Velominati Super Prestige: Men’s Elite Road Race 2013

Gobbles goes clear on the Cauberg in 2012

The world championship road race stands out among all other one-day races as the one where the winner is awarded both a curse and a jersey to carry for the next 12 months. It also inspires way too many riders to wear white bibs, which is an alarming trend in itself and one which I hope Brian Cookston, the new UCI President, prioritizes over the doping problem – let’s face facts: white shorts on rainy days does more damage to Cycling’s image than any doping scandal ever could.

Be that as it may, I often find myself wondering if its easier to win a Grand Tour or a one-day race. Certainly, winning a Grand Tour requires focus, discipline, and performance across a wide range of terrain and over a long period of time, but it also offers the opportunity to recover from a bad moment and to take advantage of the days where the terrain or discipline suits the qualities of the rider. A one-day race, on the other hand, is shorter but also less controllable. All in, no net; a moment’s inattention could be disastrous and in an instant your chances could disappear up the road.

The World Championships are also the only race which has brought Mary V to tears after narrowly losing the title. The Dutch don’t cry easily, especially not the ones who bleed pure V.

The Worlds are always a live wire of a race; the national teams mean the riders are riding for and against their usual teammates. Team unity is always a question, and loyalties are hard to predict. All for one and one for all, until a mate goes up the road and suddenly things start looking blurry. Throw in a circuit race, a big climb you ride 17 times, a steep ramp about V km from finish, and you’ve got yourself a race Nostradamus would have a chore predicting.

The Men set out in what is predicted to be horrendous weather on Sunday, September 29. Check the start list, rattle the bones, and put your picks in by the time the clock goes to zero. Good luck.

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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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View Comments

mouse says:

Oct 1 2013 at 12:47 am

@Deakus

Thanks for your thoughtful reply!
mouse says:

Oct 1 2013 at 12:48 am

@piwakawaka

Maybe someone who was there will know how long the laps took but can't imagine 16.5k even with the climbing was taking long, so getting shelled would mean being lapped fairly quickly, my guess is once you had dropped 20 mins you would be pulled anyway, so in this instance the idea of battling on was perhaps not an option?

Hate lap races they suck.

This.
the Engine says:

Oct 1 2013 at 1:10 am

@piwakawaka

Maybe someone who was there will know how long the laps took but can't imagine 16.5k even with the climbing was taking long, so getting shelled would mean being lapped fairly quickly, my guess is once you had dropped 20 mins you would be pulled anyway, so in this instance the idea of battling on was perhaps not an option?

Hate lap races they suck.

Getting pulled if you lose 20 minutes - here in Scotland we only get some juice and a banana
V-inden says:

Oct 1 2013 at 1:53 am

@the Engine

@piwakawaka

Maybe someone who was there will know how long the laps took but can't imagine 16.5k even with the climbing was taking long, so getting shelled would mean being lapped fairly quickly, my guess is once you had dropped 20 mins you would be pulled anyway, so in this instance the idea of battling on was perhaps not an option?

Hate lap races they suck.

Getting pulled if you lose 20 minutes - here in Scotland we only get some juice and a banana

Ha! Coffee on my keyboard and MD looking disapprovingly in my direction. Coughing fit belatedly and unconvincingly faked.
meursault says:

Oct 1 2013 at 2:38 am

Looks to me that team GB is not a team. Or it is with serious reservations. The Wiggo/Froome thing not resolved and probably other issues. As others have pointed out, most of these guys past credentials speak for themselves, look at Gee in the tour, so something is wrong here. Wiggins may have peaked with his tour win, and maybe not got it psychologically now, hence the go back to track talk. All just opinions as mouse says, but wanted to chime in.
eenies says:

Oct 1 2013 at 3:06 am

Do they get paid for riding the WCRR? I thought it would be for the natonal pride only but I really don't know. What I do know it that Da Costa will now be the template for future British teams, keep your mouth shut prior to the event and do not do ANY work in the race unless you have to, finally, don't drop out unless you've a fucking good reason (unless you're lucky enough to get pulled, fwar fwar).
Chris says:

Oct 1 2013 at 3:09 am

@V-inden

@the Engine

@piwakawaka

Maybe someone who was there will know how long the laps took but can't imagine 16.5k even with the climbing was taking long, so getting shelled would mean being lapped fairly quickly, my guess is once you had dropped 20 mins you would be pulled anyway, so in this instance the idea of battling on was perhaps not an option?

