Scheldeprijs 2016 Preview

By David Hunter

Antwerp – Schoten 208km

Stuck in between Flanders and Roubaix, is Scheldeprijs. This offers the sprinters something to aim for, whilst the puncheurs look to win one of the monuments. The course is a traditional one, with nothing to worry the peloton. The closing circuit does contain the Broekstraat, 1.7km of cobbles, but they are easy. Barring a disaster we should get a sprint.

Weather

It looks like we have a chance of rain and the wind will be quite strong, coming from the south-west. The wind could have a part to play in the result, with many crosswind sections as the riders head back towards Schoten. With so many teams wanting a sprint, it would be a surprise if we didn’t get one. The timing of the rain will be important, it looks like it might come around the time of the finish. That would make an already dangerous sprint even worse.

Sprinters & Trains

Etixx – Kittel, Sabatini, Richeze, Trentin, Wisniowski

Kittel arrives after taking a solid win in De Panne. His sprint train is looking strong, especially with Richeze back fit. The Argentinian still hasn’t moved into number 2 yet, with Sabatini containing to fill that position. This will continue here as well. The finish is not the easiest, with plenty of crashes through the years. Etixx will look to control the final 3km and keep their star man out of any trouble. He’s won this title on 3 occasions.

Lotto – Greipel, Sieberg, De Buyst, Bak

Poor old Andre. His season started with a bang but he hasn’t got going since. Injuries have played a huge part in his disrupted season, thanks to a crash in the Algarve. It’s not only him but his sprint train has also suffered huge misfortune. That’s Debusschere, Henderson and Sieberg all injured or ill at some point in the last two months. He has the speed needed to compete and was back to form in Flanders, but coming up against the other trains, Greipel will struggle to find position. He is a sprinter that needs a pilot fish.

Katusha – Kristoff, Guarnieri, Morkov, Haller

A strong sprint team is here to help Kristoff defend his title. He’s still not quite back to the form of Qatar, but his performances in De Panne and Flanders were a step in the right direction. He showed last year that he doesn’t use this race as just training, every race he enters he tries to win. Katusha and Etixx were involved in a fierce battle for position in stage 3a of De Panne, they will look to resume hostilities here.

Dimension Data – Cavendish, Eisel, Farrar, Brammeier

Cavendish has really struggled to get going after his appearance in the track World Championships. He wasn’t competitive in Tirreno and Milan-Sanremo, but will hope to be much better here. Same story with his train, as Eisel was injured at the beginning of the year. He knows what it takes to win here, he has the same number of wins as Kittel. This should be the first battle between the big 4 sprinters, Cavendish will want to do well.

Bora Argon – Bennett, Archbold, Selig, Dempster

Regular readers will know how much I think of the Bora boys. Saying that, their train hasn’t real functioned well yet in 2016. Crucially though, Bennett has just won his first race of the season, in the Criterium International. At the same time, Archbold was eventually getting his own season going, helping Phil Bauhaus to a 2nd place in De Panne. Last year ended in disaster, with both men going down hard in a huge crash. All going well, I expect to see them feature in the closing kilometres.

The big 4 stand out from the rest, thanks to their sprint trains, but we do have some dangerous riders lurking around the edges. The main one is Elia Viviani. He sounded like he was struggling a bit, before beating Kittel in De Panne. That win will have given him a whole new sense of belief, but he still lacks a sprint train. Viviani is a rider who claims not to like a big train, preferring to follow wheels. This worked in De Panne, as he latched onto the wheel of Kittel and powered past him for the win. This finish is not the same and the fight for Kittel’s wheel will be crazy. A lack of a real train will hurt the Italian in this race.

The other sprinters who would hope to contend for the top 10 are:- Andrea Guardini, Wouter Wippert, Nikias Arndt, Dylan Groenewegen, Erik Baska, Edward Theuns, Michael van Staeyen, Jakub Mareczko, Roy Jans and Van Lerberghe.

Prediction Time

All about Kittel v Kristoff v Cavendish. I think that Greipel will struggle for position, finding hard to get onto the podium. In the battle of the trains, I see Etixx coming out on top and Kittel taking another win.

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