Velominati Super Prestige: Women’s Olympic Road Race 2012
What a difference four years can make. In Beijing, Nicole Cooke was the dominant rider in Women’s Cycling, taking wins in every important race on the Women’s calendar for several years running. Fast finish, good in the hills, good against the clock, she helped give context to what we mean by the term “all rounder”.
Four years on, she’s been struggling with injury and the pressures of forming her own team which has resulted in the inevitable reduction in results. But don’t count her out just yet; she has been showing some form already this year and during the last Olympic year, she burst into form for the event to take Gold. Add to that the motivation a British rider is sure to feel racing at her home Games, and you’d be a fool to leave her off your list of considerations.
Be that as it may, she’s facing up to a strong field. Kristen Armstrong dropped out of the Cascade Classic (while leading it) in order to prepare for the games. Not to mention Marianne Vos, who dominated the Giro last month – or Giorgia Bronzini, whose website I find vaguely frightening.
Review the route and study the weird, paged roster if you like pretending that helps you, and get your picks in by 5am Pacific on Sunday. (If you find Time Zone Mathematics too complicated, just get your picks in by the time the giant countdown timer in the banner goes to zero), regular One-Day VSP rules apply. Good luck.
Hard to go past Vos after the Giro.
VSP PICKS:
1. Vos
2. Bronzini
3. Olds
4. Armistead
5. Villumsen
Shelley Olds!!!! I am honored to know her and see her career grow from my San Francisco days. She has great potential and is super motivated. She had set her goal to compete 2012 in the velodrome (piste) but her event was taken away! So, when she won a stage a Giro stage (along with other wins) she qualified to represent the USA on the road. so great to see young talent who have worked so hard.
VSP PICKS:
1. Armitstead
2. Vos
3. Johansson
4. Arndt
5. Pooley
USA USA USA
Also interesting to note that these Olympic headshots are the worst.
I mean the DMV can take a better photo for crying out loud.
VSP PICKS:
1. E. Stevens
2. K. Armstrong
3. S. Olds
4. M. Vos
5. E. Pooley
VSP PICKS:
1. Vos
2. Bronzini
3. Armitstead
4. Johansson
5. Arndt
All the ladies did send their worst photos for Olympics. I will re-quote San Tonio
“I mean the DMV can take a better photo for crying out loud.”
Emma Pooley mentioned that team GB is united and will be going for Lizzie. But then Bronzini is super cunning and Vos hasn’t clicked yet (I mean gold) in these medal road races. Ina-Yoko could be unstoppable if she gets down the hill with the bunch.
VSP PICKS:
1. Bronzini
2. Vos
3. Lizzie
4. Evie Stevens
5. Ina-Yoko
Absolutely no clue at all!
VSP PICKS:
1. Vos
2. Bronzini
3. Armstrong
4. Arndt
5. Pooley
Jeeeeeezh Frank! Warn a man before just throwing up a link like that to Bronzini’s site! I know you said it was “vaguely frightening” but good lord man, if that is only vaguely frightening, what is downright scary to you???
VSP PICKS:
1. Vos
2. Bronzini
3. Armstrong
4. Teutenberg
5. Pooley
@Buck Rogers
+1
VSP PICKS:
1. Vos
2. Bronzini
3. Arndt
4. Armstrong
5. Stevens
I figure Vos will be tough to beat. After that, I got nothing.
VSP PICKS:
1. Vos
2. Armstrong
3. Cooke
4. Bronzini
5. Stevens
@graham d.m.
VSP PICKS:
1. vos
2. bronzini
3. olds
4. armstrong
5. stevens
VSP PICKS:
1. Armitstead
2. Vos
3. Bronzini
4. Cooke
5. Pooley
VSP PICKS:
1. Bronzini
2. Vos
3. Cooke
4. Pooley
5. Armitstead
Yep. That’ll happen………
VSP PICKS:
1. Vos
2. Stevens
3. Cooke
4. Arndt
5. Armitstead
well…
VSP PICKS:
1. Vos
2. Bronzini
3. Arndt
4. Cooke
5. Stevens
VSP PICKS:
1. Vos
2. Armistead
3. Olds
4. Bonzini
5. Cooke
@farzani
Fixed it for you. Funny, on both VSP’s, the first few posters double-posted…wonder what’s going on there.
