The 2011 Anti-V Moment of the Year: Paris Roubaix
While the The V Moment of the Year is the moment during the season when the sport demonstrated the most pure example of spirit of The V, the Anti-V Moment of the Year similarly acknowledges the moment in which all those things that make The V great were ignored. This is more than just cheating or climbing into the broom wagon; this is reserved for under-handed tactics, or wheel-sucking to the win, complaining about dangerous descents, canceling races for bad weather.
The Anti-V is a virus. It starts small, as a nagging doubt perhaps about form or willingness to suffer that day. It replicates and feeds on itself; giving in to doubt is easier when you’ve done it before, and the more you do it, the easier it gets. It manifests itself in an absence of those things we love most about cycling: a combination of guts, class, and panache.
Before I go any further, I’d like to point out that we had even more trouble deciding on the Anti-V moment than we did the V Moment. Bretto made the case for les Fréres Grimpeur, but couldn’t dial in on a specific incident of Anti-V and kept repeating, “Every time they looked around, or when they mounted their TT bikes!” We did the only thing we could do, and had CERN crunch the data for us. They confirmed the Schlecks spent the equivalent of three full weeks rubbernecking and nearly a quarter as much working on their time trialing – too much to mathematically isolate a single moment. Sometimes the best decision in the midst of indecision is simply to make one, and that’s exactly what I did.
At the very instant when Johan Van Summeren was doing a reverse 270 cannon ball into the deep end of the V-Pool to bring us the V Moment of 2011, Jonathan Vaughters was clutching his shoulders as he gingerly waded into the kiddie pool – dragging a handful of race favorites with him.
The race was shaping up beautifully for Garmin-Cervélo. Van Summeren had read the race and left the favorites at the Trouée to join teammate Gabriel Rasch up the road in the day’s breakaway. The plan was to keep Johan in reserve at the front while the Garmin team worked to bring the break back, giving Thor Hushovd an armchair ride to the finish with the considerable advantage of having teammates in the finale. A beautiful plan, and I love it when a plan comes together.
But Garmin’s firepower wasn’t quite enough to bridge up in time, and Faboo wasn’t thrilled about the prospect of riding into Roubaix with Thor getting a leadout from three teammates. In typical style, he took the race into his own hands and left the others to their own devices. Hushovd, Flecha, and Ballan came along for the ride and the four made huge inroads on the gap with Cancellara doing the bulk of the work.
And here the sticky tentacles of the Anti-V set in. Faboo started doubting whether he should really be hauling such a fast finisher as Hushovd up to his teammates and sat up when the gap had gone down to within arm’s reach.
At this point, Garmin’s plan wasn’t as solid as it had been a few dozen kilometers before:
- The plan hinged on domestique Vanmarcke doing the work to bridge up to the breakaway, putting four Garmin riders at the front
- Vanmarcke wasn’t closing the gap quickly enough, and was dropped by Cancellara’s acceleration
- Cancellara was getting the job done, but was unwilling to do the last bit of work to close the break down completely
The plan was in need of some quick-thinking to maintain the upper hand, and everyone knows driving while strategizing is dangerous. So, for safety reasons, Vaughters called in Garmin’s pocket Timid Tactician: His Turtleneck Sweater. New plan:
- Double-dip by telling Fabian that Thor can’t work because he has a teammate up the road, despite the fact that his team had been doing the chasing in the first place
- Tell Fabian to wait for the slow guy behind who couldn’t keep up and wasn’t bridging quickly enough, so he can take over for Fabian, saving Thor
- Instruct Thor to sit back and refuse pulls
Cancellara, Hushovd and Vaughters all had their hand in making this the Anit-V Moment of the year, but Vaughters takes the bulk of the blame not only because his was inflexible and unimaginative thinking, but because he was playing both sides: the rider up front can’t work if he’s got a rider coming up, or the rider coming up can’t work because he’s got a rider up front. Pick one.
