1997 Tour of Flanders

[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] the one thing the Belgium of fans have in common of a cobblestones of the pave fancies big race Patti Dube Belgians big event is the Tour of Flanders and today it's a day for the Belgium's if anything you know this race has become more popular than ever hello again everybody I'm Phil again and welcome to the Ronda it's a race of 256 kilometers it's famous for its 15 small climbs and one of those climbs this year might play a more significant part the old Koala Mont no longer one of the early climbs now it ranks number 7 and of course the Belgians have the world champion in your ham Musial over the past five years I think he has been the star of this race he's had two wins two seconds and a third well we're in a quiet square here but outside in the city of st. Nicholas everything is happening the riders are signing on and Paul shearing is there with them thanks Phil well just at the start line here we're with Maxie Andra who's always been one of the great riders in the Tour of Flanders max it's a nice day for the race today how the legs legs are pretty good the morale is good the condition is good the weather is good basically basically everything's good but this is different this tour of flanders because there's a lot more climbs in the last part of the race it's going to make it very difficult yeah it's going to make it very difficult you know you used to a certain type of race you know I mean having the same course every year and this is changed so it's gonna be something new something to look out about and you have to be pretty careful and who's going away how early or how late axle a new team you're wearing number one in the team you're one of the team leaders how are your chances for today well we'll see towards the race I hope I'll still be present in the final and everything can happen if you still have the legs you can try something in the final today's the race really for a strong man because all of the climbs in the last few kilometres yeah it's very important to be in good condition over 200 case you you must be able to digest really good the cobblestones after 300 200 case and then comes the climb so I think it's gonna be a really strong guy is gonna win today turf land is a very special race you like these races with the cobblestones Perry Roubaix and especially this one the Tour of Flanders yeah it's a it's a special race it's different with the pave and you know throughout the rest of the year you do 100 races on the normal roads up and down like this but this is different with the cobbles and all the turns and racing here in Belgium so it's a it's a classic it's the true word for it the team's had a very hard time this year you lost Kevin Livingstone who I think excellent form in Milan San Remo but what are your chances today I'm hoping for the best I felt good in my life Sandrine was a little tired last week so I rested up mainly to get ready for this race and for next Sunday from Roubaix so I'm gonna see how it is the course is completely different so it's gonna change the old tactics that used to work it's not gonna be the same it's gonna be new for everyone so it's gonna be interesting to see what happens you're on we're at the start of the Tour of Flanders and just a few days ago nobody thought you were going to be here because of the big crash in Milan San Remo but it looks as if you've come back last day if they come by the saw the last days of the season of the pan I was already good every day I come I come better so it's better to start when you have a good condition because with this oil Jersey I don't want to start with the other bad condition I want to do raise good surely in the end the tool of Flanders because it's a bit my race but this is a very different Tour of Flanders because all the clients are at the end it's going to be a slightly different tactics for this race this year is different but nobody knows how it's how it's going this year so everybody wait a little bit and we shall see at the end it's a special day whew your hands will be able to ride the Tour of Flanders with the rainbow jersey is the first time so it's something special yeah everybody look to me today I think they look to him every year because he's been in the top three for the last four years Johan Musial this man was third last year franco Ballerini the traditional signing on here in the marketplace in st. Nicholas and here's the winner one year ago a McCullough Bartoli who also rode well in Milan San Remo with fifth place but not quite as well as this man is now wearing the leader's jersey of the World Cup winner of the first World Cup race Milan San Remo this year and this is Eric Zabul he is having a tremendous season Lorenz Oliver the man who got blamed for causing the crash in the closing metres of Milan San Remo when he collided with Johan Museo all smiles again now alex zülle 'ah the other top man on the once' team and Alex and Lauren they vie it seems there for first place in the top World Rankings at the moment this is a Belgian rider a lot of Belgian think to come up with a good ride today Peter van peat again the man who already this year has one head fault but he could also be very good next week in Perry Ruby things with a massive crowd this is the self-proclaimed fastest man in the world mario Cipollini all smiles at the start and this is his countryman Gabriela Colombo now a third-year Pro winner last year of Milan Sam Remo he crashed out of the hunt this time around now he's here in the Tour of Flanders all smiles - for Andres mil winner of Peru Bay in the past and a man who always rides well in these early season classic races in all there are 25 teams on the start line today this is seen as one of the classics of the year it's the race everybody wants to win and as you can see it's a beautiful day in Belgium blue skies are facing up to a very tough course indeed and judging by the flag there it's going to be quite a little windy one as well gentle roll away now let's have a look at the route they face there's 15 climbs on this course of 256 kilometres the first crime coming after 114 kilometres then they come thick and fast all the way down to the finish in Mia Baker but fill the next climb the riders are going to face is the Natu burg which is actually on the opposite side of the old cuomo it's a little climb that they take up to the top of the the opposite side the old coil and then they descent down there along the valley and then they start what is one of the hardest climbs in the final phase of this year's Tour of Flanders and it is I think for a lot of ride is going to be very strange indeed because the old karma has been moved so close to the finish and this is climb number seven and you can see it already it has a split on down there Andrea taffy the Italian map a rider is out in front showing a little bit of side of early form in the tour of langkawi malaysia when he grabbed a couple of stage wins but he hasn't done too much since then eggs are becoming in a rush down there with all his telecom team around him heading in the white jersey his World Cup leader and that's a first for him he's got his team organized and so they've got themselves a nice little line out going here well it's difficult playing catch-up in a race like the Tour of Flanders in fact he's just missed out on one of the splits in the earlier climbs there and he's got Rob Alda at the front here trying to pace him back in but if you're riding a race like the Tour of Flanders every time that you pace yourself back like this you're using up just a little bit more energy and I think by the end of the day it's gonna be very difficult for our example to keep his lead in the World Cup competition there's árbol just about in our shot here when I look at him like this he often reminds me of the great Sean Kelly the Irishman the way he sits a very compact and forward on his bike typical sprinters position but of course here to win the spin here you've got to be able to hold your own on the little Berg's all the way down to the finish this is the Kanak de Burgh 2.3 kilometres of climbing now it is not that steep it's around about 11% the gradients but all of these little climbs are crucial that always on narrow roads and that's the peculiarity of the Tour of Flanders these are the hills still to go we finished with the boss burg and the you may remember Edwin van Hooijdonk who won this race a couple of times we always call him the boss on the boss play because that's where he made his winning move to that little group there with their example just about to come back into contention there they'll just get onto the back of that leading group of about 35 riders just at the foot of this climb of the knock de Burgh and as you said it's not one of the tougher climbs and in fact it isn't a cobbled climb it's a tarmac climb and it gets tougher as you get up to the top but everybody would like to stay in the position that they're in going along a climb like this because what happens is they're always accidents at the back somebody's looking for the gearing over geared himself coming up the early slopes of the climb makes a mistake and then falls off and then again you're playing this catch-up game you see those two riders on the left-hand side taking risks to make sure that they can get to the front trying get in the front line because they're at least they're out of danger and there's the ballot to announce the start of the little hill I just look at this the narrow road so all you've got to do is get to the front and then you can ride at your own speed because nobody can get past you it's not quite as easy as it sounds a very compact group indeed greatly reduced from the big start earlier today the riders now beginning their tour of the hills and there is the gradient 11% just over one kilometer of climbing and 89 meters they actually climb in elevation but it's short and sharp and I think that very fast start by these riders is going to tell in the closing stages of the Tour of Flanders they talk of about 47 kilometres an hour for the first hour lots of men trying to get clear but at the end of the day it is still basically all together going into the final phase the crucial stage of the climb super riders there on the left-hand side and the orange jersey of Rabobank moving to the front in the white jersey in the middle in fact I can just see Maximilian chiandra he's looking for a good ride he's finished sixth in the Tour of Flanders before so this is the kind of race that he likes and in fact very close to the front there in the coffee dis Jersey riding on this team for the first time is Frankie Andreu that's because the seed big Frankie's in the second row of riders nearest the camera here with that big crash helmet on they've won the battle to get to the front so now they can ease back a little bit as they start the car because as I say nobody can get through as they three or four riders all it takes to block off the whole road here that's quite often a tactic used by some of the teams by the way they've got strong teams they can block off the whole race and the teammates can get clear he's a little view towards the end of the race here rider number 110 sitting around the back there is stefan liang young professional i saw him win a stage of the commonwealth bank cycle classic in Terrigal a couple of years ago he's turned pro now riding for the TVM squad and in the warmth of the peloton well he's a Dutchman and he knows these now roads as well as almost anybody else hundred and twenty eight there was of his physics from the Rabobank team in the front line there in the TVM jerseys yo Hank a PR man who was brought across to this TV and sport because of the fact that he has so many UCI points and it pushed the team up a little bit closer to the top of the old or the overall world rankings this is what it's like at the back it is very difficult indeed because even though the roads are very narrow once you get to the steep part you can see in fact the man at the back here is really suffering quite a bit this is servants of Guinea spruik the Polish rider on them up a team and they won't be too happy with him because they will want a full squad when it comes down to the end because I feel you have Musial although he was a little bit quiet at the start he would really love to win this race for the third time wearing the world champions Jersey on his shoulders and absolutely you can bet on it he loves this race he doesn't like losing it and he does feel as though he's part owner of it because he done so well for this past four years never outside the top three finished in that he's actually won the race twice as well he's tried at the back here well off our Camry in fact slipped his chain and got left behind but he's coming back nicely not panicking he's a professional he'll use the convoy of cars he knows the rides are just ahead and he'll pick his way gently through and get back into the big bunch when they slow down as they are to get round the corner you can see they're in fact in the Rhondda van blunder and strap the street of the Tour of Flanders they'll be coming back up this way in about 10 or 15 minutes they drop now down into the town of clouds burg and you can see the riders accelerating because they realize how important it is to stay in the front because the next big climb is going to be very tough indeed and as we've said it's almost 200 kilometers in the legs so far and now it's when they're going to start hitting those climbs in a very repetitive nature 3.8 kilometers to go to the choir on you can see picking up the speed at the front making sure that nobody comes by you because you've used a lot of energy to stay in the front and you don't want to lose it just by putting the brakes on at this stage of the game and this is where the pressures going on by the riders at the front because they are approaching the Cuauhtemoc comb its cobbled it's narrow and they want to get to it first and the only way to ensure that you to stay at the front is to put the pressure on and stop anybody else making progress so they've come away from one client but they're going on to the very serious crime now it's Hill number seven the Koala Mons and there's a surge down the outside as well and the Sun is high in the sky it's a beautiful day here in farmers it really is a nice place to be in the springtime the leaves are just popping and the birds are beginning to sing and the riders and the Tour of Flanders know that the start of a long season ahead of them there's the gradient for the upcoming Quanah Mont climb as I say now they've moved it further the rankings is much deeper into the course it's 8% and it is a steep little climb and the further pace being set now by TBM Johan Caprio is the rider who's doing pretty well on the team here and you know earlier on this week because we've had a few days over here with a little group of American riders enjoying the spectacle of the Tour of Flanders we thought it was a good idea in fact to ask Paul Sherwin who managed to find one of the new strips on the block the coffered esteemed strip to go out front and do a little bit of riding and relive his heyday because of course Paul rode the total floor has a number of times and he wrote it with some distinction as well that's why when he's commentating here alongside me right now he's saying it with feeling he's actually remembering all of these roads just like he did in the Tour of Flanders so earlier on this week we sent Paul showing out on the course and I have to admit some of these pictures you know well the not as pleasant as you might think because Paul's not quite as fit as he was so there's the details of the race it's a 10 percent climate ation 91 metres above sea level and now ladies and gentlemen I give you Paul Sheeran well the old quorum is still one of the most strategic points of the race here the Tour of Flanders and the reason being is because this year it's after 195 kilometers 260 kilometres