you know you put on a clinic when the 2nd & 3rd place finishers are from the same team ;)

man, i'm excited. Strade Bianche next weekend; P-N and Tirreno afterwards; and MSR in three weekends. only bad thing about all this is that it reminds me how much more training i need to put in before i get close to top condition last year.

Over the entire weekend, Team Belkin was the strongest as they were battling for the win both yesterday at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and today at Kuurne - Brussel - Kuurne.

Yesterday's race was great to watch, tough conditions and constantly changing situations. It was exciting till the end, and despite not knowing the power of his right leg Stannard pulled off a great spring to beat van Avermaet. Vanmarcke was very strong, so was Nikki Terpstra, but the rest of OPQS underperformed.

Today's race wasn't that exciting as it was mainly 10 strong guys who didn't have a choice but to ride their butts off to not get caught by the peloton. OPQS was awesome, so was Belkin with Vanmarcke again being in the front despite yesterday's tough race. He was clearly the best rider of the opening weekend, great to see his constant progress.

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Don't forget to attack!

"Put on" a clinic or "went to" a clinic?

Sorry....couldn't resist.

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Chicago Cubs - 2016 WORLD SERIES Champions!!!!

"If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." - Samuel Adams

oh my, totally freudian there; well played :). That said, i think Tomeke prefer white lines at a rave party

Yesterdays race at OHN was most certainly the more grueling of the two.

If you watched past the finish, van Avermaet was shivering. A testament to the crazy Spring conditions in Belgium. I love these races!

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I got nothing.

Terpstra looked like the strongest guy yesterday and I agree about Vanmaecke was super impressive this weekend. Everyone is wondering what Sagan can do against Boonen and FC but clearly Belkin has some serious cards to play as well.

My guess is Sagan has his eye on the bigger races (PR, MSR, Flanders, etc). He showed good form early, hes got good legs. My bet is on San Remo.

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I got nothing.

How awkward would it have been if Boonen didn't make it today? You had FIVE guys in the break. Great show by OPQS and Belkin. I didn't see the situation unfold, but man, embarrassing for the rest of the peloton to let OPQS get nearly their entire team up the road. Chapeau to Vanmarcke too, he was super aggressive at OHN as well. Can't wait to see how the other big names are feeling this season, FC, Sagan, etc.

Biggest losers this weekend are clearly Lotto-Belisol... nobody came close to even racing for the win yesterday, today when Belkin and OPQS started racing they couldn't follow and were not able to close the gap afterwards, leaving completely empty handed.

Too bad Trek wasn't there yesterday - at some point in the race I was thinking I missed Stijn Devolder out there. And knowing him, he probably wanted to be there also.

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Don't forget to attack!

Belkin started hammering and blew the peleton in pieces, and when they hit the Oude Kwaremont Stijn Vandenbergh set a fast pace that only the other 9 guys could follow. Anyone not part of the break simply wasn't good enough to be part of it.

With 5 guys in the break today it would have been difficult for OPQS to lose; if a Belkin attacks it only takes one guy to go with him and then sit on his wheel since they're working for Boonen. They tried launching a guy off the front (Vandenbergh) and Vanmarcke closed the gap. Wynants tried but with that head wind it was impossible to get, say, a 20 seconds gap and keep it till the finish. The Topsport Vlaanderen guy was just happy to be there and Van Summeren only stood a chance if Belkin and OPQS would have constantly attacked and killed each other.

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Don't forget to attack!

Could very well be, though he will have some extra competition now that extra climb that was gonna be added is taken out again. More sprinters that can survive and sprint for the win.

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Don't forget to attack!

yesterday's Nieuwsblad was awesome, today's KBK was like watching nascar, boring.

Good one.

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http://www.jt10000.com/

Looks like Cav is in for MSR now that the new climb has been removed.....

http://www.cyclingnews.com/...-ride-milan-san-remo

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Chicago Cubs - 2016 WORLD SERIES Champions!!!!

"If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." - Samuel Adams

today's KBK was like watching nascar, boring

KBK is a different race than the Omloop.

Actually to the contrary, I though it was rather interesting when the key move was made and you had the two teams, Omega and Belkin with numbers in the break ( 5 & 3 respectively), with a couple of other stragglers. Both teams were motivated to make it work - and in particular Omega who had missed out at the Omloop. What would each teams strategy be? How would the stragglers possibly upset and spoil the party? Boonen won in the end, and he was the default-on-paper favourite before hand but he did lose in a sprint to Van Marcke a year ago?

The thing abot bike racing, is NOTHING is for sure, until they get across the finish line, anything can happen!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

you must have seen a race different from what the rest of us saw. Splitting the pack, driving it on. Hell, i thought it was similar to Stage 12 of last year's Tour, which i thought was the most exciting stage of the entire race.

I get that, it's just that once the group got away, the outcome was pretty much decided. At least that passenger from garmin didn't place top three. Sky seemed to have left all on the road the day before so they didn't have much left in the tank or maybe since they had won Omloop, the pressure was off.

I cannot wait for Strade Bianche this weekend, were hopefully Sky's Geraint Thomas will do a good job, although Cancellara is likely to get the win. A little rain in the morning that day would be "nice"

I just wish these races were broadcast on TV here in states. Are you just watching on line?

Sporza and RTBF for Het Nieuwsblad. Eurosport carried KBK. you can access eurosport by tunneling into the GB via VPN. Ditto for Sporza and RTBF, but you need to find a VPN to Belgium having a high enough bandwidth

which races? Omloop and KBK? if you have Universal sports, they showed KBK. Online you can subscribe to cycling tv, they showed both and you can also watch those two on demand.

Strade Bianche was on beIN Sports last year but I don't see it scheduled yet. You might be able to find it via the internet on RAI (Italy) or Eurosport, if they don't block access to North America.

I agree. The last 40km or so were pretty dull, and even the last 5km, when I thought things might spice up a litte bit if the two independent riders gave it more of a go, was as dull a finish as I've seen. I understand it was because two teams dominated the breakaway so it was hard to attack, but that doesn't detract from it resulting in a boring race after the initial break.

I saw 4 OPQS and 3 Belkin riders in the break (not 5 and 3), not that it matters much. I also watched it on Universal sports, for those wondering.

the break was actually 10 riders, 5 OPQS. I watched live on cycling tv and then watched a little bit on Universal sports but they suck, they have no idea what is going on, and then at the end they don't even show the podium ceremony, as always. But I guess something is better than nothing.

Agreed! At least we are getting the UCI Worlds from Cali, and with a reasonably good commentator too. The mens points race was brilliant and now after watching it my 8 year old daughter is hooked on indoor track cycling!

What I didn't get is why Belkin seemed so motivated to make the break succeed. Being outnumbered, and with Boonen being one of the 5 OPQS, the odds seemed very poor. And even more so for the other 2 ... not sure why they would even take a turn at the front at all.