Ronde van Vlaanderen picks

Ronde van Vlaanderen picks

First, a few observations.  When people think of Flanders, one of the first name that comes to mind is Tom Boonen.  That is a normal reaction, he is always in the mix and animating the race.  However, he has only finished top 10 twice in the last five years.   On the positive side, those two top 10 finishes were wins, four and five years ago.  His trend seems to be win, or finish somewhere between 1th and 20th.

Another name that is high on many lists this year is Fabian Cancellara.  Again,  Fabian is a very strong rider.  I would be hard pressed to leave him off my list, too.  But, should he really be on all those lists.  Only once in the last five years has Cancellara five in the top 20 in Flanders.  That shocked me.  I think there are some extenuating circumstances with that stat.  I think he broke a chain last year and I seem to recall some sickness a couple years ago.  So, it is likely that he would have better results but, the fact remains, he has had his difficulties in this race.

Devolder is like Boonen.  Stijn has won the last two years, but nothing beyond that.

If you are looking for a guy that always seems to be in the mix and a threat to win, go with Alessandro Ballan.  Four times top-10 in the past five years.

The second best in terms of top 10's these past five years has been George Hincapie.  But, as good as consistency is, I think every rider would like to have Boonen and Devolder's record in this race over Ballan and Hincapie.

Ballan and Hincapie are, of course, on both riding for BMC this year.  BMC is getting some notice for their team and deservedly so.  The lower half of their team is unimpressive but their top four riders (Hincapie, Ballan, Kroon and Burghardt).  In addition to Ballan and Hincapie's seven top-10s, Kroon has two top-10s and two top-20s while Burghardt has a top-10 and a top-20.  I don't believe there is a team in the race that can match that.

On to my picks, in no particular order.

Sylvain Chavanel:  He has been rather quiet this year so I am not terribly confident in this choice but hopefully he is laying low and targeting this race.

Aleksandr Kuchynski:  Had a strong spring last year, but has been a little more quiet this year.  I think he is capable of doing well and has one top 20 in Flanders.

Bernhard Eisel:  Won Gent-Wevelgem last week.  He has been top-20 a couple times before.  And, with HTC-Columbia having lost so many riders over the winter his role is more prominient.  He goes into the race as their leader instead of being a worker.  Besides, he is damn nice guy.  I may have to write something about that sometime.

Wildcard:  The CX'er in me is rooting for Boom even though he is probably a little too young and inexperienced with Flanders to really break through.