to go so if you're an accident or a problem here you've got no chance of coming back into the race but it's always been a strategic point because at this point here the riders have to be very close to the front of the peloton you can actually just see how wide the road is and if you're not in the first five or ten riders and somebody has a problem you can be so far back you don't come back into the race riders take a lot of risks coming into this part of the course and they realize that very soon they get the short cobble part going up to the plateau at the top now once they get to that cobble part at the top that's when they really open up the gas and the strongmen can open up gaps very rapidly indeed and before we just get to the cobbles here I can feel that it's a long time since I've been racing up this climb I rode it six times in the Tour of Flanders so I'll just take a little bit of a break as we hit the cobbles and I'll talk to you guys again at the top well it may not sound too good but he certainly looks quite good on the climbs now all we've got to do is sit down for a half hour and wave him to come up into our view here he comes I'd like to say give him a round of applause because he looks pretty good at this point Paul's showing of course and had a great career lasted some 10 years now let's go back to him you know what Phil sometimes I've got to question my own intelligence well I wouldn't do that Paul at least you had the intelligence to become a television commentator that way you can sit in a comfortable seat and watch the riders make the serious effort on these climbs at what a great deal of enjoyment and the riders do give us well Paul as you can see by his vibration is right in the center of the cobblestones now so again back to him it's not bad riding the cobbles today but when the tour Flanders comes across here and there's 500,000 people watching I wouldn't want to make a fool of myself like I am doing this day yeah well there's probably that many people watching right now it's just you can't see them Paul anyway after Paul's right there is a lovely little Kathy if you come up here enjoy yourself and watch the race go by now Paul's over the hill I don't mean that literally let's go back to him this is the part that I always thought was the hardest part of the old quarter more in fact once you've come up that little steep climb it only lasts about 20 or 30 seconds but once you get over to the top here to this plateau it's always windy whatever time of year it is and the wind really blows the riders down into the gutter and then the men with a big power like your hammers a full orange della bear can use that to their advantage they get onto the big chain ring and a very small sprocket and power along this straight and that's when the gaps really open up and you'll see I'm sure a lot of riders struggling to get back into contention right well let's have a look how pause description has worked out Paul back alongside me now he's got his breath back it only took 48 hours to recover and now we're looking at the front of the Tour of Flanders here and his TV am setting the pace well they've got two riders in the squad field were riding very well at the moment obviously Peter van Meter game but also Hendrik van Dyke who actually just recently won the Grand Prix III so it could well be that they're trying to set up the old quarry mode for one of those riders but there you can see in the orange jersey on the left-hand side of the picture Rolf Sorensen he's been omnipresent this year he's just recently won the time trial at the final stage of the three days of la Penna so he's obviously in good shape too and TVM have written very very well they rode well in Milan San Remo the right in the action again now we're on to the cobbles section of the climb where Paul shearing was and again the attacks are starting you see van petegem is a real Belgian rider he's riding right in the middle of the cobblestones using a lot of power indeed sitting back in the saddle so they can get as much power into that transmission as possible in fact he's opened up quite a considerable and you can see gaps starting to open in the main field somebody has to react very quickly now and I would think would be looking for the white jersey of the world champion Johanna zero very soon but van petegem has done a very smart move here he's gone out but you can see just how many people have turned out to see the Tour of Flanders well his victory and het Volk was all he needed to kick him off and get him going in a good season here because it's amazing how much confidence you get once you do get the win and a big one at that he's riding now his supreme confidence he's got this race strung out on the cobbles now there's a massive crowd down there it was a quiet day when Paul wrote over just look at the crowd now completely transformed the atmosphere of this area is a beautiful area to race in as well now very shortly Peter will be over the top of the climb and then you make that turn onto the plateau then you feel the strength of the wind which is quite strong today there's the main feel that what's left of the advance a slice of the peloton and you see not all of the riders are going up with it quite the same soup less as Peter van petegem well you do see that nearly every one of these riders is climbing the old quarter mile sitting down that's the only way really to handle these cobble climbs and keep a little bit of stability in the machine because if you start to get out of the saddle the bike just bounces all over the place and you see here looking for a softer part of the cobbles are smooth apart to get an easier ride but that is why you have to sit down and use as much power as possible this is the last part of the sheltered region of the core of the cobbles of the quorum on there they're going through the of the houses there they go out onto the plateau and now they will be able to see just what sort of damage Peter van petegem has done well he's wanting to know that answer that very question himself he's looking over his shoulder what he's looking for is to see if there's a small group coming his way that's what he wants now he doesn't want the big bunch to come back but I'm not sure that a lot of tired riders even at this stage of the race today he's got eight seconds over the field but the field that's still more or less all together this is Bruno bas Gardein riding for Festina it's in fact just changed his nationality from Italian over to Swiss and right on his will a man who's always consistent in these Coble classics Andre schmear riding for the lot of squad he's moved up there he knows this is a strategic point but I feel a lot of the riders aren't quite sure today how to handle the old choir mole because it comes just 60 kilometres from the finish in fact they've picked up van peat again very quickly indeed now we have three leaders with a little gap over the rest of the main field and I would say that's still around about the six or seven second mark well they're gonna take the move by smell who is a very sued rider he pops up in many of the winning moves in these early season classics and now they're seen him go across I think there would be some reaction from the field Andres Mill who is now 34 years of age he turned pro almost 10 years ago back in 1989 and his record speaks for itself he was fourth in this race at last year and in 96 he was 6 he was third in the tour floors in 95 he was third in 1994 he's a man you've got to mark you can always count on Andre Schmidt when it comes to these very tough Klerk classics you know ones with the cobblestones parry obeyed Tour of Flanders he's always there he has never won the Tour of Flanders but parry Roubaix was a magnificent performance a couple of years ago when you an museo almost got to his back wheel and just couldn't close the gap now this is the top of the old choir modes a tarmac road you can see the the commentator they're telling us that in fact this is surveys kanava well it isn't it's peter van peter game riding for the TVM squad in the middle there number 105 we definitely saw him attack when they went up the cobble section but the most important thing when you're riding a race like the Tour of Flanders these days with the climbs being so competitive you have to eat as often as you can because you can't eat going up and you can't eat on the approach which is why Andres meal is taking food on board at the moment well we're just about 60 kilometers from the finish that's 38 miles and there is the empty road except for that small group which is trying now to reach these three riders out in front this little breakaway trying to get clear it's there built up on the climb of the old Koala Mont and the boss garden is here so to his shmall and the other rider is Pizza gum now here is the main part of the fielders trying to chase them down and some useful riders now in this breakaway as well number 121 there is Rawlinson the rebel Bank boy who as Paul has said he's ever-present in the racing this year and surely looking for the win today this race does suit well indeed as do most of these early classics he's that style of rider and David Castle toe from screen yo is also in that move you can see once again the old paramos definitely had an effect on this race a lot of riders now scrambling to try and get back into the race Stram bling to to try and get up to that leading group of 20 or 30 riders interesting to note Johan Musa was there it wasn't in any difficulty at all he's looking around at the moment I supposed to see how many of his teammates managed to get over that climb with him because he will want as many men around him going into the final phase of this Tour of Flanders but most of the big leaders were there mikela Bartoli was there I noticed wearing number 31 and last year's winner normally when you ride one of the races like this if you're the previous year's winner you get number one but because your hand Musa is a Belgian because he's the world champion he's wearing number one today and he's got himself into a move there's 19 riders come together here in the lead and Johan musio won't like the size of that breakaway now he watches it very closely the movers and doesn't use his energy at this stage he tends to let them all sort things out and then puts in his attack when it matters onto the Pater Berg now and this is another short climb or a close you've just numb about one and a half kilometers away from it there is the remnants of the big field and they still have that lead group in sight but they're going to have to do something about it now pretty quickly because I think wants to get over the Pater Berg they'll start to open up this gap they must close this gap fairly quickly I think they have to do that because the climbs are so repetitive in this year's Tour of Flanders they just come one the other and this in fact is one of the back groups that looked like Sergei yakov sitting on the back there writing for Polti and you can see now there are still eight climbs to go and four sections of cobblestones that's what the little graphic is in the bottom left-hand side of the corner there booyah ham Museo is in a good position so too is Lauren jela because he's in this group as well in the yellow jersey so definitely all of the heads of state for the moment riding in this leading group of 20 or so riders now because it's swelling all the time but this is definitely the typical part of the Tour of Flanders these very narrow little roads around the Flemish farms leading up to the small marrow climbs mostly cobbles which is what makes this race so special and so different from Perry Roubaix news they are in fourth place of this little group by the moment and the riders that not overdoing it they're not actually racing flat-out are they they're just looking after themselves yama burr settle in and a little tapper on the left thigh as yellow thereby the world champion to say I'm just coming by and he's gone through Museo we'll be feeling very content with the way things are going right now because this breakaway is thinning out the rest of the field but as I speak we've got a little group coming onto the tail and I'm not sure if the camera could pull back well no it's just the breakaway so there's still about 19 riders here and they've hit the cobblestone of the paper Pater Berg and now what are they going to do here as they start to put in big efforts this is a steep one as you can see 20% near the summit here a good casting off board indeed and the autumn up is 400 meters of cobblestones as well which is a tough climber was actually put in to replace the old copper which used to be that this part of the race a few years ago the Koppenberg was then decided it was much too steep because many of the riders had to walk up this is Stefan West man in the front so we can only presume that our example is in this leading group because he is trying to keep the speed high for his man who was the overall leader of the World Cup at the moment but boss Gardena rarely seen him right so a less akima variety for US Postal Service so he's done a good right to get there there's shallow bear and the yellow jersey last year's winner coming through mikela Bartoli so really all of the heads of state that looks very much like Fredrik moccasin going through they're wearing number 91 and that on the back there I think was one of the plank art clamp and that'll be Joe plank on there's the gang rider so they've got their top there I know somebody called Marcus and the spindles stay really because he can do both pretty well he's an aggressive rider but he can pack a a great punch at the finish and still we've got bosco down at the front here this is a very very interesting group of riders now and I'm sure the Museo and jalapa assessing their strengths all of the time calibre comes through just looks over his shoulder and you'll see in fact by simin Stefan Weissman from the telecom team another young German rider who had a very very good amateur career now beginning to settle in as it looks like it's turning into a tandem there Phil because wherever you have Museo goes do you see Lauren jela where wherever Lauren jela buries you'll see the Belgium world champion there really are marking each other today at the front now I think what is happening is practice that's the shape of Andres Mille trying to force himself clear it really is going to be a strange race because as we look a little bit further back here you can see this is Barclays and off the map face what he's done his work for the day for you ham news EV so that group behind really struggling and you can see the race and the hammer really down the front now there's a move coming through bile orange Alabama that's surprising because there's still almost 55 kilometres to go Michelle Ober I think he's got Bhaskar down with him on his back wheel the two of them trying to go clear but there's still plenty of fight left in that lead group I think we're watching here the first stages of the establishment setting up a breakaway here and right number 43 well that indeed is Bruno Bosco down by the way you heard Paul say that he changed his nationality well the reason he did that changing over from Italian to Swiss was because he wanted to ride the World Championship and he wasn't getting much luck being selected for the Italian world championship team at museo that white jersey of a world champion well he's giving it a great outing today he's showing it in front of his home crowd and he would love it doesn't make a big deal about it but he would love to win the Tour of Flanders in the muck of the rainbow jersey strange Tour of Flanders it is as well feel because not only are all the climbs concentrated in the final 60 or 70 kilometers but also it's a beautiful day normally the Tour of Flanders is held in rain and wind there are hardly any riders left at this stage of the game and today it's very dry conditions only a slight breeze putting the riders across from the left-hand