Gent-Wevelgem (spoilers)

[thwart]

Great race, unfortunately I couldn't find a video stream, so followed the tickers.

Paolini certainly deserved it. At age 38, he's as strong as ever.

[chengher87]

Wei-san has got to be pumped about the outcome!

Patrick Lefevre needs to be replaced or something because that was terrible tactics on the part of Etixx. Vandenbergh and Terpstra in the front group and neither chases down Paolini? You can't sit back and hope that Geraint Thomas chases, you have no leverage.

Ride of the day goes to both Roelandts, for staying out in front for a LONG time and Thomas, for crashing and chasing back to the front group and then dropping both Debusschere and van Marcke.

[jpw]

Wei-san has got to be pumped about the outcome!

Patrick Lefevre needs to be replaced or something because that was terrible tactics on the part of Etixx. Vandenbergh and Terpstra in the front group and neither chases down Paolini? You can't sit back and hope that Geraint Thomas chases, you have no leverage.

Ride of the day goes to both Roelandts, for staying out in front for a LONG time and Thomas, for crashing and chasing back to the front group and then dropping both Debusschere and van Marcke.

Only last week Lefevre lambasted Klier for his tactics at Dwars. Er, Patrick, Omloop... and now Wevelgem. Or is Wilfried Peeters calling the moves from the team car?

[zmudshark]

For future reference, I've always found live feeds here:

http://www.cyclingfans.com/

[bobswire]

Great race, unfortunately I couldn't find a video stream, so followed the tickers.

Paolini certainly deserved it. At age 38, he's as strong as ever.

His timing was perfect, I watched it until 15km to go but had to leave for an errand. I figured he was one of the weakest at that point , I had Terpstra or Thomas for the win. I came back to watch the end before finding out who won and was pleasantly surprised. Goes to show anything thing can happen if you give your all.

[thwart]

For future reference, I've always found live feeds here:

http://www.cyclingfans.com/

Yeah, not one of the several cyclingfans and steephill options were working today. I had brief video thru a Eurosport feed, but then it went down.

May have been a local issue for me…

[jpw]

I liked Luca's custom yellow Assos Zeghos. I wonder where he buys them from?

[weisan]

Wei-san has got to be pumped about the outcome!


cheng pal...I am, thank you very much.

http://pelotonmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Luca_And_Bettini.jpg

Luca through the years...
http://pelotonmagazine.com/shutter/shutter-luca-paolini-through-the-years/

[MattTuck]

I wasn't at home this morning to watch it, though it sounds like I might have been very frustrated if I had tried to with limited access to the streams.

From the highlights and what I've been able to watch on youtube, and read from various twitter accounts, it sounds like one of the most brutal days in my career as a cycling spectator as far as cross winds go.

Good on Paolini. Good showings in the previous races for his teammate, glad he got some glory with a win.

[commonguy001]

Watched it this afternoon on BeIn Sports through Sling TV and it looked pretty brutal. All those guys in the lead group are tough as nails.

Haven't had bike racing to watch in a few years as we've been cable free and I'm really enjoying all of it.

[jlwdm]

I was excited when I turned on the TV and saw that the race was automatically recorded on my DVR. Then I was disappointed when I saw that I do not get Bein Sports the channel the race was on. That is what I get for only subscribing to 355 channels. The same thing happened recently on Universal Sports.

Jeff

[nooneline]

This might be the stand-out race of 2015 - definitely one to remember! I put it on expecting to see 70km to go and I saw 120km to go, and the peloton being absolutely destroyed by the crosswinds and the rain. And that was just the beginning.

Very smart riding by both Lotto teams to make the race early. Amazing bridges by Paolini and Terpstra to get into the selection - which was early as hell. Amazing ride by Roelandts, but it was unlikely and as good as Debusschere is I didn't see him gutting out a deathmarch like today. EQS, well, they had a lot of bad luck. Sep got cracked pretty solid, I couldn't believe Thomas's ride just two days after his performance at E3. Luca: wow.

Tactics? When it came down to it, tactics are something that play out earlier in the race. In the endgame it's boxing and it's surviving. Read what some of the riders have to say about the conditions, and how the lead group felt at the end, and there's no way that you can do any Monday Morning DSing with a straight face! There was an attrition rate of over 80%.

Shades of 2010 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, but that race was 45km shorter and didn't have the All-Star Slugfest at the front that today's GW did.

Treasure this one... what a race!

[bobswire]

Here are some nice VeloNews gallery photos... http://velonews.competitor.com/2015/03/news/road/gallery-2015-gent-wevelgem_364906

[MattTuck]

Here are some nice VeloNews gallery photos... http://velonews.competitor.com/2015/03/news/road/gallery-2015-gent-wevelgem_364906

People talk a lot about frontal surface area. Today, the advantage went to he who had small side surface area.

http://cdn.velonews.competitor.com/files/2015/03/SPTDW3083-660x440.jpg

Also, that is totally surreal.
http://velonews.competitor.com/2015/03/news/road/gallery-2015-gent-wevelgem_364906#

[ginsued]

It was streaming live on Bein Sport's website so if you get that channel you could have watched it there Before they showed it later in the day.

