Thanks! I can get on board with that agenda.

Good race. QSF ripped the race apart early and made life tough for everyone. Guess no one had Lampaert as their pick. Will be good to see if they can use their strength in numbers to the same effect in RVV.

As for Ghent, I was there for the Flanders sportive once in 2012. Awesome trip. Would love to go again.

Maybe you can still ride the sportive route. It is on open roads so technically you're not jumping in illegally on a closed route. You'll be just another cyclist out on a ride. Just follow the signposted directions. Or the thousands of other cyclists streaming by :-)

Oudenaarde is about 20 km away from Ghent on a bike path by the river. That is where the 141 km course starts and ends, and takes in plenty of the bergs and cobbles http://www.sport.be/...rs/2017/en/parcours/

Plenty of options to watch the race around Oudenaarde on Sunday. Go early. It will be PACKED!

Walk around town. Drink beer.

If you're up for it, drive across to France and ride the Roubaix route as well.

E3 Harelbeke

I got Sagan, GvA, Stybar,
Rowe and Benoot

ha!. its GvA and then Sagan and Stybar
Phil the thrill and Terpstra are there somewhere

The start of FCW, THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR.

Boonen has given this away at least 2x and won it 5x. I like how Phil Gil is fitting in at Quickstep. I think those two will make it hard for Sagan who will win it anyway. Not sold on GvA this year so far so he'll be second. But I'm going....

Sagan, Sep, Stybar,

Anyone have a live link to E3?

Sagan, GvA, Sep

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The entire event (IM) is like "death by 1000 cuts" and the best race is minimizing all those cuts and losing less blood than the other guy. - Dev

10 am Eurosport. Haven't seen a live YouTube site yet. Sporza is on now, but just yakking in Flemish. I think.

Sporza is on now, but just yakking in Flemish

I like watching the races on streams in Dutch, Itlaian or Flemish - adds a certain authenticity to it all!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

This is not the move. GvA should not be there.

or perhaps it is. the gap is growing out. Jill-bear, Durbridge, and Vanmarcke also in it.

Ironic how well GvA and Jill-bear work together now they are on separate teams ;)

I hope you're right! Let him and Sep blow themselves up with 30K to go and Peto will solo away from a drastically reduced peloton :) But who will chase these guys?

btw I'm getting this from the text feed as I'm stuck at the office.

Oh i'm loving this. Panzerwagen tried to rip the peloton to threads to no avail. Now Degenkolb attacks. Gap isn't coming down at the moment.

All this with still 55k left. It's turning into Paris Roubaix in terms of how interesting things are getting.

Peto should rest up to defend Gent Wevelgem

Nevermind. Shut up, McNulty.

Pretty much. He has someone in the move, albeit not someone who will figure in the top 5. If Trek, Katusha, Sky, and Lotto Soudal can't bring this back there is absolutely no reason he needs to blow himself up chasing. He could probably bridge and finish 7th or whatever.

OMG
these crashes are harsh

quick, violent, and frequent
and probably freeing the break

yikes. crashed...

ouch. Just read it on the text feed. Hope he and others are OK. At least now I can focus on work. I'll watch this on the trainer late tonight.

feed question: I am watching the Dutch stream. at 11:23 Eastern, I have the leaders at 35.1K
is that up to date?

Most likely; though you should just pay to support Eurosport

Naessen has a good kick; let's see what happens

the final K is in a neighborhood???????
friggin cool

I thought he caught them napping. not to be

the last 4km is really neat, winding its way through town. That final 2km was some super cagey ****, loved the suspense.

Naesen won GP Plouay last year from a small group, so yeah, he has a more than decent jump. Looked like he opened a large initial gap

Wonder what "transformation" has taken place now that Gilbert is apparently back to his 2010 form...

edit: watching the replay, Naesen may have gone just a bit too early. Went with about 230m left and was overhauled with 75m left...