Omloop Het Nieuwsblad - Saturday Feb 23 2013 [Contains Spoilers]

sy

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad is up this Saturday ( Het Volk) and is the first of the semi-classics. Usually a hard race and an indicator of who may be coming into form for the later big ones. Seems Terpstra is getting the nod from his team Omega Pharma and we will also see what kind of form Boonen Cancellara and Hushovd are in. Van Avermaet is my fancy but Hushovd might be favourite on the day as he has shown good form recently. A little bit colder than Qatar :eek:

Chips Lovell

I've taken the liberty of hiving this off and starting a new thread for the race.

Chips Lovell

Provisional start list here.

smithslist

It doesn't seem to be on Eurosport, I just cheked tv guide, anyone know where I can watch live?

Chips Lovell

Cycling.tv is carrying it. Other than that, you might find a live stream on the home broadcaster, which is usually Sporza in Belgium.

ednwireland

weather forecast is sunny dry but 2 degrees !

eoghan84

Any favourites? will Sep repeat? How will Boonen fair with the elbow/12 day set back? Will Hushovd show a return to form? Roelandts?

Lars Boom was 10th two years ago (after he'd won the prologue of Oman) and his form is very good so far with two wins this season, can he do it?

Chips Lovell

Three guys I'd be keeping an eye on are Hushovd, Pozzato and Boom. The first two are previous winners seem to have found their form again and won races in the past week. Boom has also been going very well.

Outside of that, as Sy mentions, Boonen is taking a back seat in favour of Terpstra.

Flecha, Langeveld, Nuyens and Vanmarcke are all previous winners, but I've no idea of their current form.

Race should suit the likes of Boasson Hagen and Thomas, but again I'm not too sure of where they're at in terms of form.

No Cancellara or Sagan since their teams aren't in. Gilbert (a two time winner) isn't starting.

Brammier's the only Irishman in the race.

couerdelion

Vladimir Kurtains wrote: »

Thomas, but again I'm not too sure of where they're at in terms of form.

Thomas is in good form. Bad tactics/inexperience cost him the win 'Down Under'. But I just don't see him winning.

Boonen looks a good bet (back seat or not) and I quite like the look of Taylor Phinney.

Chips Lovell

Aye, Phinney has a lot of potential on the cobbles alright. Has won the U23 Paris - Roubaix twice.

couerdelion

Odds here

Chips Lovell

Jens Keukeleire is 200-1. Wonder if he'll ever find the form he had in 2010. Still only 24.

Flandria

Even without Gilbert BMC have a strong hand with Hushovd and Van Avermaet. OPQS have strength in depth for this with Tommeke, Terpstra and my outside shot, Stybar. A few quid on Van Avermaet will do for for me though, as his trajectory is solid. The real season starts with this...:):)

Chips Lovell

Very interested to see how Štybar does alright. Big year for him, where he's got to prove whether he can step up or not.

eoghan84

would be great to see Stybie and Boom in a group, would remind of Zeddam or the Azencross

couerdelion

Preview here from Cyclingnews.com

sy

Nice to see one of our greats get a mention in PezCycling preview. ( Always like their previews)

Historically, it helps if you're Belgian, 53 out of 64 winners have been home boys............ ..But there have been rare foreign winners, legendary Irishman Seamus Elliott won in 1959 and was the first foreigner to do so;

We tend to forget how talented this great man was

Nice review of his famous victory here on stickybottle

crumliniano

How come Saxo, Leopard and Cannondale or not in (same for K-B-K next day I think). I thought the protour teams were obliged to field a team in all the races, or is that only the top category races?

Chips Lovell

That's only for World Tour races. This one isn't.

morana

highlights on RAI tv on 19E if you have a sat dish. KBK is live the next day

Flandria

What the Kurtains man said - Het Volk and KBK are UCI Europe Tour.

Sporza should have the usual feeds and Eurosport2 have KBK on Sunday AFAIK

manafana

Thought id bring this back up starts today, you should be able get sporza easy enough in flemish, and their may be a french stream too which is harder to get.

I have few bets picked out for the omloop . Looking at the likes of terpstra to go well with boonen holding off on his form for now

morana

Flandria wrote: »

What the Kurtains man said - Het Volk and KBK are UCI Europe Tour.

Sporza should have the usual feeds and Eurosport2 have KBK on Sunday AFAIK

but its geo-restricted?

Flandria

morana wrote: »

but its geo-restricted?

Something should turn up;)

http://www.steephill.tv/classics/omloop-het-nieuwsblad/#live

RTBF usually a good bet too...

TheBlaaMan

I'll only catch the first hour of this online (as I then have to go on a demo....!). Anyway, would love to see Phinney win this, or Hushovd and Pippo if not. I see too that ex-An Post Gediminas Bagdonas is on the AG2R rostser, it will be interesting to see how he goes. Brammeier is in there too.......

spokesm0del

Michelle Geoghegan is racing in the women's race. Can't find any live coverage though

bcmf

http://sports-livez.com/channel/ch-5.php


streaming form above link. Pic quality is terrible and it looks very cold

Flandria

Better...

http://88.80.5.88/c4b00/20130222/vv51277bb0e2068021069847-529599.html

bcmf

Flandria wrote: »

Better...

http://88.80.5.88/c4b00/20130222/vv51277bb0e2068021069847-529599.html

Yep a lot better.. but had to use Google stealthy to get it

dastardly00

15km to go...
Luca Paolini and Stijn Vandenbergh have a 35 second lead over an 8 man chase group containing Chavanel and Geraint Thomas. The peloton is over 3 min 40 secs back.

dastardly00

under the red kite..
it's Paolini vs Vandenbergh.

dastardly00

Paolini wins .... easily.

manafana

bit of anti climax in end always hard follow whats going on in behind for these races

CaoimH_in

Disappointed for Vandenbergh. Can't say I'm happy with Paolini winning.

Chips Lovell

I want those leg warmers.

Lusk Doyle

Vladimir Kurtains wrote: »

I want those leg warmers.

Did you get the expressed permission of Tim to use that pic? :P

ashleey

http://m.cyclingnews.com/news/roelandts-suffers-eye-injury-at-omloop-het-nieuwsblad

Forget leg warmers.

Damaged corneas from cycling in the wind!

Also, the Blanco shirts are the coolest. It's just a pity that the rules prevent mortals like me from wearing them

couerdelion

If anyone is interested there's an app that has live coverage of the flanders classics (not pictures just moving maps).
It's on the apple appstore just search for "flanders classics".