So, who just finished watching Het Volk (on cycling.tv of course)?

I thought the race was pretty exciting, some really quality breaks going in the final 70k or so. Too bad that Discovery wasn't in the right moves, or couldn't quite drive the breaks they were in. They rode a reasonably agressive race though, which is always good to see.

I thought QuickStep played their cards right as usual, but that other teams probably should've caught Nuyens in the end. There were somewhat negative racing tactics in the finish, as all the teams really looked at each other when Nuyens first escaped. By the time Davitamon Lotto got on the front and started hammering he was around 25-30 seconds with 7-8k left. A missed chance for Van Petegem and McEwen, who inexplicably fell to pieces at the back of the pack. What did everyone else think?

Silas

QS were spot on - they showed a flexibility that every other team lacked and they had the confidence in themselves to find alternatives to Boonen. Discovery should ditch Demol - that was so utterly typical of his Classics performances. Lotto will get their revenge soon - McEwen was ill, Van Petegem didn't get much support when he was up the road. Nice to see O'Grady having a dig, Voeckler making the final selection and of course Dierckxsens coming 10th at the age of 41.

Were you happy with the cycling.tv coverage? What language is the commentary in?

Thanks,
Ken

QS were spot on - they showed a flexibility that every other team lacked and they had the confidence in themselves to find alternatives to Boonen. Discovery should ditch Demol - that was so utterly typical of his Classics performances. Lotto will get their revenge soon - McEwen was ill, Van Petegem didn't get much support when he was up the road. Nice to see O'Grady having a dig, Voeckler making the final selection and of course Dierckxsens coming 10th at the age of 41.

Bianchigirl, a couple things. One, I thought that Discovery rode a decent race. They had three guys in a break which looked at first like a possible winning move. I was recently watching a video of the 02 Het Volk where Van Petegem won, and it was in a very similar breakaway on a very similar course. I think sometimes you have to say tough luck when going against a clearly superior team. My only gripe with them is how they sit on the front for so much of the day like they're protecting LA's lead or something, I just don't get it. Van Heesjwik was a bit dissappointing too, clearly one of their protected men for the finale, but he couldn't do diddly squat.

As for Voeckler, he was really strong, even making a couple little shots at the end, and O'Grady was clearly one of the strongest riders on the day.

I really thought the end was very negative racing in the peloton though. Nuyens seemed fast enough, but once Lotto started chasing full on his lead didn't increase past 30 seconds. I can't believe how chicken Lotto, Disco, Cofidis, FDJeux, etc. all were when Nuyens first got away from that 3 man break. But of course, Quickstep did play it just right, and dominated the day's racing.

Silas

Were you happy with the cycling.tv coverage? What language is the commentary in?

Thanks,
Ken

Reasonably happy. It's all in English, and the video quality was good. The commentary is so-so, probably on par with a local sports station, and they tended to drift away from the race and just talk about riders and teams to no end. That's one thing when the race is slow, but they were doing it when attacks were flying at 20k to go. I was watching it, and reading some cyclingnews.com live text coverage so I could see who was in every move. Give it a free test run tmorrow, they're showing Kurne-Brussels-Kurne.

Silas

What time does the Kurne-Brussels-Kurne broadcast start? It states 13:30 on the site. Which time zone is their start time in? Thanks in advance.

whatever time zone they're in it's 7 hours ahead of me (USA mountain standard time). If that helps.

Gotta agree with silas on this one. I think VanHeesADisco's level of fitness had more to do with Discovery's lack of result than Demol's planning or strategy. Personally, I think he's been doing a heck of a job with the classics over the last couple of years given the riders he's handed.

Thanks for the feedback. I looked at some of there highlights before but did not pony up the 10 euros for the race coverage today. The Jacobs Creek highlights had Ligget/Sherwin doing the commentary so I wondered if they might do all of the english language commentary. I agree that the video is quite good. I'm going to check the live race tomorrow.

Oh in response to the question on time zone, the times on cycling.tv look like they are GMT. 8 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time.


Ken

Thats a steep price point. 10 euros! thats about $13-15 isn't it? And you can get world cycling dvds for about $25. I would pay about $5-8, price of a movie but not much more for a 300 pixel video feed. Cant wait for the free KBK though!!!

The racing sounded fierce from cyclingnews's coverage, I thought that big break with 3 discovery guys was going to stick, sounded like Hincapie was feeling good. What went wrong? I sound like a Discovery fan, strange, I usually could care less.

I was looking at the start photos from cyclingnews, amazed to see all the handbuilt 32 hole wheels still being used by the peleton. Cofidis, Mr. Bookmaker, a few others, it looked like even Discovery where using 32 hole bontrager branded rims.

Thats a steep price point. 10 euros! thats about $13-15 isn't it? And you can get world cycling dvds for about $25. I would pay about $5-8, price of a movie but not much more for a 300 pixel video feed. Cant wait for the free KBK though!!!

The racing sounded fierce from cyclingnews's coverage, I thought that big break with 3 discovery guys was going to stick, sounded like Hincapie was feeling good. What went wrong? I sound like a Discovery fan, strange, I usually could care less.

I was looking at the start photos from cyclingnews, amazed to see all the handbuilt 32 hole wheels still being used by the peleton. Cofidis, Mr. Bookmaker, a few others, it looked like even Discovery where using 32 hole bontrager branded rims.

My understanding as far as the money goes is that they were required to charge a fee for Het Volk, maybe by the race organizers, maybe by Belgian TV who had the feed. Either way they say they're committed to free race coverage anytime they are allowed to do so.

As far as the early Discovery break failing, it looked good, but they just didn't seem to have the power. It certainly didn't help that there was a QuickStep rider (Tankink I believe) who was just sitting on the back policing the break. I'm sure everyone who races here knows that a good cooperating group makes everyone work a little bit harder. Quickstep was also chasing pretty darn hard, and they brought that gap down pretty quickly considering who was pushing hard in the break (Hincapie, Devolder, Van Petegem, et al.)

Silas