side to the right-hand side of the road so it's gonna be interesting to see what sort of tactics start to be adopted towards the end there interesting to see though that Joe plank art has moved into this group because he's a great rider in fact his brother Eddie plank eyes his uncle Eddie plank art just recently said that he has got a lot of talent but he doesn't yet have the confidence to put in the good performances well he's got seven a little climb left in which to get himself up to the front and show his uncle that he can ride and win the big races Hank Vogel said tacked onto the back of this group and Hank now beginning to show signs of the class we know he has this year he's come across to the Gann team and he seems to be settling it in his season ruined a bit last year he crashes and he didn't get on too well we ran Ross and I think he's gonna be a lot happier now on the French Gann team which is managed by Roger ledee and of course the team of the British rider Chris Boardman not to forget in fact there are three Aussies on that team as well this year Scott Sunderland came across from lotto and he'll be joining Stuart O'Grady who was on in fact that looks that his moccasin looking now to see if he has any teammates in this group of the moment dropping back to have a quick word with Hank Vogel's Vogel's only a little bit disillusioned I think last year with the way that he was treated after that accident that he had by uhat Rianne race and the rest of the Rabobank team so I think this year he's really got something to prove he wants to get out there and show that he is a rider with a lot of class and he is certainly is to be in a group like this at this stage of the game in a race like the Tour flown as a man I think Vogel's would see a lot of in the future I saw him race early this year in January in fact him personally wrote extremely well in a series of criterion races there then he had to come over to the chill air of Europe and prepare for amongst other races of course the Tour of Flanders caught up here now is 2.3 kilometers away and this group is getting slightly bigger this is Ballerini or man of the classics getting himself in on the action again and the screen yo rider is david cassidy to number 163 but interesting to know filler number 61 the man that we thought may well have ended his career this year in tirreno-adriatico and he had to pull out my ritzy old fond race has had such a lot of difficulties with his back he actually had a helicopter fly in a chiropractor to put him back into a straight line and it seemed for the moment as if his back is holding up because to be where he is he's obviously in great condition Ballerini what a great man he's always there when it comes to these tough races and also maximal in Xi'an rewith slipping into that group - what at the moment is every time they go up the climbs the leading group are putting a lot of pressure on and then these riders are getting dropped off the back then the ones who are courageous enough fight their way back up to the leading group again and we get the same sifting bout process happening every time we hit these climbs just inside 52 kilometres to go this little breakaway trying to establish itself but it's finding a great show of resistance from the back group as the narrow roads again now as we head up towards the next climb seven small climbs left you see how flat floor does is until of course we come across the little climbs and that you really feel as though you're in a mountainous region the two groups look to me as though they're going to merge here that's going to give us quite a big leading group for this stage of the Tour of Flanders it's something like 25 30 riders are going to get themselves together down there and there's still some big names who have made this group which is nice to see fond areas coming up though because he's had a great career one of the few Italians who's lived in Belgium and because the Italians really don't settle down in Belgium it's a different culture different type of food and really they're unhappy Stuart O'Grady a couple of riders up the line here also a member of the gang team another ride you know they talk about stewards as being a real real talent and I think perhaps in the next two seasons were going to find that to be the case I think he's very happy to the fact that Hank Ruggles has come across to join him they really have knitted well into this ganti McGann team has changed an awful lot over this winter many riders changing because French cycling has really come to a resurgence with the formation of the Frances d'Azur the formation of coffee discs and also the strengthening of the casino team which is why a lot of the gang riders actually left both they've brought on a board a lot of foreign riders with obviously Hank Vogel's and Scot Sunderland but also eros Paulie which i think is why we're seeing this team from Gann being much more competitive on the International Circuit they really are a force to be to be held high in a race like this in fact one of them going clear now and it looks very much as if that is in fact Stewart or Grady I think it is and Grady looks over his shoulder and finds that in fact it's not gonna be for him just yet as we've got an attack by one of the Aztecs riders here has gotten to this breakaway kid Pucci is it it's unbelievable and really wasn't expected to see him at all I thought it was the round show the key approached him but he must have come up in that second little raiding party that's just joined onto this group and he's gone straight to the front well that's really nice to see because this year cloudier kid but she is beginning to give us little flashes of the form that he had a couple of years ago and now he's got himself right to the head of the main field in the Tour of Flanders well he certainly doesn't mind going to the fronts of a race but strangely enough he is the kind of rider who normally we would wait till the Tour of Italy or the Tour de France to see him performing but the Tour of Flanders is a very special race it's a race where you have to have a lot of courage you never have to give up you have to keep fighting to bring yourself up to the front of the race all the time and it's interesting to see Phil how many number ones there are on the numbers of these riders showing that most of the leaders of the teams are in this leading group there that was a quick look there of fawned Reyes and Maximilian Chandra but again become one of the other little climbs here and every time the pressure is being put on at the front and Shallah bear going again jelly bear has got so much power it really is a strong rider but again it's the tandem shallow bear museum I'm going to climb now quartic here and the yellow bird is trying to get something moving here he wants to thin out this breakaway group and Museo knows that when it's time to pay attention it's climbing a second in line here following la jolla bear the world number one and he really deserves that title is the most consistent season long rider and at the museo right behind him he has had a tremendous last couple of years winning the World Cup twice the World Championship just a matter of a week or so after saying he was going to pack the sport in so there they are and now they've stretched it out just a little bit this might be the start of the move but one man trying to get across there was last year's win and we Kelly Bartoli he can see the danger he knows just how strong these men are and it looks to me as if one of the lots of riders is going to come across there too and if it is one of them it's probably going to be joe klein cart because andre shamil is just so much lower and more compact on the bike I would agree it's a bit too big and it is in fact Joe plank art is there's four riders out in front and they've got themselves a nice little gap here two Belgian riders one Italian and a Frenchman and the world number one is there and the world champion is there as well and last year's winner of this very event so Joe might feel a little bit claustrophobic out there at the moment Paul I don't think we'll see him doing very much work because he realizes that his man the man from the lotto squad is Andres Mille he'll be looking at this group now saying what am I doing here maybe my Uncle Eddie was right that I do have a little bit of talent but I'm not going to show too much at the moment because these three men in front are the heads of state and I'm just slowly climbing up the ladder but Bartoli's forcing him there you see to come to the front Bartley doesn't want any passengers because this is a crucial time of the development of a breakaway you have to open up the gap to begin with which is why you see Bartoli just let that gap open four-stroke plank up to go to the front and Musee are now not asking anybody to help help him he's at the front keeping the pressure on which is quite remarkable because there's still over over 45 kilometres to go and these riders have decided we're going to open it up now but again reaction coming from behind and there's Andres Miller in the leaders number 171 of the team he's in this second group on the road and number 184 there is the Hakeem of chance to get a good look at the blue colors of the new US Postal Services team a team that's having a reasonable amount of success at the start of the season with great two stage wins in Perry nice and what everybody would like to see is that they get a wild-card into the Tour de France 12 seconds at the initial time check here on four of the best bike riders around and that backfield is going to have to do something about it pretty soon because they're running out of Hills now the Italian Berg is the next climb to come and after that there's only five climbs down to the finish it's a long time since Lauren jelly bear has been to ride the Tour of Flanders in fact the the on-site team of actually refused to ride it on several occasions because they felt it was too difficult but now a lot of pressure being put on the top teams in the overall rankings to take part in all of the rounds of the World Cup Angela bear has said that if he's come to the Tour of Flanders this year he's to come because he wants to win it this is an event that he in fact does enjoy it's a tough racer to race where you have to be at the front all the time but those four riders not opening up much of a gap at the moment and I think because there are so many individuals in that group behind that they will start to work together and they'll pull back slowly on this leading group of four riders and I think when you get three great riders up there like Holabird Bartley Musial they're a little bit cautious with each other they don't really want to declare just how well they're going and the tendency is to slow down rather than go quicker and as a result I think this field is coming back to them and listen forget either you know Bartley took the bronze medal in the world Road race champion last year and Musial was the excellent and very convincing lone winner in Switzerland on the back there the telecom rider was still Stefan Westermann in fact information coming to us that the overall leader of the World Cup is not in this group at the moment the man who won the first round in Milan San Remo Erick Zabul he's had a hard time he keeps slipping off the back in this group there at telecom team were doing a great job early on bringing him back all the time but you can only come back so many times in the end of the day you just end up losing all of that nervous energy which you need to just keep attacking and fighting your way back to the front the four leaders still working but as you say fill it they don't seem to be completely dedicated to the success of this breakaway at the moment looking over their shoulders they realized that they're not really opening up an awful lot of a gap no and I think zarbor's probably feeling the pressure of being the world cup leader at the moment he has tremendous form and certainly he's got himself something like seven wins already this season the total blank are there no it's just the tie in Bergen he's decided he wants to be the first one onto the pavement you can just see down the right-hand side of the road there there's a little drain which is the smoothest part of the road which is why he wanted to get on to that just so he could keep the bike rolling along what happens in the group behind is you actually get forced and obliged to ride on the cobblestones and it's very difficult indeed you see that's why the riders are hugging down the right-hand side of the road there but he didn't catch out your hammies arrow and lauren jelly bear because they were waiting for something like that but I think by the top of this climb it may well be that that group from behind will just get onto the back well this group was strung out on the far right the last man in the line is leon van bong of the dutch Rabobank team and they're gonna have to do something now about chasing back these four riders as planned car dropping back as the acceleration being picked up here by large Alaba is going to test them shall ABARES open the gap he noticed he didn't have Museo on his wheel he had planket instead Andy has gone forward so the time Berg maybe it is proving a little bit decisive as now goes out onto the attack well you know almost ten years ago the Tour of Flanders took out of the race route one of the most famous climbs it was called the Koppenberg and I suppose they took it out a because it was too narrow the vehicles and the riders did tend to get tangled up and it did I suppose in the end affect the race in an adverse fashion well we thought you might like to see a little bit of the chaos it rained when that part of the race was intact I'm Paul Shermer's out there as well but although the quorum Oh is still a very strategic climb one of the most legendary and dramatic was obviously the Koppenberg it was here that the men like Eddy Merckx and roger de Vlaminck laid the foundations for their great victories but in the evolution of cycling the the modernist that came into it it was deemed to be a lottery from the past because only the top 10 or 15 riders could actually get across it the rest were very often forced to put the feet down and walk like I'm about to do now well I'm not gonna laugh Paul because I know just how hard it is let's have a look now at the race in 1984 the year Johan Lambert's won and spoiled Sean Kelly's dream of ever winning this event Phil Anderson was on the attack here as the riders now were in absolute chaos on the climb four you've done this yourself but one of the big problems that happened on the Koppenberg was it actually became a team tactic to send one man out there to fall off and lie across the road and give five or 10 riders the chance to ride away and open up an easy gap well I suppose that was one good reason of course to take it out of the itinerary ride is continuing to shoulder their bikes and walk up the hill and in fact with the arrival of plastic shoes of course it made it almost impossible in fact many riders actually cut out and stuck on pieces of leather to give themselves some grip on the climb only the leaders really got to see this climb which is extremely steep that's Sean Kelly on the right and the photographer wasn't ready what a surprise you see the riders cost the upright at all here mark says yo who was always a great ride in the Tour of Flanders always grateful for the push here as the man in yellow a little bit out of control step this way sir and the rider themselves continued us any type of the winner in 1981 shouldering his bike and decided to walk ups-a-daisy and that's not like Kenny he's normally a great gentleman anyway struggle um they do and you can see probably now why they did have to take this climb out of the itinerary of the Tour of Flanders but it was a great place for the spectators and there's Paul showing he always wrote it this way and with him is long Finney on the winner of the Tour de