Ian Stannard wins Omloop Het Nieuwsblad again

I'm not taking away anything from Stannard's fine win. It was magnificent that he was able to turn over a 3 on 1. But on replaying that run in you realise just how stuffed the Etixx were. It wasn't like Stannard turned on the after burners and hunted them down. More like they played themselves out of contention till Stannard realised they had burnt all their matches and went himself, which just go to show how hard they had worked to keep that gap from the chasers.
Stannard played it perfectly by sheltering himself in that group and biding his time - or at least having a big enough engine to fry his opposition.

Fantastic win!

Last 5km - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPX3cM7cvJA

Fantastic. With Rowe in the top ten too...lovely.

In the post race interview, Stannard seems to imitate Jim (I think) from The Vicar of Dibley. Every answer started with "Yeah, no...".
http://www.rtbf.be/video/embed?id=1996669&autoplay=1

"Why are you shouting at the computer Daddy?"

Great win, roll on roubaix, all faring well for wiggins.

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And why not? In a train of 3 against 1, why would the lone rider take a pull?

Wrong end of the stick
I was saying that the Etixx guys had to do something to put Stannard under pressure. They had been pulling him along because they were more worried about the guys 20sec or so behind.... but in the end they had to attack.
Fantastic win by Yogi - but etixx were kind of caught between a rock and a hard place

Awesome repeat win, turning a 25% chance at best into a 100% certainty.

Great win, roll on roubaix, all faring well for wiggins.

Epic is an overused word but not in this case. Seeing off a team of three riders is just magnificent, he was like the Terminator coming back at the attempts to drop him !

Agree that the Etixx Quickstep trio ought to be lynched for their mistakes, but to be honest Stannard just looked stronger than any of them in the final few kilometres. He was fortunate to have been able to sit on the back of the EQS trio for 30km, but it was his own strength and the earlier work by Wiggins, Eisel, Rowe and the rest of the team that put him in that position, so fair's fair.

And credit to him, it was a ballsy attack, and it paid off.

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Awesome from Stannard, but let's face it, Etixx laughably stuffed it up. Attack from Boonen, the best sprinter, who should have been sat on Stannard's wheel, then attack with Terpstra but chase it down with the last bit of energy from Vandenbergh. Finally, with only Terpstra left, lead out the sprint!

It was not quite that simple - before the attacks, Stun-hard was getting a free ride in the Etixx train.

It did seem a defeat snatched from the jaws of victory by Etixx. Was the plan to tempt Stannard into going with Boonen's attack, tire him out and then attack with Terpstra for the win? If so, Sky read it perfectly.

Why did Boonen attack? Crazy!! Seen the highlights before reading this and boy did they **** it up! Great win for Stannard though. Surely it should be him and not Wiggins who goes for PR.

Awesome from Stannard, but let's face it, Etixx laughably stuffed it up. Attack from Boonen, the best sprinter, who should have been sat on Stannard's wheel, then attack with Terpstra but chase it down with the last bit of energy from Vandenbergh. Finally, with only Terpstra left, lead out the sprint!

The big surprise was that Stannard didn't fall off his bike laughing!

You can see the last 10k already here - it is an awesome ride from Stannard. He gets worked oover, then attacks with 3km to go. A classic hardman performance.

http://www.steephill.tv/classics/omloop-het-nieuwsblad/

I couldn't see it live, but it looks like a fantastic result for Stannard - one against three in the final 30 odd kilometres, and those three were Boonen, Terpstra and Stybar. This must be his best result ever.

Chapeau!

The man is a f*cking beast. What a win!