(countdown beeping)
- Coming up this week, on the GCN Racing News Show,
Philippe Gilbert adds a fourth different monument
to his collection with a well-crafted victory
at Paris-Roubaix, we ask is he the best
classics rider of his generation?
We also have the drama at the Tour of the Basque Country
as the race leader goes off course.
The Healthy Aging Tour,
The Scheldeprijs Sprinters' Classic, and finally,
the return of Carlos Betancur at the Klasika Primavera.
First up though, Paris-Roubaix,
it's known as the Queen of the Classics for a reason.
And this year, in my opinion, it was a brilliant addition.
It was full-on from the moment the flag dropped
to the moment that Philippe Gilbert
was crowned victor six hours later.
Despite a headwind for much of the day,
the average speed was over 43 kilometers an hour.
Before we talk through the win though,
lets take a look at our GCN presenter predictions.
- Jens Keukeleire. (buzzer beeps)
- Wout Van Aert. (buzzer beeping)
- John Degenkolb. (buzzer beeping)
- Greg Van Avermaet. (buzzer beeping)
- Alexander Kristoff. (buzzer beeping)
- No, I think I'm going to go for Sagan.
(buzzer beeping)
- Well, one thing's almost certain Dan, we can't lose.
- Not really. (chuckles)
(beep)
- Woeful as ever.
Although not making the cut
was this prediction from Chris Opie.
- My prediction for Paris-Roubaix is Nils Politt.
- The legs are quite good, yeah.
- I promise you that he did that video before the race.
Nils Politt gave Katusha Alpecin arguably their
best result in what has been a torrid season so far.
The german rode with immense strength
but he was no match in the velodrome
for the class and experience of Gilbert.
He, and his team Deceuninck Quick Step
gave yet another master class in race craft.
We didn't see too much of them early on in the race,
they conserved energy but when it mattered,
they were there in numbers.
Gilbert was quick to respond when Politt
broke the unwritten rule and attacked
in the feed zone and once that group had swelled
to six they also had Lampaert.
It put them in pole position,
and from that point on it was hard to see them being beaten.
But you still have to finish the job,
and Gilbert did that perfectly responding to another
attack from Politt after Carrefour de l'Arbre.
And then getting the better of him reasonably easy
in the final sprint to the line.
It cements Gilbert as one of best classics riders
of all time and arguably the best of his generation.
He's now won four of five monuments,
the only one missing is Milan-San Remo.
The last rider to have won four of five monuments
on their Palmares was Sean Kelly in 1986.
Only three riders in history have won
all five, Merckx of course, Van Looy,
and De Vlaeminick, all Belgians.
So does this make Gilbert the best classics rider
of his generation?
There's certainly a case to be made for it.
Of the current pro-riders, Valverde
is the next best with four monument wins.
All of which have come at Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
Beyond that, for riders in a similar age,
we have to look at Cancellara who took seven
monument wins in three different events.
And Tom Boonen, who also took seven
all in either Flanders or Roubaix.
What sets Gilbert apart though
is the diversity of his wins.
He may have won two fewer monuments
but when you look down the list it's an
exclusive club who've won four or five.
To even find somebody that's won
Lombardy, Liege, and Roubaix,
you have to go back over twenty years.
Add to that his world championship win
and the club gets even more exclusive.
We'd like to know your thoughts on the very subject.
Is Gilbert the best classics rider of his generation?
Let us know in the poll on the screen right now
and also in the comment section below.
Regardless, he's still not quite up there
with Mohammed Ali, Pele, and Michael Jordan,
as his Instagram post last year alluded to.
Whilst it was Gilbert and Deceuninck who had all the glory,
man of the match, and in fact
this week's GCN rider of the week, is Walt Vahnon.
How incredible was he yesterday?
He had a mechanical in the Trouee d'Arenberg,
chased back on, swapped bikes,
crashed on an innocuous right hander soon after,
chased back on again and then still,
somehow, managed to have the reserves
to get across to the winning move.
In the end, he finished 20th, the lights
did eventually go out but given what he'd done,
that wasn't really a surprise.
This series of pictures show exactly how deep he went.
So you have to say chapeau sir.
What was a surprise though was the fact
that neither of his teammates in the leading group
waited for him after either of his problems,
which surely would've saved him vital energy.
Whether or not that was an instruction
from the team car, we still don't know.
What we do know is that there's a lot more
to come from Wout Van Aert and he and Matthew Vanderpoel
are inspiring a whole new generation of cyclists.
Off road racers are making road racing great again.
Before we finish with Roubaix,
a final word about Sep Vanmarcke.
The Belgian from EF Education First road
a stellar race never putting a foot wrong,
a feat made all the more impressive by
the fact that he's barely been able to train
since he got injured at the E Three Big Bang Classic,
however a mechanical problem which left him
in the 11th sprocket put pay to his chances
of taking the win and he was inconsolable
at the finish line after coming fourth.
