nope, just have to be in top 5. Your WC don't get any bonus points though

Nah, I think as long as you get names in the top 5 you're good. I was thinking Kwiato before the race but figured he crashed and would be banged up from Sunday...wrong again. Instead, my picks take huge spills :) Hope they're OK!

Good pick. Looks like Kwiat rode himself out of break.

who knows where they would have gotten without him, though. Eaten up by the peloton and done. He himself would have finished in the bunch but not top-5.

Perhaps he may be the first man to win both Flanders and Liege since Michele Bartoli. He was in the break at the 2013 RvV for a long time before getting caught and dropped by Cancellara and Sagan on the final pass of the Oude Kwaremont. Then again, once upon a time Gilbert seemed to fit that mold as well, but Kwiatkowski is a much better time trialist.

Classic Lefevere on Van Baarle not taking a pull. “You know who the sports director is? It’s Andreas Klier and he never won a race in his life. And we’ve seen why. I know he was looking at the world champion but how can you win a race if you’re not reacting?”

lol, yeah. His whingings are quite grating. First with the botched finale at Het Nieuwsblad and now this. Klier, as many has noted, has won Gent Wevelgem

He sorta has a point. Kwiatkowski has one W or more than the entire Garmindale team combined. That said, Van Baarle best him to take third, have to wonder if he's thinking album what he might have done if contesting the win instead.

Serious question related to the finish at Dwars d Vlaanderen, why does Kwiatkowski keep looking backwards whining at Van Baarle when Wallays takes off and goes for the win? Why doesn't he just , I don't know shut up and pedal the damn bike if he wants to win? I don't understand it....relatively new to bike racing, btw...

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"one eye doubles my eyesight, so things don't look half bad" John Hiatt

If he chases. He'll get out sprint. If he doesnt, he finishes second at most. Topsport took the initiative, and it's game theory from there

That's a red herring. He was shitting on Klier, implication being he didnt know how to win as a rider, so no surprise he doesnt know how to direct his team to a win.

What is left unsaid is Levefre himself didnt bag that many significant victories as a racer yet has directed his team to countless wins. So it was just a pissy rant more than anything else.

Besides. why should Van Barle contribute to the chase? The only way the outcome would be different were an attack by Van Barle or Kwiatkowski before the finale that forced Topsport to respond. Wallay was actually struggling going into the finish, and an attack (by either Van Barle or Kwiat) sheds a rider and make it an even sprint. Theuns could shirk, but at least then there's motivation for Van Barle to work as there was still possibility of a win.

The real reason Etixx didnt win was b/c Kwiatek contributed the most to the break even though Topsport had more representation. Then again had he not worked, the break could have been caught. Regardless, Klier's record as a racer has no bearing on any of this

Exactly. A direct quote from van Baarle from the NOS, the Dutch news agency: "Overnemen? Ik ben niet de wereldkampioen!" I doubt this requires translating ;) I'd have liked to see Dylan win but I think in a four man sprint Theuns would have pipped him at the line anyway. When Wallays went I was like wow that is one half assed attack, which made sense given Wallays' activity the whole day, but maybe Lefevre could take some pointers from Planckaert (Topsport Vlaanderen DS), who besides having an impressive palmares, manages to produce Belgian talent year in year out, and these guys live for this time of the year, even more than the Etixx squad. So many guys go from that team onto Worldtour teams, I think last year alone they had at least 5 guys go to WT teams (Van Asbroeck, Lampaert, Vanbilsen, Van Staeyen, Wayetens, I'm sure I'm forgetting some guys). And from years before guys like Vanmarcke, Vandewalle, De Gendt, Boeckmans.

Kwiatek was just in a crappy position. Had he chased, he would have changed the podium but not gotten on it since he would have burned out. He didn't, and he maybe had a tiny bigger chance to make the podium but still didn't. So in the split second during a race, he opted for what was probably a better choice for himself. It was going to be a Topsport guy on top no matter what so Van Baarle decided between a "maybe second" and "surely at least 3rd" and that was that.

Regarding them producing WT guys - Wallays must have said that was his goal like 5 times in the post race interview :)

Why should he contribute? Two words: Ian Stannard.

Van Baarle put himself in a position to race for podium scraps instead of win. Kiwatkowski has the rainbow jersey because he went for it. Van Baarle has a podium nobody will remember because he didn't. If Klier counseled him to race that way then I'd tend to agree with Lefevere.

in which case, so did Kwiatkowski. The best move from either of them is to attack before Topsport attacked. This forces Topsport to chase it down as they have two people. When both of them ceded the first attack to Topsport, Topsport gained the upper hand, and there's nothing that either could have done to change the outcome.

As Snaaijert pointed out, the attack from Wallay was a half assed attack designed to force the moves of the other rider, but the half-assedness of the attack is a moot point as it strategically changed the situations.

E3 picks:

1: Vanmarcke
2: Cancellara
3: Stannard

WC: Stybar
WC: Sagan

E3

1: Cancellara
2: Vanmarcke
3: GvA
WC: Thomas
WC: Stybar

Alright, gotta stick with my man...

E3

1. Sagan
2. Vanmarcke
3. Cancellara

WC: Stybar
WC: GvA

1: Cancellara
2: Vanmarcke

or

1: Vanmarcke
2: Cancellara


and everybody else :D

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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

I don't think so, why would Kwiat attack when he has the best finish kick? In that situation you have to try to dump one of the Topsport riders, not let them work together to chase you down. That's exactly what Stannard did and gapped off Boonen. When that happend it set up the finish.

Having a really hard time picking E3.
Sagan, Stannard, FC
WC: Bennati, Stybar

Kwiatek is an all-rounder/ hilly classics specialist who has one of the best finishing kicks amongst those type of riders, but he's no sprinter.

Theuns is a much better sprinter, but don't take my word for it. He just won Ronde van Drenthe from a small group and is considered to be a sprinter

And Boonen is typically a better sprinter than Stannard. But at the end of a long break, you never know.

Should be a good race tomorrow. I feel like it's one of those races where I want to name about ten riders to win. Anyway...

1. Degenkolb
2. Sagan
3. Cancellara

WC Thomas
WC Boom

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http://www.thedeludedcyclist.wordpress.com

Well you could, but only the first five names would count :p