La Flèche Wallonne - Spoilers!
 

Exciting! Valverde finally beaten, Anna continues her domination.

Allaphilipe is gonna win Ardennes races for a long time.

Really looking forward to seeing him in LBL.

Well, at least he's finally won one now, been knocking on the door for a while. And he's still only 25-26 yrs, should have best years ahead. So do folks think the Ardennes might be his niche? Hopefully, LBL is a good race. Maybe a little long for him to win? Being on QS surely a plus.

i think they've been his niche for a good while now, he got 2nd in FW and LBL and a top ten in Amstel all 3 years ago.

Meanwhile I was surprised to see Michael Matthews hanging tough on the lower slopes of Muur de Huy, and wow, he wound up 5th. Not bad for a "sprinter" but I think he's the kind of rider who's going to keep having a hard time figuring out what type of races suit him. Gerrans was like that, maybe there's something to the Australian development of deep endurance sprinters, "the last sprinter left standing" - definitely not the kind of rider for whom wins come easily, but who can surprise (or confirm) if a race goes perfectly.

God willing. I love him.

It is a miracle Alaphillipe was not seriously hurt in that time trial crash that sent him flying.

Let's not forget that he hung tough with Sagan and Kwiatkowski in MSR 2017. The guy is France's great hope. I'd love to see him figure out where his skills/talents can make the most impact. I hope he doesn't fall into the mold of Tom Voeckler... even though a few exploits in le tour probably make a French rider into a celebrity (which may be good for sponsorship and making endorsement money), I think the one day races are his thing.

Valverde just saving his strength for Sunday...figured he had won this one enought times already....:)

Stephen

Yeah but Allaphillipe is already distancing himself from Voeckler in that he's actually winning things.

Hah! Fair point. I like Allaphillipe and don't think he will turn into TV 2.0. My favorite current French rider though is Barguil. As for the "next French hope" in terms of winning the TDF, that might well be the young kid that alas was signed by Sky :mad:

I think Bardet punches through at some point.

That would be super! I'm not sure it can happen but would be great. Hey, so here's this guy who has progressed steadily, a little every year. Not somebody who "magically" transformed from an average rider to a world beater in a year. (Sorry, didn't mean to relate to that other thread I am trying to steer clear of.)