ghent wevelgem quotes du jour
From Juan Antonio Flecha (Fassa Bortolo), who with 500m to go in the 208km Ghent Wevelgem (which I watched live on Cycling.TV this morning) was caught by a storming Nico Mattan (Davitamon-Lotto)...
Mattan's complimentary quote in VeloNews about not using the lead vehicles and press motorbikes to gain any advantage in order to catch Flecha:
The important details in these two quotes: their speeds...
Flecha: 55kmh vs. Mattan: 59kmh
Holy crap. Try going out and riding at 55kmh or 59kmh under your own steam for a couple of kilometers. Go ahead, just try. Now try that after you've been up the Kemmelberg twice and been shattered in echelons all day and done 208km of racing.
Un-freaking-believable.
To note: coverage on Cycling.TV was pretty good. It did stutter and buffer quite a bit more than other times I've logged on. I'd get a few minutes just fine, then I'd get a few minutes where I'd alt-tab back over to the Cyclingnews.com live feed of the race. They're still working this technology out and need some more bandwidth if you ask me, but the fact that I was able to roll out of bed, head over to the computer and watch the Belgian TV feed of Ghent Wevelgem live is pretty cool.
And the coverage is live, commercial free (sort-of: they flashed a CompetitiveCyclist.com ad up for like 2 seconds today), and way better than OLN's packaged commercial-laden stuff, which is starting to remind me of ABC's Tour de France coverage of the late 1980's.... Although I do miss Phil and Paul doing the commentary. No offense, Cycling.TV guys, but you just don't have the same repetoire that Phil and Paul have.
"Boonen is going to have dig deep into the suitcase of courage to catch this breakaway group."
or
"Backstedt, he's an enourmous man!"
"I kept the speed at 55 km/h and was clear until three hundred metres to go. I was very surprised to be caught."
From Cyclingnews.com
Mattan's complimentary quote in VeloNews about not using the lead vehicles and press motorbikes to gain any advantage in order to catch Flecha:
"I knew I could catch him," Mattan said. "I used the cars as a point to focus on... I know the finish line very well. Two or three kilometers from the finish, I thought I'd lost. But I was still riding at 59km an hour. I saw the bikes in the distance, but it was me riding 59km an hour. I did the pedaling. I gave everything in the last two kilometers, and at 500 meters, I knew I could still make it."
From Velonews.com
The important details in these two quotes: their speeds...
Flecha: 55kmh vs. Mattan: 59kmh
Holy crap. Try going out and riding at 55kmh or 59kmh under your own steam for a couple of kilometers. Go ahead, just try. Now try that after you've been up the Kemmelberg twice and been shattered in echelons all day and done 208km of racing.
Un-freaking-believable.
To note: coverage on Cycling.TV was pretty good. It did stutter and buffer quite a bit more than other times I've logged on. I'd get a few minutes just fine, then I'd get a few minutes where I'd alt-tab back over to the Cyclingnews.com live feed of the race. They're still working this technology out and need some more bandwidth if you ask me, but the fact that I was able to roll out of bed, head over to the computer and watch the Belgian TV feed of Ghent Wevelgem live is pretty cool.
And the coverage is live, commercial free (sort-of: they flashed a CompetitiveCyclist.com ad up for like 2 seconds today), and way better than OLN's packaged commercial-laden stuff, which is starting to remind me of ABC's Tour de France coverage of the late 1980's.... Although I do miss Phil and Paul doing the commentary. No offense, Cycling.TV guys, but you just don't have the same repetoire that Phil and Paul have.
"Boonen is going to have dig deep into the suitcase of courage to catch this breakaway group."
or
"Backstedt, he's an enourmous man!"
2 Comments:
Those are awesome numbers, but I think a more relevant question is this: is there any cyclist in the world who can pedal at 59 km/h for 3 km, not even using TT bars, without motorpacing?
Just asking,
By
Ryan, at 10:03 am
I've watched Theo Bos ride a 1:01 kilo (just under 60kmh) from a standing start. And I've seen some 4:30 4km pursuits (aero bars/disc/etc.). But that's all track stuff. And not after 200km of racing either.
I'm not sure how long he was at that speed for. You could go back to the footage and time the last 5km... And perhaps there was some tailwind/elevation things happening too.
As Philip and La Bicicletta said to me today, "you know, their [the pros] 40kmh is our 30kmh" -- while we ramp our sprints up to 50kmh+, they're busy ramping it up to 60kmh+. They're the reason Campy and Shmimano make 54's and 11's... ;)
By
Gordon, at 6:55 pm
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