But worst of all, there is nothing more Anti-V than two riders within a chance of winning riding along gesturing to each other as they both refuse to take a pull for fear of dragging the other to the win. Certainly, a rider must be sure not to do too much work and place themselves at a disadvantage, but this should never come at the risk of losing the opportunity to win the race in the first place; I’m sure we can all agree it is much more in the spirit of the V to fight and get beaten into second place than to never fight at all and throw your chance away. In this, Cancellara and Hushovd each had a hand in the pie, but Vaughters and his Sweater were were the masterminds behind the stalemate.
We truly love what Vaughters is trying to do with Garmin by making it their mission to race clean, but racing clean is no excuse for uncorking an entire case of Vintage 2011 Anti-V. Vaughters races his team like they are weak with nary a chance to win, when in fact they are one of the strongest teams in the sport. It is time to wrap the bars in white tape, set aside the underdog tactics, and start racing like leaders. And by all means, fire the Sweater.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cEV1l9i1ec[/youtube]
Perfect choice. I would love to hear the convo @ 4.50 Vaughters has always been an isufferable pillock IMO. I wish I could find the clip, I think from Flanders, where he tells all his riders to sit up and do no more work stating that “if it’s a race for third then it’s a race for third”.
ps I don’t know if anyone missed me(sob)but I was away skiing on very thin man made snow in Utah.
Thank you, Frank. However, I am vexed. While I love all things Cervelo (except for the atrocity called the S5), Thor, Heinrich, Klier, etc. I hate that they have anything to do with Vaughters. When he sent his riders to the front of stage 14 of the ’09 Tour for no reason other than spite – “Your sprinter ALWAYS crushes our sprinter so here’s some payback” – to rob Big George of a yellow jersey he sealed his fate as far as I’m concerned as the biggest douche nozzle in American cycling history. I think you should go one further and give him the “Lifetime Anti-V Award”.
@Cyclops
Amen Cyclops.
@paolo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCioCrbenWM&feature=related
this is the clip you are looking for… @2:33
paolo, you were missed! Is Utah snowless this year? It’s been so warm here in NC I haven’t even needed more than bibs + knee warmers.
Wow, I’m going to have to take awhile to get over that lead photo before I’m even able to read the write-up. It’s shockingly bad.
Since when did throwing as many patterns, fabrics, weaves, colors and layers on become the pinnacle of fashion? Plaid & argyle AND that heavily textured jacket? Highly offensive. Simple is classy. (and who the hell can wear all of that inside? An Oxford shirt and tie makes me hot. On cold days, maybe a sweater vest. A jacket over all of that makes me sweat just looking at it.)
On another note, turning towards 2012, I was just checking PRO team rosters. I know I’m late to the party, but NissanTrekBlah is insane. Garmin has both T-Bone and Haussler? There are a few loaded teams, then other teams with hardly one or two strong contenders. I’m not feeling that excited about how this will unfold. It seems all sports are moving towards the consolidation of winning potential with just a few clubs. Not good.
@JC Belgium
Yes thank you. What a douche that man is.
I’m a little torn about including Spartacus in this but you might be right. Other than that it’s spot on.
@Ron
Everywhere is snowless ( well snow short anyways) at least until recently. Utah Colorado and California are all struggling really bad. I have a ski clinic with Picabo Street at Squaw in Feb and it’s in danger of being cancelled if we don’t get some serious white stuff..ah well…least I can ride my bike which is what I am going to do right now!
seems unfair to sully a collection of wines like that with such negative energy. just sayin.
Agreed. I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again. Get rid of radios, shit like this would be so much rarer.
yep, pretty much the stand out moment of the year – V abounding in 2011, but not on that day apart from JVS
Glad you brought up the subject of doubt and its cancerous quality
I shall administer myself some chemoVerapy, as yesterday, as I turned myself inside out up our usual group ride climb, I really thought I had lost it – mostly lacking in McVities I think, but suffered like a dog but made no inroads, la Volupte was on her January Hols
I shall Vturn….
