Velominati Super Prestige: Men’s La Fleche Wallonne 2016

The bunch climbs the Mur de Huy

Don’t these race organizers understand how confusing it is when races are held mid-week? It means we have to have to manage against unrealistic expectations like realizing what day of the week it is and then do the sums on how much lead time we want to give on the VSP.

Which is obviously too much to expect. Of me, anyway. I have a lot of big deals cooking, you see. Its very complicated and important. I could tell you about it but you probably wouldn’t be able to handle it all.

So. That leaves us with about 20 hours for VSP picks entry. Sorry about that. Hopefully you’ve already been prognosticating on the start list and have your game together already. If not, I hope you do well under pressure. Don’t forget there are awesome prizes on offer: Don Walker is giving away a free custom steel frame, Café Roubaix is giving away a carbon wheelset, and we are giving away a free V-Kit.

Good luck!

[vsp_results id=”41707″/]

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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Mikael Liddy says:

Apr 20 2016 at 3:43 pm

@Steampunk I wonder if he pulled the pin when he saw how easy his "mate" was doing, given their history I don't think he'd be all that keen to be seen to assist Malmerde in any way unless he was a real chance at the win himself.
mulebeatsdrums says:

Apr 20 2016 at 4:20 pm

@chuckp

@wiscot

@chuckp

@Teocalli

Crikey 3 out of 5 and 2 in the correct places. I may have peaked.

Blimey! You and me both! Although I’m sure I won’t be allowed my plea to sub Alaphilippe for Henao upon learning about Henao’s w/d (although my plea was with like 40-50km to go so well before the race was decided), I could potentially have 4 out of 5 with 2 in the correct places.

No chance! You can’t even swap out for free during a GT if a rider crashes out, let alone if a rider gets pulled for dodgy biological data in a midweek classic. Mind you, having the option to make switches with 10k to go would be fun but will not happen as a) frank won’t allow it and b) it would crash the site.

When a team pulls a rider after the VSP picks have closed but before the race has started is a completely different circumstance than crashing out or changing picks mid-race because something happened to your rider during the race. Unique circumstance. Don’t know that it’s ever happened before. And we’re not all in the local (or even close to local) time zone to be able to know/do something about it (if that’s a possibility).

I know @frank won’t allow it.

The race rolled out at 11:40 CEST; VSP picks closed at 13:00 CEST. Obviously it sucks for those on the US west coast, but those with an eye on the news sites would have known about Henao before picks closed.

Just sayin'.
dyalander says:

Apr 20 2016 at 4:58 pm

Hmm - my picks aren't loading - I picked Martin for third - but it must have mapped Tony instead of Dan, which would be on me for not being specific enough.
chuckp says:

Apr 20 2016 at 5:29 pm

@mulebeatsdrums

The race rolled out at 11:40 CEST; VSP picks closed at 13:00 CEST. Obviously it sucks for those on the US west coast, but those with an eye on the news sites would have known about Henao before picks closed.

Just sayin’.

1300 CEST is 0700 my time (EDT). For those of us who have real jobs, at that hour I'm getting ready to go to go to work (and taking my daughter to school) not checking anything on my computer. I don't know when the news broke about Henao, but likely while I was asleep. So I'm just sayin' too.
chuckp says:

Apr 20 2016 at 5:32 pm

@frank Shouldn't I have 10 points? 7 for picking Valverde to win. 2 for Gasparatto in 5th. Plus 1 for picking Martin to be in the top 5.
mulebeatsdrums says:

Apr 20 2016 at 6:09 pm

@chuckp

@mulebeatsdrums

The race rolled out at 11:40 CEST; VSP picks closed at 13:00 CEST. Obviously it sucks for those on the US west coast, but those with an eye on the news sites would have known about Henao before picks closed.

Just sayin’.

1300 CEST is 0700 my time (EDT). For those of us who have real jobs, at that hour I’m getting ready to go to go to work (and taking my daughter to school) not checking anything on my computer. I don’t know when the news broke about Henao, but likely while I was asleep. So I’m just sayin’ too.

I don't like the insinuation that I don't have a "real job" (I do), but having read back my original post, it is extremely arsey in tone, which was not at all my intention. Apologies for any offence caused. I was just pointing out that the news was public prior to picks closing.
chuckp says:

Apr 20 2016 at 7:07 pm

@mulebeatsdrums

We're all good. If I offended you, apologies. In the end, it is what it is. Not life or death.
dyalander says:

Apr 20 2016 at 9:36 pm

@chuckp

I'm guessing, like me you just put "Martin" in as your selection. As there were two Martins racing it probably mapped Guillame instead of Dan.
Harminator says:

Apr 20 2016 at 11:31 pm

Sooo....do you think Paris-Roubaix sucked all the V out of western Europe?
dinosaurJR says:

Apr 21 2016 at 1:03 am

@Harminator

I think La Fleche is traditionally a bit of a lull - you know, just something to keep the guns turning over between Paris-Roubaix and L-B-L. Personally I like to think of La Fleche as the "Ginger Stepchild of the Classics"... But then again I think of a lot of things...

I predict that there will be V a plenty at Liége, at Bastogne, at Liége again and all the little places in between, though.