Spring Classics 2024

[Gipfelstuermer]

OPENING WEEKEND
OMLOOP
K-B-K
ALLEZ ALLEZ

On paper, the team might not be as strong as last year, but in return the motivation is even higher!

[Tukhtahuaev]

Always really enjoyed Omloop, so I'm very annoyed that I'm not even sure if I am able to ride tomorrow.

[Bear]

I am looking forward to tomorrow 22:00. All riders at 1000/100.

Lineup for Omloop:

Roni Kytonen 71 84 78 48 52 74.4 36 (1)
Matthew Beer 48 78 77 51 43 74.1 42 (2)
Nisse Bengtsson 50 86 81 45 48 76.7 39 (3)
Ukko Laaksonen 49 83 79 47 43 72.8 49 (4)
Talon Medaglia 56 87 79 51 52 83.4 35 (5)
Heikki Mikkola 58 87 78 50 49 85.5 38 (6)
Roi Paananen 54 85 79 57 53 80.2 53 (7)
Jimmy Wicksell 59 82 78 50 50 80.8 38 (8)
Vesa Ylinen 50 86 81 48 49 76.7 41 (9)


My inscribed Riders: 9 / 9
My Salary: 421,378
Covered Salary: 375,000

[Tukhtahuaev]

Morning edition was not the most exciting. No escape group and only one real move that I could control without too much trouble.
In the end Hugo Gil got his first classic win out of a 10 man group.

[Gipfelstuermer]

Afternoon edition. Early escape from 2 Gips and 1 Dagestan. The favorites (Donkey with the 3 best pavé riders and Alk with the 2 strongest looking classics) easily controlled peloton, from time to time trying to create a helper advantage vs the other.

Donkey was able to sieb the Alk Classics on Haaghoek but they came back on the next Berg. Various groups formed before the Muur, including an important Giotti attack. Important because with lots of followers there was no collaboration and it was a wasted effort for some of the attackers. So some ~20 riders reached the Muur together.

Magritte put the Hammer down there but Hawthorne, Morgenstern, Cotrufo and Ainouz stayed with him. That was the group going to the finish line. I hoped for a sprint advantage with two riders, but suddenly Cotrufo was boxed between the stronger sprinters Hawthorne and Morgenstern, which prevented an early sprint. Ainouz from 200 was too late then and so Cotrufo couldn't pass Hawthorne on the last 50. GW Alk, now the official leader in Omloop victories (5).

---

Btw, participation was better than last year, even though UAE remains more popular for unknown reasons. Would be nice to strengthen the one day race programme somehow in that week. And makes me doubt about Catalunya 4 editions, grr, so calendar planner Gip is in a Zwickmuehle.

2023:
UAE 33
Omloop 21

2024:
UAE 41
Omloop 28

[team fl]

Tesfaye Tsegaye with the first Ethiopian classic win ever in C4F! Very quiet first half in the 22h. Then, olafcelts sent 3 riders into the escape while Bearclaw Cycling started the chase slowly. His pavé armada paced up at km 161 (4**), still having 4 riders in the main group while all but Team FL with 3 riders left were reduced to one. After that, all 3 FL riders managed to keep up no only at the Muur but also at the Bosberg. In the end, it was Sprenger who kept the groupt together and launched for Tsegaye's victory.

Here's the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2024 22h result (top10):

01. 00:00:00 Tesfaye Tsegaye (Team FL)
02. 00:00:00 Spiridon Sprenger (Team FL)
03. 00:00:00 Roni Kytonen (Bearclaw Cycling)
04. 00:00:00 Joel Duvall (Team Viromet)
05. 00:00:00 Dennis Coslett (olafscelts)
06. 00:00:00 Heikki Mikkola (Bearclaw Cycling)
07. 00:00:00 Walter Walkenhorst (Team FL)
08. 00:00:00 Talon Medaglia (Bearclaw Cycling)
09. 00:01:01 Samuelle Oioli (Team Viromet)
10. 00:01:27 Olga Ciobanu (Belgium)

[Gipfelstuermer]

KK wins K-B-K

35 years old and he is only getting better. Klaas Kemp won Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne after an attack in the last 3km, which only Chimwemwe (Dreizehn) could follow.

In a race, in which we were clearly too much offline, our sprinter Mosconi wasn't there for the final so attacking was our best chance. There were other attacks before, even sprinter teams involved, which is normal in such classic race, and that gave Kemp the chance for his biggest career victory so far.

He saved the opening weekend for us even though we would clearly prefer winning Omloop, so Team FL had the better combination this weekend.

[Bear]

Tesfaye Tsegaye with the first Ethiopian classic win ever in C4F! Very quiet first half in the 22h. Then, olafcelts sent 3 riders into the escape while Bearclaw Cycling started the chase slowly. His pavé armada paced up at km 161 (4**), still having 4 riders in the main group while all but Team FL with 3 riders left were reduced to one. After that, all 3 FL riders managed to keep up no only at the Muur but also at the Bosberg. In the end, it was Sprenger who kept the groupt together and launched for Tsegaye's victory.

