Velominati Super Prestige: Men’s Olympic Road Race 2012
You can all wave “goodbye” to your Post GT Depression Syndrome, because the Men’s Olympic Road Race is only three days yonder. I don’t typically give two shits about this particular event; while contested by national teams, unlike the Worlds it appears as just another one-day race on a calendar filled with events that carry much more historical and nostalgic significance. What’s worse, it seems the brilliance has faded from the flame of Olympic Spirit – after all, what is an international sports rivalry without the associated political Boggie Dance of Political Superiority? Merckx, I miss the Cold War.
But this time is different. Contested in London over a route that may or may not favor the squat little speed demon Mark Cavendish, the Cycling world has been abuzz about whether his presence on Team Sky alongside Pippi Longstockings implies his impending doom or his certain success – because everyone knows those are the only two possibilities. Be that as it may, the route boasts to be lumpy enough for breakaways or small field sprints, which makes this particular Velominatus, for once, really excited to see what happens. Oh, and as a special request to the riders, if we could keep everyone off the juice this time round, that would be peaches and creame.
With that, check the start list and pretend like that is going to help you make your predictions. Then look at the route and do the same before making a wild guess and hoping you come up good. One-Day VSP rules apply; get your picks in by the time the countdown timer goes to zero and pray for daylight.
Good luck.
Crowds are silent wondering what thefuck where’s wiggo and cav aren’t they supposed to be…?
@Smithers
we get used to regular races where fans are all pumped as riders, any riders, pass……weird to see a stoic crowd
Thats sour grapes for you.
Go Veino! Nails that fucker, nails.
Well, I picked well.
Fuckin Veino! That was awesome. What a way to retire.
anyone have veino in VSP?
That is quite the ride Veino is rolling. What a way to end your career if he makes it.
Wow, not how I thunked it would go…. Veinio’s a clever boy!
@Marko
Boom.
What a spectacular gooseegg for me. Done yelling at TV now. Time for a tea party with my daughter.
@RedRanger
Yeah, thanks for posting this pic, as they rolled by I was like: holy mother of crap…..yikes. I wanted to see them up close. Those are disgusting to me.
I got nothing except the satisfaction of not seeing a 250km race come down to 400m sprint with a win for Cav.
awesome!!!!!!!
the old man nailed it!!!!
now who the crap thunk this would happen??
What in the world was Uran doing at the end? It’s like he decided to stop and listen to a bird or something. That’ll keep him up tonight I reckon.
Watching Faboo breaking down, THE saddest sight …sobbing into the shoulder of a colleague….tearing up over here
@earnest!
Smart riding by a veteran to attack when Uran Uran was looking back for the chase. With 300m to go you should be looking up the road, not back. Brilliant riding by Veino.
@Marcus
I write that about myfavourite rider – yet I don’t pick him. What a tool I am. All hail Vino!
Looks like Cav got the rough end of the pineapple out of the TdF/Olympics deal with his British Cycling overlords.
Uran is going to have nightmares about that rookie error.
Never been much of a Vino fan since his vampire tactics but that was a cool moment.
Massive effort from O’Grady – all the medalists owe him a proper beer
Led the dismantling of team sky, right there.
@Harminator
Absolutely on both. I think there are a lot of dazed and confused riders in London right now. Sort of a, “How did…wait…what?” in their minds.
Ugh – watching that finish again – possibly the worst attempt at closing the door in the history of cycling. Vino4ever
andsome nice symmetry for Stuey OG. 6th place in his 6th games
@Smithers
+1
Stuey was incredible in the break – organising and monitoring progress. Shame he didn’t really have a plan after he made it stick!
Cav will have to reunite with the Rickshaw at Rabo in 2013.
Veino heading to doping control while on the phone….(“piss from the left penis Alex”)
I wonder what Uran is going to spend his €100,000 on?
You lot are wrong about Astana Blue. Awesome colour, awesome kit, Vino is that team.
Druggy cunt. Awful Olympic winner
Nice worn from Uran
@Routier
+1. Not that I am all sour grapes but that comment is FUNNY!
@Cantona
Would you say the same thing if David Millar had won?
@Marcus
Probably not. Vino’s doping episode, coming when it did in the tour, just hurt so much more. Such a black day that I remember too well.
Sounds like Cav is whining about sour grapes.
“We did everything we could. The crowd was tremendous the whole way around, but the Aussies just raced negatively.”
Of course they’re not gonna chase with Stuey in the break!
@MJ Moquin
isnt that why you put a guy in the break? i dont see that as being negative. maybe GB should done the same thing.
