Bob Dopolina 

A few buddies riding in Belgium the day before Flanders. Taken with a GoPro:

merlinextraligh

Awesome. Thanks for posting.

Holy week is definitely on my bucket list. Tour of Flanders sportif, Saturday. Watch the Tour of Flanders Sunday. Paris roubaix sportif next Saturday, watch Paris Roubaix Sunday.

zymphad

I'm so disappointed with Sagan's performance. I hope he ends Cancellara's reign on the Paris-Roubaix. Not a fan of Cancellara, unfortunately he's a great strategist and sprinter. Ugh...

What bike was your buddy riding over those cobblestones? Enjoyed listening to the sounds, but not so sure about actually riding the rough terrain on a road bike.

canam73

Why so down on Cancellara?

I also prefer it when Sagan wins, but Cancellara seems to me like one of the better personalities in pro cycling. He obviously has done a good job with his abilities as a TTer and classics rider, but unlike a lot of guys he puts in a solid effort in situations where the odds are against him. Watch any flat group finish in a stage race when the pure sprinters have team support and control of the peloton. Cancellara routinely finds a way to get himself into the top 5 by himself and if nothing else will make the race more interesting by forcing the other teams ride their hardest. Almost like a page out of his teammate Jens' book.

And for an elite cyclist he also doubles as possibly the finest domestique in the pro peloton. It has to be tough for anyone to work hard for a couple of whiners like the Schleck brothers, and he does it while still hoping to win any time trial stages. He also seems to have the respect of the rest of the riders as he has been able to neutralize stages in which a serious crash has occurred a keep attacks at bay against riders who have been delayed.

zymphad

I agree with you. I haven't read of any bad things about Cancellara both in the press and from other riders. He shows respect to other riders unlike Cavendish who seems to disregard basic etiquette and safety for others around him. In short, he's a dick both off and on the bike.

I just dislike him because he is so good, and he is a great strategist and beating Sagan. That's all :/ It's boring to watch someone who is so strategic like Cancellara who is very patient and efficient. It's more like watching track cycling that road racing to me the way Cancellara rides sometimes.
- You can clearly see in Flanders the other 3 riders were so frustrated with Cancellara refusing to take lead and at one point can even see them laugh when it looked like he was going to make a break and then fell back again. They must have been frustrated out of their mind with the race result.

merlinextraligh

Actually, he hasn't been a great sprinter. Good article in Velonews that goes over Cancellera's classic victories. With the excpetion of Paris ROubaix last year, he almost always wins alone, and could have won more classics with a better sprint, or better tactics in the final km.

This year he worked on his sprint, and it paid off.

Bob Dopolina 

They both work for Ridley. Could you hear the carbon wheels?

What I like best about the video is the POV of the camera. I think it's pretty much perfect in terms of positioning and stability.

zymphad

I'm far too new to cycling and haven't ridden carbon wheels to be able to distinguish carbon or alloy wheels over rough terrain.

Work for Ridley? That's sweet. Fan of their bikes. Fan of Belgium cycling and rally racing

therhodeo

I would say neither one of those things is true.

roadwarrior

Very nice video. Brought back some memories.

BTW...compared to Paris-Roubaix, those are paving bricks.

Bob Dopolina 

Yeah, this was a test of a new Garmin/GoPro mount we want to carry. They rode the entire route. I figured if the mount held up over Belgiam cobbles and gave a good POV that was also steady we'd move forward.

The cool video was just a bonus.

rangerdavid

great video quality, esp over the cobbles!!! thanks for posting it!