France in 1983 and 1984 so that's the story a brief story of the copper bird it was also a guess the skipper remember was knocked off his bike by the race referee and his bike was run over by the car now we're looking at Ron Sorenson 45 kilometers to go and Sorenson is trying to catch the leader Angela burr now seems to be clear on his own Jennifer's doing an incredible ride there but I think he will be happy if Sorenson can get across to him because there is quite a bit of wind starting to pick up they're out on the course and if two men can get together then they do have a chance of opening up a gap but you can see just exactly who is doing all of the work behind the man in the white jersey with the world bands that's Johanna zero this is Sorenson trying to get across there jelly bear is really flying today he's come out with a vengeance he really wants to win this Tour of Flanders and now we have two men in the lead one of the Danes Ralph Sorenson he's joined up with the frenchman laurent jelly bear but you could just see the power of july barry always seems to be using a monstrous gear over these short little belgian climbs ones are they're rolling along once you get over the top it is still hard you still have to have the power to keep the gears rolling over but I'm sure they're not going to let jelly bear ride away from the race at this stage of the game and surely something must happen something like an attack by you ham Musial because he's in good form at the moment and I'm surprised that he let jalleh Bay go clear over the time Berg well I think jela Burt timing his effort to perfection there because he waited until museu was at the back of that group and that's the time to go number 191 here having a bit of a wobble on was Claudio Cupid chief and it's nice to see him up in this front move at the minute but that example does seem to be out of it today because number 27 there is vice Minh Stefan advice sermon a good promising young rider stiff and I think he'll go a long way I'm Bhaskar didn't is still here as well in this main group it looks to be around about thirty thirty five riders strong role so Anson though has now joined the leader law caliber Sorenson one of the youngest riders ever when he turned pro in 1986 he was just twenty years of age and he's had a great great career every rider so again in this group Phil in fact still agreed I caught a glimpse of their hink Fogle's and Frederic monka sense or the French team really have put a lot of numbers into this leading group so they're the ones really in a short while who should take the race by the horns and there is a race a leader at the moment of Frenchman so it would be interested see if the French team are going to chase him down there's confirmation of the gap the Museo group there nine seconds behind and all the time when we come up to this leading group of two riders shall I be doing the most of the work they're making the big pools at the front Sorenson going through just to give him a little bit of a rest but it seems to me as if shallow bay is doing the most of the work well right now it's Sorenson who's got himself to the front and it looks to me as though those round shoulders indicating he's a lot of strength in those legs today the flick of the right arm to call through long as ya lubber g alibi before he made the effort there just checked over his shoulder to see if it was worth going on well the gap is most certainly here and roll Sorensen who is a professional since 1989 he's now looking a little bit useful here today young Ross having a good start to the year with his Rabobank team and he's had a few rough years with his sponsorships in getting results that is it always seems to manage to find the big sponsors but he would like some results I think out of the Rabobank team this year let's have a look back as we go away from the two leaders now to see the chase group and there's a big gap there now Paul well the last time trick phil was nine seconds but i put that around about 15 seconds now that looks like him over at the front there for US Postal this is xi andrey coming through but the strange think about the race today is that there aren't too many teams with a lot of riders they're like Gann who have actually got three riders who had who want to chase down somebody's gonna have to take control of this because letting two riders like Sorenson and jela Bear walk away is a very crazy thing to do at the moment if they get around about one minute then they could really steal the show and to great bike riders they are and Rolf who saw the yen Sorenson by the way rode the Olympic Games in 1960 and his father often turns up with the events to watch his son ride he's always very proud when he's able to say Roth is going well he has good form and it always tells us the truth as well 12 he usually does go well when his dad turns up well Sorenson is a very consistent performer in fact he's had two victories so far this year he won the prologue of tirreno-adriatico this is xi andrey on the right hand side here he's going to have a go at trying to jump across too but the main field all over the skier he's gonna have another go he's not worried about the fact that the Tour of Flanders is a long way from the finish a little bit too slow for cloudy or today so he's gonna try and go clear there again he was covered by Andres mill this is the composition of the second group there now you can see there are a lot of very good Ballerini there for musiah Westermann Bartoli boss garden and this young man casts errata who hadn't seen an awful lot of but he did start to ride very well last year a young professional but a man who may well cause some surprises later on well what the builders will have noticed there's only one Belgian rider in this group and that includes the two leaders as well and that is Johannes a the world champion no other ride from Belgium is here that's gonna make things a little bit difficult to for Johan he's gonna have to work out some clever tactics there if he's going to handle this little lot today normally he would count on men like Carlo Bauman's and Wilfred Peters those are the guys who usually around them in a race like the Tour of Flanders the men who will just completely give their race up for him to close down gaps like this but when you're on your own it really is very difficult the two leaders now seem to be working well together Sorensen at the front he's not really asking for any help at all from Lauren's alibi he looks over his shoulder shall I be taking on board some drink it's so important to keep those energy levels topped up and very soon they'll be coming to another one of these little climbs when you see their Sorenson goats at the back gets into the slipstream a very nervous kind of a ride I've got a lot of acceleration but again you see just how difficult these roads are in the Tour of Flanders they're 14 seconds so the gap is now fill starting to stretch out well so onsen and first appeared in the Tour of Flanders were the good results in 1989 he was fourth in and by coincidence that was the year that launched Alaba took out a professional racing license and since then robbers had a third place in this event as well back in 1991 this is the reaction from the group the gun team are doing very well Hank Vogel's is on the frontier we're heading now to the stellar burg and this is Hill number 11 of 15 with a steep gradient of 8% in the middle and average gradient of just over 5% chanson is calling for a drink here and he wants it from his team car I think that's the important thing the day is very hot for a Tour of Flanders so these riders want to keep topped up with liquid and he is allowed to take liquid on board once the race has covered 50 kilometres and up until 20 kilometres till the end the rider does have the right to take a drink from the team car but at the moment the gap is so small that his team car won't be behind him so he's hoping that maybe the neutral service car behind it will have a drink on board but it's also a signal that a professional will try to do so that the race referee who is behind them will call up the riders Team Manager and that's just a way for the team manager to get into the gap a little bit earlier than he would do normally that's right because the routine usually is the service car and one of the race referees will drop in a gap at around 30 seconds but the team vehicles aren't usually allowed in there till the gap is opened up to one minute and Sorenson is desperate for a drink and that's going to detract from his getting on with the racing here follows up on the stand a bird and he rides gently behind as the bat grew for there's Andres mill on the left of our picture world champion whose ear behind him mrs. Hank Vogel's obviously steward O'Grady here Hank is also in this breakaway leon van bond and this is the commas in Bambang i'll be doing no racing now with his teammates up front a that's for sure the orders obviously come from my pay now for Ballerini to do the work for johan museo he's come straight to the front of that group now but he's only one man he's chasing two riders who are up the road building up a very consistent lead 14 seconds was the last time check would got and it's basically Ballerini trying to chase down these two riders but it's interesting to know fuller Lauren's alibi now not taking quite an active part as he was doing earlier on in the race here looking down there you can see he's on his small chain ring this is a very tough little climb the next climb they'll come to will be the bear injuries which again is one of the tarmac climbs but all the time these short sharp Flemish climbs are sapping away at the strength of the riders and the Baron G's is just about 32 kilometres from the finish which is 20 miles but I'm not too sure where that law Angela burr is going quite as well as he was here he's still doing a share of the work though and still the gap continues it's certainly a hard way of gaining a few seconds but it's gradually gone up from 9 to 14 to 22 now and so on soon looking extremely useful the way is accelerating here stage winner in the Tour de France couple of years ago Montpellier where he outwitted Neal Stevens in a two-man breakaway the Australian riding on that occasion for once' and of course a teammate then of long shallow burr but this year's steve-o is on the Festina team he signed up for two years and that will see him nicely into retirement I think this is a serious group behind but still looking down it's always Franco ballerina on the front doing the work with johan museo sitting comfortably in his slipstream none of the other teams really willing to work at the moment strange though that in fact gad haven't sent two riders up there because they've got Fredrik moccasins got good form at the moment Hank Vogel's and Stuart O'Grady so you would expect them really to try and do some kind of a team role to try and pull this race back together but they're leaving it a little bit up to the other heads of state that was mikela Bartoli on the front there for the M G team now your hand Rizzo in person is being obliged to do a little bit of the work so this could be quite dangerous because if they don't organize themselves and that gap does start to stretch out as it has been doing over the last few kilometres it could be that these riders are going to see the Tour of Flanders disappear 25 seconds is the time gap now yes musée will become a little concern shortly but he can't make his move unless the opportunity really does present itself other than on the small climbs and so the next climb that we're going to see is the bellend Rees and that's around about 30 KS from the finish so shallow Berg getting on with the job in hand today what a great all-round bike ride he's turned out to be his first big result came in 1990 when he was second in the san sebastian world club classic he also we came to recognize him back here in britain when he took the yellow jersey in the Kellogg's tour of Britain that year at Birmingham and since then we watched him become quite a big bike rider but you see Paul Sorenson still is wanting a drink everybody else he's getting one nicely in the backroom that's the disadvantage of being in a small breakaway just 25 seconds ahead because normally they won't even put the service car in until the gap is around about the 30-second mark so he hasn't got anybody behind him at the moment to give him a drink so he's really starting to make that sign all the time for the team manager to come up these are the next climbs Baron jerries but more importantly Baron jerries is only 15 kilometres away from the mood of Grandma and again cloudy akhir these guys aren't going fast enough for him he's trying to get away on his own but musio is covering the moves at the moment as is Andres meal but there's no organisation in this group nobody wants to be dedicated get to the front all ride through and try and pick the speed up so that could be to the advantage of the two leaders well they're doing well to stay away from this group because this group does seem to have a little bit of cohesion Museo goes through now leon van bond is in the line to try and just break it up he's not racing through at all but it's better to go through and hold the pace down that has sit behind second or third wheel and earn the wrath of all of the other riders in the group smell looking over his shoulder museu looks over his shoulder they want somebody else to come and give it a go now Vogel's Nogrady on the far side of the road and that's on do they smell on the left of the road here well having just said they had Coe he's not much you saw they have now they seem to have lost the edge you get there's definitely no organization in this group and really the the best way to do that would be for the two riders to come to the front smear with his hand in the air here it could be that he's just looking for a drink from his team car an indication to the team car that he wants some sort of assistance your hammies they were looking for some sort of assistance to he's at the back of the main field here he's looking for his team car he wants to know what's going on behind that you can see there we've got 38 kilometres to go to the finish 217 kilometres covered but all the time these riders speeding up and slowing down and that is going to play into the hands of the two leaders Ralph Sorenson here in the orange jersey of Rabobank and at last man hello science has got up there to give up some drinks he's giving something up to Java Bay he's taking on board a drink there and probably a little bit of a glucose drink too but I thought that was a look of disappointment on Sorensen's face when he looked round and saw the wrong team car had arrived I think Ralph is still at wanting a drink as he calls through jalleh Bert and who's loading up now for the final what would it be 3540 minutes of racing if they survived it to the finish and Sorenson won't want to be with Gela BER at the finish because he would probably lose the sprint so he's going to have to plan how he's going to get rid of large-caliber if indeed he wants to give Denmark a victory in the Tour of Flanders well you have Muzo certainly got no friends in that back group there keeps looking around to see where franco Ballerini was an under Ishmael was at the back probably asking for some information from his team manager as well as Jean Luc van den Broek these two riders now on hardest part of the course is very open here you can always build up a good lead on the short sheet or narrow roads of the belgian flanders because you can get around those corners a lot better than some of the big groups can you can see now these two riders have really taken the race by the horns I was surprised at how many times Lauren's alibi actually went to the front and attacked on these climbs he attacked from an awful long way out but in fact Phil I think the time check we were given was 35 seconds but this group now seems to be pegging them back just a