Velominati Super Prestige: Men’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

Tarmac in bad state - Isn't that why we're here?

The 2012 Velominati Super Prestige kicks off in proper form this season with the debut of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad as part of the series. I’m tempted to stubbornly refer to this race as Het Volk, but I’ll toe the line and refer to the race by its bewildering new(ish) name.

This is a tricky race to predict because the big races in April are a funny distance away; they are close enough that riders wanting to do well there should be in good enough form to be competitive now, but far enough off that a win here could indicate a rider hitting their peak too soon.

In fact, the latter seems to be the case: riders who show brilliance here rarely shine in April when the Monuments of Vlaanderen and Roubaix are contested. De Vlaeminck, Museeuw, Van Petegem, Vandenbroucke – all champions of the Cobbled Classics and all men who never succeeded to win Het Volk/Het Nieuwsblad in the same year as either of the big cobbled classics; in fact, a cursory study of past results lists reveals only Merckx and Ballerini as being able to pull this particular double.

This timing makes Het Nieuwsblad a particularly difficult race to predict; in addition to the wily nature of any cobbled classic, the big names may not quite have the eye of the tiger while riders with an outside chance at victory in April may be focusing their early season on glory in this minor classic which covers many of the sacred roads as de Ronde.

With that we kick off the first event of the 2012 VSP; up for grabs is the personalized Velominati Shop Apron to the contestent who wins the season-long competition. Check the Main VSP page for scoring guidelines and rules. As a sidebar, we’ve also made lots of changes to the VSP engine; despite my usual nonchalant approach to production-testing, I’ve actually done my best to test the system this time around. There are, however, too many scenarios to be sure I covered them all, so I strongly encourage you to enter your picks early, knowing that you can make changes all the way up until the VSP closes. If you notice something behaving strangely, please let us know and we’ll have time to resolve the issue or let you know precisely why you’re crazy.

Picks close at 5am Pacific time on Saturday, and since last year’s VSP taught us that our readership sucks at time zone calculations (I’m looking at you, Bretto), we’ve introduced a countdown clock which should make even the most bone-headed of contestants aware of how much time they’ve got left to enter their losing picks (now I’m looking at you, Ron).

Good luck, and stand by for the VVomen’s Het Nieuwsblad VSP, scheduled to go live tomorrow.

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

Tobin says:

Feb 25 2012 at 5:28 pm

@Steampunk
Maybe more to your liking?

http://www.sporza.be/permalink/1.1230119
Steampunk says:

Feb 25 2012 at 5:42 pm

@Tobin
Much more to my liking. Thank you. Beautiful moment. I remember that point in my pro racing fandom, when I discovered I knew what and when to watch for the decisive move. Rather than "what just happened?" I'd graduated to "here it comes." As it happens, I was actually across the room playing ball with the littlest Steampunk this morning when Vanmarcke made the move, but nevertheless...
scaler911 says:

Feb 25 2012 at 5:49 pm

@Steampunk

@Tobin
Much more to my liking. Thank you. Beautiful moment. I remember that point in my pro racing fandom, when I discovered I knew what and when to watch for the decisive move. Rather than "what just happened?" I'd graduated to "here it comes." As it happens, I was actually across the room playing ball with the littlest Steampunk this morning when Vanmarcke made the move, but nevertheless...

Vanmarcke (VM, which is RAD btw), just unleashed it on the cobbles there. Really beautiful move. I watched it on Cycling.tv which I've just gotten into. Good coverage, but only one guy doing common tatering. Wish I spoke Dutch, Flemish and Itialian.
Buck Rogers says:

Feb 25 2012 at 6:16 pm

@Steampunk

@Buck RogersLet me google that for you: yes. 107th @ 7:45.

Double hardcore! Man, not sure I would have climbed back on after that crash that late in the race. Would love to think that I would have, but I cannot swear to the fact that I would have.
Buck Rogers says:

Feb 25 2012 at 6:19 pm

@Tobin

@SteampunkMaybe more to your liking?
http://www.sporza.be/permalink/1.1230119

Awesome!!! I saw the race form 16 k to the finish and missed THE move. VM definitely deserved the win and Tomeke was gracious as well. What a beautiful sport when it happens like that.
Ron says:

Feb 25 2012 at 9:29 pm

@Steampunk

@Tobin
Much more to my liking. Thank you. Beautiful moment. I remember that point in my pro racing fandom, when I discovered I knew what and when to watch for the decisive move. Rather than "what just happened?" I'd graduated to "here it comes." As it happens, I was actually across the room playing ball with the littlest Steampunk this morning when Vanmarcke made the move, but nevertheless...

I thought you were supposed to be out riding your bike, stopping for some hot bitter stuff, then building your bike?
Ron says:

Feb 25 2012 at 9:31 pm

@JC Belgium

@Ron
too bad you don't speak Dutch/Flemish...
Boonen started a rush on Taaienberg (that hill of cobbles has indeed a special name), where Boom fell while he tried to do the same. (The road there narrows a bit down, he went off, tried to get on road again, but the mud decided differently)Vanmarcke was the only one who could manage to follow immediatly. a bit later, Flecha, Hayman, Vanmarcke, Breschel, Hushovd and Devenyns closed the gap. then Hushovd and Breschel got dropped in the Paddestraat (in my opinion, one of the thoughest cobbles in Flanders if you do it in this direction). from that point on, Vanmarcke was the stronger rider (compared to Flecha, Boonen and the rest of course). Boonen was very good, but he was like wrenching and shuffling on his saddle, stretching his legs and so - normally he doesn't. Vanmarcke tried again on Lange Munte, but failed. the last 17k you saw on internet...

Thanks for this, JC! I was able to watch the final 35km via steephill and realized that one big move happened at the 20km mark, which I just missed when I came in at the 17km mark.

And thanks for the names of those climbs!
King Clydesdale says:

Feb 25 2012 at 11:31 pm

The despite the language barrier the sporza feed was quite nice, had a little tracker on the bottom that showed who was in what group, splits, and where they were on the course. I just know too little of any of these languages, and I can only speak and write, I can't listen, if you know what I mean. Sadly the listening is the most useful in this case. Luckily Eurosport also covers races and I know enough UK speak that I make it out alive.
King Clydesdale says:

Feb 25 2012 at 11:33 pm

And I can only speak and write French, a tad of Italian, and a very minute amount of German.
King Clydesdale says:

Feb 25 2012 at 11:34 pm

That said if anyone knows a good website with some basic Dutch or Flemish along with some important cycling terms that would be awesome.