Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

I think it was a bit of Langevelde's own fault for deviating off the road in order to take advantage of the bikepath. It didn't really look like a designated racing area and there were many other spectators there.

Its the race though, its always one of those extreme races. You have to take risk's and if you watch the coverage you see that at almost every part of the race you have guys doing the same thing. The reason there was an accident here is that the spectator's felt they were getting in the way of the peloton the problem arose when the guy panicked. Its racing it happens, i do think that the guy just reacted without thinking and hopefully never puts himself in the same position because it could have been a whole lot nastier

the reason SL tried that move on was to move up in the peloton. easy to do in your club race but these guys are going absolutely full gas and missing the selection means a winter's training wasted for a major year's goal, so they take huge risks. it's what makes it worth watching.

jules21 wrote: the agreement between them was apparently that pippo wouldn't cover a ballan attack - if he got away, he could have the win, and that pippo was hoping that if boonen covered all ballan's attacks, he wouldn't have the legs in the sprint. didn't work obviously.

Found this on CN which supports this....

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/so-near ... f-flanders

An incredibly flawed plan imo.

"I tried to win, I did everything that I could, but unfortunately I struggled with the kind of sprint that it was in the end. It was from an almost standing start and Tom showed that he was the most explosive," said Pozzato.

I wouldn't call waiting for a sprint with Boonen doing "everything that I could" that's just playing into his strengths and moving away from yours. Pippo is an opportunist. No way Ballan was going to ride away from Boonen on the flat, not even Fab can do that.

I really thought the last 10 kms was going to be exciting and that the two of them would work Boonen over with numerous attacks and counter attacks, but in the end it was fairly dull and the outcome predictable.

I agree with this article....

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/11513 ... again.aspx

If a similar scenario unfolds next Sunday I hope he doesn't just ride to the velodrome with Boonen.

igstar wrote:I think it was a bit of Langevelde's own fault for deviating off the road in order to take advantage of the bikepath. It didn't really look like a designated racing area and there were many other spectators there.

It's not an exaggeration to say that that kind of move happens all the time.

when i was watching it though, the commentator was saying that pippo does have a decent kick. i can kind of see it from pippo's perspective - while he wasn't likely to beat boonen in a sprint, neither was he likely to ride boonen off his wheel on the flat. in both cases, you're up against boonen's sprint. when the bunch couldn't bridge to them, i just assumed boonen would take it. pippo at least gave him a run in the sprint, but i agree it would have been more interesting to see more aggressive attempts to shake him up before then.

jules21 wrote:when i was watching it though, the commentator was saying that pippo does have a decent kick. i can kind of see it from pippo's perspective - while he wasn't likely to beat boonen in a sprint, neither was he likely to ride boonen off his wheel on the flat. in both cases, you're up against boonen's sprint. when the bunch couldn't bridge to them, i just assumed boonen would take it. pippo at least gave him a run in the sprint, but i agree it would have been more interesting to see more aggressive attempts to shake him up before then.

The other thing jules is that Pippo's DS and others have talked him up as the strongest guy post race. He did look strong, so even the slightest of gaps created on the counter may have been enough. Ballan wouldn't have worked with Tom.

In the end Pozzato was willing to watch Ballan attack and hope that would be enough to soften Boonen. Fair enough, but I think a better strategy would have been to counter-attack after Ballan.


"I tried to win, I did everything that I could, but unfortunately I struggled with the kind of sprint that it was in the end. It was from an almost standing start and Tom showed that he was the most explosive," said Pozzato.

How did he think it was going to happen ? Ballan was always going to slow up its what happens in these situations, Boonen wasnt going to keep the pace high because it didn't play to his strengths. I honestly think that as much as everyones saying his getting away from his usual tactic of following the top guys (which he did for 250km of the race) he fell back into that role in the last 10km

one thing that was weird is that pippo appeared to sit down half way into his sprint, perhaps to change up a gear, then got up again. can't you change up out of the seat?

jules21 wrote:one thing that was weird is that pippo appeared to sit down half way into his sprint, perhaps to change up a gear, then got up again. can't you change up out of the seat?

Yeah I noticed that as well.
They should of one two'ed him till he cracked... no one was going to beat Tom in a sprint. Least then they had a 50/50 chance instead of zero chance.