Gent-Wevelgem

TheBlaaMan

Todays race appears not to be scheduled for broadcast, not by Eurosport in any case, so you may have to find a live stream of you want to watch it.... In between Sam Bennetts exploits in Criterium International and Dan Martin in Volta a Catalunya

As per tradition, the race first heads north west to the Belgian coast and then returns to the heart of southern Flanders for the climb and especially the double loop around the Kemmelberg. This year the riders climb on the older, steeper cobbled climb and descend on the safer asphalt road. There are plenty of previews online, that at Cyclingfans.com http://www.cyclingfans.com/gent-wevelgem/live being a good one





Kristoff and Stannard are DNS today, and Sagan is talking down his chances (but he would, wouldn't he.... ), so it will be an open field for the hard men to impose themselves upon. Van Avermaet, despite being sick recently, and Cancellara start, but I bet he sandbags ahead of Flanders next week.....cant be peaking too soon!

Gent-Wevelgem departs Deinze at 10:20am ) and is expected at the finish at Wevelgem at around 3:58pm. Live video should get underway at around 1:00pm. Other feeds may not be available until closer to 1:30pm

For the first time, a women's Gent-Wevelgem is also underway. The women face 112km of racing and five climbs before they finish in Wevelgem at around 2pm local time. Given that TV coverage of the mens race looks difficult to catch, I'd not hold out any hope of seeing the women's race

nilhg

It's live on the Bike channel (only available on Sky and FTA satellite AFAIK. edit: maybe Virgin media as well)

http://www.bikechannel.co.uk/tv-guide/

neris

criterium intl is on eurosport now and G-W on bike

dastardly00

Nice one, I'm in my parents house and they have Sky and the Bike Channel

longshanks

Is it just me or is the picture quality shite?

dastardly00

longshanks wrote: »

Is it just me or is the picture quality shite?

It's better than a dodgy pixelated stream :pac:

dastardly00

34km left and they have just gone over the Kemmelberg.
The big boys are starting to come to the front.

dastardly00

The race is on now for sure.

Sagan, Cancellara, Vanmarcke and Kuznetsov (Katusha) have a 14 second lead.

Pudsy33

Etixx blowing it again. They're such a shambles for such a strong team

dastardly00

Less than 17km to go.
Cancellara, Sagan, Vanmarcke and Kuznetsov have a 36 second lead over a group of about 23 riders that also contains most of the Etixx team (Stybar, Terpstra, Boonen, Trentin, Gaviria).

bazermc

longshanks wrote: »

Is it just me or is the picture quality shite?

Feels like I'm trying to watch it without me glasses on.

pelevin

Kind of embarrassing looking all right the blue army of Eticc guys together chasing behind. Some very strong words I'd imagine afterwards.
From the few minutes I've been watching Sagan seems to be doing crazy long turns on the front.

dastardly00

Less than 10km to go. 34 seconds between the 4 man lead group and the chase group.

dastardly00

It's going to an exciting finish. Sagan, Cancellara and Vanmarcke have been going full gas to stay ahead. Kuznetsov has been doing the least amount of work, but he was out on his own before that for a long time.

The tax man

Nice of Kuznetsov to finally take a brief turn at the front.:rolleyes:

dastardly00

Less than 4km to go and it's Cancellara vs. Sagan vs. Vanmarcke vs. Kuznetsov.

Pudsy33

The tax man wrote: »

Nice of Kuznetsov to finally take a brief turn at the front.:rolleyes:

Ah he doesn't have the legs, can't blame him really. Freeloading is his only shot

dastardly00

Less than 2km to go.

dastardly00

Here we go!

The tax man

Pudsy33 wrote: »

Ah he doesn't have the legs, can't blame him really. Freeloading is his only shot

Better not have the legs to take it.:)

Eamonnator

Deadly.Well done Sagan

longshanks

Sits up.

Eamonnator

Perfectly timed

The tax man

Excellent.

bazermc

Sagan won and Mayo are also winning. The world is gone topsy turvy

dastardly00

Yay Sagan finally gets a win in the Rainbow jersey.

pelevin

Good to see Sagan with the legs at the death - far from a given.

neris

bazermc wrote: »

Sagan won and Mayo are also winning. The world is gone topsy turvy

no that would be in september only and thered be more chance of sagan winning in september then mayo

Eamonnator

First of many, I hope.

