carson says, anyone who jumped after him would’ve lost. Vanmarcke’s effort got him close, but he didn’t have the legs to close that last bit of the gap. He was cooked too, so Wiszniaoski popped him for second.

In a group that size, someone will hide and save energy. Astana were clever as they rested Valgren for a long time, as he was sat on at the back. I thought Trentin might get it as he barely did a turn on the front, but Astana’s numerical supremacy counted in the end.

Thanks both

Also Danish victory taste sooooo sweet

'We are red, we are white, we are ...'

Hang on.

'We are turquoise, we are yellow, we are Danish dynamite!' :)

Whoever chased him would have been burning matches just to tow Gatto/Lutsenko/other rivals to the line. No prizes for that.

See also: Terpstra’s win at Paris Roubaix a few years ago.

It certainly wasn’t boring. The headwind kept a lid on any earlier attacks today which nullified the race a bit, but I enjoyed it. Gilbert, Benoot, Vanmarcke all had a go.

Vino's smack doing the Danish lad some good that's for sure

Meant to say, that I was completely wrong on Van Aert. I know he's a talent, but I thought after a long cross season he'd need a decent break before finding any form on the road, but he looked as strong as anyone in the final 20 kms. It'll be interesting to see how he fares in the rest of the spring races he's doing.

Strade Bianchi should really suit him, right?

Maybe. The strade bianche sections are only really difficult enough to make a difference if it's wet, so I don't think there's much advantage to be had in having superior handling skills that a cross rider might have. That said I don't think Stybar has finished worse than fourth in his attempts at the race, so perhaps it can make a difference.

Looking forward to seeing Van Aert take on the Mt Sante Marie section, 11.5kms of gravel climbs and descents of over 15% in parts. That's the decider as far as the gravel sections go, pity it is a bit too far at over 40km from the line.

I don't think I appreciated just how terminal his move was, seems more impressive now. Agreed with the above, it was a joy to be watching Belgian racing again. I think maybe I'd get more from it without company, we probably missed some of the more subtle things about the race due to grumbling about it

Tom Dumoulin 💔 di2

Valverde to win it... or will Kelderman... #tourofabudhabi

Edit: Valverde, stronger than all of them again

Do any pros ride the Omloop and KBK on the same weekend?

Yes, most of them do