Tripleshot Cycling

sylvan wrote:Svein Tuft (great ride from him!) grabbed his wheel briefly before popping with the rest and said afterwards that he'd never seen anything like it.

I was having dinner with a mate of mine named Nick Mitchell a couple weeks ago and he was telling me an interesting story about Boonen in 2009. For the past few seasons Nick has racing in Belgium. Just before the World Championships Boonen was putting the final touches on his preparation and rocked up to the same kermesse as Nick. Boonen was incessantly attacking the peloton and finally a move stuck where Nick was able to follow. As they settled into a 50km/hr pace Boonen flicked his elbow signalling Nick to pull a turn. Nick was able to roll through for a couple of token turns, but that was all (and I know how strong Nick is!). After they got swept back into the bunch Boonen attacked again and managed to stay away with a small bunch for most of the race. Close to the end they got brought back by the peloton but Boonen still won the bunch kick after being in breakaways for almost the full 160km.

After the race Nick found out that Bonnen had also done 60km of motorpacing earlier that day, and motorpaced another 60km home. 280km for the day – HARD. That’s how hard these top level guys work when they’re preparing for the big races.

sylvan wrote: Cancellara is a machine of ridiculous proportion, however, and he's still the overwhelming favourite for Flanders and Roubaix. The way he crushed the pack yesterday at E3 Prijs was horrific. He bridged up to two strong groups and just kept going - put a minute into them in about 15 km.

Rolf wrote:I don't need to grok Flemish to understand (and agree) with this post-finish comment...