little bit I think you're right 2 4 6 8 10 12 about 15 riders in this group that's becoming a very select group indeed this is the longer main road approach now as we go on to the next big climb of the day good highway here but the sad thing is of course for the two leaders they are now clearly visible to that chasing group who will want to organize themselves and try and close down this gap before they go back into the narrow roads and of course the mere degramont which is an absolute brute and is often the favorite hunting ground of johan museo if they get back together I would expect it will be there when Museo will try to attack well that's where mikela Bartoli launched his victorious attack last year in the Tour of Flanders he jumped away on the launch pad of the mood to grammar and then just held it off over then the boss Berg a very tough climb indeed and you can see now the last time she ate was 26 seconds it's come down to 20 so on this long straightaway the riders in the group behind can see the two leaders and they're getting a little bit more encouragement and starting to roll through which is why the gap now starting to come back down so these two men have been at the head of affairs for an awful long time really but anywhere near the one-minute which is a good safety margin that you need north checking exactly where he is here who knows this course pretty well of the top and change it occasionally a few minor road differences but he knows where he is the berendeys five kilometres to go to the next climb and then he knows he's not too far from the finish wants you at the top of the boundary she just on thirty kilometres from the flag but the fact that they are not going very far away from that main field leads me to think that could be an awful lot of energy being wasted out here right now get it transferred to see the two different styles really of Sorenson Angela burr you see how jolly bear when he's in the saddle sits a long way back he's a powerful Rider he uses real power him from his pelling accident as opposed to Sorenson who turns the pedals a lot quicker he's got a lot more suppleness he's got a lot more acceleration on the little corners there a twitch of his arm there twitch of his shoulder come on Lauren it's your turn to come through get let's keep working together that is something that riders do when they're riding in a team time trial situation a flick of the shoulder indicates I've done my turn it's up to you but this is a bit strange that he's actually pushing jalleh bear to the front now 33 kilometres to go and I would say about two kilometres to the bottom of the barren trees so the pair of them in tandem it's worth remembering that this year large alibi when his first-ever time trial as a professional bike rider when the time trial stage in the peroneus race and went on of course to win that race for the second year in succession so he's certainly a third-year rather he's winning three times now Perry nice and I wonder if he's gonna try and rival Sean Kelly's greats at run of victories and very often we compare Shalaby with the style and riding of Sean Kelly and they are similar in many many ways that is absolutely true anyway the chase still very much on here Angela burr I think a little confused now he's not sure whether to give it any more effort or to allow the group to come back and wipe him out Ballerini bingsu van bond still doing a good job there claudio kia Pucci that Peter Gomez up here again and then we've got to Vogel's Nogrady and this is Andres mill and it's a good group it's just such a powerful group Paul maybe that's the reason they're not coming up fast enough they're all watching each other but it's so strange to see one of the World Cup races like this with so many individuals everybody wants to attack and get away on their own they want to get away in a group and they don't want to work together because there are so many heads of state of the world of professional cycling in this group it's like having a bunch of individuals and they're all too worried about doing too much energy and giving the advantage to one of the other riders sitting at the back there number 91 was Frederick sir and if it ever does come down to a sprint he's the man who must have a serious chance because let's not forget he's a great sprinter won stages in the Tour de France Ballerini now he decided I'm gonna try and get across the gap on my own and take the pressure off your hand use air force the other teams to chase so the man who is one of the most consistent spring classic riders we've ever had has gone on the attack again and no reaction but remember he's on the same team as Johan Musial and therefore Museo will feel a bit relieved he's got a man out on the move was they wearing number one sitting at the back here can't be very happy at all with this because normally the map AGB team is a team which is dominant in numbers at this stage of a race like the Tour of Flanders remember last year in Peru Bay when they finished 1st 2nd 3rd and 5th they were so strong in numbers in fact the rider who's gone away here is actually Kaz Erato so it wasn't ballerina I thought ballerina was the one who jumped but maybe in fact he's trying to get across to ballerina who may well be caught in the middle of this gap we're gonna find out on motorbikes picked up David cares a lot Oh 25 years of age from screen yo and he's decided it's why I live in the rhythm that his Ballerini in fact up front so you were right Paul and now it's going to be two Italians here trying to chase down a Frenchman and a Dane and we'll the belt is not going to like this because they've always seen this as their event and their man yoga Museo is still trapped in the big chase group but he'll take some compensation from the fact that he's got a teammate now out on the front we're approaching the boundaries 30% it is at the steepest point of the climb not a little short one but they're all hurting now as the riders come down to the last 34 kilometers of the day well the Johan Museo may well be champion of the world but the tour Flanders is regarded as the championship and there's a crash bill in fat Museo has gone down and that is Museum is down illegally collision here with one this is bosco down who's trying to untangle his bike now we don't know what happened we just cut back to it it's happened in the chase group and Museo well he looks as though he's carving though he isn't the bikes gone down now he's absolutely fuming in fact he can't get his wheel back in because I think the gears are broken and what has happened I don't know he's been in collision with bruno bus got in there is Bhaskar and also wanting help how much money where the cars are Paul they're taking some time well that's the big problem about the Tour of Flanders when there are splits the cars are a long way down we get a chance here to have a look in fact boss Kadeem was looking over his shoulder not paying attention he's just written into the back wheel of your ham museum so that was not museos fault he got caught up I think with his bit rear derailleur and the two went out and filmed was me Gela pets been dropped we're looking here that we've gone back to the climb and we've missed the attack by roll so Anson Sorenson has gone clear Ballerini has come from nowhere he's gone round shall ever shall ever I think has hit the wall here and he's fallen right away from the actual Ballerini scampers at the boundaries trying to catch up now with roll Sorenson of Denmark well this is a big turn around and they can be completely unaware as well as behind the world champion appears to be out of the race now brought down there by Bruna Bosco da it's the sort of accident I must have seen dozens of times both among club cyclists and professions alike you looked to the right and your back wheel is collided into by another rider and while all that's happening at the back the race is changing its face at the front but that is remarkable to see large Delaware drop like that it actually reminds me of the liege bastogne the age when he attacked at some hundred kilometers from the finish he just won the flesh well on he thought he was the strongest man in the world and that may be what he felt today he was attacking from 45 50 kilometers out in this race and he may be it's just over assumed on his forces and now what has happened is ballerinas come by him it's got two riders at the head of affairs your ham museum struggling to get back up but because of the fact that that chasing group now will be trying to catch Sorenson and Ballerini Angela burr who's still caught in the middle it's going to be a very tough day for Johan musio there's certainly no shortage of support for him the crowd now will know exactly what has happened they'll have been listening on the radio and though they look enough to now see it will cheer him all of the way but the breakaway is now changed we've got two riders up front and we've now got three in fact the three riders now together now because Castle ATO is just contacted up with Ballerini and Sorenson well further down now all of the cameras are going to stay with the world champion he's belgian of course he's the world cup holder and twice a winner of the total father's museo they're the three leaders Paul two Italians in the kill now well that's quite remarkable Kaiser Auto did a great job to come across those two rides when you see a man like Lauren jelly bear crack you realize just how hard the race is and Kaz errata was ridden across there and now the man at the front rolled Sorenson has two different riders with him to try and help the whole race could change now because I think there's gonna be some confusion behind look Lauren jelly bear he's gonna get picked up by the chasing group they won't know where you have Museo is so that's going to be a time when the team managers are going to start coming forward trying to work out some new strategy of fact the main field not very far behind there's another group of riders they've picked up Lauren jelly bear so the race changing as we watch castle righto on a stage and Tirreno Adriatico this year which is the builder placed on land San Remo is now contacted the leaders while Lauren's yella Burrell has fallen back it might have given some inspiration to the chases they've at last found out that yellow bear is human and is cracked here in the breakaway little over confidence perhaps because he attacks so early on number 105 here is Peter Pan Peter Gump he will take a lot of solace from that these are the three men now dictating the pace and the classic riders Sorenson and Ballerini really know what to do now because this is the situation they've been in so so often well what they'll be thinking about now is the next really tough climb which is the mood to Graham or their shallow bear can't even stay in the we love that chasing group of what is now three riders miquellee Bartoli was one of the other riders this is care Pucci coming through he knows that the race is starting to split he doesn't care about anybody there's no team working for when it comes down to yeah blow is just get it all back together because then I can try to attack again this is the three liners trying to get across that smell with the red jersey tucking onto the back the TBM rider pizza van petegem and on the front mikela bar to the last year's winner unfortunately now beginning to put up a good defense of his time for one last year as well there's the line of pours just mentioned and here comes el Diablo as well Claudio Kikuchi is ripping across the gap I must say as we always call in the devil which is indeed his nickname his new colors this year for the a 16 with the black shoulder flashes perhaps a rather fitting Leone fan bomb from rebel Bank it gets back in to try and slow them down if he can because of course his teammate is a roll so it's and I'm further behind we now have the world champion trying to put matters to rights and very shortly I have a feeling he might see Lauren jela burn as well he's even riding with the man that brought him down well that's the strangeness of bike riding you know this is the man who brought him down a moment's inattention when boss Kadeem looked over his shoulder to see where his team manager was and he took out one of the number one favor to the race and now they have to ride together hopefully as friends well they've no choice even though they're on rival teams they've got to get back up to the action I'm not sure they're going to and because these three riders are working well together I haven't seen any passengers here is Ballerini now at the head of a Thursday first came to start get results in the classic races when he was fifth in the absolute gold race and third in get where they'll come back in 1990 and then he went on to win the indices and classics Patti Brussels and the autumn Grand Prix and he finished fourth that year in the World Cup and after that he's always been a great finisher in the classic events and now Sorensen and the other rider Castle Otto are really enjoying themselves I think now because they might feel they've done enough to decide this race 28 kilometres to go and ballerina I don't think for the moment we'll know just exactly what has gone on behind because this is one of the most confusing races for the team managers because there are so many small roads and so many small groups that they have a hard time actually getting up to the riders to give them the information some of the teams do use radio equipment to keep the riders up to scratch but I think at the moment Frankel Ballerini is putting the pressure on trying to open up the gap to try and relieve the pressure on his teammate Johan Museo probably doesn't even know that he's on the ground trying to get back into the race I don't think he can because the cars aren't around the leaders at the moment ten boss is the next climb and 11% average gradient this is the town of Brattle by the way which forms the bridge between the two climbs and they're trying to settle in the probably lucky we are in the town because they're out of sight of the chase group at the minute now having said that his Peter van Peter Gunn but who's now is he off the front because there well too sure where he is yes he is he has just gone away from that lead group and so Peter about Peter Graham trying now to reach the leaders there still only a few seconds here because they also are passing through the town here for vamp it again is a man who can seed on the right hand side just how he's risen up in the world rankings in 1992 he was 719 but with all the consistent performances he's put on over the last few years he really has climbed up the standings he's been coached ever since he was the Belgian national champion Byford abandoned out in Van Daan out I think will be very happy today to see the way Peter van petegem is riding himself a top-class rider winner of Ghent Wavell there many years ago and he realizes this is the area where he's used to training he knows just exactly where to put the efforts in that's the advantage that the Belgians have in a race like this and in fact he's almost got across of those three leaders well this is a fine piece of solo riding by Peter van petegem inspired by his victory this year in het Volk and now heading up to climb number 13 of 15 climbs today but still to brutes to come after this the Muir itself and the boss berg as well but he's going to contact the leaders very shortly we're going to have four men up front and Belgium upon a player in the first frame of the race massive crowd enjoying the Tour of Flanders over the last couple of years this race has become more popular than ever but Phil did you see how van Pizza cam went around that corner he knew just how much of a risk he had to take there he used the motorbike he used the outside of the kerb every last little bit he didn't even touch his brakes he just wanted to get onto the back of that leading group of three riders so he could get into their slipstream so he can recover