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.

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frank says:

Mar 29 2011 at 12:09 pm

@minion

Yeah, schade is German slang for shame, as in 'oh, that's a shame', and the freude has the same root as friend, so there is some empathy or kind consideration to the word as I understand it in German. The pleasure in someone else's misfortune is still there, but it's a tricky one to translate for sure.

Actually, "freude" means pleasure, so it means, literally, pleasure in someone else's misfortune. The word you're thinking of having to do with friends has an "n" in there, as in Freunden (friends).

But who's counting.
frank says:

Mar 29 2011 at 12:12 pm

Scuba Steve :
Hate to be a pain FRANK,
I show up twice on the leader board (4th and 17th) I scored 5 in round 1 and 8 in round 2. I used the same user name (ScubaSteve) but may have had different log ins or email addresses when entering my yips. Can this be sorted?
Cheers

DAMN! There goes my jersey! :) (feel like I just got caught with some Spanish beef hanging out of my mouth!)

Sounds like Scuba Steve is the one who's been doing the email doping! Indeed, picks are based on email address, not screen name (anyone can enter the same screen name, but email addresses are unique)...I'll sort it for you here as soon as I can get to it.

Sorry Buck, you had a good run. I'll even post a screen shot for you so you can have it for posterity.
Cyclops says:

Mar 29 2011 at 1:50 pm

Funny story: I know this really smart guy, see. And one day I asked him "Hey Peter, what's that German word..." that's as far as I get when he says "Schadenfreude". I say "How did you know that that was the word I was talking about?" He says "Knowing you, that's the only German word you'd ever be concerned with."
Jeff in PetroMetro says:

Mar 29 2011 at 3:02 pm

I'm on the board! I got a (1) point!

Yes. I suck. But wait until we come to the mountains. Yeah. The mountains. I'm sure I'll shine there. I'm a grimpeur. I climb well for my weight, I think. You betcha.

Oh, who the fuck am I kidding?

Does anyone have a Spanish rancher's email address? Frank's not drug testing (that I know of), and I need a little help. Muchas gracias.
xyxax says:

Mar 29 2011 at 3:07 pm

@Cyclops
+1
Nate says:

Mar 29 2011 at 8:07 pm

@Jeff in PetroMetro
Been doing mucho hill repeats on the levees?
minion says:

Mar 29 2011 at 8:50 pm

@frank
Correct. Retract and slink into corner.
Jeff in PetroMetro says:

Mar 29 2011 at 9:26 pm

@Nate
I actually drove my truck an hour north of Houston to ride 110km of rolling "hills". It's pathetic that I have to drive 160km round-trip just to get a little elevation. To me, that defeats the purpose of riding a bike in the first place. I WANT to leave the automobile and ride my bike--not drive my bike somewhere so I can ride it.

As for my ability to achieve in the VSP, I'm so bad it's starting to bother me.
frank says:

Mar 30 2011 at 6:16 am

@all
The VSP Jury has ruled on our first adverse analytical finding for the use of performance enhancing email addresses. Buck Rogers has been stripped of his striped tunic and Scuba Steve has taken the lead. Because there was no evidence that Buck used performance-enhancing email addresses during the VSP Gent Wevelgem edition, he does retain his results and points.

[vsp_gc]

[/vsp_gc]
frank says:

Mar 30 2011 at 8:00 am

@Jeff in PetroMetro
Pantani was dead-last in the Prologue of the '98 Tour. Then he attacked on the Galibier and blew the race open. The season is long; lots of opportunity to stop sucking so much.