Hahahahaha Benzy, we should have gone in together!
Jan Heine will rule the world 
spirito, I was listening closely to what the commentators on Eurosport had to say about the bikes last night, and one of the commentators was saying that he had a close look at a lot of the bikes before the race, and that most of the bikes were running the same 700x27c tyre, made by “a certain Italian company”. He also said that although their rims were de-stickered and mostly unrecognisable, it was still obvious that most of their rims (except for the deep rims of Cancellara et al) were also made by a “certain Italian company”. He didn’t however comment on what this company was though.
Cancellara rode an amazing race last night, and I don’t remember the last time I saw a single rider have enough power to pull away from the peloton on a flat stage like that. Massive respect. (Pity those Specialized Roubaix frames are so ugly though)
Challenge have made tyres for a lot of teams in the past before IIRC. They were (and maybe still are) making their tyres in thailand which would allow for most of the teams to be on them.
I’d be surprised if dugast (and especially FMB) had done it, they tend to be smaller batches and spend a lot of their time (in fact for FMB almost all their time) making tyres for cross racing. (though the lure of making tyres for some of the big names might well be irresistible.)
FMB will make you a tubular out of whatever tread you want… you just need to supply it.
spartacus’ move was smart, he caught boonen napping and then the group was too selfish to work together leaving tommeke high and dry. he has awesome power, but if they’d wanted to reel him back in the potential firepower of the chase group was enough to do so.
boonen wanted it so bad, but you could see him get frustrated and then completely over it as the kms ticked down.
sitting in a room of track racers (sorta) the cheers that went up when hushovd dropped in under flecha to take him for 2nd was great.
good call Nick 
Challenge tires are something I’ve been keen to try. They even hand glue the tread on some of their clincher tyres, and the rolling tests seem to say they are on the money especially for their triathlon clincher model.
regarding Spartacus: I haven’t seen such a convincing display since I don’t know when. What an awesome ride. 50k’s is a long way to go out but he was clearly 2 steps above anyone else.
i saw on one of the cycling news websites that a few of the riders were using de+re-stickered ambrosio box rims
It was a very entertaining race to watch. Cancellara’s effort was huge and it was interesting to watch him just coast off the track into the gravel at the end, absolutely spent.
yep, Ambrosio Nemesis box section tubular rimes. There were a couple on mavic reflexes as well (and apparently one person on mavic R-SYS) but really so many riders were on unbadged/restickered nemesis’. a lot of the wheels are only brought out for the classics so they are often a few years old.
the nemesis is considered very highly for a classics wheelset (see herefor better writing than i can produce).
benzy’s comment re: skil-shimano rider and brunswick member mitch docker:
“being a bcc member and wearing a jersey that looks like a barber’s pole? that’s good enough for me!”
Ha! I went to school with Mitch, he’s (clearly!) a damn good rider, and it’s good to see him finally riding in the big races like Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.
kinda bummed they didn’t get a start in this year’s TdF. i liked that kit too.
i’m also bummed that whenever we talk about mitch, more cynical folks always bring up a certain world champion who is a northcote member…
they can have him.
yeah… the some of the challenge clinchers are on my ‘to try’ list for CX tyres. i’ve heard that they are very faithful reproductions of the tubular models and that they have returned to form after some years in the ‘rubber wilderness’.
i agree FC’s move was amazing. as my old man said, ‘he saw the chance and he backed himself and his legs to go the distance’. he has had an amazing (northern) classics season, but i think he was helped by the reticence of the chasers to do just that. anyone else wouldnt have built such a sizeable gap so quickly though… especially on such rough terrain
had to feel for Tom, sits up for 10 sec and Cancellara is gone and couldn’t get help to chase.
You could see how much use those Al rims had for most teams, close ups showed the hardox wearing off. And FC’s brand new zipps broke in the forest.
Leukemans reaction to Cancellara turning the screws was brilliant (7:01).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7xjsPqHg3o#t=7m1s
The dutch commentary in the video is pretty funny as well, check out 2:25 :lol:.
a good summary of how it happened…
He is right, if they cant get a new title sponsor after that classics season and with a very promising tour coming up they need a talking to. however, without their ‘stars’ (FC, Schlecks, Breschel etc) they could find themselves disbanding or dropping off the PROTour pretty quick.
+1 on Leukemans reaction…
Great race, was an amazing experience to be there. Saw it at a few different points - first in the Arenburg, then we pulled over on the side on the freeway, ran through some paddocks and caught them at the feed station about 1km before Cancellara first tried to break, and then on the pave again just before the Carrefour de L’ Arbre. At this point Fabian was so far ahead (and we didn’t have the radio on) so it was pretty stunning seeing him come round that corner and then have nobody following him for a good two minutes. What remained of the peleton trickled past over the next 10 minutes looking quite worse for wear. Headed from there to Roubaix to catch the aftermath at the veledrome and managed to cross paths with the peleton a few times as we were driving along the motorway.
Was an amazing day - the Belgians that come over to party are a highlight when you’re waiting for 3 hours to secure a decent spot in the forest.
The week before we had a good spot on the Kopenberg for the Tour of Flanders which was pretty amazing too. I’ll post some photos at some point.
That sounds like an amazing time. Good for you
so, so jealous.
you know i hate you… but in a friendly jealous way