a little bit for the next kilometer or so because now we're on a section in between two climbs it's about ten kilometres from the last climb there ten boss to the muder grandma it's big open road that's why you have to be on the wheel you have to be in a group because otherwise if you're not you just can't close the gap which is why van Peter just close it at the but look at this this is such a shame to see the man who has been riding so magnificently with the world champions Jersey on his shoulder taken out by an accident like that that happened to him before a Museo now I think he may well abandon and not write to the finish well he's riding along at the moment outside of the top 12 and I don't think he's going to get back right now because this race is in full flight the accident could not have happened at the worst time because sometimes if it happens on the climb you seem to have more adrenaline more urgency and you tend to get back but it's happened on the silly stretch of road wide open he wouldn't be expected to fall in such a place and I don't think he's gonna get back but we'll see certainly these riders won't let him back if they have half a say in the matter there's four leaders now and there is the chase group which does seem to be coming back you know this group still far from out of the action Santa's been on the attack for a long while now he shed himself of long Shalaby who's passed straight through and out of it but of course the men around him people Turing and now Andres mill is going to try and bridge the gap as well Leon Van bond he's doing a great job of being the Rabobank policeman today trying to stop these counter-attacks he allowed vampy talented get away but I think he's managed to stop Andres mill getting away well this really is this you have to Slavik him off the winner of the final time trial this year of para nice in very good form indeed he's a an excellent rider and I think a very good addition to the US Postal Service Maximilian she Andrea man who would very much like to put in a good performance here in the Tour of Flanders but at the moment and this looks like Stuart O'Grady going clear O'Grady now for the Gann team trying to slip clear but you see Phil it's the same tactics all the time nobody wants to work together everybody wants to get away in a small group to try and get across to those three leaders four leaders four leaders now in fact is Henk Vogel just pulled over to the right they look the same those to the best of mates of course and they go everywhere together which share doesn't help a poor old commentator but Hank is a great bike rider I've seen him since he was a teenager and he's coming that really good this year he's dropped back a little tentative attack has come to nothing the big boys the old hands are now taking control of the race again at the frontier but interesting to see some of the young riders in this leading group their joke plank are coming from a very long list of cycling family back up with the leaders now Franco Ballerini sitting nicely on the wheel of Ross Sorensen and Peter van petegem setting the pace he's now recovered from the effort to get across the gap and he's now taking his turn in the line but it was still only talking seconds here and there's still every possibility a strong rider can leap across to this group once we get onto the steep slopes of the Muir degramont this road here is a slight incline it's not even classified as one of the climbs but after 240 kilometres it certainly does hurt the legs it's the climb that comes out of broccoli when they get to the top there you can just see the summit of this hill and then it flattens out and they go across a plane then before they drop down into the town of Gerard's burger for the famous mood of grammar or the mood Oh get Asperger and it really is a tough climb and that is surely where the decision of this year's Tour of Flanders must be made because it is the harvest race the hardest climb left and the most most of the vehicles that follow a race aren't allowed in fact to go over the climb because if they break down or stall and then they quite literally block the whole tour of flanders so they have to be diverted as well that's still to come and Ballerini setting the pace at the foot now van petegem Sorensen and Castle Otto sitting there at the back Ballerini looks over his shoulder takes fourth in line there's nobody actually a dipping out of the work rate here as we drop to the back we see him Bogle sitting out at the back of this group but they also working hard cloudy okiya having done his turn comes through to the back and that's stefan vitamin in the telecom colors maxi andrey they're all still in this grouper Bartoli is still here Andres mill Stewart O'Grady setting the pace at the front and that this group still well-organized and they know it they're not losing which grew out that breakaway as Bartle he slips through on the inside of our picture that that came off moving up into third place everybody being attentive but it's always being the same tactics there is Fredrik Montes on wearing number 91 he's a good man if this group can come back together would stand a great chance if it did come down to a sprint but everyone's very nervous nobody wants to work together they all want to leap across the gap on their own just as Peter van petegem did a great move by him but it's going to be hard now because once they get to the bottom of the if they don't start working the gap that those three leaders are going to have it's around about thirty seconds and that's the kind of gap that in this stage of the game you can't just leap across now there has to be a move and it's got to come pretty soon I think otherwise those four might well have decided this year's Tour of Flanders and one from Belgium and two from Italy and one from Denmark and by the way if so on some were to win there's never been a Danish winner of the Tour of Flanders before and that would be another little tick the Denmark this small country in Scandinavia which is turning out such great bike riders just now not least of course beyond a Rees the winner of the Tour de France last year does seem now feel as if they have decided that with the mood of grammar just around the corner they're going to start to work they've realized now that there are a group of individuals here they're doing little turns at the front everybody going up there swinging off waiting for the next man to come through trying to keep up a certain amount of speed so that that gap of the four leading riders doesn't stretch out too much mikela Bartoli must be thinking back to last year and Hank Vogel's he must be euphoric at the company that he's keeping today you know he's really finding his legs now and means living up with the best of them in these races this year and that's good to see this is the breakaway still working nicely together a screen yo rider can say righto he's done his bit he's riding on the wheel of a Ballerini and it looks as though a little bit of a miss turn therefore also Anton as cursor:auto goes into the line but ROC was taking a drink and so I think that's probably why he took time out a lot of cars behind these riders now that's an indication the gap is well in excess of 30 seconds his own estimation now well I wouldn't say well in excess of 30 seconds it might just be 30 seconds as we now have two climbs left and two stretches of cobblestones to come the climbs are the mere two grand more and the final climb which is the boss burg 21 kilometres to go and it's about 18 kilometres from the top of the mierda Grand Mall so I put that three kilometres to go before they get there but it does seem now as if this group has decided to organize themselves a chance there just to see almost 50 kilometres an hour there this group is doing behind so it could be that they're going to try and time it to perfection the ideal situation would be to work and then just bring back that leading group of four riders into the fold at the bottom of the mood of grammar and then you can launch an attack and hopefully like mikela Bartoli did last year leap away to a lone victory but you see the team managers coming up giving them all the information shortly they will now have a good picture of exactly what is going on in the race at van bom knows what's happening though he's sitting at the back because his man Rolf Sorensen is at the head of affairs yes he's very well to hold his position in this race is the only Rabobank member left up here that all the rest have dropped away by the wayside today and he's just trying to hang on in there and annoy everybody as best he can although I think right now the legs are beginning to crack because he slipped right to the end of the group even so he's still there he's in a very select chase group here and the four rides of the front are just dangling at the end of a long leash and it's a question about whether they will escape on the mirror to Grandma or whether indeed this group will catch them up and it's been a beautiful days racing in the Tour of Flanders this year it is a classic race and it means every sense of the word classic and today has been no exception I know the builders will be very disappointed right now having seen their world champion brought down by an Italian an innocent accident of course it wasn't done intentionally and accidents do happen but I wonder if museu would have been in at the kill today and the builders would of course say of course he would well I'm sure he would have done because he looked so strong he looked very confident indeed he was covering all the early moves the only move he didn't really follow us that one of Lauren's a libéré well that was a strange move because jana bear attacked from so far out a very experienced man here in the telecom team car that's wall to go to front now he's won this race before he knows what it's all about he's trying to give a little bit of information to Stefan West a man whose job today was basically to walk after the World Cup leader err example but now he's got his own free ticket to ride his own race and you can see on these big long wide roads how easy it is to see the breakaway in front of you there gives you that little bit of encouragement just to dig a bit deeper into your resources and try and close down the gap now very shortly they'll be coming into the outskirts of grammo these this is the psychologically most difficult part of the taller Flanders now they've got the big climb ahead of them they're feeling pretty tired my long escape that are on rather boring roads and poor service and they know the big group is not far behind so these are desperate moments for the breakaway if they can just survive to get through ahead odds Bergen and then I think they have a real chance of victory and castor Otto who's sitting up there nicely and well oh he was the third man up here don't forget the fourth man to get across as Peter vamp Peter Gunn there's having a great start to the season the TVM rider and the TVM team has been a long-standing supporter of well cycling and is good when their riders get into the moves like their vampy to come here today Phil you were talking about the changes in this leading breakaway in fact only one man has been in this break since its indicate instigation and that's the man in the orange and white jersey of the Rabobank he jumped across to lauren jelly bear when he was in the lead so you know Rob Sorenson has been at the head of affairs for an awful long time now and he must be starting to feel a little bit tired as Peter van petegem sits on the back their coasts a little bit just trying to recuperate a little bit because all of these riders know the final few kilometers of the Tour of Flanders they know how difficult it is and they know exactly what it's like trying to drag your body over the mood of Grandma because just to put it into perspective for some of the riders out there the enthusiasts you have to ride up the mood of Grandma on the sort of gears that you would normally put on a mountain bike absolutely right and the riders making a left-hand turn there and I was just thinking about Ballerini because he hasn't been outside the top ten in all the tours he's finished in the last few years of the Tour of Flanders since 1990 in fact and so he's a real threat now and he's two again for a big win former winner of Patti Ruby and he was second in Perabo to-20 herself yeah that was quite remarkable yes that finished there and he said he would never come back to Piru been a couple of years later he came back and made sure that he was actually going to win it but what a great player he's always courageous but the gap now fully started to come down it's ten seconds so maybe that chasing group are going to judge it just right and they'll just pounce on this leading group of four at the bottom of the Muar you see now these riders know that the MU is just around the corner they're going to take this right turn they drop down a little bit under the railway bridge of them they turn right again into the town and that's when the move begins and that's when they all trying to just save themselves a little bit trying to save a last little bit of energy in fact the main group here is almost in the same straight eight seconds now it's really kind of be close eight seconds and a little more than ten miles or sixteen and a half kilometers left to go and the call in the second group now smell it was the group Museo but he's gone from each other now I named it after Andres mill and that group down to eight seconds they can reach out and touch these riders now and they're very very canny these bike riders they've got this group now very much under control but they're waiting till the climb itself before they do the counter move and we are closing in on that climb very very quickly now three quarters of a kilometer to the climb it is a vicious couple climb it's very narrow halfway up and it gets pretty steep as well and there is the chase group and they going to plan a counter-attack as soon as they see the slopes on community grandma it really is awful the moon to Grandma because you come at the Kabul section and you read already at almost a dead stop because you come into the town here at the end of this straight you turn left and the bottom of the climb is actually on tarmac it's a it's a very smooth surface and you go slower and slower then you take the right-hand turn and almost immediately you're on the cobblestones and it is so hard to get any momentum on that climb and the riders who are in the front now Rolf Sorensen particularly I think it's going to be really feeling the pain in his legs because he's been pushing that big gear for an awful long time that in the streets of Galesburg and the murder grammar is just around the corner on the left-hand side there's the gradient 20% which is one in five in the old terms and it takes you up to 92 meters above sea level but of course you're climbing from the basement here and so that's why it is so steep and there's the tired legs of the matter of led the tour of llamas for the past hour or so and certainly also answers Paul sure and has said must be feeling something of the pace now although he's ridden a great race he is the most aggressive bike rider too if he gives up he won't be a volunteer to give up it'll be because he really has quite literally hit the wall because the Muir degramont means of course in English the wall of grammar for the most inexperienced rider in this group is David Kaiser auto and he's actually over the last few hundred metres been setting the pace these other three riders have ridden the Tour de France at Flanders on men Asians they know exactly how to handle this climb so they've led caseros has set the pace looking back you know that group hasn't closed it down completely and now we have to wait to see what sorts of confusion is going to happen here on the muder grammar now we're coming up to wards the cobbled section ballerinas decided he's going to take over and he is