We'll move on now to the Itzulia Tour of the Basque Country
a race where the climbs are so steep
even the pros find it hard to ride up them.
- We've seen so many riders at this point,
they're weaving and, whoa, there you are.
Just coming to a virtual stand still.
- That was George Bennet in the prologue
which was won by Bora-Hansgrohe Schachmann
who then went on to win three of the first of four stages.
The only man to break his winning streak
was Julian Alaphilippe who won stage two
in an uphill sprint.
That victory meant that the frenchman has won
at every race he's done in 2019.
Unfortunately though, he would end up going home early
after a high speed pileup on stage three
which would also see Mikhail Khodorkovsky
amongst others, ending their race prematurely.
For Bora-Hansgrohe though, it turned out
to be a great race with Emanuel Buchmann using
his attack as the best form of defense on
the penultimate day, sailing to a solo stage win,
the teams fourth of the race and taking
the overall lead by close to a minute.
However, things unraveled for them in more ways
than one on the final day of racing.
Astana went on the offensive, Bora and Buchmann unable
to respond, Adam Yates won the stage,
Jon Izagirre the overall.
Behind Buchmann was fighting valiantly for a place
on the overall podium until this happened.
- [Announcer] Just waiting to see
if he'll actually finished second--
Oh, he went the wrong way! - Oh, no, no, no, no!
They've followed the camera bike!
We'll that's gonna count against him as well.
He may well cede second and end up in third place.
Ah well, you know the drama never stops in this race.
Here is Buchmann now fighting to hold onto second place
after the very last turn, the twist and turns
of the knife, I guess you might say.
- A mistake which left him agonizingly
in fourth place overall, temporarily.
Ultimately the organizers would give him his lost time back
which reinstated him in third place on GC.
For Astana, quite incredibly, that was
their ninth overall stage win of the year.
The Basque Country is often referred to
by pro riders as the hardest race of the year.
And I think this analysis Porter Charles Power
by Ammatti Pyoraily on twitter puts
that into numerical context.
439 watts for ten minutes at the point where Astana
broke the race apart.
That is some serious power for a light weight climber.
To add to the week long punishment in the Basque Country,
some of the riders then go to
the Klasika Primavera the following day.
Amongst then was the winner Carlos Betancur.
I think it's fair to say that we haven't really
seen the best of Betancur for the past few years,
due to some personal problems that he's been dealing with.
So it's great to see the man affectionately known
as Bananito back towards his best
and taking his first victory in three years.
Meanwhile, the women's Peloton moved to the Netherlands
for the Healthy Aging Tour.
The five day race also includes a stage race
for the junior women and was won by up and coming
American Megan Jastrab with again winner Elynor Backstedt
in second and Nikola Wielowska in third.
In the pro race, eventual winner Lisa Klein opened the race
with the runner up slot to Trek-Segafredo's Lotta Lepisto
who found a way through a crash on the final corner
to take stage one.
Team Virtu's Mieke Kröger took a solo stage win on stage two
going clear from a break of three before,
inform Kirsten Field can enjoy for the first of
two trips to the podium with a victory on stage three.
Day four was split day, an individual time trial
which was taken by European Time Trial champion
Elen Vine Dijke by just by just over two seconds from Klein
who moved into the leaders jersey.
WNT's Lisa Brenner then went clear with the
Virtu's Kosta in the afternoon.
It took a long drawn out stage of victory
with neither rider affecting the GC.
the fifth and final stage was a rapid one
with many early breaks, none of which managed to stay clear.
We did though see a movement by World Champion
Anna Van Der Bregen, we just over 30 kilometers to go.
She was late to join in the front by Ellen Van Dijk,
it was great to Van Der Bregen on the offensive
in only her third road event of the year.
Despite their efforts, a sprint was inevitable
and Kirsten Wild took her second stage win of the race.
However, it was a great overall winner for Lisa Klein,
whose team said that she said that it was her first pro win.
So clearly the German Title and the
prologue of Elsy Jacobs don't count.
The other one day World Tour race in Belgium last week was
the sprinters classic the Scheldeprijs.
There was back to back wins with Dutchman Fabio Jakobsen
of Deceuninck-QuickStep.
But one of the other stories, was that of
Marcel Kittel getting dropped.
It led to more questions being asked in the media
to which Kittle gave this response.
It's always easy to be a man when he's on the ground.
I'm facing a difficult period and I'm thankful
for everyone who is supporting me right now.
I'm sure you'll all join me in wishing Marcel all the best,
one of the nicest guys in the pelaton.
Let's hope he can re-find his Mojo soon,
both on and off the bike.
Right, that's all for this week.
Next week we'll have the Amstel Gold race
where we'll see Lizzy Deignan
make her return to competition,
and the tour of Turkey, where there's another
returns competition this time for Mark Cavendish.
Before that, if you'd like to see what
goes into providing Team Sky's riders
with the best backup at the Cobbled Classics,
you can click down here and Dan spent the
day as one of their zone hoppers.