That was my favorite year for Strade. From Wout's topple to my mum, who was watching at my house with us saying about Benoot, "what kind of mud goblin is this?" In hindsight I am reminded that she wasn't wrong about that!

Alaphilippe, WvA, MvdP
WC: Pidcock, Pogacar

Mine will probably be a variation of that. Fuglsang in for Pogacar. WvA over Alaphilippe

I'll probably just plagiarize both of you guys.......

MvdP
GvA
WvA

Pidcock
Pogacar


Cheeky side bets: Bardet, Si Clarke, Nan Peters

Gva
Fulsang
WvA

Mohoric
Pidcock

OK, getting the 3 out of the way:

Alaphillipe
WvA
MdVP

Bettiol, Mollema

Cheeky bets, Quinn "hashtag" Simmons, Tim Wellens, Emanuel Buchmann

WvA
WvA
MvdP

Either that's a clever joke, or there's a 'G' to be substituted on one of those?

Nope. All Wout all the time! Though I think everything he does will be marked. If it's wet i think pure power wins out.

Ramblings.

When it comes to Wout versus MvdP, I just found myself pulling a little more for Wout. Can't really explain why. That is no disrespect toward how much I enjoy and apprecaite what a specimen and rider MvdP is.

Going with form and ambition for this weekend. The weather should favor both, take a slight edge off any tactics. Pidcock to podium, shades of Wout's debut.

MvdP, Pogacar, Pidcock
Asgreen, Mollema

Hashtag! Nice.

I didn't find room for Deep Wellens but he'll be in it, for sure.

You guys should know that I suck at picking, so plagiarize at your own peril.

Speaking of crossers, I'm doing an all road race Saturday and saw that Clara Honsinger and Lindsey Corbin are signed up. Will be an interesting battle of skill & high revving motor versus long endurance.

Sounds like a blast! Are you going to be chicked?

Wouldn't be the first time.

Certainly not on a TT bike, though

I doubt peak Kirsten Armstrong could have beaten you in a rolling TT. Chloe Dygert might be another story though

I bested Kristin the couple times we were at same race. Wouldn't have wanted to try my chances with Chloe on my best day ever. That said, Katie Keough has had my number twice. No shame in a kicking from the badasses.

Sheeeeeeit, it's real tough not just post a variation of the Julian/Wout/Mathieu trident of power for Strade. They're so obviously the favourites. There are some usual suspects whose form I'm not convinced of but who might surprise, but for now I'll just go with the not-so-brave picks:

Mathieu, Wout, Julian
Bauke, Tom

Cheeky side bet: Aranburu

Helluva cheeky side bet. Kudos.

I'm not convinced J Ala will podium. Of course, he thinks otherwise. He'll be throwing panache haymakers and that's a beautiful thing but there seems to be an abundance of hubris too, which when it works is amazing, when it doesn't its LBL. Of course, he was second there but you get my drift.

This is a loaded field and a race that a lot of guys crave now. I'm giddy about it. Hope this is a war.

I agree about LFF, except he has a hell of a team to back him up.

It'd amazing to see all 3 of the stars hit that final ramp together. Like what was supposed to happen at Flanders until Alaphillipe fell off his bike.

I'm just being a rabble rouser. ;) I know you're a hitter.

I was smoked recently on a training ride during sprint efforts by some of our federations female trackies. Their sprint power put me to shame. I'll stick to TTs and long duration steady power.

Yeah, last year I did a (men's) point race with Jen Valente. I got off the front with her and she gamely let me have every other points lap...maybe just to keep me motivated and working.

Until the last sprint. She absolutely torched me. I knew she was going to win. But I had been hoping to at least make her work a little on the last lap. Nope.

To be fair, she'd probably lose a bit of that speed and a bit of that endurance when she gets to your age. But point taken.


Otoh, I presume the two of you mopped up all the available primes and settled the final sprint amongst yourself? If so, that's still a pretty decent outing (just think of all of the other schmoes chasing in the pack).

Check, even though as a Belgian I'm likely expected to do so haha. I'm a big fan of both of them, and Pidcock as well (my pick for the win tomorrow). During last year's Ronde van Vlaanderen when they went under La Flamme Rouge I really thought to myself 'Ok, who the f am I rooting for now' and in the end I was ecstatic, no matter who of the 2 won.
However during CX worlds I wanted Wout to win, probably because of Mathieu's dominance the last 3 years in CX, just so the playing field is "leveled" again.

I expect there to be a small group like there was last year before Wout attacked. One that contains Wout, Mathieu, Tommy P, Pogi, LFF, Fuglsang, and perhaps 3 others. And I could see all of them attack and nobody really getting away. Uphill drag race on the final climb in Sienna, anyone?

Pretty much agree on everything here except substitute Irish for Belgian. WvA is just an ever so slight favorite in my book over MvdP. LFF is amazing but I can't root for him. It's against my creed / religion/ ethical compass or some shite!