Hate lap races they suck.

Getting pulled if you lose 20 minutes - here in Scotland we only get some juice and a banana

Ha! Coffee on my keyboard and MD looking disapprovingly in my direction. Coughing fit belatedly and unconvincingly faked.

Will Fotheringham said he didn't think anyone got pulled by the commissaires but I'm not sure that that was quite what he meant. He also said it would have been pointless to carry on on that circuit once you'd lost time.

It certainly wasn't a great showing by the Brits but I'm unconvinced that riders should be expected to continue to the end in one day races in questionable/dangerous conditions. If they all did it, every time, it would no longer be remarkable and we wouldn't be able to celebrate it.

@Deakus Unless you're looking for a new team next season (and need to impress trade team managers) or you're part of some sort of nationally funded team, I would doubt that racing for your national squad has little or nothing to do with money other than travel and kit expenses.
tessar says:

Oct 1 2013 at 4:48 am

@piwakawaka

Maybe someone who was there will know how long the laps took but can't imagine 16.5k even with the climbing was taking long, so getting shelled would mean being lapped fairly quickly, my guess is once you had dropped 20 mins you would be pulled anyway, so in this instance the idea of battling on was perhaps not an option?

Hate lap races they suck.

Folks here seem to be forgetting it's not their usual flat club-run with a stoplight for the strugglers.

This is a WC race, on a circuit with 17% grades and an octet of angry Italians mashing their pedals at the front for Nibali. It doesn't matter how much of a hardman Ian Stannard is, and how nonplussed he is by the rain - even in perfect conditions he wouldn't be able to hold their wheels, going at a pace just fast enough so as not to drop their own leader. Any non-climber in this race was doomed to begin with, and I see only grimpeurs and puncheurs on the finisher list.

Once you lose a minute on such a peloton, there's hardly a chance to get back. This is no grand tour stage where the leaders keep their powder dry - everybody's going balls-to-the-walls the whole day. Even your own teammates won't risk going back to get you (Nibali had to chase back alone), if they even realized you were gone to begin with, since they have no radios. You lose a minute, and that minute soon balloons to several, and at some point the leaders are coming up behind you. Whether the commissaire asks you to step off or you decide to, sooner or later it'll happen.

You could say Team GB were unorganized and messy, and I guess that's true. However, on a circuit like this, if you don't have the legs for a single moment, it could mean race over regardless of your team. Froome hasn't enjoyed good form since Le Tour, while Wiggins gained several kilos in order to prepare for the ITT Worlds, which hasn't helped his climbing.

I know one of these guys. We shop at the same LBS, and his name appears on the list of DNFs for the U23 race. He didn't chose to climb off the bike, but when they dropped him with two laps to go, we all knew it was coming. After a lap and a half the leaders were closing in and he was removed from the circuit.
eenies says:

Oct 1 2013 at 5:16 am

I guess you've got to put yourself in the riders shoes, in their soaking Sidi's so to speak. You've already done 200+ k's in the rain, you are off the back with no hope of getting back to the peloton and every lap you pass the team bus/hotel with the promise of a hot shower, dry clothes and a comfy chair...what would you do? To quote Cath Wiggins, "All this panache business - they can kiss my arse".
Baggins says:

Oct 2 2013 at 12:12 am

@Mattw

Just out of interest - if you decide to pull out of a race half way through (Vuelta) simply because you wish to rest up for the next one, that's OK - but throwing in the towel on a day as wet (and dangerous as that) is bad?

You bring up a good point. How is a rider like Cancellera quitting the Vuelta to avoid having to ride the Angliru any different from someone like Froome abandoning the WC road race once he's been dropped and has 0 chance of winning? It seems to me like these scenarios are equivalent, and if it's considered dishonorable to abandon a 1-day race due to anything other than injury then it should be considered equally dishonorable to pull out of a stage race for anything but injury.