@gaswepass
Agreed. I’ve been trying to read the labels while listening to the announcers over the speakers commenting on the complete lack of V.
And like scaler911, I’d love to see radios go away.
Generally I like JV and Garmin and the team’s philosophy. However, JV does have a penchant for pompous, pretentious shit like this photo. Rumor has it he’s reading Machiavelli’s The Prince so he can pass on some advice to Thor. . .
@Cyclops
Lifetime Anti-V, love it. He does seem to suffer from it chronically. Have you seen Blood Sweat and Gears? I actually liked him before that, but the scene where he’s too scared to make a call on the TDF team, puts it to a vote, and then blames the group when he tells Farrar he didn’t make the team was so spineless, I makes my skin crawl.
@Cyclops, @CanuckChuck
As a sidenote – and I’ve mentioned this here somewhere before – but Big George was also in massive Anti-V violation that day…he was just sitting on, rather than taking pulls and making the best time to the line. He could have done more and still taken the jersey, rather than depend on other teams not to work and case him down.
@JC Belgium
Yech. My Goodness, My Merckx.
@Ron
Have you seen crazy stupid love? Steve Carrel is wearing just that and says to a woman, “I’m sweat from here down” and gestures to his armpits.
@RedRanger
Yeah, well…that’s the tough part, Anti-V is universal. You can’t just pick the riders you hate or choose the riders the love for the V Moment. Besides, its just a moment; we’re not giving lifetime achievement awards…at least not yet (@Cyclops)
@paolo
Dumping buckets up in the Cascades now. LEGENDARY. Hopefully it will spread down to you guys soon…
@Bill
Amen. There is no denying that the photo was selected in part because it would be impossible to argue with my points after loading up a mag of bias into the chamber.
Looks like they are all Chateauneuf du Pape’s, with the exception of the bottle that has been opened, which could be a bordeaux, but impossible to say for sure.
The Chateaufeufs are my favorite Rhone, and a quick rummage through the cellar reveals that I do in fact stil have an ’03 of the Pegau which is the bottle second from the left.
As far as I know, you can’t buy those outside the caveau in town.
@frank
That may be the case but it still does not negate the fact that there was ABSOLUTELY NO REASON for Garmin to be at the front driving the pace and they were doing it on orders from the top. So let’s see – I suck as a team tactician, I’m a trendy glasses/sweater wearing tosser, my team gets its assed kicked by HTC-Columbia on a regular basis so I’ll rob a fellow ‘Mericun and the nicest guy in the world of a Yellow Jersey. I think that far outweighs any transient transgressions of the Canons of V by a proven hard man.
@wiscot
Seems the whole culture of the team is centered around letting others do the work. Whitey took the same approach when he was DS.
Of course, you want to be clever and be careful not to do too much work, but do your time in the wind. And, when you start saying “we’ll just race for third”…well…that’s just pure Anti-V. There is nothing but racing to win. End of.
@Cyclops
Wasn’t Hushovd in green, or close to it? Didn’t he need the points? Can’t remember for sure.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m in the same camp when it comes to both individuals. My point is just that Hinckie would have spent less time looking to others and more time on the front, he’d have probably taken the jersey anyway. It is a race, after all.
Bollocks! Someone has drunk so deep from the Schleck coolaid that they are making up reasons not to name the real Anti-V moment of the year.
Really…Liege Bastogne Liege, two brothers Schleck and Gilbert are alone with a few kilometers left in the race. I’m giggling like a teenager at the unbelievable opportunity for the Bros, they are going to work Gilbert over and win this thing! Any second now, any second now, one will bolt and force Gilbert to chase while the other sits on his wheel, any second now, this will be beautiful. They at least have to try it a few times, they still have first and second losers all locked up.