go to make the pace that he feels comfortable with onto the cobblestones and the broken road services the riders now are beginning the climb of the newer degramont led by Ballerini followed by vampy Tagum and then Ross Sorensen and dangling just a little bit off the back now is David caster of tow the Italian may not like this climate may not suit his style at all there's a massive crowd on it all of the race cars have been taken away from the climb because as you can see it is so narrow and if we did have a problem with the cars this race will be totally ruined we certainly don't want that now this has been a most aggressive taller foreigners this year there's the false flat because they nip over the top of that most start again is second up towards the little summit of the climb and only out there they're coming up at a great speed because that is Andres mill now and Bartley also going on the far right and this is back to the summit to the leaders now as Ballerini good cheese teeth this is the 20% bit and Franco Ballerini thinking this is where he can stamp his authority on this race the field have got them though they preach that gap ever so quickly on the steep bit and castle Otto is the one to go further all one his legs almost stopped turning completely on that left-hand Bend but now the race is coming all back together here the strongmen are bridging the gap this is where both Lee went to victory last year and it looks to me as though he's fighting his way back into the picture this time around a row of Sorensen went off the back there these are the two leaders there's van pizza game and ballerina going through we get a chance now just to see how much damage has been done this is Sorensen going through a few seconds in a risk as urato and there was last year's winner mikela Bartoli but these riders now are all over the place there is smile Kier put she going through as well and him off and moving up there is in fact Frederick Marcus I am Maximillion she honoree so this race is turning out to be a cracker it certainly is and these are looking down now on two riders Peter van petegem and ballerina they've got away well Sorenson has gone to a WOL by the look of it here castle ratha we've seen has been swept up by the Jace's and so now there are two it was they moved by ballerina did the damage there and he had to do that sort of move because nobody has visited back to the client she Museo and he's still behind but you get some idea there he's not that far behind but this has become a very very lonely raise for yo at Museo he Swit himself now the man that brought him down wound up Oscar down he's dropped him on the climb but I still don't think that the Museo can possibly contact the leaders now back to the leaders Paul and are now only two well they're not too far in from because that group there has been picked up by mikela Bartoli and that might be the saving grace for all sorts and not surprising it was dropped on the mood of Grandma it's done so much work in the race so far but Ballerini now must surely know that this is a great chance for him there are the team cars that have been stopped they send up around the mood of grandma so they can get in behind the riders when they come by and the chase group behind it seems to have splintered a little bit but in fact Rolf Sorensen is still in front with Kaiser Otto and in fact they've been joined by mikela Bartoli well this has been a great ride not just by ballerina of course but also by Peter Pan Peter Dom the Belgian rider who is absolutely inspired today and he's doing well to control the front of the race this is the long thin line of the riders trying to get back on terms and ganz still well represented they're not for that classic team normally again but this year they have been very very prominent bringing on board riders like monka San Hank Vogel's eschewed O'Grady has been a good move by Roger Lachey and let's not forget Phil that in fact Frederick Marcus has served his apprenticeship in the Dutch team of WordPerfect which later became Novell so he knows how to ride these tough Belgian races yes he does we'd have to say it's quite unusual for a Frenchman that's not their style of race normally but today Marcus Allen still has a very good chance of picking up a great victory today now a little bit of coming back together at the front here Ballerini and vamp Peter Gunn I'm Peter Gunn coming to the fore this year with a win in the Tour of Majorca on a stage anyway then of course the big one for him was hit bulk but it looks as though this race is coming back together again at the front and Ron Sorenson may be you know Paul he was just being shrewd he's not used to much energy on the climb he's allowed some to get up to him but he's now back in the very very good position again at the front this is what the Tour of Flanders is all about you should never give up you can get dropped on so many of these climbs and then you recover and hopefully somebody comes back and you can get yourself back into the racing again but all of the work to bring Rolf's on stand back there was done by mikela Bartoli last year's winner now he must be thinking about last year when he jumped away at this stage of the game last year he was away on his own today he's in a group of five riders he's got a very strong man there with him from his own country in the shape of Franco Ballerini so this is going to be a very interesting climb now because very shortly they'll be on the slopes of the Boss Berg and that's the final climb of this year's Tour of Flanders [Applause] so it looks as though the question now is who will again be boss of the boss / because that's the last chance now for the non sprinters to break up this group in the Tour of Flanders and if that I don't really look at the poor doesn't seem to be a weak man among them does that that's quite amazing I think the weak man has got to be Rolf Sorensen because he's been at the head of the fares for an awful long time and nobody now wants to take control they've got over the muder gram or they know that the boss Berg is the next climb and they know that an attack here is that possibly the final chance that they've got of opening up a lead over the rest of the main field there Sorensen sitting in fourth position Casa roto is the man who's really surprising me because I haven't seen him in the final of a classic before and he really does seem to be rising to the occasion van petegem doing a lot of work at the front there he knows the finish and if it comes down to a sprint of these five riders well he must certainly be in with a very good chance indeed but mikela Bartoli I think he doesn't know what to do because last year he was on his own when he got to this stage so for the moment he doesn't want to attack he doesn't want to go clear he wants to try and encourage these other riders to try and pick up the momentum but what's happening is the momentum has gone from the group and I think the main group may catch them up again what we've got is five riders here appear at equal strength and now they won't attack one another ballerina he's a little bit frustrated the first to reach some is cloudy okay poaching I think if we were to pan right we're going to find the majority of that group have now come across there they are very selected a group of survivors in this years to evolve including Andres Milk among Kazan is here so too is akima for the US Postal team and sitting at the back they're just one of the ride and I think it's Henk Vogel's that's the group of as we now head up for the last climb of the day this is where it's higher than the bush 71 at the back is Maximilian she and REE she only must try an attack I think to split up this group because this is the last chance of splitting the group this is the hardest climb that's the hardest thing that is left now in the Tour of Flanders and Shaun if somebody is going to try and go clear over the top there is a little bit of a split but as you've said all of these riders seem to be about the same strength nobody has the confidence and feel sure that they can actually ride from here to the finish Ballerini there on the right in the middle there is Joe Pyne car plank cart here riding out of his skin riding with the heads of state of the world cycling look at that facial in the courage he knows now that this is the place where a Flandern can really make his name well good for Joe because he's got himself right to the front here but this is ballerina he's big effort now to try and shake them off his wheel but he's trying to ride them off from the front now the boss Berg is not all that long and I think more of explosive attack rather than a long sustained effort would be more effective Sorenson has realized that castle righto has cracked a little bit he's gone round him but although where Ralph is finding the strength from today he's spotted the gap opening got straight across the gap and I have for my money I think castle righto also is going to get back on as he comes over the top of the boss bed so that over the top Paul and there's still no signs of an escape well everybody's try but nobody's managed to do it Ballerini has put a lot of work in early in the race he was doing work for your ham user which is why I don't think he had the power to explode anybody off his wheel over the boss burg now and it's so strange at this stage of the game in the Tour of Flanders to see such a big group there are two riders there from the lotto squad two riders from Ganso they are the men who've got to try and do something from a team strategy point of view they've got to sacrifice themselves for one another Bartoli they're coming through he wants to keep the speed up that is now Andres mill coming through now there is a key move moving up into second position now wouldn't that be one for the books if Hakeem off could take a victory for the US Postal Service certainly Marvis result for them but the Beckham I was going to do it I think will have to be treated to the famous Akeem off last two kilometer - for the line when he'll try to go alone because that's the style of rider he is you'll have no chance in the sprint against the drive some of the riders in this group and he knows it it's a slightly uphill sprint when we get round to the finish to the right turn and a fairly long road to the top for the finish and Ballerini getting a little bit frustrated now there's nobody really helping him and the group once again is reforming as Shandy brings back the remnants of the nine men well I think that in fact scolari okay put she's gone off the front and that's another man I wouldn't have thought to see on the top of the podium of the Tour of Flanders as soon as it slowed down there Kier puts he figured well I'll have another little stab ease had a couple of ghosts so far in the race and he's jumped away to try and open up the gap here and in fact it looks to me as if he's gone with one of the gang riders and I have to say this time I think it's Fredrik Montes on so this is a very good move indeed they've opened up a little bit of a gap and this could be the one that will take them down to Mayer back for the finish of the Tour of Flanders and look at the panic now there's a group of three riders then two then three or four more nobody knows what to do it's a question of survival now closing down the gaps as quickly as possible because if you let somebody get 20 seconds then you're not going to see them again well there's nobody allowing anybody to get 20 meters right now they just jump on you and chase you down and put you back into this lead group there are nine riders now slowly but surely that lead group has been whittled down but nobody has found the effort that is required to win the Tour of Flanders it yet but it's good to see a great attacking race and that's the way the Racing's been all year this year and now it's Casa roto again he keeps yo-yoing off the back and the Nicky's racing back into the action once more this is a very very good race this year man he is I think he must certainly be the revelation this is Andre Schmidt coming onto the back he's being very attentive he knows how dangerous it is at this stage of a race like the Tour of Flanders Peter van petegem using the motorbike closing down to get onto the back of that line of six this is a key move now in key mom's waiting now he's going to go what a move by a key ma be way to put it all to come together now he's gone down the right-hand side and he might just get the pause that he needs well that's a very predictable Akim of attack he's won races in it including stays in the Tour de France with this very same move and the rides I think are wise to that sort of move now he would have been expected to do this and the straight after him here and there gained the break he spent a girl's right across the road back him off has been caught immediately and now is it going to all come back together or not he fought him off and Qasr on TOEIC n caz Aransas there but he was chased down by a Russian a former Russian I should say now he's from the Ukraine this is Andres meal he knows exactly what sort of moves that Hakeem Bobby's gonna make he raced with him on the national squad he pegged him back and again it's nine riders together Phil this is quite remarkable because we're so very close now to Mayer but surely attack is gonna come soon and someone will go clear well there isn't that second it's going from gam this time and I think it's Hank Burgos is having a little dig now as he moves off the front of the bunch but again everybody is ready for these attacks now they're expecting riders to attack and they're marking them very very closely it is not a pleasant pastime being in this leading group of nine right now because they're all of them under pressure as they try now to organize yet another attack and that Sorenson again is got in on the movies the middle of those three riders and in fact Phil I think that was frederic monfils I went across it looked very much from the air as if it was Hank Vogel's but I think Mont Kasane got across there to Ballerini and Ralph Sorenson Sorenson again on the move let's have look oh yes that's definitely moccasin who sits there good in his teeth at the back Ballerini and so on stand back in the action yet again they're certainly telling us they are the strongest men out on the course but as we all know not always do the strongest men that win any race anyway they're dictating the pace and they both got themselves in the lead they will not be happy with the presence of federic monka sam because of course it's his sort of finished very much so and he'll be pretty happy if he takes those two on in the sprint I think a big problem now is who's going to chase Hank Vogel's is definitely not going to chase it's got to be up to there two riders from lots of Joe plank art was in there a little earlier under extra meal is in there they should get together and one should sacrifice himself for the other to try and bring it back together but when you get to the end of a race like this it's so difficult to make that decision because you're worried about the strength that the other riders have got if you do close down a gap like this you open yourself up to a counter-attack and those three riders I think have moved just at the right time and the gap now has gone out to what must be round about ten or twelve seconds so we've got another change now in the Tour of Flanders yet again and let's not forget that also Anson was the silver medal in the Olympic Games last year in Atlanta and he's now looking very good in a breakaway at three with Valerie a consistent plastic rider out there up front with Fredrik Wonka sir and again really do need a good result this year because the team is coming towards the end of its sponsorship now a reorganisation that they're all thinking what do we do and if you hesitate just too long then get it because you will race for fourth place these are the three lead is now Ballerini Montesano seems to have been content all day