Glad that you put this up early. I’ll be traveling starting Sat and won’t have much access to TV or internet.
VSP PICKS:
1. Vos
2. Armistead
3. Arndt
4. Cooke
5. Bronzini
Rah rah. Go team USA. Let’s show the world how much having money makes all the difference in sport.
VSP PICKS:
1. Stevens
2. Armstrongnoasterisk
3. Olds
4. Vos
5. Cooke
@Buck Rogers
This
@Ankush
That’s been the plan other times, like during last year’s road race, and The Cookey Monster manages to find herself a good reason to deviate from the plan and do her own ride. I’m not saying they won’t be united, I’m just saying Pooley isn’t capable of controlling Cooke.
@eightzero
Two curiosities: First, I thought you detested Evey more than bamboo shoots being slowly inserted under your finger nails, and second, what asterisk? Did I miss something? She test positive for something?
@eightzero
have you been asleep since Beijing? If so, what happened in the meantime is that we allfound out your country is broke – along with most of Europe.
China has lots of money. And we have some because they buy our steel.
VSP PICKS:
1. Vos
2. Armstrong
3. Arndt
4. Olds
5. Teutenberg
@frank Ah no, have you gone all political on me???
That roster page looks like a collection of Wanted posters. Gut-feeling tells me Team Specialized-lululemon might just be the Sky/Quickstep behemoth of the women’s peloton, and their riders will probably do well for their nations, too. The Dutch have to feature, though, and while I have a feeling I’ll won’t be earning any points for these picks, I’m backing Van Vleuten over Vos.
I’m counting on Worrack to provide the women’s equivalent of Jens Voigt – the weather-beaten German hardwoman will inflict masses of pain. Fahlin is dangerous enough on her own, Ferrand-Prevot is a long shot with Arndt in the picks being the equivalent of a point-blank shotgun into a barrel.
VSP PICKS:
1. Trixie Worrack
2. Emma Fahlin
3. Annemiek Van Vleuten
4. Pauline Ferrand-Prevot
5. Judith Arndt
A problem with predicting (or, trying-to-be-original-with-predictions) in female endurance sports is that the field is often so small that the gaps in ability are too large to be ignored. I mean, if hundreds of thousands of male cyclists dream of being competitive, at least 50,000 make it to ProConti, of which around 1000 make it into the UCI ProTour teams. That’s a pretty harsh selection that ensures that the worst and best at the very top level are all still pretty damn incredible. Women’s endurance sports don’t have such deep fields to begin with, so with less options, the gaps are often bigger.
Like Chrissie Wellington’s domination on the Ironman circuit, it appears as through there are around 10 female cyclists who each, on a day with good legs, can punch the peloton a new orifice. Van Vleuten, not too long ago, dropped the peloton, caught Vos and her breakaway companion, and then dropped those, too – just like that. Arndt has been dominant for a decade or so, Worrack, like Voigt, never seems to fade. Armstrong has been untouchable at the TT, too. The few who are an exceptional talent stand out so high that others pale in comparison.
VSP PICKS:
1. Armitstead
2. Hosking
3. Olds
4. Teutenberg
5. Vos
@frank
1. I’ll support Evie in the Olympics. The Olympics are all about money, so she’s a good fit. I even saw her recent comment about the selection for the TT. Essentially “glad they picked somone better for that. 4 years ago I was behind a desk.” Yeah. Years ago when Bill Johnson won the first US Olympic skiing medal, some TV dude pushed a mic in his face and asked him “what does an Olympic medal mean to you?” He smiled and answered rather truthfull, “Millions.”
2. When talking about cycling, we need to differentiate between Armstrongs. There is Kristen (Armstrongnoasterisk) and COTHO. Don’t confuse them.
