Velominati Super Prestige: Fléche Wallonne Femmes 2012

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• Interesting WSJ article from 2009 about Evelyn Stevens. Not sure how much $$$ she could have racked up in a couple years on Wall Street, or why that would really be important, but it appears to me that she has applied a solid work ethic to her cycling efforts and it has paid off for her. In my opinion, that is what is important.

  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204908604574334741597350028.html

• @Fausto

  Bah. Didn't notice my iPhone had autocorrected Vos to Via. Had her down for the win though, so it only cost me a point.

  Damn, Man, you're pulling down the Launterne Rouge on this race, that's cooler than one point, right? (and bloody i-Product's "autocorrect" function has screwed me up sooo many times. Is there anyway to turn that crap off?)

• @niksch

  Interesting WSJ article from 2009 about Evelyn Stevens. Not sure how much $$$ she could have racked up in a couple years on Wall Street, or why that would really be important, but it appears to me that she has applied a solid work ethic to her cycling efforts and it has paid off for her. In my opinion, that is what is important. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204908604574334741597350028.html

  Yeah, but can't you all just picture her covered in Irish crapmud hauling paving stones with her bare, grimey hands at 4 in the morning and seeing Kelly ride by in the cold rain and her having an epiphony and saying to herself, "I neeeeeed to get a bike." Now THAT is how real hardmen/women are forged!

• @frank

  @eightzero
  I think its easy to glorify the luxury of financial stability - in a lot of ways I think its HARDER to be dedicated to the sport when money doesn't play a role (besides, I'm not sure she was the kind of high-level banker that money is no object). What reason does she have to go out in the pouring rain to train and to do hill repeats?

  
  

  If you accept the premise that she doesn't need the money, then the only thing driving her is her passion for the sport. I think that's cool as fuck. I like her, and I like her story.

  
  

  I like that she got into the sport late and found a calling - and committed to it full stop. It gives me hope that we still have a chance to get good some day.

  It's just my opinion. I think it is easier to have a passion for sport when there isn't anything distracting you. Like how am I going to pay the mortgage, feed my kids, make my student loan payments, pay for a new bike, etc etc. Nothing more frustrating to me to see peopple that don't compete on a level playing field. You do hill repeats and intervals all day becuase you don't have anything else to do. Easy choice to make, although those hill repeats are just as hard.

  I freely admit that my "facts" are drawn from a short magazine article (_Bicycling_ I think) from a few years ago. "Wall Street Exec Turns Pro" or something like that. Turned me off. Yeah, can she beat the crap out of me? Sure. Would I like to be like her? Sure. Do I respect her hard work? Sure. Doesn't mean I don't like seeing someone who does that *and has to work for a living* beat her in a race. *That's* cool as fuck.

  OK - so... Willow Kobler: Discuss.

• @Buck Rogers

  @niksch

  Interesting WSJ article from 2009 about Evelyn Stevens. Not sure how much $$$ she could have racked up in a couple years on Wall Street, or why that would really be important, but it appears to me that she has applied a solid work ethic to her cycling efforts and it has paid off for her. In my opinion, that is what is important. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204908604574334741597350028.html

  Yeah, but can't you all just picture her covered in Irish crapmud hauling paving stones with her bare, grimey hands at 4 in the morning and seeing Kelly ride by in the cold rain and her having an epiphony and saying to herself, "I neeeeeed to get a bike." Now THAT is how real hardmen/women are forged!

  Funny story; Willie Nelson was working in a ditch somewhere in the Georgia summer's heat, and a guy drove by in his air-conditioned Caddilac. He said to himself, "I'm going about this the wrong way" and get to work becoming an international music star.

• @frank
  Oh wow, I... I don't know what to say! Thanks!

• @frank
  \\ Agree. There's no buying a way into sport and assuming that exceptional performance begins. I train and race with a mixed bag and money does not roll out with us -- only work. The group(s) member(s) that I train with are measured by work alone. And I would give esteem when it is due -- by work alone.
  @eightzero
  Being on the bike and individual determination levels the playing field.

• @eightzero

  It's just my opinion. I think it is easier to have a passion for sport when there isn't anything distracting you. Like how am I going to pay the mortgage, feed my kids, make my student loan payments, pay for a new bike, etc etc. Nothing more frustrating to me to see peopple that don't compete on a level playing field. You do hill repeats and intervals all day becuase you don't have anything else to do. Easy choice to make, although those hill repeats are just as hard.

  But how many riders on elite teams, men or women, really have these concerns/distractions? They are getting paid to train and race, right? I know there are compensation disparities between men and women, but at this level how many of them actually have to buy their own bike to race?

• @Vin'cenza

  @frank
  \\ Agree. There's no buying a way into sport and assuming that exceptional performance begins. I train and race with a mixed bag and money does not roll out with us "” only work. The group(s) member(s) that I train with are measured by work alone. And I would give esteem when it is due "” by work alone.
  @eightzero
  Being on the bike and individual determination levels the playing field.

  Respectfully disagree. The athlete freed from all the mundane everyday distractions will find it easier to get on the bike and find more determination. Exceptions? Sure. But when it comes to competition, wining and losing, *money talks*. Professional Sport is *all about money*. I choose to root for the underdog, the common (wo)man, the person that overcomes the same kinds of things I never could.

  My coach's coach one said something that always stuck with me: "it isn't what you are willing to do to achive success - it is what you are willing to give up to assure success." Sacrifice, suffereing, perserverence - all these things, even off the bike, off the playing field, are important. I want to see amateur athletes succeed - those who sacrifice *everything* for their passion. I will root for them over those who have fewer obsticles.

• @Vin'cenza

  Being on the bike and individual determination levels the playing field.

  Exactly. I completely agree.