Gent (Deinze)-Wevelgem, it starts with 130 km of cruising around Belgium and Northern France followed by a flurry of bergs and then a final 38 km of flatter riding to the inevitable sprint finish. How hard can the climbing be if Super Mario got over them? Ask the riders from KT 2012, (the ones not in the following car) and they will tell you the Kemmelberg, for one, is a steep beast of a climb. It does not go up too far but it goes. And all these bergs seem to have some climbing just to get to the named climb, so yes, one can be gassed real fast in this area. Luckily there is the chance of catching back on each descent too, something sprinters like Cipo must have been good at.
This is one of the final tune up races for Ronde van Vlaanderen. The Velominati banner shall be flying in Flanders in a week from this Sunday’s race. Whomever is fit and fast into Wevelgem shall be on the short list for the Ronde.
Here is a provisional start list and here is the race profile. The start list shall be updated by Saturday so double check your picks before start time. No whining, no delgados.
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View Comments
@Mirko
Ohhhhhh, now that is a discussion worthy of a few pints. Is Tomeke the greatest Spring Classic rider? Definitely the greatest still riding. Makes me wonder about all time. With his 4 PR wins and two other podiums, 3 RVV wins and one other podium, 2 MSR podiums, 3 Gent-Wevelgem wins, 5 E3 wins, 2 Scheldeprijs wins, 2 K-B-K wins, two podiums in Het Volk, the only rider to have actually won PR 4 times and RVV 3 times and being the only rider to win both in the same season two times there is an arguement for it. Just wish that he had won MSR a few times. Merckx still has to be Hands-down the greatest Spring rider with his 7 MSR wins, 3 PR wins and RVV 2 times but as for greatest Spring cobbles rider? There could be an arguement for Tomeke there.
@VirenqueForever
Look Ma! No hands! The guy is a bike handling God. He started in CX didn't he?
@Mirko
Don't say anything bad about RDV here, you'll be shunned! He can spout off all he wants about Boonen and Sven Nys and he's still a saint. But don't pop a wheelie or you're a douche!! Bleh.
@Buck Rogers
Some still argue for Van Looy, the only one to ever win all the Spring classics, but the multitude of victories clearly speaks for Boonen, imho. Go Tomeke!
@Sauterelle
As for RDV, there's an interesting article in the latest German issue of ProCycling in which they raise the question if he is really such a knobhead (I'm paraphrasing) or just playing the bad guy. Given the utter chaos he is causing whenever he is not on a bike (worst team manager ever, more fucked-up marriages than the entire audience of the Academy awards), I'd go for knobhead. However he remains cycling legend, the big V in de Vlaeminck ain't there for nothing (I guess I'm not the first one to notice).
@VirenqueForever
Yep, quite something. The kind of thing that wakes you up after trying to watch an interview with Andy Schleck.
@Mirko
NICE! Sure you're not Oli in disguise (man, I miss Oli. Where the hell is that guy?) I know that Tomeke has never won MSR or Het Volk but which Spring Classic did the great Merckx not win? I thought that the only thing that the Cannibal never won was Paris-Tour and that's in the fall.
@Buck Rogers
Yes, I'm sure I'm not Oli in disguise. You're of course right, Paris-Tours is and always was in autumn, however that's the one I meant, van Looy won it twice, Merckx never.
@Mirko Good stuff! I remeber reading something about Merckx gifting Paris-Tour to a teammate in the early part of his career b/c he figured that he'd win it later on and then he never did.
But, all that being said, Go Tomeke!!! He has a rough road (pun intended) ahead of him this year but I hope that he pulls off either RVV or PR!!!
@Buck Rogers
Me too. There's a similar story about Didi Thurau, who gave away the world championships- because his new sponsors thought their name was too small on the rainbow jersey (which I'm sure they called rainbow jumper). 1977 I think it was.
@eenies Hahahhaha slagging off his Wheelie? He just won the GW in a solo 4k.. what gives others the right to critisize??? was great to see such a celebration..