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).
I had high hopes for him in this Spring but not anymore. You never know, he does tend to come come good after a few high intensity session, but it sounds too soon and a big ask.
I think half the problem last year was it wasnt the plan (for him to go for the win, although not so much in the Spring races) or he made a few school boy errors and blew himself up. The rest of the time he was in the mix for the win.
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Sagan is out this year unfortunately.
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Typical, I must have put a hex on him 
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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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Talking about contracts, Pidcocks has been extended to 5 years.
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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Asgreen might be a good shout.
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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.
