Velominati Super Prestige: Gent-Wevelgem

Riders hoof it up the Kemmelberg

Rain. Cobbles. Bergs. Professional cyclists reduced to mortals who clammer up steep, slick cobbled grades on shoes not made for walking. Gent-Wevelgem is the teaser for the month of April, when the hardmen come to play on the stones of Belgium and Northern France. Personally, I liked it better when it was sandwiched between the two greatest one-day races of the year, De Ronde and Roubaix. On the other hand, Gent has been the Classic’s bridesmaid for long enough and deserves its own weekend, even if that still makes it a warm-up race to be won by someone who’s not enough weeks away from peaking.

The Flemish word for “hill” is “berg”, and to ask any cyclist who doesn’t live there, they’ll tell you Flanders is rife with them. The truth is that most of Flanders is quite flat, save for a ridge which calls itself home to some of the most fearsome cobbled climbs in the world. Among these is de Kemmelberg, which features as the primary obstacle for Gent Wevelgem. Steep and cobbled, on a dry day it serves as the decisive climb on the finishing circuit of three laps; on a rainy day it will reap havoc on the field.

With that, we kick off the second edition of the 2011 Velominati Super Prestige for Gent-Wevelgem. Like La Primavera, Gent is enough of a wild-card that this is a tough race to call. It rarely ends in a bunch gallop, but it’s not difficult enough to eliminate sprinters from the finale. The riders targeting Flanders or Roubaix will not quite be peaking yet, but the race isn’t so difficult that a rider two weeks from peaking can’t win. Our advice? Go with the gut, and try to pick people who are actually starting.

The winner of this VSP edition will earn an “Obey the Rules” bumper sticker and all reader’s points qualify towards the final prize of the free personalized Velominati Shop Apron. This year we’ve enhanced the entry mechanism; if you are inclined to enter, simply post your predictions for the top five placings in the designated area above the posts section, bearing in mind that entry/modification of picks closes at 5am Pacific time on the day of the race. Check the Super-Prestige main page for rules and scoring information.

Good luck.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

Next Irreverence: Starting with Rules 48 and 49 »

Previous « Anatomy of a Photo: The Bowels of Spectating

View Comments

Nate says:

Mar 27 2011 at 1:12 pm

@xyxax
Congrats! Being a dad is a blast.

My 4 year old is ready to take his V-apprenticeship to the next level: He just learned how to ride a pedal bike.
Marcus says:

Mar 27 2011 at 1:30 pm

Boonen and Cance confirm their form along with a few other heavy hitters. Bring on the Ronde!
Gianni says:

Mar 27 2011 at 3:06 pm

@frank
Oh ye of little faith, no Tomeke anywhere in the top five? Where is the love?
Steampunk says:

Mar 27 2011 at 3:11 pm

@xyxax
Congratulations! And welcome to the little one.

@Frank: given this community's propensity for breeding and blimping, I suspect a line of velomitoddler wear is in order. With no other option in Cuba, I pasted a bunch of masking tape to my little one's tummy so that she could sport a V-cog"”the tan is starting to fade. Little Ts and baby grows would sell like hot cakes (which are, incidentally, the main reason we blimp after we breed).
punish the pedals says:

Mar 27 2011 at 3:31 pm

Brett:

punish the pedals:
@Scuba Steve
C'mon you would be foolish to not have atleast 1 aussie in your selections! Is there nothing we cant win at the moment?

The cricket.
Might be a sign, the Kiwis could be fired up. And if you thought my Aussie Top 5 for M-SR was ridiculous, well... Rouly goes solo, Hendo picks up the gallop from the remnants.

Touche!
ZachOlson says:

Mar 27 2011 at 4:32 pm

Saw this anecdote on the CyclingTips write-up and thought I should share:

I was having dinner with a mate of mine named Nick Mitchell a couple weeks ago and he was telling me an interesting story about Boonen in 2009. For the past few seasons Nick has racing in Belgium. Just before the World Championships Boonen was putting the final touches on his preparation and rocked up to the same kermesse as Nick. Boonen was incessantly attacking the peloton and finally a move stuck where Nick was able to follow. As they settled into a 50km/hr pace Boonen flicked his elbow signalling Nick to pull a turn. Nick was able to roll through for a couple of token turns, but that was all (and I know how strong Nick is!). After they got swept back into the bunch Boonen attacked again and managed to stay away with a small bunch for most of the race. Close to the end they got brought back by the peloton but Boonen still won the bunch kick after being in breakaways for almost the full 160km.

After the race Nick found out that Bonnen had also done 60km of motorpacing earlier that day, and motorpaced another 60km home. 280km for the day - HARD. That's how hard these top level guys work when they're preparing for the big races.
minion says:

Mar 27 2011 at 4:45 pm

Entry for Dictionari Velominari:

Schadenfreude: noun That unique pleasure found in the fact that Mark Cavendish has crashed more than he's won this season. And that Mark's newfound ability to scrub the tarmac coincides with the reunion of Tom Boonen and Gert Steegmans into a well performing sprint train consisting of 2 men. See also: Schadendouche or Cavenfreude.
G'phant says:

Mar 27 2011 at 5:43 pm

minion : See also: Schadendouche or Cavenfreude.

Actually I feel bad for the guy. But these terms are genius. Well played.
Hawkeye says:

Mar 27 2011 at 5:51 pm

Points! Happy days.

Good that Tomeke's in form - Cankles is looking ridiculously dominant.
frank says:

Mar 27 2011 at 6:35 pm

@Gianni

Oh ye of little faith, no Tomeke anywhere in the top five? Where is the love?

I'm sick with guilt. The problem there is that I happened to just read an interview with him where he said he doesn't give a shit about this race anymore. All I got was T-Bone for a point and I called Greipel for 4th, which is almost the same as not getting any points.