Post
by Robyklebt » Mon Mar 02, 2026 8:56 am
Perfect race for the Donkey. Why what, he got 10th with Ousland.... yeah yeah, but everything went perfectly still.
1) Change of route, while normally Winzenried is a 0% chance there, with the easier route at the end, replaced one hill that we had at 6%+ with one at 5... Haaghoek, pavé!-Berendries 7%. 2 hills at 5, Muur and Bosberg. Here Winzenried gets a chance.
2) The race, mostly off, a bit on mobile, helpers in, helpers fairly ok I think, maybe not always perfect, but pretty good I guess. Didn't really bother checking the favorites either. Enough to do keeping track of my heroes. All nice, easy race, lots of helpers, Donkey happy.
3) Haaghoek sieb with WInzenried (by this time I was home, but not fully on c4f either, guest here too), ride with Kotibaruly (who got the helper ahead of Vigni, Vigni had form, flat, Kotibaruly neither, but well, pavé) get over the Berendries that normally would be the end of Winzenried, job done, perfect.
4) BW then kept going, excellent for me, countless classics behind, chances for Winzenried to survive the Muur and Bosberg increase, Bonjour helped a bit on the 5 thingies, rest all BW, nice. In the back many of these classics had other leaders in front, so not everybody was fully in, so in the end they didn't come back, not before the Berendries, first goal, but not even for the Muur, which I actually expected that they would. Can't work better for me.
5) Muur: Still there.
6) Bosberg: Gone.
Ousland stays in front, probably Bonjour if he was riding for himself could have done the same, but well... neither of them will win, so Ousland for some points seemed fine, didn't need too many to stay in D2, Winzenried drops, Bonjour still helping him too, but by this point he was not fit to stay anyway I think.
46-89 is just not enough here, I think with the Haaghoek sieb I put myself in the best position possible, BW then continuing, perfect. But well, Lukas 46 mountain. Probably was fairly close, Fleckenstein with 50-90, so 4 mountain and 1 flat better (flat counts on 6) but 1.1 less pavé stayed. Maybe if I was less pig-headed and gone for some mountain once Winzenried was 89 pavé.. but no no, he has to be "Hasler-like", no mountain! Actually still happy with that, for reasons that I don't really understand, because yeah, he most likely would have been in front with 50-89 here... but well, form can't have been better for Fleckenstein, energy probably a bit, my 1 km Haaghoek costs a little bit (not really much though, not that I checked) maybe not being here most of the time missed a few km here and there where help could have been better, but pfff. Little missing, and the Haaghoek km was necessary, since Kotibaruly isn't training as we hoped...
So all worked like a dream, just that Winzenried wasn't strong enough for the Bosberg. For the rest, can't complain, all went perfectly. Should do 80% off races more often!
Dosmagambetov won, as predicted, we didn't need to ride this, I knew that already on Friday. Ok, maybe because I didn't bother checking the others there and had chosen Dosmagambetov as my favorite on Friday, looks good, rides for Tukh who often wins, that's the guy. And it was!
Generally, read in the chat that the race was nothing like in reality (which of course I didn't see, but I object to dismiss c4f as not reality) but.... this year with Mathieu Van der Poel and probably weather it was very selective. Last year... not at all, a group of 50 riders, 24 a big group too, Tratnik managed to get sneak away in the final. Don't remember Van Baarle 23, but behind him another big group. Ballerini 21, big group sprint again. 20 Van Aert more like this year. 19 Stuyven, small differences, but looks more like the Van Aert/Van der POel year 18, the first year with the new finish, Muur+Bosberg huge group with Valgren a bit ahead. So... I actually think Omloop is maybe the race we manage to simulate best. It simply isn't that selective in that UCI series either most years. Yes, the way we come to the pretty accurate result is different from what happens there often, the helping, the importance of helpers is so much more important here than in the UCI series that unless we completely overhaul that, and make monsters real monsters (with the boredom that then comes with it when somebody like Winzenried just rides the last 50 km in PR and wins solo) that we really can't simulate it much better. For Omloop in general I think we do pretty well... yes, Van der Poel solo, we can't simulate that properly, not even if our Van der Poel had 78-85 with 84.1 pavé I fear, but at least in our afternoon group in the end a 11 man group... that's ok, if anything we almost made it more selective than Omloop often ends in reality (ok ok, I did it, got tired of writing UCI series) Because an edition like this one, like the Van Aert one there really is the exception, not the rule. Muur+Bosberg simply isn't enough to make a race very selective, it was in RVV because of the length and all the other climbs before. Add an Oude Kwaremont, a Taaienberg (which hasn't been in for a while I think, maybe not since they changed the route to the old RVV finale?) etc etc. and it's selective, like this much less. And it shows often in the "real" race too. So I think Omloop at c4f actually works well, the possibility to make it selective is there, but it's far from automatic. In our edition in the end it was, 11 guys in front, my sieb and Bergwerk's riding made it so. In the back not full on riding. So we ended with an almost over-selected group at the end, compared to the usual UCI-Omloop. Other groups, who cares, won't check. So yes, something like it probably was this year with Van der POel, early action, complete destruction on the Muur-Bosberg will never happen here but in general we're not too far off a realistic result. Unlike in most other Flanders races. Or Roubaix. x others races, not only pavé ones.
Anyway, next is STrade Bianche on Saturday, Donkey not going for Winzenried, Ousland 10th here, then 7th in the sprint race Kuurne, he's on fire, he's leader! Or I'll check my blue law book again for more details. Oh, have to add some anti-Strade stuff. Designed strangely on 3 levels, not even following the rule that is invoked to block every proposed adjustement, don't change anything, we have to keep it as it is to ensure it doesn't come close to the UCI Strade Bianche. Of course it's almost impossible to simulate that one realistically, but here we're actively trying not to do that at this point. Maybe should just not start.
Kraftsystemrevision! Include the distance!
Basics reform: Give blue a chance!
Don't punish bugusers. We all have to use bugs, since most of them are declared as "features"!
Got a carrot from FL. But they threaten to take it away now.
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