Here's the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2024 22h result (top10):

01. 00:00:00 Tesfaye Tsegaye (Team FL)
02. 00:00:00 Spiridon Sprenger (Team FL)
03. 00:00:00 Roni Kytonen (Bearclaw Cycling)
04. 00:00:00 Joel Duvall (Team Viromet)
05. 00:00:00 Dennis Coslett (olafscelts)
06. 00:00:00 Heikki Mikkola (Bearclaw Cycling)
07. 00:00:00 Walter Walkenhorst (Team FL)
08. 00:00:00 Talon Medaglia (Bearclaw Cycling)
09. 00:01:01 Samuelle Oioli (Team Viromet)
10. 00:01:27 Olga Ciobanu (Belgium)

GW FL once again. You played it smart. I was a little too confident I could sieb Tesfaye at the Muur. I should have done it better and not concentrate on only the last km. It was worth a try.

Now I need some good ideas to find 3 hours on April 7th during holiday weekend

[team fl]

KK wins K-B-K

35 years old and he is only getting better. Klaas Kemp won Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne after an attack in the last 3km, which only Chimwemwe (Dreizehn) could follow.

In a race, in which we were clearly too much offline, our sprinter Mosconi wasn't there for the final so attacking was our best chance. There were other attacks before, even sprinter teams involved, which is normal in such classic race, and that gave Kemp the chance for his biggest career victory so far.

He saved the opening weekend for us even though we would clearly prefer winning Omloop, so Team FL had the better combination this weekend.

GW again. Somehow I liked that it was Kemp, but Tthe offline thing was a bit annoying and honestly, first I didn't like it. But then again, the teams with sprinters have been stupid beforehand, following the Belgium attack with their best flat riders (incl. me following the Giotti guy with Sprenger) and not blocking wisely the rest until the finish line. I was a bit surprised about the passiveness of Radunion and Giotti Vittoria anyway, both with the clearly best sprinters in the group of favourites. But i am happy with Omloop, so this was a good reminder how not to try to get a reduced bunch sprint

[flockmastoR]

Strade Bianche - morning

Yeah, classics! After being stuck in the very successfull UAE to stay in Division 1, finally A&D participating in the spring classics. Not sure what to do first. Usually there is no point in trying for an early escape on such a profile. No really strong classic around looking at mountain/pave/sprint combination, Oppenheimer the best one we have and he already showed he can win long races in Italy at Trofeo Laigueglia. But that was a surprise win and he is even more outsider at Strade Bianche against r Quick and Alkworld. So we tried our 2022 taktic again with a climber that has decent Pave skills. Two years ago, we had August Oetker (80-70) and we were able to bring him back to the peloton after the siebs around Monte Sante Marie. But he lost too much on his way back and the team had no fit classic left to bring him to the final km. This year, we went the same way hoping not to be on the radar screen with Ferenc Krausz. Well this tactic didn't work. Quick with a very early sieb and trying to eliminate Ferenc early (first sieb definitely was, second sieb probably was more against the Alkworld helpers anyways). Sommerfeld first with some help of Hamarat brought Ferenc back, later on it was Hamarat/Faraday/Frucht who did the pace where the gap already was more than a minute. Then at some point Alk did also ride in the back, siebing Frucht and Ferenc just with Faraday on his side. We decided to let the situation unfold and drop Watt from the peloton to have 2 helpers for Ferenc again. In front there was still Sievert as our second captain with Kalman and Rella as helpers. At the Colle Pinzuto Faraday took over again and Watt and Faraday brought Ferenc close enough to the peloton that he could catch up with the peloton at km 181, after the +6, +5 combination without pave. From here on it was pure luck. Give Ferenc 2 helpers, hope that Oppenheimer is strong enough to keep Ferenc close after the final sieb at +3**. Luckyly the 6** was not ridden hard and so we decided to also wait for Kalman for the flat and downhill km and to always have 2 helpers for Ferenc. On the final 5** (Le Tolfe) r Quick with the attack (Arrazola and Eamara) but Giotti blocked it and attacked some km later also (with Hack and Meiers). Some more attacks in the classics group helped us even more, and Kalman, Rella and Oppenheimer won back second after second. Before the final km, just a small group left in front with 10s. Krausz with the strongest attack at the +6* catching up with Hack and beating him with a sprint. What a race!

[Gipfelstuermer]

The real Strade Bianche (afternoon!) did not have an 80km solo winner, but the race was exciting nonetheless.

An 8 rider escape got a good advantage of around 12' before being chased down by r Taka riding for classic-sprinter Emir Ozturk, and a little bit by Hansa, riding for climber Franz Lochmatter. 12' wasn't enough for the escape despite good collaboration, as r Taka rode strongly, siebing again and again large parts of the peloton, and successfully making the race too hard for Lochmatter.

A select group of only 8 or 9 riders survived the last Le Tolfe sieb, and it seemed as if they'd go to Siena together, but Gafurbekov (Tukhtahuaev) put in an impressive attack on the downhill run-in to Siena and only Dan VandenBerg (Schartner Bombe) followed this decisive move. They went on together - to the surprise of the others - and VandenBerg clearly distanced Gafurberkov on the ramp to Strade Bianche by 6''. Gafurbekov even got overtaken by Cotrufo, Ozturk and Woldemariam.

