Just as basically everyone thought, Boonen won Flanders. Looked to be a typical day- winds, crappy conditions, rain, mud, cobbles....Hoste stuck with him til the end, but Boonen was just too strong and beat him in a two up sprint. I love these races.
Boonen takes Tour of Flanders!
- Thread starter JRogers
- Start date
Saved me the trouble of watching it later.
I was hoping that Hoste or Devolder(Disco also) would take it....but that darned Boonen is too hard right now.
I love Hincape's reaction after the race, something along the lines of it should have been him up the road with Boonen instead of Hoste. Well....what were you waiting for?? Get up and make a race of it ya whiner! He also said he has very fresh legs and that he didn't get a chance to prove it today???? Wusspwitdat? Someone telling big George he can't race wide open...that he has to sit back and let Hoste be the big man? After all these years of servditude for Armstrong George has got to be roarign to go...hope he can prove he can win some classics this year. The guys got the motor...he just has to figure out how to win...
I love Hincape's reaction after the race, something along the lines of it should have been him up the road with Boonen instead of Hoste. Well....what were you waiting for?? Get up and make a race of it ya whiner! He also said he has very fresh legs and that he didn't get a chance to prove it today???? Wusspwitdat? Someone telling big George he can't race wide open...that he has to sit back and let Hoste be the big man? After all these years of servditude for Armstrong George has got to be roarign to go...hope he can prove he can win some classics this year. The guys got the motor...he just has to figure out how to win...
Yeah, I didn't have a way to see this on TV or anything, but I was wondering what his reaction would be. I mean, it's not like Boonen did anything sneaky (from the sound of the race report). Hoste attacked (which is doubly interesting if Hincapie feels like he didn't get a chance, considering they are on the same team....I would think that they would have the plan of Hoste working for Hincapie, but it sounds like it must have been every man for himself) and Boonen was the only one who answered. Hincapie made some comment that he was in the back and couldn't do anything...yeah...okay...how many people were in that break, like 15? It was over 220km in! If Boonen hits the gas then, I doubt he slowing before the finish. Two guys got away from a dozen and built an over 1 minute gap. Being in the back of the line doesn't make that happen.Internal14 said:
Part of it is good teamwork. Your teammate, a legitmate potential winner, goes up the road with another rider, and your job is to sit in the pack and let someone else doing the chasing. That is what Bettini did for Boonen, although I think he did not have the legs because he got dropped from the chase group.Internal14 said:
However, when your teammate is riding with Tom Boonen, the DS has to be realistic and understand that no one besides Hincapie has a chance of winning a sprint against him. I would have had Hoste sit on Boonen's wheel from 10k on. This might have been negative racing at its worst, but you are racing for 2nd in a two man sprint against Boonen.
However, this is the umpteenth time I have seen Hincapie let a victory slip away because he waited for someone else to do the work. I realized this in the 2002 Paris Roubaix, when Johan Musseuw went up the road on an entirely flat (albeit cobblestoned) 25 mile finish, and Hincapie sat on Boonen's wheel (then his teammate) the entire time until he crashed into a ditch.
Maybe it was good strategy to let your domestique do the work, but with 25 miles left, you would think Hincapie would have taken at least one turn at the front. And maybe Boonen would have done better than 3rd if hadn't worked for Hincapie, but for himself.
More on this. An interesting excerpt from an interview in Cyclingnews.com:sanjuro said:
Demol also explained Discovery's tactics at Flanders, where Hoste worked with Boonen until about 1.5km from the finish. "Many people have asked, why Leif?" said Demol. "He couldn't win a sprint against Boonen. Well, I can tell you.
"When Leif attacked with 32 km left it was not supposed to have been a race-deciding effort. We were trying to break up the Quick Step grip on the front of the race. We figured a big effort could get the numbers down to maybe two of them and two of us and then we'd see how it went. Leif was surprised to see that he had only Boonen with him, and radioed back to me to see what he should do.
"I told Leif that he could cooperate but that Boonen had to take the longest pulls. I also told him that if George could bridge up, then Leif could not pull any more and he'd have to wait for George. Leif was completely happy with this plan, as was Johan [Bruyneel] when I spoke with him later. I radioed George and told him to try and drop the riders he was with and then Leif will be waiting for you. George agreed and put in a big effort on the Muur, but couldn't shake the guys he was with, and that's why Leif and Boonen went to the line 1-2."
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Something along the lines of what I figured. I still don't get why Hincapie didn't jump sooner after Hoste left (was it really just bad timing...if so, then why did Hoste bother attacking?). If it had been Hoste, Hincapie and Boonen, it might have turned out differently. I doubt Hincapie could beat Boonen in a straight sprint after almost any distance, but perhaps combined efforts with Hoste could have paid off.
Now, THAT would have been interesting.