The official Classics thread
The Classics season kicked off yesterday with Sep Vanmarkke (Garmin) outsprinting Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma) to win Omloop.
I'm currently drinking my first espresso on the way to may more waiting for Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne to start. I'll be watching a Belgium feed via Sporza. I have not idea what they are talking about but it sounds awesome. Feed links can be found on http://www.cyclingfans.com. I'm supposed to run this morning but Steph is making waffels...
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I just heard about Sporza.be and will be watching the classics this way via my computer, and pushing the broadcast to my big screen TV via HDMI cable.
Anyone have a way to record the sporza.be broadcast, to be watched at a later time?
Sep Vanmarkke is the cousin of Ben VanMarkke, a local training partner, EN plan customer and Pasadena Tri Club training director. I talked to him briefly at the club meeting last night about the win. Needless to say, the family is pretty psyched!
Ben said he'll try to get Sep's power file from the race and share it with us
Highlight from Saturday
(I can't embed so you will have to click)
Lars Boom tries to take a line where there is no line. Boonen doesn't even notice.
http://www.sporza.be/permalink/1.1230056
Rich...that's awesome. I'd love to see the power file too. Sep had an amazing race.
Strafe Bianche is a cool old race. Some big names in this year. Spartacus, Roman K, Sagan.....
Anyone want to make some picks?
I'm going with Peter Sagan. He should breakthrough to the really big time this year. He's almost Italian (Slovenia's just next door), and he does wear Liquigas kit.
Also, I just found out my Sat provider (Dish) now has Universal, so I can see the race @ 0600 tomorrow.
1 Philippe Gilbert (Bel)
2 Cadel Evans (Aus)
3 Alessandro Ballan (Ita)
4 Adam Blythe (GBr)
5 George Hincapie (USA)
6 Martin Kohler (Swi)
7 Marco Pinotti (Ita)
8 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel)
Sheesh - he made it look easy. Maybe it's his new aerodynamic chin? (No more stubble
)
Classic cancellara! Wait for a spot where there's a tempo and/or terrain change and make the charge, then TT all the way to the finish. Impressive as always. Nemo should be proud!
I ended up buying the $40 universal sports online package (all their covered races for the first half of 2012), and running output cables to my tv. Good stuff!!!
you can kind of see the move in this replay. It's at the 1:38 mark but since they cut away so you don't fully appreciate the acceleration. But it's amazing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMqvicOeXz4
OTOH- watched the TT from Paris-Nice yesterday. Ugh, painful to watch. They did give Jens lots of air time though which was nice.
If by ugly you mean the continuing mystery of Andy Schleck's TT position, yeah. But Levi and Tejay sure showed grit. Young Mr. Van Garderen has the whole package for stage race success. Key being his courage and passion. Last year in the "Tour of Colorado" he gained 45 seconds by fearlessly flying downhill 20 miles/1200 meters in the cold rain from Independence pass, then almost slashed his wrists after losing the lead to Levi in the TT. Yesterday, he and Bradley Wiggins were the only racers who managed a good ride after the rain started. Taylor Phinney, OTOH, seems to have silver spoon syndrome.
Teejay is going to be the next big thing and by big i dont mean size. Doode can't be much more than $1.40. Taylor phinney on the other hand will be a good classics rider when he quits thinking he can win a grand tour. At @ 180lbs+ he needs to go crush some cobbles. Actually he needs to just focus on something.
...and gogolowski is Milhouse
Sorry, we're claiming Tejay in Colorado now. His GF lives in Aspen, and he bunks in Boulder when in the States, so he's ours, all ours!
I know it's not a "classic", but our guy Jens almost win stage 6 of Paris-Nice today, from a breakaway. I so wanted him to win the stage but Luis Leon Sanchez pipped him at the line. He's still da man though!!!
I've been watching Paris-Nice. LL Sanchez is the TT champ of Spain, who snagged Jens' wheel with about 400 meters to go. Even so, he only managed to nip Jens by less than half a wheel, after they'd been all day in a breakaway over multiple Cat 3 and 2 climbs, and the two of them holding off the whole of Omega-Pharma-Quickstep, featuring Tony Maritn & Sylvain Chanvel (who had help from the Shack, Coifidis, and Sky) for the last 10 miles. It was awesome to watch the two of them defying the entire peloton.
I want whatever he found at the Fountain of Youth.
Al, do you get every pro in Co? You can't swing a dead cat in Boulder without hitting a pro and you might hit C Wellington too. I was sitting on my bike at a light and 3 guys in Garmin kit roll up and I thought, that's kind of cheesy, wearing pro kits. Unless of course.......
I know a youngster and I won't disclose yet who but I will say Mt. Baldy, Sierra, Flagstaff and an off the charts (literally) w/kg.
Mum's the word.......
Everyone see the video of Levi and seemingly all of Quickstep eat it? ugly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZiRmpokpfA
Considering most on EN would sit through 8 hours of a Kona broadcast I'm confident many could make it through this race.
Yes poor Levi and crew.
And I wanted Jens to gett the Paris-Nice stage. Oh well.
Cancellara did it in 10 minutes. Freaky power.
I hope Horner holds on to win GC.
I have not yet seen the T/A final stage. But I want to say, Chris Horner has achieved something awesome. 8 weeks ago, he was still on coumadin for the blood clot he got as a complication of his nasty fall in the Tour, July 2011. And he's 40! Yet there he is, climbing with Krueziger and Nibali and Scarponi and DiLuca. Andy Schleck better not look over his shoulder too many times, or Horner could become the Shack's Tour leader mid-race.
Oh, and Bradley Wiggins is oozing confidence. In a Tour with 100 km of TT, and no Alberto Contador ...?