So Cotrufo with another 2nd place (after Omloop). Maybe he could have won if he had been more optimistic about chasing down Vandenberg. But Ozturk and Woldemariam didnt even attack up the Siena ramp, so it is hard to judge that. Gw to Schartner Bombe who followed the right wheel in the right moment.

[Robyklebt]

Woldemariam TRIED to attack, but was blocked....

[Robyklebt]

Milano-Torino, the oldest classic. Of course there was a long break between the first and second edition, still, oldest classic! Has lost and is losing importance. Back to its spring position in the calendar, had been a autumn race from at least the 80es... but probably at some earlier point was where it is now in the calendar. Prep race for Milano-Sanremo. On paper looks good, but since probably the UCI is digitalized too now, paper doesn't matter and the startlist quality is not overwhelming, too many teams prefer passing it and going directly to Milano-Sanremo. And those that start often don't bring their Sanremo-hopefuls. Maybe with a change back to a climbers course they'd attract a better startlist? Tirreno/Paris-Nice riders that go to Catalunya next then might start. But well, something sprint friendly really makes more sense, preparation for Sanremo, just that so far it doesn't work.

Anyway, while in reality a sprint seems still likely, despite the siebable climbs not far from the finish, at c4f it looks to be safe for hillsprinters.

So the Donkey line up:

1 E. Verkerk
2 E. Almirall
3 L. Ceroni
4 B. Gurruwiwi
5 R. Henri
6 S. Longbottom
7 R. Lorenzini
8 E. Novelli
9 W. Stringfellow

Leader Verkerk, with Lorenzini as chaser... but we're still considering dropping one of the Italians, Lorenzini or the asshole for Magritte.

Anyway, we thought we have better chances to win here than in the 2 previous classics, where our team simply didn't seem built for it. It really isn't here either, the hills too close to the finish, but who knows, Lorenzini might motivate some friendly flattish sprinters to join!

[Robyklebt]

Milano-Sanremo coming!

But first Milano-Torino. The hills turned out to be too difficult for Lorenzini and the other sprinters. The expected sieb by 123 123 on the first climb, he then kept riding with Boire, that was very well done. Second sieb at the next climb, pure classics group then, that very surprisingly worked well together. Bergwerk with the 2 best sprinters, 73 and 63, 3 Dontodeeps, max sprint 62, 3 123 123, although the climber not useful, 4 single riders, and it worked. Almost all in, which really was almost guaranteeing Bergwerk the win. 3 in front, it pays, can understand that, but in a classic... I would have expected the other teams to stay out with their best sprinters for quite a while, let BW ride with both and the helpers at first, then join when it becomes close. Trying to go through makes sense, sure, but almost not trying for first place less. But well, we've all had races where for some reason we were basically gifted the win, so that's the way it is.
In the back we ended up at 22", could have been a bit closer, but generally the sprinter group rode well enough. We missed the Medical Service contingent in the end, they had a medical emergency behind the peloton it seems. IN the sprint for place 13 Lorenzini got second, not bad, he did well enough.
Whisbone of course deserves a mention, his escape came much further than expected, he wasn't that far away from the win, saved his leader escapee, Morciniec into the first group, there no chance in the sprint and last place, but good attack by his 2 riders, came fairly close to the win, good escape management.

But now to Milano-Sanremo

When will we start? Not sure, after fearing we might start the 14h edition on mobile, now we know that we can start at any time. 10-14-18-21. 18+21, we won't, it's 2am and 5am, but we could. So 10 or 14, and surprisingly we tend to go for 10h right now. If we're not mistaken Fabulous Conti won in the morning? We haven't raced MSR in the morning for a while, time to revisit it. And starting in the morning will allow us to fully enjoy the incomparable thrill of Milano-Sanremo fully. It's similar to the one at c4f. Nothing happening, waiting, getting more nervous slowly, doubting your predictions, Capo Mele, why do they even mention that one as climb, Capo Cervo, hm, it's getting closer, Capo Berta, ok ok, this was harder it starts, then BOOM, Cipressa at c4f. little oh in the real one, then BOOM at the Poggio. Why get twice 50% of that adrenaline push by riding it and watching it at the same time? Better to have the double dose twice! On the other hand don't know these morning boys that well, they might do unpredictable things.... and my support for the afternoon, push the numbers up whenever possible for important races by starting there. But with bigger groups expected for MSR this year... starting in the morning sounds ok.

So it might be the morning (but the decision will be taken tomorrow between 8am and 9:29am c4f time) that gets the honour of experiencing our revolutionary strategy for MSR 2024. Three riders all in! or TRAIN. Three riders? Who, Donkey, tell us, out of your 20 stars, which ones are the 3? Ok, I'll tell you: The first stage of our rocket is: nobody. Obviously. A train is no rocket, Luigi Razzo is long retired and although named by us, rode for the lowly Team Zauberlehrlinge. And we're not using the ROCKET strategy either. Riders On Cheap Kerosene Engine Tricycles. Nope, not our plan. It's TRAIN. So no first stage of a rocket. Which means if an escape goes through, we won't have a rider for the win there. Second stage then? Dammit, even the most retarded of readers by now should have understood that we have no rocket or ROCKET strategy, no second stage either. Classics do it? Congrats to them, our three riders then are all out. But that's not the plan, otherwise our strategy would be "TRAOU", which makes little sense. TROUT, three riders out, better, but as a strategy we don't find it overly convincing. So then, our first rider?