Darkglasses

Very worrying news coming out about Antoine Demoitie, hit by a motorbike and now in intensive care, extremely serious condition.

dastardly00

https://twitter.com/TeamWantyGobert/status/714187596184875008

godtabh

Darkglasses wrote: »

Very worrying news coming out about Antoine Demoitie, hit by a motorbike and now in intensive care, extremely serious condition.

I'm reading conflicting reports. Some say he got caught up the crash and some say he got caught by the bike after the crash.

Either way more issues with motor bikes as a lot of rides are complaining about the motor bikes.

Darkglasses

https://twitter.com/velonews/status/714230812904808448

Just been reported that Antoine Demoitie has passed away, aged 25. RIP

retalivity

Bloody hell, rip.

eeeee

Fcuk.

R.I.P.

Pudsy33

I'm not gonna pin the blame on the moto, because there is conflicting reports over what happened. But if this was in any way the results of negligence by the camera crew, there needs to be serious shake up. They always said it'll take someone to die. And here it is. RIP. Tragic. I'm disgusted.

sy

This is such sad news !! Can't believe.. was watching race on bike TV..but unaware of this
RIP ...so sad

godtabh

Sad news. RIP

sherlok

That's tragic. RIP.

MPFGLB

Such sad news ...A young man enters a race on closed roads and he is now dead ? How awful for his family, friends, & teammates

I watch a lot of cycling and I am always amazed at the number of moto bikes in the races
They do have a difficult job and its not something I would do ...chasing riders down mountains at 120 KM per hour

But surely the UCI could do more to ensure rider safety on what afterall are closed roads

RIP Antoine Demoitié.

iwillhtfu

I just saw on twitter his organs have been donated and have already helped/saved 3 other lives.

Life can be wicked and wonderful I'd urge everyone to register for organ donation your finest moment could be after your gone and helping others.

RIP.

pelevin

That about his organs helping others is at least something of a positive to such a sad affair. My mum had a heart transplant so I know it's far from a thing of nothing. Awful though & puts a perspective on sport - you give everything to win but it's sure as hell not important.

R.I.P.

RacoonQueen

Shocked to see on twitter this morning that he had passed away. Horribly sad news.
RIP

Inquitus

RIP, terrible development, so pointless too.

velo.2010

Quite upsetting to hear about this. Lets hope some positive steps are taken regarding the make up of the race cavalcade. Thoughts also for that poor young guy who had a cardiac arrest in the Criterium International. Between these two events and the lad who got badly hurt in the boxing match, sport is on the front pages for the wrong reasons.

Koobcam

Not sure this accident had anything to do with motos behaving badly in the bunch - from what I've seen, the guy driving the bike had 20 years experience on races, and the team isn't blaming him at all. Maybe it was just a terrible, freak accident.

Darkglasses

Koobcam wrote: »

Not sure this accident had anything to do with motos behaving badly in the bunch - from what I've seen, the guy driving the bike had 20 years experience on races, and the team isn't blaming him at all. Maybe it was just a terrible, freak accident.

Details are sketchy but it sounds like you might be right. Certainly it would be wrong to apportion blame before the investigations are finished. Natural to try to look for a way to prevent it happening again though.

ThisRegard

An interesting article I read earlier, made more so because the author was working on a similar piece already.

http://cyclingtips.com/2016/03/commentary-gent-wevelgem-fatality-a-tragedy-that-has-been-a-long-time-coming/

bbolger

Terrible news, RIP.

Saw this one the other day when Kuznetsov was the sole leader...

https://twitter.com/Trudgin/status/714226727401209857

REBELSAFC

MPFGLB wrote: »

Such sad news ...A young man enters a race on closed roads and he is now dead ? How awful for his family, friends, & teammates

I watch a lot of cycling and I am always amazed at the number of moto bikes in the races
They do have a difficult job and its not something I would do ...chasing riders down mountains at 120 KM per hour

But surely the UCI could do more to ensure rider safety on what afterall are closed roads

RIP Antoine Demoitié.

Surely drones are a safer option these days with regard to the TV pictures needed?

REBELSAFC

REBELSAFC wrote: »

Surely drones are a safer option these days with regard to the TV pictures needed?

Flight time is still pretty limited <20 mins. They would be unsuitable for most races.