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Ronde van Vlaanderen Discussion
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| Aquarius97 |
Posted on 02-12-2017 14:31
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Welcome to presentation of the 101th edition of Ronde van Vlaanderen, the second Monument of the season. A hilly cobbled race over 250 km, with all the mythical muurs in the route like the Kapelmuur-Bosberg combo as the final sections.
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | | 2007 | T. Boonen | G.Hincapie | P. Van Petegem | | 2008 | G. Hincapie | M. Burghardt | T. Boonen | | 2009 | T. Boonen | A. Ballan | V. Gusev | | 2010 | T. Boonen | M. Burghardt | J. Baugnies | | 2011 | A. Ballan | M. Burghardt | N. Nuyens | | 2012 | T. Boonen | A. Ballan | F. Cancellara | | 2013 | T. Boonen | S. Bewley | V. Gusev | | 2014 | F. Cancellara | M. Burghardt | S. Bewley | | 2015 | S. Bewley | M. Burghardt | A. Blythe | | 2016 | S. Bewley | G. Van Avermaet | P. Vanspeybrouck |
The two-time defending champion,  Sam Bewley is here to win by the third year in a row and become the second rider with the most wins in the race, only behind Tom Boonen, who has won the race 7 times. He is the big favourite without any doubt, and after failing to win MSR a third time, he needs to win here his 9th Monument ever.
His main rival is last year's runner-up  Greg van Avermaet. He's way better in hills than Bewley, but worse in both cobbles and sprint, so he needs to use his strenghts at his best to be able to drop Bewley in the muurs.
 Danny Summerhill is the only other rider that can stand a chance to win the race. His only hopes goes by a bad day of Bewley, as he is very unlikely to drop both Bewley and Van Avermaet in the cobbles.
Behind those three riders, there are a few contenders that might fight for a podium spot, like  Blythe or  Vanspeybrouck, the riders who finished third the last two years.  Trentin,
Kristoff or  Stallaert can be dangerous rider if a big group comes to sprint for the win.
 Senechal,  Baugnies,  Vanbilsen can't be considered between the main contenders, but they will be for sure in the fight for a top5 placement, as well as riders as  David,  Vanmarcke or  Zepuntke
| Rider | FLA | HIL | STA | RES | COB | SPR | ACC | | Bewley | 78 | 71 | 78 | 76 | 83 | 83 | 83 | | Van Avermaet | 78 | 76 | 78 | 75 | 82 | 78 | 78 | | Summerhill | 78 | 73 | 76 | 72 | 83 | 70 | 73 | | Trentin | 74 | 74 | 76 | 71 | 81 | 75 | 76 | | Senechal | 75 | 67 | 79 | 74 | 82 | 69 | 74 | | Blythe | 76 | 66 | 76 | 71 | 82 | 76 | 73 | | Kristoff | 75 | 68 | 75 | 71 | 78 | 83 | 79 | | Vanbilsen | 78 | 69 | 80 | 74 | 80 | 72 | 71 | | Stallaert | 77 | 67 | 76 | 68 | 79 | 79 | 76 | | Baugnies | 78 | 72 | 80 | 73 | 80 | 65 | 73 | | Vanspeybrouck | 76 | 71 | 78 | 71 | 82 | 67 | 69 |  Kluge | 78 | 68 | 77 | 75 | 77 | 77 | 75 | | David | 74 | 75 | 76 | 74 | 78 | 70 | 73 |  Polanc | 72 | 73 | 78 | 73 | 78 | 67 | 75 | | Vanmarcke | 76 | 66 | 77 | 72 | 80 | 70 | 72 | | Zepuntke | 72 | 69 | 79 | 72 | 81 | 72 | 64 | | Ringheim | 72 | 67 | 75 | 71 | 78 | 73 | 75 |  Sulimov | 73 | 70 | 77 | 71 | 79 | 65 | 71 | | Zhupa | 75 | 67 | 78 | 74 | 77 | 74 | 68 | | Breen | 77 | 70 | 72 | 72 | 77 | 73 | 72 |
Edited by Aquarius97 on 03-12-2017 11:21
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| trekbmc |
Posted on 02-12-2017 14:43
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Best chance for GVA to topple Bewley with his big hill stat, sure to be a thriller!  Trentin, Stallaert and Polanc are all really cool riders as well to support and see how they do. 
However, that will all happen several minutes after Young wins.
Thanks for the preview Aquarius!
"What done is, is one." - Benji Naesen
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 02-12-2017 14:47
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Directeur Sportif
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release the hilly cobbles force! hoped for a preview enlightening the different aspects and gambles in this race a little bit more though (e.g. Skujins,...) of course Polanc is our #1 option, but watch out for Kump
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 02-12-2017 15:23
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Bewley to win, van Avermaet to podium, us being anonymous.
Can't say I'm thrilled to see the cobbled classics underway, but hopefully some great racing will spark out of it.
Thanks for another race Aquarius!
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 07-12-2025 10:14
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| knockout |
Posted on 02-12-2017 15:28
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Of course this is another huge race for us. As for every monument I have big expectations. I'm currently at 6 monument podiums in the 7 monuments that I raced and I hoped to continue that. Race of the year for Greggy and I sure hope he can beat Bewley after finishing second so often on the cobbles. Of my last 8 PT (incl. PTHC) cobbled classics I finished 7 times as second and once as fourth. Yet I'm still to beat Bewley in a single cobbled race who always finished one spot higher when he participated as well. That alone is sick consistency by both teams.
