Bad news to start the thread with….Wout is sick and unlikely to start Sunday.
MVP looks to be the only 5-Star favorite now, but a whole host of 4-star favorites can upset the apple cart.
Pidcock is a funny one IMO, on his day he can ‘upset the apple cart’ as you say and make it exciting but on other days he’s an ‘also ran’ :-/ Similarly, Id like to see Sagan ‘upset the apple cart’ as he can make a race exciting but that hasn’t happened for a few years it seems :-/
Agreed re: Pidcock…he seems to be a mercurial rider.
Will. Be interesting to see if QS can get their schitt together for their biggest race of the year.
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It doesn’t sound like he’ll be the one to make it an exciting race :-/
Mind you he has to do better than the last time I done the sportive with full blown bowel cancer (Im one lucky b that it never spread).
Sagan is out this year unfortunately.
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Typical, I must have put a hex on him 
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@HLaB You musta done it early then because he’s been struggling since the jump 
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Pidcock looked far more like his normal self yesterday in the Dwars door Vlaanderen - shame he couldn’t follow Mathieu van der Poel and Tiesj Benoot during that last attack.
I think he will be up there on Sunday… everyone else is sick now rather than the last few weeks like he was.
That TE contract is looking worse and worse by the minute….but not surprising, really.
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Ahh well… all in for Anthony Turgis then - my bet to upset the apple cart perhaps
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Brabantse Pijl and Amstel Gold from 2021…I’d never count Pidcock out against anybody in a classic, especially with the form he showed in Dwars door Vlaanderen this week. Looked like MvdP was stretching his back at the end of the that race - makes me nervous that he is overdoing it again. With QuickStep floundering, INEOS and Alpecin-Fenix have the strongest overall teams, and in a race like this, team tactics will make or break the race for all of the riders.
Sad that Wout won’t be there, but it will still be a great race.
I am in Flanders we originally booked this for 2020 and have finally made it!
I’d love pidcock to do something as he’s one of our local riders (I’ve spotted him riding past the end of my road before and have raced him in our club time trial) but we’ll see.
So excited!
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There was a point when Mads Pedersen looked like a good option, but he was unable to make the split at Dwars on Wednesday and it didn’t look like he was just saving himself…
Asgreen has a chance. He raced hard but stupidly at E3 and Gent-Wevelgem but missed Dwars so maybe he’ll peak at just the right time.
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Quinn Simmons looked like the strongest Trek Segafredo rider. Looked like he felt good enough to go with Pidcock and MvdP on that attack around 60k but got called back
He looked pretty good at Dwars.
I wonder if he’s sandbagging a tiny bit. Not to take away from stomach issues, I can relate there to that being ongoing and never knowing quite what will happen.
I think he said he was just feeling sick. Looked like it went away. I honestly don’t think these guys show up to races to sandbag. They will destroy themselves to avoid getting dropped on a race like MSR. Grand tour strategy is of course different
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I meant with his comments, not his riding. At Dwars he was one of the protagonists at the end after his domestique was done (can’t remember his name sorry, maybe Connor Swift)
MVDP for the win. With WVA not riding, MVDP and WVA won’t be caught out watching each other as the winner goes up the road.
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I think it comes down to the strength of the final group. There’s a lot of riders not quite on the level of MVdP and WvA that can hang in but then just sit and watch to get them to pull back the attacks.
Like Benoot yesterday. Luckily MVdP had the horsepower.
I am rooting for MVdP again and it should be a great race even without Wout.
I really hate Wout may be out. I was really looking forward to seeing how MvdP would try to handle Wout and his two top lieutenants. I can see Wout sending off Benoot and Laporte in attacks with MvdP having to respond while Wout got a free ride.
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