Number 8: Edwin Verkerk. A regional train, so to speak. He'll go all in in the sprint, if he's the only of our three riders there, OOO-TRAIN, can be read as zero train, or only one of three riders all in, that would mean that it's a hill sprinters race. Then he'll be our guy for the win.
Second train:

Number 6: Riccardo Lorenzini: An express. TRAIN, two riders all in, if he's there that means that Verkerk is there too, 2 riders with chances for the win, with possible TRAIN variations, short trains, no carriages, long trains, you'll see. If he's there, but the third rider not, that means that quite a few of the flat sprinters are there, but not 100%. Those with under 50 mountain might be dropped on the Cipressa. We really need that tunnel maybe.

And now we present our last rider all in:
Number 1: André Chassot. André 5000 as he likes to call himself, a big Outkast fan and plans to get 5000 points, we liked to call him André 0 so far, his amount of wins, but he really fucked us now by winning today, André 1? No good. Chassot will do for the moment. Our former rider, the Joggeli Rapper of course has been demanding we fire Chassot for a while, rap good, but look to Basel, if somebody doesn't understand that, should stop riding a bike and start taking a course in good taste. Well, Chassot is not taking any further education classes, we pay him to ride, that's what he's supposed to do tomorrow. As our Shinkansen, if he's there, he's there, our TRAIN will be complete. If not, the regional and express will have to do.
Nothing can go wrong, unless we are DERAILED. Donkey easily ridden aut in long easy downhills.. No... doesn't work, see, won't happen unless somebody finds the anti-dote to TRAIN. Which can only be DERAIL or DERAILED. Try and fail, you little people!

Short version:

1 A. Chassot
6 R. Lorenzini
8 E. Verkerk

Rest easy to figure out.

[Robyklebt]

TRAIN worked. But that certainly wasn't a memorable edition. Or memorable for the wrong reasons. A bit like in 2018, classics didn't try, so my favorite group easily sprints for the win. Beaten by Rosario then, poor Kaniuk, today Chassot won. But Sanremo deserves a better race.

People not used to ride in big groups again yet? Big group, many ride in peloton, so let's not try? I expected the opposite, big peloton, everybody in the peloton tries to avoid riding and a group has excellent chances.

I know I would have tried not to ride until the Capo Berta. Chassot on paper the worst Cipressa sprinter, as expected. Woldemariam far from a star to bring him back in the 5 after the 6. Even if here he looked kind of ok as classic. So would have been part of the big group trying not to ride.

Few seemed to have an actual plan. Tukh tried the attack and got the moral win, would have deserved it. Ideally with Erbolat, not Skorko. On the Cipressa only Bugatti tried. Try for classics, hill sprinters, THAT'S what makes it interesting. Fau, Giotti for sprint, AAD for a mix Tunç+Babai, but too many too passive here. Brunsketti with his chase saves the win for Chassot... roder for nothing in a way, but not completely wrong to ride, speculate on more action and then try to profit from it. Understandeable, better than giving up, in his position I might have ridden too... hoping for RfM etc. classic tries later.

Only thing I liked is the lack of action of the Turchino. It's a 6, but trying there is always rather unrealistic, in reality absolutely nothing happens on the Turchino.

Chassot won, Classics season already +, best monument won. Next year Ceriel tries, after that I might say fuck it with leaders and try with an escape?

[Gipfelstuermer]

The real MSR was missing some of the traditional afternoon teams, but with 15 teams, including the current #1 and #2 teams, the field was of extremely high quality. Pre-race favorites included Carlos RuizZafón (Alkworld) and Don Holiday (bergwerk) in case of a Poggio attack, but also Aron Abreha (Team FL) and Mourad Zouhry (Elaska) in case of a mass sprint.

We brought Mosconi for the hill sprint scenario after witnessing Alfredo Ganna winning that way last year. But when we saw the peloton, it was clear a Poggio attack or a mass sprint were the most likely scenarios. Nevertheless, you can't win if you don't try, so we tried to organize the hill sprint. With the help of the strong classics team, we managed to keep the sprinters away after the Cipressa and before the Poggio, but then our plan fell apart. First, the classics (five of them) got away on the Poggio, and then the sprinters even caught the hill sprinters on the last two km. But it was too late for the sprinters, too! Only 3 seconds missing for the sprinters, but it was too late. Those five classics riders contested the win in a sprint out of this small group.

GW to Natnael Tesfatsion (Rhodan Underdogs), who won that sprint amongst the classics. Bittersweet after Rhodan had lit up the race with a 5-rider-escape after roughly 100km.

Now working on the strategy for MSR 2025 !

[Gipfelstuermer]

E3 Harelbeke, the big test before RVV. Every time a rider of ours won E3, he also won RVV ! Same for Team FL !

Afternoon had 12 teams, which is pretty damn good with Catalunya in parallel. Nevertheless only a tiny escape with 4 riders. As usual, some teams trying to ride for the sprint. Team FL was leading the chase, was joined by Bengals Udine, Sattelpuper, Lenny and Trekken, and they had no mercy for the escape, so they got caught middle of the race.

