Velominati Super Prestige: Gent-Wevelgem 2013
Gent (Deinze)-Wevelgem, it starts with 130 km of cruising around Belgium and Northern France followed by a flurry of bergs and then a final 38 km of flatter riding to the inevitable sprint finish. How hard can the climbing be if Super Mario got over them? Ask the riders from KT 2012, (the ones not in the following car) and they will tell you the Kemmelberg, for one, is a steep beast of a climb. It does not go up too far but it goes. And all these bergs seem to have some climbing just to get to the named climb, so yes, one can be gassed real fast in this area. Luckily there is the chance of catching back on each descent too, something sprinters like Cipo must have been good at.
This is one of the final tune up races for Ronde van Vlaanderen. The Velominati banner shall be flying in Flanders in a week from this Sunday’s race. Whomever is fit and fast into Wevelgem shall be on the short list for the Ronde.
Here is a provisional start list and here is the race profile. The start list shall be updated by Saturday so double check your picks before start time. No whining, no delgados.
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What about acting like you’ve been there before?
@Sauterelle
Good point. The Dude is unstoppable.
I also think that he is just a guy who LOVES riding his bike and is loving life right now. I can get behind that.
Cannot wait to see if he can pull off a Monument this year.
So doing a wheelie is douchie but having time to pick up a flag and wave it isn’t? Or behaving like Christ on the cross, yes marco was a dude but there’s nothing worse than Italian showboating! Yes you have won, now moveover and lets see the bunch sprint for second! ;)
@frank
Not douchy. He rode them off his wheel with panache, then a simple victory salute and then a wheelie AFTER THE LINE.
@the-farmer
Who the fuck is the Christ fellow? Pantani was doing a Pantani.
@brett
Actually, if you look closely, he came to a nearly full stop just short of the line and then wheelied over it. I’m not sure how I feel about it as a one time thing, but I do hope it doesn’t become a trend like Nascar drivers doing donuts.
Delga’doh-ed. i put the wheelie down to youthful exuberance, his panache still not old enough to shave.
what I appreciated was his launching his attack just as the guy in front (Flecha?) flicked his elbow to get him to pull through. Maybe that’s old school but I hadn’t seen it before.
May as well have Delgado’d after backing the sprinters in & getting a fucking donut…
@brett
I think he was the guy who tried to capitalize on the popularity of the movie “Life of Brian.”
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=asUyK6JWt9U
The wheel is worlds better than a contrived Pistolero fingerbang.
Sagan’s antics inspired me to practice my wheelies though… Could be useful?
@Mirko
I agree, it always seems like the EPO/transfusion guys are never too emotional when they cross the line, ‘cos deep down they know they are cheating scumbags. I particularly liked Talansky’s win in Paris-Nice…he was fucking stoked and it was plain to see. Sagan’s wheelie was just a crap wheelie.
@frank
The picture of Il Pirata is Zen like – Sagan doesn’t do Zen.
He does do cake though.
What’s the proper hood position for doing a wheelie across the finish line in your first Spring Classic Victory?
Fuck this. All those other people weren’t doing wheelies because they can’t do them. I’d do them endlessly if I was coordinated enough. Freddy Maertens would have done them if he knew how.
Wheeliegate, I’m for it.
@Gianni
Fuck Yeah! The voice of reason! Love it!
@San Tonio
Ha! Chapeau!
wheelie-gate schmeelie gate. the guy is having fun.
@Mirko
i think it is the new Synapse HM:
http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/03/bikes-and-tech/spotted-unreleased-cannondale-synapse-hm_276824
@Gianni
Hell yeah. I’ve tried and haven’t managed to do one yet. I say MOAR WHEELIES!
@brett
Don’t you mean Christ does a Pantani every Easter?
@Bianchi Denti
I’m pretty sure Pontius Pilate rode a triple.
@Daccordi Rider
First the running man, now the mono. Note to Sagan: leave Robbie’s salutes ALONE!
@xyxax
aha, had a suspicion it might be a Synapse given that’s what they usually ride in the classics but the website models didn’t have the sloped tube. Mystery solved.
@harminator
Maybe that’s it, just a long running homage to Robbie?
Sagan needs to work on his salutes or come out and pay due respect to Robbie. Next race he’s going to crash 20k from the finish, get back on, weave his way through and take the win…yeah!
…and excellent to read Heinrich laying down some first class Australian-style reflections post race.
@HeinrichHauslersHairstyle
You forgot sitting on someone’s brake lever and headbutting Stuey.
@torrefie that picture of Coppi is so cool. He just oozed Italian suave!
He also needs to work out how to race anonymously until 20m before the finish line, throw off the cloak of invisibility and the pop a mono whilst beating the worlds best. No easy task.
Heinrich gives the Peloton a shake down as HHHS suggested. He’s back in my good books.
“Yeah, I’m fucking mad,” he toldCyclingnews. “I used so much energy just to get back to the front group… Fucking hell, it was a hard race. Especially, the whole time I was just by myself.
“The bloody wankers just sit on and go: ‘no, no, we’ve got a guy at the back and all this bullshit.'”