@Marcus
Oh, Evie has lots of money. Pretty sure she had an address not in Colordao, but on Wall Street. And that makes all the difference in the world.
And yes, I am now willing to let this go.
Wha-hey? What is up with the mugshots of the all the women cyclists on the start list / olympic website.? I haven’t even read the comments yet, so if I’m repeating myself, sorry, but, holy sheet, Batman! Did they go in search of the worst possible photos of the athletes? I think that this one is my favorite.
http://www.london2012.com/athlete/lee-wai-sze-1100098/
In any event… I think I can win this…
I also think the American flag has a much higher likelihood of winning this race than the men’s race.
VSP PICKS:
1. Eveyln Stevens
2. Vos Vos Vos
3. Nicole Cooke
4. Kristin Armstrong
5. Giorgia Bronzini
@Buck Rogers
No, I went totally batshit crazy bitch on you. Politics have nothing to do with it; in fact, I’m not even clear which party she belongs to. Is there any that is willing to take her officially?
@eightzero
Oh, good. We get to argue about something else now. That wanker wasn’t the first American to win an Olympic medal, you git. Bill Koch, my childhood hero, won Silver in the 30k at the 1976 Games.
Get a fucking education.
VSP PICKS:
1. Vos
2. Armistead
3. Bronzini
4. Arndt
5. Johansson
@frank
By the way, she’s from the district where the VMH grew up. Known her for ages. She is completely batshit fucking nuts.
@Erik: I was going to comment on that photo too! It looks like a fourth-grade photo from a private girls’ school or something.
VSP PICKS:
1. VAN VLEUTEN Annemiek
2. ANDRUK Alona
3. POLSPOEL Maaike
4. VAN DE WINKEL Joanna
5. MAJERUS Christine
VSP PICKS:
1. Vos
2. Bronzini
3. Armstrong
4. Arndt
5. Armistead
@frank
Yeesh, @frank. Having a rough go of it today, are we?
VSP PICKS:
1. Vos
2. Armistead
3. Armstrong
4. Bonzini
5. Cooke
had to put a Canadian in there for good measure :) there is only one Vos!
VSP PICKS:
1. Vos
2. Teutenberg
3. Bronzini
4. Armistead
5. Numainville
@frank
And the day that skate skiing was introduced to the international community, no? And even with skating the whole thing, some dude doing trad still beat him. Man, those Euros know how to nordic ski!
@Buck Rogers
Right, I asked him about that, and he said he had seen some dudes doing it somewhere and figured he’d give it a shot. I think he might have won Gold in a World Cup event as well – I’d have to check.
Have you seen footage of that? Skating over a set of double tracks, its a wonder it was any faster than classical!
VSP PICKS:
1. Stevens, Evelyn
2. Armstrong, Kristin
3. Teutenberg, Ina
4. Vos, Marianne
5. Armitstead, Elizabeth
@frank no, never seen the footage. He’s from my area in the States, Vermont. Seen him skiing a few times but I have never spoken to him. Bet everyone behind him was ticked off that he was messing up the tracks with his skating on them!
Don’t really have that much of an idea on this, so going with sentiment and picking a Canuck.
VSP PICKS:
1. hughes, clara
2. arndt, judith
3. cooke, nicole
4. vos, marianne
5. neben, amber
VSP PICKS:
1. Shelley Olds
2. Kristin Armstrong
3. Marianne Vos
4. Clara Hughes
5. Judith Arndt
@frank
Koch, Johnson…like ‘mercans follow sports we don’t own. I got the bill Part right.
@eightzero
The guy who ran the outdoor store where the VMH and I met (while working there) had the last name of “Johnson”. His first name was “Rod”. Do you think his dad hated him?
VSP PICKS:
1. Teutenberg
2. Bronzini
3. Vos
4. Olds
5. Armistead
VSP PICKS:
1. Bronzini
2. Vos
3. Olds
4. Arndt
5. Cooke