So with our team (pavé skill much lower than last year and no sprinter) we decided to make the race as hard as possible to put the sprinters under pressure. Attacks and Siebs here and there, also to see if the sprinters are really working together all the way. High Flyer also contributed to the action with a nice attack. Unfortunately he siebed Schmalen, but it made sense for him to continue alone over Paterberg.

After the Paterberg, also some cracks in the so far excellent sprinter collaboration. Team FL wanted the peloton to wait for his helpers, but as they were in a group with the best sprinter still in the mix - namely Remi Fassol (Enigma1) - Lenny did not want to wait and pressed on. There was also the High Flyer escape and a few dangerous flat / pavé monsters in peloton, so waiting seemed dangerous.

Continuing also dangerous of course because of less helpers to make tempo. Kafando (Dagestan) made it clear with his brutal 91 flat attack in the last 20km. However, mostly Trekken and Sattelpuper following made that move ultra dangerous. Zizou with two guys. Collaboration looked difficult. High Flyer and Sattelpuper saved the group with tempo before Kafando joined. We were waiting for Kafando and the two zizous before Atabay was allowed to join. And we weren't wrong in that as the sprint of the group for the win showed. Zizou with a strong 2 man train, only beaten by a few pixels by Kafando. Atabay 3rd, only half a wheel missing for the win though.

So Kafando the new favorite for RVV. GW.

[flockmastoR]

Gent-Wevelgem morning edition

11:00 on a Sunday can still be called morning edition. To the race: A&D with a 9 riders but no plan whatsoever. We had some good riders for a classics group (Oppenheimer, Rella, LeCun), some flat riders with some mountain (Hamarath, Kalman, Faraday), a sprinter with ok flat/pave but lack of mountain (Dachwitz), a good flat rider with sprint (Watt) and one helper (Balinow). Plan was to check who is there and prepare a plan for the riders, obviously 1 helper cannot be enough. Trekken was there with his full sprint team. So chances for Dachwitz and/or Hamarath only there if there has to be a serious chase. 2-3 teams with hill sprinters (Gipfelstuermer, SouthWest Packers, Bugatti) but they all missed high flat support riders (probably a chance for Hamarath if they really want to keep Trekken behind which looked nearly impossible). No early action in this 250km race, weather was very hard as well so our first plan to keep 5 riders fit was not easy. We decided to use the pre-lunch time for a 3 men escape. Balinow went on km 74, Watt and Kalman (2 of our 5 leaders) escaped on km 75. Moriondo (Gip) joined and Bugatti attacked with Alfredsdottir and Layne some km later. So there was a 5 men group with 2 lines of pullers and 170 km to go. No reaction in the back until ~8min gap where Trekken put in a rider. At that time we were confident to really make it a hard challenge for Trekken (maybe opening up chances for Hamarat later) but we had to watch other teams helping in the back too. First SWP and later Fau Cycling helping for their hill sprinter/sprinter. The gap continued to be in the range of 7 min as the hills started. Watt and Layne joined as puller line 2. Watt was there until the first Kemmelberg where the leaders already rode green tempo (at 4:30 gap). From then on the 3 leaders went red and hoped for the best. After the second Kemmelberg passage, the gap was still at 4:00 to the sprinters with 30 km to go. Thanks to the good flat values of the escapes and the good cooperation, the group went through pretty easily. Alfredsdottir opened the gamble very late. After a km of red tempo together Kalman and Moriondo went green, Kalman with a final blue km. In the sprint Kalman was leading and could win the stage with a 150m sprint.

[Gipfelstuermer]

Dwaars Door Vlaanderen (the real one in the afternoon)

11 teams including the afternoon veterans Big Donkey, AAD. Also Furpach, Schappy and Dreizehn from the regular afternoon teams recently. Out of those, Big Donkey and Schappy with the most impressive pavé values.

Km1 escape goes, but noone willing to ride. Think just Chemnitz and Furpach not yet really online. Then later another escape with more than 10 riders. Only Big Donkey missing, so he organized the chase. Quite late at 6min, but based on Big Donkey classics experience. Schappy helping him later, which I think made AAD wonder why after a sieb, we let Schappy's rider back although he was behind Kemp (our guy in escape). Reason: Kemp with 42 mountain didn't look strong enough for the final out of a large group anyway, so I hoped for some new constellation (with or without the Schappy rider).

Then Schappy rode a few km in escape but AAD's guy Balinow found the right moment to attack. We had told Kemp to follow and Bernoldi (RC Cost) also followed. That was the escape from the moment. And it didn't look bad. 4 minutes or so for the last 40km or so... but cobbles are tough... Magritte (Big Donkey) put the hammer down on the last few pavé sections and the advantage was melting away. Then the attack from Magritte with only Dmytrenko (Schappy) following.

That could have been the winning move but Dreizehn and Romoc both had two riders in the chasing group, so they had a reason to ride. Then one of the Dreizehn guys - Nooa Halim - attacked. Our man in the group - training monster and coffee expert Enver Atabay - followed together with Franklin (Furpach) and Bafana (Romoc). Henri (Big Donkey) missed that attack.

