Velominati Super Prestige: Liege-Bastogne-Liege

The inaugural Velominati Super Prestige continues with its last installment of the Spring Classics, Liége-Bastogne-Liége, on Sunday, April 25.   This will be the fourth race in the season-long series and with the unpredictability of the Ardennes classics continuing as it has, the competition is doing nothing to open up but is instead closer now than ever.

Thankfully, the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull has mellowed out and travel seems to be opening up across Europe, so we are not expecting a lot of uncertainly about the start list at this stage – especially since most riders who have Liege on their race program have already managed make the journey to Belgium.

Of all the classics, La Doyenne is the most likely to yield a successful breakaway, which lends even more excitement to the possible race predictions.  Rob continues to hold the lead which he took at Roubaix; but much like Contador’s performance on the Mur de Huy corroborated the notion that perhaps he’s off the sauce, Rob’s lackluster performance at La Fleche eases our minds that  he isn’t working within any illegal sooth-saying rings.

This winner of this Super Prestige edition will again earn an “Obey the Rules” bumper sticker  and all reader’s points qualify towards the final prize of the free Velominati Shop Apron.  As always, if you are inclined to enter, simply post your predictions for the top five placings in the comment section.  Check back here or on the Super-Prestige main page for updated rules as we will be introducing a bonus-point program for this edition.

Good luck.

Rules and results are posted Velominati Super Prestige page.

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.

View Comments

  • @Jarvis
    Yeah, that was awful. Vino is awful though he won it fair and square. Never heard from Horner or Ryder at the front. Hmmmmmm...should be an interesting tally from Frank as no one picked the winner, again.

  • @john
    Veino, Piti bookending the podium. The UCI might as well give up on dope controls or trying to enforce any kind of punishment based on the results. Anyone else notice how close all the races are and how the attacks just keep coming and coming? Seems the boys might be on a new jet fuel.

  • Nathan Edwards :@GeofDoes that mean your world has ended?

    Geof doesn't live here anymore. He ran, screaming, from the house, saying something about only watching "real" sports like WWF from now on. He also said "Fuck" quite a lot.

  • Fucking AWESOME! Veino, legend! He's done his time, let him be. He's an awesome rider who lights it up.

    EVERYONE is doped, don't go on about it. F Schleck paid 5000 Euros to Fuentes, so you can't hold him up as a good guy. Millar, did his time, and some of you hold him up as a good guy too. What about Zabel, Boonen? They get your support too...

    It's naive to think that there are only some riders who are the bad guys.

  • @brett
    I disagree. Everyone might have been doped in the late 1990s, earlier in this decade but I don't think that is the case now. But Veino strikes me as a man who never admitted his doping and could well be doping now, I don't trust him. Millar I trust for the same reasons; he publicly admitted it, did his time(a full 2 years) and has been vocal and thoughtful about the anti-doping cause.

    Am I a fool to think this? Possibly. I defended f'ing Hamilton for much too long. But I'm an ex-chemist(of sorts) and I think it's impossible for everyone to be fooling the doping controls that successfully.

Share
Published by
frank

Recent Posts

Anatomy of a Photo: Sock & Shoe Game

I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…

7 years ago

Velominati Super Prestige: Men’s World Championship Road Race 2017

Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…

7 years ago

Velominati Super Prestige: Women’s World Championship Road Race 2017

The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…

7 years ago

Velominati Super Prestige: Vuelta a España 2017

Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…

7 years ago

Velominati Super Prestige: Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian 2017

This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…

7 years ago

Route Finding

I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…

7 years ago