How The Race Was Won - Tour of Flanders 2015

A long race with a relatively simple plotline and loads of substories. Sky over-working, Greipel doing everything, Shimano not-so-neutral service, FDJ's miserable luck, Tiesj Benoot…but as always, to get everything (like those last two), you'll have to watch the actual race.

[cyclingmaven]

Great job mate. Very observant noticing that bottle exchange too.

[timetakers]

Great coverage as always. Kristoff was fantastic in this race. Looked like Terpstra didn't have the gas left to accelerate past Kristoff at any time in the last 25km so hanging on for second was probably all he could hope for once he had him for company. Greipel was great and so was Benoot. I wanted Thomas to win but hey ho. Will be interesting see how Sky approach Roubaix.

[OKden]

Great video Cosmo.  I look forward to your "how the race was won" every time and have not been dissappointed.  Kristoff sure surprised me on the last two climbs and even more on his ability to drage Terpstra 3 k to the line and still easily outsprint him at the end.  I'm not sure how he has improved his speed and also his all around as well.  

[philipc]

Awesome. Who needs to watch the actual race when you have these...!

[yosoypatrick]

Great spot on the Greipel/Rowe bottle handover

[anirudhgovil]

Great analysis as always Cosmo! Would have been nice to get a mention of Benoot though - 5th at the age of 21 after working a fair bit too! Also, maybe you could have mentioned Stybar's teeth problem or Vanmarcke's surprisingly poor performance. Nonetheless, great video

[dudethatknows]

OK I'm done watching it live or the whole thing if you can recap this fast all the time. Your insights show things so well mad props! I'd buy you a ranger if I lived in the fort still.

[agleesb]

Sky's tacticians should take a chill pill. Positioning is one thing, but burning 3/4 of your matches before the fight starts in earnest is another. Stannard is clearly still struggling, but Rowe is strong. Viviani did some good work, kinda felt sorry for him.

I've read elsewhere that Stybar should have helped bridge up to Terpstra, and I think that in hindsight that's pretty sound. At the time you'd have bet good money on Terpstra riding clear ahead of the finale.

Katusha have some great cards to play for Roubaix. Will live to see how the other teams line up to counter them.

[jolodri]

Great video
Greipel really surprised me
15th with all these attacks
If he would be protected in Roubaix he could really do something

[lopzag]

Great work! It frustrates me that Sky do this EVERY time. 

[BaconBaconBaconable]

Great ride from Kristoff. What is with Sky's tactics of doing of the crap work leaving Thomas no team mates for when it matters?

[thebigchinbc]

I find it amazing that, in general, there aren't more crashes as a result of cars or motos doing the wrong thing.

[TomFord]

Sky put up on their FB page saying they were "proud of a great team effort". They seem that they are too easily pleased with that statement - am I wrong?

[blocfoals]

Nice work. Sky definitely burnt too many matches far too early. I thought Terpstra did really well for second place - as you said he made the best of a bad situation, but I can't figure out why he never even attempted to win it outright at some point in the final 12km. He didn't really look like he was desperately clinging to Kristoff's wheel the whole time. Certainly if he'd attacked in the last 3km or so, he'd still have had a pretty solid shot at second place.

[omarmalik]

Sky treated it as if it was a mountain stage with only one mountain at the end, not a classic with with small steep roads

[kellyness]

My only questions are: 1)Why didn't Terpstra attack at any point when it was just him and Kristoff?!  2) Why did he take ANY pulls during the same time?

[howard]

Sky didn't have that much help when Thomas was isolated at all. He was a marked man and nobody really made an effort. It is not like Thomas is a gutsy favourite for the race he always does the work but unfortunately its always too

[fullmetalgridlock]

Really wanted Thomas to win this one...

[seabus]

durianrider made a similar video about the race...

[nir]

Wait a min. Is cars crashing cyclist ok?!!