Lucky situation for us like that. Kemp in group 1. Atabay in group 2. Noone else with two riders. So we gambled and didn't ride for a few km, until Atabay joined. He also had the lowest sprint value in group 2 so it made sense. We caught up to the Matisse/Dmytrenko group just before the last pavé km - Herlegemstraat. Atabay attacked and noone could follow. Whopping 7'' advantage because no fit rider blocked and it was clear noone could catch Atabay from there. Very nice win for the team. First classic win (Cat4 and higher) this season after multiple 2nd/3rd places. 3rd time in a row to win DDV. Seems this race was made for us!

Tukhtahuaev(15:51): Impressive how many good results Gipfel can get with his team

Omloop - Cotrufo 2nd
Strade Bianche - Cotrufo 2nd
E3 - Atabay 3rd
Wevelgem - Moriondo 2nd
DDV - Atabay 1st

Let's see what RVV, PR and LBL will bring

[Robyklebt]

Dwars:

Worked out surprisingly well. 11 teams, I have the best pavé rider, the one with no sprint. Saw myself as a "fake favorite", since most of the time it will be some sort of sprint.

11 teams, 10 attack, I'm back. The chicken run. No guts, try to avoid working in the peloton always and every time, yeah. So started working a bit, not hoping for anything, doubtful from the start anyway. Schappy with the whole team at low form, Denain... pff. Work, he helps, might have to rethink my Roubaix strategy now. Hill sieb, most of his team is back, later pavé sieb, then double attack, everybody on Henri, only a Schappy on Matisse. Ride... in the back I thought Henri follows, he wasn't, so an attack went, 4 left. Idiotic Donks. Ok, not 100% sure he can follow, Henri already rode 2 or 3 flat km, but still, have to do it, not just think it. Idiot.

Caught, no chance to follow anymore, no chance in sprint, but except the Henri-debacle it all worked much better than I expected.

More important:

Flanders:

The team:
1 M. Magritte
2 E. Almirall
3 C. Blake
4 L. Ceroni
5 R. Henri
6 S Longbottom
7 W. Stringfellow
8 I. Vanuytsel
9 H. Woldemariam

DS; R. Huizinga.
Drinkwater has been suspended for 10 days, without pay, for his role in the Henri debacle. We're in negotiations with Gurruwiwi, would like him to join the team, but is turning out he demands quite a lot. We'll see.

In the meantime in Flanders we don't have a great strategy like TRAIN was in Italy 2 weeks ago. One Super Top Elite Rider... yeah, we're stuck at OSTER, doesn't work, N, NO? Needs help, yeah, OSTERNH just isn't good.
We just stick with the ey, go go strategy then. EGG

[Robyklebt]

RVV

Depressing race for Tukh, sorry. But was somehow predictable after seeing who else was there.

Attack in the first kms was planned anyway, Vanuytsel, old. Belgian, 100 form, still decent mountain and pavé, and depending on the situation another one. Attack to make the favorite(s) ride at some point. With Magritte I have a strong rider, but one that needs to arrive alone basically, and not team, so weaken others. Tukh there? Of course need to weaken him, 1 less helper=good, even if I have 2 less.
Then RfM in the race, at this point a group going through became a real possibility. Top rider, that won't be dropped, won't arrive alone either, but with his sprint has chances in the usual restricted group at the end.

Vanuystel follows Kemp, logic that he would go. Thought can send number 2 later.. but who? Ceroni or Almirall, Almirall seemed too strong vs Kemp (Orsini, but leader Kemp seemed clear) and the OLCycle there, form 97 good, 56 sprint good but way too strong for the opponents. Longbottom wasn't really an option, 100 form and possibly the most important helper for Magritte (Henri 85 form logically) Going through wasn't sure after all, just seemed much more likely than normally, so keeping Longbottom there seemed logic. In retrospect of course the right man would have been Blake. Only realized that after the race. So Ceroni. After him 3 more riders came, Furpach and OL, nothing much changed in the constellation, 55-86 for Furpach with 49 sprint 51-50-49-38 the expected sprint values, then a bit surprisingly OL went for the 42 sprint. Blake with 49, I even trained him up to that from 45 (training says 4 up now 49 start at 49, could have been start 46 too) 100 form too argh.
3 OLs, one rides, after 45km with 15 min Tukh goes in. winning over 10" per km, goes out again after winning a minute very fast. Back in at 18', km 66. Km 80 4 pullers in in front: Here the second big decision: Ceroni or Vanuytsel leader? Of course my sympathies are with Vanuytsel... and somehow made kind of sense too: Ceroni 87 form, 53 sprint. I would be the guy having to ride. But pretty convinced Kemp has 100 form, so in reality it's 53-51 for him. Can maybe drop him, but that makes him take breaks early. 58 mountain, ok 56, but 58 looks scary. Low pavé... maybe risk to be dropped, but ok, didn't think long enough, flat pavé too far from the finish for that to be a real risk. So Vanuytsel. For me OL 50 sprint leader would have been better, then I can go out alone at the end.

Then at 244 out, Kemp dropped the km before 6* too much for him, with more pavé was fine. out, went in for the Oude Kwaremont, not sure I can follow attacks by Bettel AND maybe can drop Kemp, but *** too much. Maybe try at the Paterberg again, 7**.. Nowhere near enough energy advantage, with low flat lose more, and they could go green. Go out earlier, probably better, but was afraid of the 6*... should have known Kemp is weaker there. Group goes through, I lost it when I sent Ceroni instead of BLAKE, realized that waaay too late.