with marking franco Ballerini may have pegged him early on as the man to beat today well now he's got in what does appear to be the decisive three-man move as sorts and drysuit he is showing tremendous effort to strength out there today and were just barely seven kilometers to the finish of the taller flawless and you still can't pick a winner but the important thing for Sorensen he realizes that if you can get this group clear the lowest position you can finish it in third position so he's gonna drive it because he knows now what's going on in the group behind people don't want to make the effort there's nobody to organize the chase so if he can just keep this leading group of three riders working together then they'll open up the gap and it looks now as if it has opened up and you can see Phil there's no organization in this group the lots of team car is there trying to tell Schmidt I suppose to pull it back together but joke playing cars playing cards got quite a good sprint when it comes down to it well I think they're making a big mistake now because one of those lots of boys should have done something because the gap has opened there is a counter-attack coming it's not coming from the lotto team as Pete about beating them is the rider to the right of our picture here we still got Hakeem up in this group he's just in front and it was castle righto who tried an attack right above the head of this little group but again it's all come together now you're seeing the freewheeling the team cars are scurrying up here trying to get to their charges and encourage them to do something because they can sense now as we can that we're now looking down on the three riders who will decide this year's Tour of Flanders and Infernus Paul two of these guys have been the strongest men in the race well ballerina has worked not only for himself but for johan museo he's put a lot of effort into this race and you cannot fault the race that Rolf Sorenson has done either because he was the one who saw the dangerous move by Lauren jelly bear earlier on he jumped across to it he dropped jelly bear when jelly bear blew up on the barren trees and he's always been present at the front Marcos out on the other hand has written a very clever race very quiet indeed like a sprinter would do he stayed out of the wind who stayed in the shadow and the shelter of the peloton and waited for the final move and as soon as it came there it was he was in it now there are 17 seconds ahead of the group with Andre Smith and it's going clear now I think this is decided the race it's only a question of which one will be the first over the line to take the Tour of Florida's ballerinas been knocking on the door of this race for the last 7 years but he's never quite got there first the Sorenson has never appeared on the winner's podium either neither is any Danish rider and the other line of Fredrik moccasin well that would be some result for the French especially in this event the last Manta win for France I think was Jackie do wrong after a very long breakaway not winning the race in true style as these men are doing today less than five kilometres to go that so that's going to take around about seven and a half minutes now the two riders who are sandwiching Fredrik Montes are now must be thinking to themselves well moccasin is the top sprinter if we want to win this race one or other of us is going to have to get clear because that's the only way to beat the Frenchman the Frenchman is one of the best sprinters in the world and he will know that Monaco Sam will know that the two riders are going to try in the last kilometer or so to a came on a launch a surprise attack but he's waiting for it all the time you can see his head tilting trying to feel some kind of movement of air to give him an idea of what's going to happen next well I think if I was anybody now I just make sure that Marcus ant doesn't get an easy ride to the finish because he is such a strong finish in this type of race he's not one of the world's fastest sprinters but he's especially sprinter when he has to be and I think the finish at Mia Baker will suit him slightly uphill but you've got to read it spot-on because if you don't then your misjudge how far the finishing line is over the hill itself now three riders and still so on some putting an awful lot of weight behind those pedals and never a man to shirk his duty at all goes through swings off the other two we have to say the same now running down to last few kilometers we are virtually in mere Becca here we go right through the town then we turn right for the finish and then they will see the banner on top of the little rise there's the gap I think it's safe to say at this point that these three riders are now clear of the rest of the race and the Tour of Flanders providing they don't start playing the cat-and-mouse tactics where they look at each other they lose momentum because for sure that chase group will be on them in a flash well that's a serious gap that they've got now and I can't see anybody who's going to dedicate themselves to chase down these riders franco Ballerini looks very strong to me he's look strong all day he's never shirked his work he's ridden perfectly for your ham you say when Musial crashed there in fact his confirmation that they're doing a good job 28 second is the gap now over the schmear group Sorensen has got an awful face on him at the moment a mask of pain as he grits his teeth knowing it's just got to stay with these two other riders if he wants a chance of winning this race the Tour of Flanders but he knows I think that the strongest man is Franco Ballerini he's not going to let him get too far away but you know it's also that wearing number 91 the gang rider the sprinter from the Tour de France normally is a man that if he gets to that finishing straight in mervich has got a great chance of taking the glory I couldn't agree more and as I said earlier it would be a great result for rajala J's Gann team right now they need a big result but we're going on to the banner here and it says three kilometres from the finish and that is no distance at all inside two miles to go and in fact Wonka Sandow wants somebody else to come through the turns are getting shorter as the riders start to plan their own attacked to the finish Ballerini goes through keeps the pace high Sorenson has chosen to follow Ballerini in the line Ballerini has chosen to follow Montes and now he knows the power of Mongoose and these two riders know each of them inside out they race against each other in all of the classic races including the Tour de France so they are well known monka Sam was the rider a couple of years ago by the way who fell off the initial podium in the Tour de France when the teams were being presented and he broke his ankle and therefore was unable to start the talk well things are better for him now and he's continuing a very very useful career indeed an excellent sprinter a man we will see an awful lot of when it comes to the Tour de France this year loosening officer his back break there that's a very good trick that a lot of sprinters do there because at the end of a race like this is specially over the cobblestones the wheels can get a little bit buckled and he doesn't want anything touching those brake pads when it comes up to the final sprint so that's definitely a sprinters reaction there you saw him doing that ballerina there moving up you can see the speed of these riders now Sorenson is still gritting his teeth to stay there Ballerini hasn't changed his style at all over the last 15 kilometres so powerful and you know when it is a group of three Phil it is so difficult to judge the sprint to case to go it's interesting though poor because Ballerini and so on sand they train together in Tuscany because Sorensen lives in Italy and they know each other so well now and friends are certainly having to become very serious rivals here at the end of this two kilometres there's a very big goal at hand and that's the Tour of Flanders so friends can become enemies as well Sorensen dropping back into third position here now these two riders I'm sure must be trying to plan some kind of attack because you can't take a man like Fredrik Marcus on to the finish quite so easy as they have done so far twenty-eight seconds is the gap back to that purchasing group now I think it's all over for them they'll be fighting it out for fourth place but Sorenson still coming to the front still coming keeping the pace up they don't want to slow down at all and as you said they don't want to bring the cat-and-mouse tactics we do see now a flick of the wrist there by Sorenson and ballerinas just starting to drop back yes and they was thinking of it and he's thought it but you see moccasin saw him coming he just looked over at the right time there and this is the right turn and I think that there Balor lucky he planned that move and now there's a long straight and then we turn right again but I think battle really just a bit unlucky because it coincided with Montes and looking left and now it's Sorensen's turn well that's the time to go if one goes and it doesn't work then you try it and it looks as though there's no reaction at all from Wonka Sam he just seems to be concerned about the word abouts of Franco Ballerini all the time and this could be the winning move here Ballerini is frustrated a moccasin will not come through there's no reaction at all from Uncas and and he came straight after Ballerini but that's remarkable person that was straight out of the textbook Ballerini went first bronchus and came back up to him and then he just sat on his wheel and then straight away Sorensen went over the top now the onus is on frederic monfils and to chase down Sorensen he's the fastest man in the group and that is why ballerina is frustrated he's in the finishing straight now and unless early action comes very quickly he's going to take the victory I think we're about to see the first Daly's victory in the history of the taller Florida's source and made this move perfectly here and that cat should be enough providing those legs of rolls don't lock up now they've been in the thick of the action through most of the Hills today ever since he counted the attack of Laurence Oliver then he got rid of shallow burn and since then he's been coming to a flow to the lady breakaway this has been a well taken win by Sorensen of Denmark the story of the triumphant Danes go on and on last year the toilet Florence at least now the taller flanders for also Anson the first ever Danish winners second place goes to Montes and and it'll be a very disappointed Frank of Ballerini who gets the third place and it wasn't so far back was it to the next men over the line but then it's going to be Andre Schmidt was always such a consistent classic rider and smell creeping in ahead of castle righto for me the surprise of the day today the main field coming in there Bartoli is there as well and it'll be a long wait for the rest of the race but this is it the great moment of triumph the third ever classic victory for ol Sorenson of Denmark but this is the one classic race I think most people want to win other than Patti Dube and so Anza now can add that one on to his long list of great victories and he really is very very happy it's also a great result two for the Rabobank team because this is the one they wanted and young Ross will be totally delighted so roll songs and the silver medalist in the Olympic Games last year now the winner of the Tour of Flanders and he's in the finish enclosure and with him too is our Paul show and so let's get down there and find out what it's like to be the winner of the Tour of Flanders at 1997 yeah this is my biggest victory whatsoever and I like I said before I'm very happy I dedicated to my wife who's pregnant again and to my little boy and then the great thank for the team with it uh everything that could they did it were the heart and that Wisconsin Rauf there was one man we couldn't find this morning at the start where it was Ralph Sorenson yeah last to ride in but first to come on with the finish this this has been a great ride for you you looked as if you were suffering in the mood to grandmum but it all came back together yeah well we tried to get to the mirror before before the group behind I knew they were going to attack so but I had a little bit of energy left and after Borschberg I I still feel good and nobody was really better than me today so um thanks for what I did we a little bit worried when Frederic malle co-sign came up yeah of course but I also knew that Ballerini and him would ride hundred percent because it was a picture for mocassin and it's a big chance of course also for me and Ballerini and yeah we had to attack so I knew it was either Ballerini or me because I could see that mokou-san was tired and yeah finally this victory come for me for me that is the most beautiful race in the world and finally a winner when a generous response therefrom also answered and I certainly he'll be celebrating with his team tonight that's his third win of the season the others by the way the prologue in tadhana adriatico and the times are stayed to the three days of the Panna well Paul showing pushing his way through the crowd has now sort out the Australian teammate of Rob Sorensen and that's Robbie McEwen well Robbie I spoke to you before the start this morning you said we've got good morale in the team because we think we've got someone who can win but did you think the Ralf could do it yeah we we knew he'd do it after last week at Department when he won the time trial I feel all the times this season he showed the for Miss he's got didn't shower completely saving himself for for this race and today we really worked well as a team every time we had to pull at the front and bring it back we did it and and then off to go in the end strongest guy in the races it's great but the Tour of Flanders with all the claims at the end this year was a lot more difficult than previous years I wouldn't know this is my first one I know I found it really hard but I know all the pain was worth it in the end we we rode well as a team worked hard in and we won victory for the Rabobank and for all Sorenson here he is now coming up towards that crucial attack first of all though it's ballerina who goes now let's ask Ron Sorenson to describe what happened next yeah well I've been out there for a long time with first with Gela bar and then with with Ballerini and some pita game so I had a little bit of problems but I could see that nobody could really do the big difference and so I saved a little bit of energy I had for the for the last ten K's and I knew I had to attack so but it's always difficult this year had no accidents no punctures no nothing I was lucky well nobody could dispute that the way went in the end the moccasins simply refused to come round Ballerini and so ballerinas rather annoyed about that but the victory going to Ross Sorensen in 1986 when he turned pro he finished ninth in Milan San Remo since then he's won Perry Brussels twice liaised based on the age he's had a third and fourth previously in the Tour of Flanders now he's the winner so another great classic has come to a finish we looked down at me Rebecca bathed in sunshine here today a massive crowd cycle racing in Belgium is more popular than it has been since the days of eddy merckx so as we say our goodbyes a comeback soon because the classic season this year I feel is going to be an exceptional one and still no victory yet by an Italian cyclist now before we actually say goodbye coming up next on the program where we had a little fun and games around this classic period Porsche and myself took the bikes over the

Channel: Classic Cycling

Views: 51,409

Keywords: Tour of Flanders, cycling, bicycle racing, bicycle, one day classic, cycling monument, Rolf Sorensen, classic cycling, Ronde van Vlaanderen

Id: hGNj5Z82aBE

Length: 113min 44sec (6824 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 25 2017