But no, nothing. I know the argument is they were baked but it would be better to fall to the curb with both legs cramping than simply ride along to let Gilbert ride away to the finish line.
Vaughters is the director and his team won. I’d say he was the best director that Paris Roubaix. His job is not to make sure Thor won, his job is to make sure his team won. Why would he let Thor bring Faboo up? Fabian has ridden away from stronger riders than Thor.
@frank
Hushovd was in green but he only had to finish ahead of Cav who was in the same group as Thor.
I agree in principle but George is awesome and Vaughters is dick so I win the argument.
Also, I’ll defend Garmin’s tactics for denying George Hincapie’s yellow jersey opportunity too. Screw him, I like George but why should he be handed a jersey he didn’t earn? He could have ridden into it but was mad when another team denied him? Up to then HTC had nothing but great press and victories with Cav and Whitey didn’t need another huge HTC press jolt by having them in the yellow jersey too. I think he did the right thing personally. That’s his job, represent his sponsor and manage his team. Hand outs, what’s the point?
@Gianni
+1… The Schlecks personify Anti-V, and Leige demonstrated that perfectly. Plus every time they swivelled in Le Tour, or threw a leg over a TT bike, V was diluted to almost non-existant levels.
As far as I remember, Garmin won Roubaix. Gianni and I will have to administer a V-bath to Frank in April and cleanse his dirty Schleck love.
@frank
I hear ya. After watching the video I’m in agreement. It’s been a long while since I’ve seen any footage or thought about it.
@frank
The other two Burgundy bottles are Chateau Rayas and Chateau Fonsalette, which is owned by Rayas. Note the matching triangular small labels on the shoulders. Not sure if the Fonsalette is CdP or Cotes du Rhone or some other southern Rhone. I doubt the Bordeaux bottle is actually that as the black backlabel and purple foil are most un-Bordelais.
@Gianni, @brett
You guys are so full of shit! The Schlecks were the only two who ever took the fight to the race at all – either at Liege or Le Tour. For Liege, Gilbert was super strong and everyone rolled over. The Schlecks attacked from a long way out and just got bested in the end. At the Tour, they were the only ones attacking in the finals…and Fränk even took 30 seconds at Luz Ardiden and Andy two minutes at the Galibier…and went up the road again the next day. They were the only favorites to take time. Cuddles’ great riding notwithstanding. Name one other favorite in either race who tried anything…
@brett
Your desire to give me a bath is suspect to begin with, but you’ll have to catch me first in any case!
I’m so over the Schleckenheimers.
@Gianni
Actually, I’ve got to disagree with this. It wasn’t the team plan to have JVS up there at all. He made a call himself at Arenburg and bridged up. JV’s plan all along was to have Hushovd get to the front and he even insisted that JVS wait to attack until the Carrefore sector. The fact that Garmin won was dumb luck – and through the clever and great riding by JVS.
That JV’s Sweater takes credit for it now is just all the more evidence of his douchiness…
@Nate
Good eye. They’re not Chateauneuf du Pape because they don’t have the crest on the bottle, but the bottle’s shape suggests Rhone… And good call on the Bordeaux. No idea what that is, then.
And, incidentally, before someone gets wise, I’ve now exhausted my knowledge of wines…
@JC Belgium
Tweede…that sounds like a word I should know. It’s what the director says when his rider misses the biggest win of his career.
@frank
Probably regular Cotes du Rhone then as the likes of Gigondas and Vacqueyras also have crests and you should check out if you like CdP. For some reason the styling of the other bottle suggests Italy but that’s a total guess.
@brett
Fuck me. I’d pay good money to see that.
Great article, but for me, the A-VMOY was this: Basso et al letting Cuddles haul them up the Galibier, preferring to concede the Tour rather than try to limit AS’s gains on the day. Luckily Cuddles made up for it with his own 3-1/2 gainer into the aforementioned V-Pool.