Decisive moments: Who's in the escape. Who's leader (for me and OL). When to suck. 3 moments. A fourth was when Kemp was dropped, but only for Bettel. wait or not? For Isidoor not waiting much better, then they chase each other red a bit. But for Bettel waiting made sense. He just should have let Kemp ride alone at the end. And sprint better, second place normally his. 4th Vanuytsel, Magritte 5th in the back, 9th overall so escape still was better.

In the back:
km 67: Tukh in,18'
km 80 pullers in, 15'25"
km 107 Fraegg joins. 16'49"
135: 16'31"
136: Pullers red, Fraegg alone
147: AAD joins 16'09"
155: AAD dropped Fraegg alone
161: Tukh takes over again 14'53"
167 Fraegg rejoins
186 RfM joins 12'26"
197 Leaders in blue in front 11'29"
215 Tukh alone again 10'53"
223 Romoc joins 10'15"
228 front red (ah, here I thought about insisting on going blue, we seemed through, pressure from the back during sucking seemed good, but ok, low energy sprint my only chance, so...(actually wrong, didn't think enough))9'55"
230: MAGRITTE sieb: 35" gained.
61 Matisse Magritte 00:09:20
1 Roy Sommersby
71 Shodiyor Gafurbekov
116 Mario Makaay
72 Axel Vermeylen 00:09:21
81 Tatiana DopotescuNC_00:09:22
87 Markus Orloch
73 Hugo Gil 09:24
52 Ernesto Pecci 00:09:25 and then others

Here actually it might have made sense for Tukh to ride with Gil, then Orloch (RfM)-Gil-Vermeylen (Tukh) together until it's time for the leaders at km 253. In the back everybody rides like mad, yes, but since they would have waited for weaker ones most likely... can work.
km 240, 30 km to go 8'27
km 247: Bettel+Kemp change to green, 7'50" in the back Tukh alone

That was it.

Frustrating for Tukh I imagine. I'm sure he knows he went in too late, but my guess is that he knew that when he let these 18'. His thinking maybe was that he rather sees the escape win than ride for a 77-80-77 with 77,9 pavé with 64 sprint. Who joined the chase 120 km after Tukh started... By the time it was hopeless. Maybe if the group seems close, catcheable he works earlier? Possible... but it was all Tukh and Fraegg riding, 8 teams in the back. Tukh + RfM the 2 favorites, after that a whole bunch of teams that could hope to stay on the Kwaremont (Pecci stayed, he seemed to have less chances than quite a few others...) Fraegg with a 66 sprint classic that seemed a possibility, others too. But in the end Fraegg was the only one to join Tukh consistently.

[Gipfelstuermer]

From the perspective of our team bus and team car: After winning DDV with Atabay on Wednesday, we thought we sign up, pretend to ride for him and in the end try to win with one of our two classics (Cotrufo / Ainouz) with decent sprint (60/57).

But then 14:33 we saw the line up. 12 teams but including some ultra strong riders. Ghirga 79-79, uff, but ok only 70 pavé. Dopotescu 77-80 with 77 pavé. Plus various other 73+ / 79+ classics. Plus the super strong 60-80 guys with pavé (Magritte and Gafurbekov) who should make the race really hard on the pavé to try and drop some classics. So we figured out: Very difficult for our classics to be there in the final. For Atabay also difficult to be there. So go for escape.

Km1 attack with Kemp. Logical guy. 36 years old. Good pavé rider. Won K-B-K in February. But 42 mountain way too low for RVV - normally. 2 guys following him (One Donkey and one OL). 3 rider escape... too small, so we sent Orsini as puller. In the end Furpach and Donkey also joined with a puller. OL even with two pullers (just because of his following settings).

Chase from the favos not impressive. Except Tukh. He took the responsibility. But the classics teams did not join early enough. Surprising to me because on the day before Tukh, RfM and me were in the same race and we all agreed that RVV most often goes to a classic rider with sprint and 70+ pavé, and less often to a 60-80 rider 80+ pavé guy.

Long story short, escape went through. Rarely seen in monuments. There are no IS / KOM to make money on the road and these races are just too important to sit in peloton doing nothing, so usually someone in the peloton rides early and then later they ride hard. Sometimes even just to sieb the rivals in the peloton, for helper advantage etc. Not today.

Leaders in escape were far from equal but close enough to collaborate. Kemp with 42 by far lowest mountain, but in 77 pavé and 51 sprint he was stronger than Bettel, Piee and Vanuytsel. So the risk was being dropped or attacked at a non- or low-pavé-climb and not being let back. Large time advantage in the final 50km made that even more likely. On Kruisberg (6*) that happened but 27km from the finish they luckily didn't agree on that. On Kwaremont and Paterberg Kemp stayed. But not sure if Bettel actually tried getting rid of him there? Seemed more like he was hopeful for a sprint 49 vs 51, maybe with sucking a few km. But I think he only sucked 1 or 2km after Paterberg and then he let Kemp do the blocking in the last 2km.