Yeah, not one of the several cyclingfans and steephill options were working today. I had brief video thru a Eurosport feed, but then it went down.

May have been a local issue for me…

[kramnnim]

Just watched the last ~30 minutes...wow. Terpstra's Strava data is scary. Wish it had power data, as well...

[weisan]

when luca was a spring chicken, spans a long career.

Second in 1999 U23 World Champ
http://pelotonmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/U23_podium.jpg

[Jgrooms]

And yet again some question if the race should have been canceled.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2015/03/news/wind-like-never-before-in-belgiums-gent-wevelgem-classic_364972

Seriously? I get it. Icy decending. Crazy sandstorms. But now when the wind blows in Belgium? If only Boonen or Spartacus (sorta un-earning that imo) were there to speak up.

Paid to ride. Go ride. And yes I've raced in gusts to 40 & been blown in the ditch. Carry on.

[weisan]

Flanders + Roubaix + HURRICANE = CARNAGE

HAMBURG: Hurricane-force winds lashed parts of northern Europe on Tuesday, including Germany and the Netherlands, causing flights to be cancelled, snarling some train services and hitting port traffic.

The Dutch meteorological office issued a code red warning for the low-lying country's northern and coastal provinces, as gusts of up to 120 kilometres (75 miles) an hour battered the Netherlands.

A spokesman for Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, Europe's fourth largest, said 80 flights had been cancelled because the wind had reduced runway capacity. It warned that delays would mount as flight volumes rose later in the day.

At Rotterdam, Europe's largest port, two container terminals were closed, with ships forced to queue out at sea. A spokesman said this was a routine precaution when winds rise above gale force seven. Bulk liquid terminals continued to operate.

Near the port of Vlissingen, authorities were preparing to refloat a 300-metre (1,000-feet) container ship that ran aground in the small hours near the port of Vlissingen on the Belgian border. The crew was in no danger, the water management agency said, according to NOS public radio.

In neighbouring Germany, weather service spokesman Peter Hartmann said winds could strengthen to 160 kilometres an hour on higher ground, he added. "This could be one of the heaviest storms in recent years," he said.

About 40 flights were cancelled at Frankfurt airport with one runway shut, an airport spokesperson said.

German railway operator Deutsche Bahn said it had stopped train services in the central German state of North Rhine Westphalia.

In Britain, winds gusted up to 97 mph (160 kph) overnight, with a major bridge over the River Thames closed for several hours because of the bad weather, causing long traffic delays.

In Belgium, the wind uprooted trees, knocked over lampposts and cut power lines to hundreds of homes. In some places, cars and buildings were damaged by flying debris and some rail and road links were briefly obstructed.

(Reporting by Michael Nienaber, Markus Wacket, Sabine Wollrab, Anthony Deutsch, Alastair Macdonald, Stephen Addison, writing by Michael Hogan and Thomas Escritt; Editing by Crispian Balmer)
- Reuters

[Jgrooms]

& the race didn't go off on Tue. Max wind of 50 was the report.

[Grant McLean]

I've been having poor performance from the cyclingfans links lately.
My computer is getting slow, not sure if that contributes to the problem,
but the streams are basically unwatchable because they freeze every
two seconds. Anyway, I get most of the races on one of my cable channels,
and for the others there are several great youtube channels who upload
the last hour or so of the race right after it's aired.

[MattTuck]

& the race didn't go off on Tue. Max wind of 50 was the report.

Three Days of De Panne started today.

[nooneline]

And yet again some question if the race should have been canceled.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2015/03/news/wind-like-never-before-in-belgiums-gent-wevelgem-classic_364972

Seriously? I get it. Icy decending. Crazy sandstorms. But now when the wind blows in Belgium? If only Boonen or Spartacus (sorta un-earning that imo) were there to speak up.

Paid to ride. Go ride. And yes I've raced in gusts to 40 & been blown in the ditch. Carry on.

That article is silly, but don't be mad at the pros about it. Here's why:

What the article said: Some insiders said that the cyclists would have forced the Gent-Wevelgem classic to a stop had the conditions continued any longer yesterday. What it lacked, they said, was statesmen like Tom Boonen or Fabian Cancellara — both out with injuries — to take control and lead a strike.

Others said that the wind was extreme, but not too much, and helped create the hard conditions that help make the northern classics so famous.

It quoted "some insiders," not pro racers. It was only the author who put those conditions in the same file folder as other potential neutralization situations.

Don't be mad at racers. They didn't say anything about weather-related neutralization.