Haussler was part of a 13-man move that came together in the final 50km, race winner Peter Sagan, his teammate Maciej Bodnar, two Astana riders Borut Bozic and Assan Bazayev, and eight other singletons.
Asked at whom he was aiming his criticism, Haussler would only say: “Half the guys at the front. Bloody wankers. But that’s just racing, that’s what it is.”
@Daccordi Rider
Methinks he’s just a little out of practice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItBV9CVJEoo
@xyxax The geek in me says thank you!
Maybe the wheelie isn’t super classy, but it’s a lot less douchy than the Flecha archer salute or the stupid Contador pistol thing.
OTOH the wheelie would be cool if he had a broken spoke or a flat tire or something that meant he couldn’t use his front wheel.
@Buck Rogers
He looks ok
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFODCmPmIac
@San Tonio
Anyone who still has the umph to pull a wheelie at the line, still has more to give. This is an ominous sign. Whilst most of the peloton are bemoaning the weather so far this season we have seen him tucking in to a bacon buttie in the team wagon with a smile on his face and pulling wheelies on the line after an awesome ride in sub zero temperatures…..do we now have an equivalent of the Voss Boss after all last weeks fail was a tactical error, not a lack of fuel in the Engine!
@torrefie
Awesome photo! Coppi personifies cool. Look at the expression on the cop’s face. Fausto could have just robbed a bank and be walking away with a holdall full of cash and that copper would just stand there slack-jawed in awe and call a taxi for him.
@Mirko
Great video. Hopefully his knee is not swollen too badly today. It is going to be very hard for him to win this Spring, I think.
@Daccordi Rider
Man, that’s awesome! Love it! We need this kind of passion in cycling. Not clones and drones who just ride by the book.
@Buck Rogers
@Buck Rogers
He needs to win either the Ronde or Paris Roubaix to become the greatest of all time, and I so hope he’ll make it, just to make de Vlaeminck shut up (ok ok, probably nothing will ever make RdV shut up).
I have my money on Tomeke for Paris-Roubaix. I suppose you recall what superpowers a knee injury released in Museeuw?
@Mirko
I never saw Robbie do this… Sagan – Unreal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O7um296IaA
@Mirko
Ohhhhhh, now that is a discussion worthy of a few pints. Is Tomeke the greatest Spring Classic rider? Definitely the greatest still riding. Makes me wonder about all time. With his 4 PR wins and two other podiums, 3 RVV wins and one other podium, 2 MSR podiums, 3 Gent-Wevelgem wins, 5 E3 wins, 2 Scheldeprijs wins, 2 K-B-K wins, two podiums in Het Volk, the only rider to have actually won PR 4 times and RVV 3 times and being the only rider to win both in the same season two times there is an arguement for it. Just wish that he had won MSR a few times. Merckx still has to be Hands-down the greatest Spring rider with his 7 MSR wins, 3 PR wins and RVV 2 times but as for greatest Spring cobbles rider? There could be an arguement for Tomeke there.
@VirenqueForever
Look Ma! No hands! The guy is a bike handling God. He started in CX didn’t he?
@Mirko
Don’t say anything bad about RDV here, you’ll be shunned! He can spout off all he wants about Boonen and Sven Nys and he’s still a saint. But don’t pop a wheelie or you’re a douche!! Bleh.
@Buck Rogers
Some still argue for Van Looy, the only one to ever win all the Spring classics, but the multitude of victories clearly speaks for Boonen, imho. Go Tomeke!
@Sauterelle
As for RDV, there’s an interesting article in the latest German issue of ProCycling in which they raise the question if he is really such a knobhead (I’m paraphrasing) or just playing the bad guy. Given the utter chaos he is causing whenever he is not on a bike (worst team manager ever, more fucked-up marriages than the entire audience of the Academy awards), I’d go for knobhead. However he remains cycling legend, the big V in de Vlaeminck ain’t there for nothing (I guess I’m not the first one to notice).
@VirenqueForever
Yep, quite something. The kind of thing that wakes you up after trying to watch an interview with Andy Schleck.
@Mirko
NICE! Sure you’re not Oli in disguise (man, I miss Oli. Where the hell is that guy?) I know that Tomeke has never won MSR or Het Volk but which Spring Classic did the great Merckx not win? I thought that the only thing that the Cannibal never won was Paris-Tour and that’s in the fall.
@Buck Rogers
Yes, I’m sure I’m not Oli in disguise. You’re of course right, Paris-Tours is and always was in autumn, however that’s the one I meant, van Looy won it twice, Merckx never.
@Mirko Good stuff! I remeber reading something about Merckx gifting Paris-Tour to a teammate in the early part of his career b/c he figured that he’d win it later on and then he never did.
But, all that being said, Go Tomeke!!! He has a rough road (pun intended) ahead of him this year but I hope that he pulls off either RVV or PR!!!
@Buck Rogers
Me too. There’s a similar story about Didi Thurau, who gave away the world championships- because his new sponsors thought their name was too small on the rainbow jersey (which I’m sure they called rainbow jumper). 1977 I think it was.
@eenies Hahahhaha slagging off his Wheelie? He just won the GW in a solo 4k.. what gives others the right to critisize??? was great to see such a celebration..