As announced in my HQ (and mentioned by Croatia, thanks ) Skujins is part of this race. Thoughts behind the selection are explained below (copied from my HQ):
But surprise - surprise we have a special guest appearance: Toms Skujins completes our team to support Greg Van Avermaet. When having to decide where to spend the final two RDs we decided that Skujins would not play an important role in Milan San Remo and Lisbon Classic as Michael Van Stayen should be the 100% clear-cut leader there and another co-leader might hurt the team in some scenarios so we decided that a participation in the Ronde Van Vlaanderen could be a good idea. He has a decent ability over the cobbles and having most cobblestones on uphill passages will surely help him. As a rider who knows how to ride races of 250 kilometres he will be a great benefit in such a long monument and most important: He perfectly accentuates Greg Van Avermaets strength on the hills in the hope that we can pressure our rivals.
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 02-12-2017 16:01
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I know we can't score any points here, but this race is so important for us I even sent Joseph in support for Vanbilsen, rather than let him ride in Kuurne and earn us some points. Don't make me regret this, Kenneth!
I remember last year Vanbilsen got very close to winning before the rerun. Dropped from 2nd to 10th or something there, so let's hope we get compensated for that loss 
But most of all, make this a good race instead of all the crap cobbles the PCT has seen so far.
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| Roman |
Posted on 02-12-2017 16:37
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Classic win or go home - 2nd goal of the season for my team. Even Boonen was never able to win 3 times straight here though. 
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 02-12-2017 17:57
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Classics Specialist
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Love this race! Shame we don't have a rider who can battle with the best here.
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 02-12-2017 18:04
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In desperate need of a good result. Top-10 has to be the goal. Anything less would be quite a bummer.
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| viking90 |
Posted on 02-12-2017 18:39
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Top 10 would be huge result guess we should settle for something like top 15 more realistic. Thanks for the support trek
Broers to pick up some minor pts aswell.
Hope to see someone fighting with Bewley for the win! |
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| Tamijo |
Posted on 02-12-2017 20:29
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Good luck to anyone, always nice with cob classic. No preference on by side just a clean race without fatal injuries
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| tastasol |
Posted on 02-12-2017 22:42
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Classics Specialist
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Allez Matteo!
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| ember |
Posted on 03-12-2017 09:57
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Hopeully AI serves this monument well, as trekbmc says, this has the potential to be a thriller between GVA and Bewley thanks to the hill stat. Hopefully we'll get that, though Bewley is of course the favourite.
Very excited to see how different our team performance will be here compared to Appia Antica, as eventhough our depth is good, that surely was an overperformance. Hopefully Trentin can mix it with the riders behind GVA and Bewley. A top 5 is an ambitious goal, and a podium is possible. Really looking forward to this one!
Also seeing four riders in the list of 20 riders in the opening post here, I do expect a solid team performance. Fingers crossed |
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| cio93 |
Posted on 03-12-2017 10:34
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The hardest cobbled race for Blythe to do well in, but having a podium to his name here still raises expectations. Top 5 would be great. Declerq is quite suited to this, so I hope for some minor points as well.
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| knockout |
Posted on 03-12-2017 15:22
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The cobbles races are too predictable
I'm pretty sure I've wrote this already in earlier races but I'll never be unhappy with a 2nd place behind Bewley even if I hope to defeat him one day. Congrats Roman! GVA is lucky that he was improved at such a late age, otherwise he would be known as the eternal second by now.
A bit unhappy that Skujins didn't do anything and also Stoltz crashes in an unfortunate moment mark the negative highlights of the race for me. Still, I can't be unhappy.
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| Yellow Jersey |
Posted on 03-12-2017 15:22
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Amazing Bewley! I really thought van Avermaet could pull one over him, and Summerhill at one point also seemed as he could do something but Bewley still had a lot in the tank, chapeau Roman.
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 03-12-2017 15:48
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Bewley is still the cobbles' king. Van Avermaet a creditable contender, but he's rapidly evolving into the present day Burghardt.
RVV is always a tremendous race to follow,even though the predictability of it ruins the show a little. Anyway great report once again Aquarius. I particularly enjoyed the pics. Great job!
Also, you must be getting tired of hearing it, but congratulations, Roman!
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| viking90 |
Posted on 03-12-2017 15:58
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So once again congrats Bewley and Roman!
Aker - MOT´s depth in cobbles shows once again with 3 top 20 places, congrats ember! (Even with Kristoff doing bad)
And I´m very very happy with Stallaerts 8th place, much more then I hoped for and seeing not maxed Sweeck getting some very good pts in 19th is also very good!
Thanks for the report! |
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| cio93 |
Posted on 03-12-2017 16:02
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Very disappointing, for a monument in particular. I guess the wind didn't allow for recuperation after the hills, so 66 hill really hurt.
The support squad was nonexistent as well.
Boringley up front as always.
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 03-12-2017 16:08
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Well, that is a good result for Vanspeybrouck! Probably couldn't have asked for more, since it's all about who finishes 3rd behind the two big stars. So we are actually on a podium spot
Edmondson in the break is cool. Adding some kind of minor depth alongside Van der Haar.
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