This is’t just for argument’s sake, but, fucken what? The tactics that contributed to JVS winning get the anti V award? Maybe Vaughters thought Hushovd was a cuznor of the highest order, and got a kick out of JVS getting a chance down the road at Thor’s expense. Vaughters gambled and won on JVS, it seems to me like you can’t have your cake and eat it too. Granted his dress sense and sideburns might be different to normal, but in cycling that’s a weak criticism. (Lampre kit anyone?)
Good choice.
It strikes me as rather strange that the same race and team have conspired to win both the V and Anti-V moments of the year….
@Gianni
+1,000 – I said precisely this in the V award thread.
@frank
LBL – Gilbert did I think … (and he won the race)
Tour – COTHO tried, and oh, what other favourites were there again? Everyone knew Cuddles just had to keep the Brothers Grimpeur in sight until the TT and then steamroll them. It was up to them to take time, and they couldn’t do it, because they kept rubbernecking.
@Minion
Actually, he bet against JVS…that was the whole point. JVS won on his own merit, in spite of his DS doing his best to bugger the whole mess up…
@936adl
Awesomeness happening in the front seat while lameness is going on in the back…
@Mikel Pearce
Gilbert followed the Schlecks, and though COTHO Jr did attack on the way to l’Alpe, at that stage he was out of contention.
Cuddles did everything he should have and I’ll say this again – Cuddle deserved the win and rode a masterful Tour. In fact, my saying the Schlecks gave him a fight just bolsters the validity of his win. If we sit around and say everyone but Evans was a soggy cat, then what value was there in his win? His win is great because of the fight to take it, not because of the lack of one.
@Nate, @frank
The Chateau Rayas is a CdP and Chateau Fonsalette is a Cote du Rhone.
I’d agree that the purple topped bottle is unlikely to be Bordeaux, certainly not anything of note, I don’t ever recall a decent bottle of Bordeaux without a white label and a read seal.
@sgt
With nipple lube?
As an alternative, the UCI showing up before a TT to enforce the level saddle rule. Way to get into he heads of a bunch of riders before a TT while they’re in the gate waiting to start. Email ahead of the race could have fixed a lot of things no? @brett
While I agree with Bretto about Garmin, I agree with Fronk about the Schlecks. Remember the hate Cuddles got till he own the tour and world champs? If a Schleck wins the tour I guarantee there’ll be a few people whistling a different tune around here
Lifetime anti-V award? Easy. Pat McQuiad’s tenure with the UCI.
@frank
That’s a matter for interpretation. Garmin had 2 riders in play: they forced Cancellara’s hand and kept a rider up the road. If JV had run the race the way you think he should have, Thor should have worked, they should have chased down their own rider and ended up with a bunch finish featuring Cancellara? Who’s to say Spartacus wouldn’t ride them off his wheel from that bunch? THAT would have been not the Anti V moment of the year, but the dunce of the year by a team manager moment.
@frank
Yeah, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there are a few scented candles just out of camera shot. You just know JV is a scented candle kinda guy. Probably gets the skinny ones and jams then in his empty wine bottles for that “rustic” look.
Another thing that amazes me is that this is an official, approved Slipstream Sports image. They actually released this! For what reason? “Look how debonair and sophisticated our DS is in the off-season?”
@Minion
Did you read the article? Or any quotes from the team, including JV? Its not open for interpretation, and their own quotes from the race prove it. JV was trying to get Vanmarcke to bridge up – they’re already chasing their own teammate. JVS was up front telling this breakaway companions that he couldn’t work because his rider was coming up. Their entire plan revolved around getting Hushovd up to the break and have everyone outnumbered. JVS was on the radio telling JVS he couldn’t ride until the Carrefore.
There is very little left for interpretation.
@wiscot
That’s an excellent point! WTF?
Though, given my history with candleagate and that I have one of those bottles of wine…it is not casting me in the most favorable light…