That was a brutal pace, hurt just watching it. Cav and his boys have gotta be pissed, but they knew they weren’t going to get any help.
Really interesting how it seemed no race radios played into the race. Felt like a good old fashioned road race that caused communication issues the modern peloton isin’t used to dealing with.
Props to Veino for a great move, although I cringe anytime a convicted doper wins a global race like this, but what can you do? He earned it by making Duran Duran and his mullet look all of the 15 years less experienced than he is.
The old guy ruled today.
Duran Duran decides that 250m from the is the right time to try communing with butterflies. Fabian’s crash actually made my blood run cold – I hope he’s OK mostly, but massively his own fault.
Three way tie on a top five that features a few names I’ve rarely seen before. While Vino wasn’t the rider I’d prefer to see take gold given his history and the durres the sport is under from a doping perspective, he rode a spectacularly wonderful race. Here’s hoping that chat he was having on the phone on his way to the pissing booth contained some good advice.
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Uran committing the fatal tactical mistake of looking over one shoulder without closing the door on the other. Veino’s crafty and will take that every time. I wonder how much a rider like Uran would have expected to be there in a two up sprint in the finale. He seemed unprepared for the moment.
I’m in a 134 way tie for 8th place on this event with 0 points. Best result yet!
w00t! All my picks were losers! SUCK IT BITCHES!
I shall now proceed to go cry like a little girl, then finish my Raleigh rebuild….
whew, that was a hell of a race. Fucking Vieno, tough smart monkey. It didn’t matter what Uran did, he was riding for silver. Taylor Phinney will be second guessing missing out on that break. I’m glad Sky couldn’t keep it together, it could have gone either way. Usually those breaks can’t cooperate well.
And Fabooooo might have injured his clavicle again. Him, of all people to screw up a corner.
So that’s it for Vino -he is gonna take the TT easy then retire. What a rider he has been. Never afraid to attack – always looking to win. His daredevil moves in the early 2000s were great – who could forget his team “cooperation” with Ulle and the other Germans?
I guess there is only Jens and Kloedy left as the last of the iron curtain racers?
And Hondo…
America Fuck Yeah!
If one thing is gonna brighten my day its Olympic Gold on the VSP
Way to go T. Phinney.
David Millar- “We rode the race we said we were going to race and to be fair there was a slim chance of us pulling it off and we needed a lot of things for it to happen but when every other team was racing with the sole tactic to thrash our race up it was very hard to do it. We can’t complain. Everyone knew what we were going to do, so it was their job to try and derail us, which they did.”
Fair enough. The Spanish had a few guys in the break and they got nothing. Oh man, If Fabs hadn’t crashed it would have been interesting to see how he would have handled the finish. Did he take out TJ Van Garderen?
well, Cav can thank German cuntwads for not helping. Had they pulled more than after the ‘oh my goodness’ passed with like 20k to go, then they may have made up the minute or do defecit, but I don’t know how much more GB was expected to pull.
Kudos however go to the Belgians, ie Gilbert, who drilled it and IMHO Tim Duggan who was working hard as well. That train was a powerful train and many were in it.
Great race, I knew some would have sour grapes for Vino ‘the ex doper’ winning, but there is something to be said about pentance being paid for wrongs, and getting over them, riding clean again and being able to join back up again. Millar has, Basso has and many others, and there isn’t any reason Vino shouldn’t either.
See what happens when i go camping for three days. I miss everything. Vino won? Crazy. Is the Kazakstan national athem better than God Save the Queen?
@Gianni that is a far more even comment than Cavs – who just whined about the “negative racing” of Australia – when they had Stuey in the break?!
@Marcus
Yeah, even with Gossy I think every country had to make sure Cav was not brought to the finish. At least Oz had a few options besides Goss. Jacky Bobby or Gerrans could have won from a break, providing either of them were in it.
Lot’s of pressure on Cav, talk about weight of a nation. Like Millar said, the odds were not on their side that they would be able to control a whole race with four guys and a sprinter. This race was no Tour stage, this was a proper one day race.
@Cyclops
Well, last time a Kazakhi won an international event, something went horribly horribly wrong.
Uran made the mistake of not remembering his account number and when he looked for it on the left barriers it was to late and vino was gone.
I have not even seen an amateur make a mistake like that in the last 500m of a race.
@Marcus Damn, for the second time I am forced to agree with you. Totally classless display from Cavcannotclimbdish, and awesome effort frm Stuey.
And what a race! Never thought I would find myself rooting for Veino, but there I was, at 3am, willing the old fella on (once it was clear that Jack Bauer was not going to bridge up and take an even less likely win). Who the hell wants race radios and teams of 9 when you get racing like that without them?!