So Kemp was in front for the low energy sprint of the 4 man group. No desperate launch at 500m. Vanuytsel from 350m but too weak. Piee from 300m stronger. Then actually Kemp should go at 250m but I hesitated, instead switched to Piee's wheel. But Bettel gets the wheel. So Kemp goes from 200m and that was still enough

Fantastic win for the team, which on paper isn't the strongest at the moment, but delivered so far in the Spring Classics.

[Tukhtahuaev]

I knew there was a big risk of the group going through with that big of a gap, but I thought this gave me better chances to win in the end compared to investing more into catching it myself. Probably overdid it a little bit with the gap, but definitely still catchable when I started the chase.

In the end the gamble didn't pay off, but I am happier than I would be if I had caught the group almost by myself to then still not win

[Bear]

Evening RVV.

Actually I expected another classic win at the Ronde. But there were also some good pavé riders. Unlucky for me, most of them with better sprint. So actually my plan was to wait and keep the riders fresh until the end and let Heikki do his work at the last time Kwaremont. But the story was different...

Early group with two strong pave riders of Taka and ATB and three pullers. Although the group worked not very well, it could have been dangerous if the peloton give like 18-20min. I wanted to ride for my chances and not let a group through. So started at 15min to chase. Most likely because I started, I had to do the chasing alone. One rider after another did the work. To not be with less helpers for the final km, I wanted to do the race harder.

So km230 sieb by Heikki. Here was the plan to ride with Jimmy. But Jimmy was behind a lot of other, fitter riders. And only Olafs Dennis Coslett could keep up with Heikki and Talon for a km. Km 231 it was just Heikki and Talon chasing the group. Actually the group was already done by that time and it was Heikki/Talon vs the peloton. For a moment I hesitated to keep on riding with Heikki. But situation looked good and I hoped for some miscommunication in the peloton. Heikki rode for a 40sec lead just before the last Kwaremont. Then Talon started riding with approx. 830 energy left. At the Paterberg it became close but Talon could handle the pressure and brought it home.

It was a fantastic win. For a long time I was chasing the win at the Ronde. I always preferred to win it with a pavé rider. The way I could make it happen was one to remember, at least for me. Taking the risk and going 100% for Talon in the end really paid off.

Too bad I cant summaries for of this race. I was very concentrated on my own race and did not check every other action.

Thanks for this edition to all teams. Very cool we had this big group. Dont know if we had one or two offliners. Also thanks to the spectators. I really appreciate some positive vibes and it helps to try for more aggressive moves in the future.

[team fl]

Evening RVV.

Actually I expected another classic win at the Ronde. But there were also some good pavé riders. Unlucky for me, most of them with better sprint. So actually my plan was to wait and keep the riders fresh until the end and let Heikki do his work at the last time Kwaremont. But the story was different...

Early group with two strong pave riders of Taka and ATB and three pullers. Although the group worked not very well, it could have been dangerous if the peloton give like 18-20min. I wanted to ride for my chances and not let a group through. So started at 15min to chase. Most likely because I started, I had to do the chasing alone. One rider after another did the work. To not be with less helpers for the final km, I wanted to do the race harder.

So km230 sieb by Heikki. Here was the plan to ride with Jimmy. But Jimmy was behind a lot of other, fitter riders. And only Olafs Dennis Coslett could keep up with Heikki and Talon for a km. Km 231 it was just Heikki and Talon chasing the group. Actually the group was already done by that time and it was Heikki/Talon vs the peloton. For a moment I hesitated to keep on riding with Heikki. But situation looked good and I hoped for some miscommunication in the peloton. Heikki rode for a 40sec lead just before the last Kwaremont. Then Talon started riding with approx. 830 energy left. At the Paterberg it became close but Talon could handle the pressure and brought it home.

It was a fantastic win. For a long time I was chasing the win at the Ronde. I always preferred to win it with a pavé rider. The way I could make it happen was one to remember, at least for me. Taking the risk and going 100% for Talon in the end really paid off.

Too bad I cant summaries for of this race. I was very concentrated on my own race and did not check every other action.

Thanks for this edition to all teams. Very cool we had this big group. Dont know if we had one or two offliners. Also thanks to the spectators. I really appreciate some positive vibes and it helps to try for more aggressive moves in the future.

Indeed one of the best efforts I have seen at RVV during the years. And anticipating the behaviour of your opponents very well. Even not shying away taking over responsibility when it was needed at the beginning, chasing all alone. I have to say, I was happy with the result (like almost everybody, which speaks for you), even though I would have liked to see Spiridon win it himself.

Because you were too focused on Heikki and Talon, a short summary of what happened in the back: After Heikki's sieb, nobody tried to chase in the closest group, including me. I was not sure if Walter and later on Tesfaye could manage the gap well enough and if others would help in that group. So a bigger group was formed, not really cooperating, as teams were riding against each other in different groups and teams with the most helpers were not really trying. Maybe it would have been another story if the group would have waited for the most important helpers and 4 or 5 teams cooperated. But there was even another sieb that got rid of valuable helpers, fighting each other instead of chasing. It almost felt like a parallel race. Your guys in front and the rest against each other. At the last Paterberg section, two riders from the chasing group even attacked (Team Viromet with S L Benfica following) which was not helping either. But I guess Talon was already gone by then.