Het Volk thread

limerickman said:

Forecast is cold but dry over here in Europe for the weekend.

Looking forward to HV : roll on Saturday.

Lefevre made it clear too that there won't be any gifts from Boonen to PVP for his help in Madrid last year, so roll on saturday indeed 😎

No TV coverage it seems... I think Eurosport is overdoing it with the Winter Olympics... Seriously who cares about Speed Scating and Bobsleigh??? I hate snow😠 😠

Been checking ES's schedule and I can't see any coverage there (to be fair they
haven't covered HV for the past few years).

Cycling.tv is covering it though.

DS : Lefevere's opening up the box of tricks early!

Dead Star said:

Lefevre made it clear too that there won't be any gifts from Boonen to PVP for his help in Madrid last year, so roll on saturday indeed 😎

Lefevre talks to much...

musette said:

Stijn may not be as strong for Het Volk as last year. He peaked too early last year, in Bruyneel's mind, and he is now trying to delay his build-up by a month so he has a better chance at Flanders, Roubaix, etc.

Bruyneel said in an interview that he expects a lot from Roger Hammond...

Hammond did fairly well in field sprints in Ruta del Sol:

Stage 5 results:
1 BOONEN, Tom QUICK STEP - INNERGETIC BEL
2 PETACCHI, Alessandro TEAM MILRAM ITA m.t.
3 HAMMOND, Roger DISCOVERY CHANNEL PRO CYCLING TEAM GBR m.t.
4 COOKE, Baden UNIBET.COM AUS m.t.

Paceline commentary: "funny thing happened on the way to Sevilla today… While once again all eyes were focused on the Petacchi vs. Boonen duel, the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team seems to have found another strong sprinter in its midst as England's Roger Hammond was right in the thick of things in the final stage run in."

In Stage 5, Hammond beat Baden Cooke. 😉

Stage 3 Result:
1 PETACCHI, Alessandro TEAM MILRAM ITA
2 BOONEN, Tom QUICK STEP - INNERGETIC BEL m.t.
3 BROWN, Graeme RABOBANK AUS m.t.
4 COOKE, Baden UNIBET.COM AUS m.t.
5 HAMMOND, Roger DISCOVERY CHANNEL PRO CYCLING TEAM GBR m.t.

I think Demol thought van Heeswijk would at least win a stage, but that cyclist was ill. So, unlike his personal best 2004 win season, van Heeswijk didn't provide a stage win.

Dead Star said:

Hincapie won't be doing Het Volk/K-B-K, from what I read on velo-club.net. Hardly a surprise there.

I'm hoping Philippe Gilbert will show some form, but that's probably a bit optimistic 😄

PWNAGE! 😄 😄 😄 😄 😄 😄

Dead Star said:

PWNAGE! 😄 😄 😄 😄 😄 😄

Hammond marked all the "right" guys and got stuck with Boonen et al.
Good riding from Gilbert.
Now HE"LL be marked a lot more and no one will let get away.

That's the way to win one-day race.

bobke said:

Hammond marked all the "right" guys and got stuck with Boonen et al.
Good riding from Gilbert.
Now HE"LL be marked a lot more and no one will let get away.

Too bloody right lol

Kudo's to Dead Star - called Het Volk 06 precisely.
Great call, DS.

I nominated VanBon - he finished 3rd.

Good to see our own Mark Scanlon featuring well in the race.

Madiot will be buying the pints tonight.

Awesome race, I was reading the online commentary on Cyclingnews.com. Lots of hard attacking in the last quarter and a well deserving winner! I've changed my mind about the classics, didn't really pay too much attention to them last year. Big mistake, will be following all of them this year.........

Eldrack said:

Awesome race, I was reading the online commentary on Cyclingnews.com. Lots of hard attacking in the last quarter and a well deserving winner! I've changed my mind about the classics, didn't really pay too much attention to them last year. Big mistake, will be following all of them this year.........

Congrats to Gilbert - he's had this coming. But it is REALLY good to see a rainbow jersey on the cobbles again. All is right.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2006/feb06/hetvolk06/index.php?id=VanBonandBoonenonMolenberg

The race was shown on cycling.tv. They will show Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne today.

limerickman said:

Kudo's to Dead Star - called Het Volk 06 precisely.
Great call, DS.

I nominated VanBon - he finished 3rd.

Good to see our own Mark Scanlon featuring well in the race.

Madiot will be buying the pints tonight.

I was at the "muur" (the wall) of Geraardsbergen, some other places and at the finish. Van Bon was very impressive (he wil show some more in the coming weeks..) but the way Gilbert has won was very strong! I will post some pics tonight (around midnight), have to prepare some live coverage of Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne now.

Gilbert talked a lot last year about the difficulty for a clean rider to break through in a peloton where doping is commonplace and how he felt like giving up - so this victory must have given him a lot of heart

Great to see a rider of his class getting such a good win

limerickman said:

Kudo's to Dead Star - called Het Volk 06 precisely.
Great call, DS.

I nominated VanBon - he finished 3rd.

Good to see our own Mark Scanlon featuring well in the race.

Madiot will be buying the pints tonight.

Thanks. I became a big Gilbert fan after his 6th place at Milan-San Remo last year. This guy's got the potential to be the next Bettini. A lot of class 😎

Dead Star: great call! Gilbert was absolutely wonderful. I was really impressed. He kept picking up time even in the last km. Great win!

Het Volk was very good this year. Lots of attacks, lots of not so famous names doing great races. It was a very exciting race. I loved it!

As for Kuurne, I was pulling hard for Eeckhout, but Quick.Step did a nice job. Nuyens must like this weekend. Good for him.

limerickman said:

Kudo's to Dead Star - called Het Volk 06 precisely.
Great call, DS.

I nominated VanBon - he finished 3rd.

Good to see our own Mark Scanlon featuring well in the race.

Madiot will be buying the pints tonight.

Madiot ought to be pretty excited. Gilbert is only 23 or 24, right?

I'm happy for Gilbert, and very happy to see Francaise de Jeux get a well deserved win. Now Madiot just has to teach Gilbert how to win Paris-Roubaix !!

tcklyde said:

Madiot ought to be pretty excited. Gilbert is only 23 or 24, right?

I'm happy for Gilbert, and very happy to see Francaise de Jeux get a well deserved win. Now Madiot just has to teach Gilbert how to win Paris-Roubaix !!

He was super strong...lets hope he hasnt gone over to the dark side like Lance and Museeuw.