wish I had seen that - I only caught the play-by-play on cyclingnews.com (thank heavens for that!).

Sounds like Zabel was fried in the end, and van Petegem still felt sick from the flu he had this week. Nonetheless, pretty impressive performance by TB, must have had some rocket fuel in his bottles.

Here's how cyclingnews described the decisive moment:

... After a few quick looks over his shoulder, the Belgian sent his chain into the 11 and the others into remission, ...

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Josef
-------
blog

That was a rather predictable result. Great race. Truly a classic in every sense. I do miss the days of Johan Muesseuw though, the Lion of Flanders. Merckx as well, when I was a little kid.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

How do you mean, that Boonen went or that he was allowed to go? I find it astonishing that wealth of experience contained in that group couldn't decide to rally together to prevent him going down the road, that could be the board of our company!!!

There are a couple of dvds of Paris-Nice and one other race on it's way to you. I sent them after I had watched them, as I recalled you saying you missed getting the Classics, they should be with you soon as I posted them over two weeks ago! Unfortunately today's coverage ran 1/2 hour over or you would have had that too! You should be able to play them ok on your notebook/computer (hey are dvd +), but may appear in black and white on tv for that old school, esporta noir look '-)

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"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

Nice turn of phrase, he must have put a couple of minutes on them in the last 6k!

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"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

Actually 35 seconds. It doesn't exactly sound like the "let him go". He's the strongest rider this spring by far and there were 3 world class cyclists chasing him. Booner is going to be a big star in the next few years. Any race flat-ish race that Fasso can't control he's going to be in contention for - if he wants to be. Sounded like the race was pretty controlled until the last hour. bummer we dont get any live coverage here.

has anyone ever tried watching eurosport on the net????

Tour of Flanders hardly classifies as flat (even with the ish at the end ;-) )
it's not super hilly but the little walls spread here and there are really really nasty.

Just watched it on OLN. They had a six man break get away at around 30 k. from the finish. Tom B was just super strong. He jumped and got about 8 sec before the others reacted. He really put his heart in to it and had 12 sec @ 2k to go when the chasers gave up and won by 30 ish.
The five others in the break didn't get 100% committed as they would hammer and sit, hammer and sit but never dented his 8-12 sec gap. I was kind of hoping the old man Zabel would get it as he had a teammate in the break as well. Just not to be. G

De Pete was quoted after the race as saying he didn't want to drag Zabel up to Boonen - why drag a world class pack sprinter up to the front, especially when he has a teammate in the break?

Classic case of the perfect opportunist attack - counter the strongest rider in the group, and leave him stuck with a sprinter.

Zabel was the man today - he made the break happen with a couple of back to back attacks to split the group, and to counter himself for the escape. Super, super cool - he has apparently come to the conclusion that he no longer has the explosive speed to be a pack sprinter, and is working to become a classics-style specialist, in the same way that Museeuw and Jalabert and even Kelly reinvented themselves.

He will be one to watch in the classics for the next couple of years...

Of course, Boonen is simply amazing...





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Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
Coaching and bike fit - http://source-e.net/ Cyclocross blog - https://crosssports.net/ BJJ instruction - https://ballardbjj.com/

Having watched it live, I stand by my comment that they let him go, as no-one wanted to waste energy being the one to lead the group up to him only to not be able to follow an immediate counter break once up with him. Are you seriously suggesting that he is strong enough to out drag a group of 5 riders working together containing the likes of Zabel and Van Pettegan? If you honestly think so that is fair enough.

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"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

What a race ! So much people alongside the course. Incredible. The best did win, but I was mostly surprised by the performance of the Italian Ballan. Also Zabel was great.

Clearly the Pro Tour has something possitive. Finally the Spanish are 'forced' to attend the classics in the north. If there wasn't a Pro Tour, those sissies would stay down in the sun (eventhough it was 20°C overhere).

My bet for Paris Roubaix :

1/ Van Peteghem (yep, just another Belgian)

2/ Hincapie

3/ Leif Hoste

4/ Magnus Backstedt

5/ Tom Boonen

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Fuck a duck and try to fly

Zabel and Klier did not have energy left to chase, Zabala had been in the lead for 100ks and the other italian (Mattan) had also done his fair share of work by bridging the gap alone to the leaders early on the course.

That left Van Petegem to chase, the problem was that Boonen attached just at the right time, after Van Petegem had firsty tried to attack him and was looking for his second breath.

Just a perfect timing and a super strong Boonen. The others did not let him go.

FYI, Mattan (Nico) is belgian. You probably meant Italian Ballan.

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Fuck a duck and try to fly

Yeah, sorry, I had Ballan in mind.

[reply]Having watched it live, [/reply]

Having watched it live too, I disagree. Van Petegem chased him, got to 10-20 meters but couldn't close the gap. And actually, just when Boonen jumped Klier tried to go with him but simply couldn't. I don't see how they let him go, but at a certain point they did let him stay away. But even if they had organized the chase, boonen may very well have survived. He was in a two man break last week and stayed away from a chasing peloton. The guy is strong right now.

The most interesting part for me was seeing Lance at the top of Tenbosse. I was on the inside of the turn and his face was 10 inches away from mine. He had dropped out of the Hincapie group after pulling for a couple k, and he looked spent. I bet he has a new appreciation for when George pulls for a couple hours in the mountains. Hats off to him though, it was good to see him in that race. To be honest, he made me a bigger fan of his yesterday than in the six previous Tours, I even put some money on him (which was going a bit overboard).

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Gerard Vroomen
3T.bike
OPEN cycle

That was what I meant, Gerard, but did not express so well.

Quick question for you: what is the minimum insert length of seatpost required in a R2.5 Team seat tube? It will be either a 51 or 54 if that has any bearing on it.

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"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

65mm, 2 1/2 inches

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Gerard Vroomen
3T.bike
OPEN cycle

Thanks Gerard. I hope to be a proud member of the Cervelo Club very soon.-)

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"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS