Paris-Roubaix: Discussion & Prognostications (There will be spoilers)

[azrider]

Originally Posted by livingminimal

Vaughters is nauseating.

fixed it for you

[crankles]

Lol. this is always fun...

Sadly for GvA, I've been been paying attention a lot longer than 14 months...

We all know you hate Sagan, but GvA was a pro at being the bridesmaid long before Sagan, but never hath he suffered your wrath. Why not?

You simply like to pick and choose.

GvA is having a great year, but IMHO Saga is having a better career.

In truth I'm amazed Sagan manages to even win/place/show in races with a team seemingly made up of friends from high school...a point on which we both agree. It's not like Astana built a team around him, but Team Bora

and to save folks the trouble.
Gva:

Grand Tours
Tour de France
-2 individual stages (2015, 2016)
-1 TTT stage (2015)
Vuelta a España
-Points classification (2008)
-1 individual stage (2008)
Stage races
-Tirreno–Adriatico (2016)
-Tour of Belgium (2015)
-Tour de Wallonie (2011, 2013)
One-day races and Classics
-Olympic Road Race (2016)
-Paris–Roubaix (2017)
-Gent–Wevelgem (2017)
-E3 Harelbeke (2017)
-GP de Montréal (2016)
-Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (2016, 2017)
-Paris–Tours (2011)
Other
-UCI America Tour (2016)

Sagan:
Major wins
Grand Tours
Tour de France
-Points classification (2012 – 2016)
-Super-combativity award (2016)
-7 individual stages (2012, 2013, 2016)
Vuelta a España
-4 individual stages (2011, 2015)
Stage races
-Giro di Sardegna (2011)
-Tour de Pologne (2011)
-Tour of California (2015)
One-day races and Classics
-World Road Race Championships (2015, 2016)
-European Road Race Championships (2016)
-National Road Race Championships (2011 – 2015)
-National Time Trial Championships (2015)
-Tour of Flanders (2016)
-Gent–Wevelgem (2013, 2016)
-E3 Harelbeke (2014)
-GP de Montréal (2013)
-GP de Québec (2016)
-Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne (2017)
-Brabantse Pijl (2013)

Originally Posted by FlashUNC

Have you been awake the last 14 months? Yellow jersey in the Tour, not just racking up intermediate sprints on empty calorie stages and winning a green jersey without having to even win a stage.

Omloop (a repeat win no less), E3 and Gent Wevelgem -- only the second man ever to win all those races in one Spring -- now Roubaix. Sagan can't even win semi-classics with that kind of regularity. Oh and in between he was second at Flanders to Phillipe Gilbert's greatest day on a bike in his life.

That's not even counting the Olympic gold medal on a course that Sagan said was too hard for even him. So he gets to ride a gold bike for the next four years while Peter was playing in the dirt for half a lap of a glorified marketing scheme.

Again, GvA is God.

[FlashUNC]

Originally Posted by crankles

Lol. this is always fun...

Sadly for GvA, I've been been paying attention a lot longer than 14 months...

We all know you hate Sagan, but GvA was a pro at being the bridesmaid long before Sagan, but never hath he suffered your wrath. Why not?

You simply like to pick and choose.

Not really. I don't like the hype train that unabashedly and completely left the station before Sagan did anything of note. Never mind that GvA has accomplished more in the Spring classics in six week span than Sagan has in basically his entire career to this point.

I've made clear where my fandom lies, I love the Monuments and, more broadly, the Spring Classics. Sagan is an incredible disappointment in these races on a regular basis with nothing but excuses from his fans, and statements that somehow this guy is the next Eddy Merckx. He's not.

Is that Sagan's fault? Not entirely. But I'm also not fond of the one-uppy showmanship when you're not, yanno, winning races. Its all a pale simulacrum of what Cipo did anyways.

So...a generally uncreative, attention-obsessed, over-hyped rider who's feasted on empty calorie race wins and a cycling industrial complex (ahem....Specialized...ahem) invested in (to borrow a pro wrestling term) putting him "over" with the fans has generally spoiled the mix for me with him. He makes baffling race moves for seemingly no reason and while he's alright freelancing in a free-for-all sprint -- much like Oscar Freire was in his heyday -- he ain't got much else.

Sagan's gone a year without a Monument and still just had one to his name and will til he gives it another shot in Spring 2018. Not like he'll ever be a real contender at Lombardia or LBL.

Compare him to the career trajectory of the guy who just hung it up on Sunday in Boonen: When Boonen was Sagan's age, he'd won Ronde twice, Roubaix twice, E3 four years in a row, KBK, Gent-Wevelgem, Schelderprjis twice, and had been the first guy to ever pull the Ronde/Roubaix/Worlds treble.

Sagan's palmares pales in comparison. But hey, folks like wheelies.

[ultraman6970]

Their palmares is impressive, but the biggest difference between the two is the team support, even in the worlds sagan went like with 2 guys??? Compare that to what the belgians, dutch, french, italians and spaniards take to each worldcup?? 6? 9? each team?? . As for the Olympics I do not think it was a marketing stunt because that circuit was insane, way too much climbing for sagan and for me was understandable try to go for the other discipline, bad luck he punctured at the wrong time in that race or IMo he could have gotten a medal w/o any problem.

The other factor I forgot is that no team is willing to even bother pulling him in a group, he is racing against everybody... because you never know what he is going to do and that makes him really dangerous... he wont win big races as Gva does just because of support, w/o support there's so much he can do you know...

[FlashUNC]

Originally Posted by ultraman6970

Their palmares is impressive, but the biggest difference between the two is the team support, even in the worlds sagan went like with 2 guys??? Compare that to what the belgians, dutch, french, italians and spaniards take to each worldcup?? 6? 9? each team?? . As for the Olympics I do not think it was a marketing stunt because that circuit was insane, way too much climbing for sagan and for me was understandable try to go for the other discipline, bad luck he punctured at the wrong time in that race or IMo he could have gotten a medal w/o any problem.

So GvA is a better climber than Sagan? C'mon man...

[crankles]

Originally Posted by FlashUNC

When Boonen was Sagan's age, he'd won Ronde twice, Roubaix twice, E3 four years in a row, KBK, Gent-Wevelgem, Schelderprjis twice, and had been the first guy to ever pull the Ronde/Roubaix/Worlds treble.

Remind me again what year St. Boonen was popped for cocaine?

[Fivethumbs]

Thank goodness he left U.S. Postal before the doping became really rampant.

[echappist]

Originally Posted by crankles

Remind me again what year St. Boonen was popped for cocaine?

cocaine's a helluva drug

[jvp]

3 hr. recap on nbcsn right now (east coast).