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.

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464 Replies to “Velominati Super Prestige: Men’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad”

  1. VSP PICKS:

    1. Tom Boonen
    2. Greg Van Avermat
    3. Heinrich Hausler
    4. Juan Antonio Flecha
    5. Stijn Devolder

  2. @Calmante

    Guess no one got the TWIKI reference for Buck Rogers… Oh well.

    I got it, but I’ve already shown too much nerd this week with my comic book reference. I don’t frakking need to show my sci-fi geek as well.

  3. @Buck Rogers-Hair splitting not necessary, I was saying (although not explicitly) that his form is looking good and he’ll take this on his way to bagging a Monument (Paris-Roubaix) because Gilbert will probably take Flanders.

  4. No idea whatsover… this is just a wish list. Left Thor off, as he’ll be aiming for P-R, so will be 6 weeks from peaking (just like me)

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Flecha
    2. Boom
    3. Leukemans
    4. Phinney
    5. Tommeke Boonen

  5. @ramenvelo

    Boonen has never won this race but he was looking real good in Qatar and in San Luis. I say this year he takes another Monument. Sep is going to sneak into the top 5.

    I hope he takes another monument, but that surely means he won’t win Saturday!

  6. @Buck Rogers

    @ramenvelo

    Boonen has never won this race but he was looking real good in Qatar and in San Luis. I say this year he takes another Monument.

    To split hairs, and hopefully not sound like too much of an ass, it’s not a Monument (there are only the five of those) it’s a semi-classic.

    I think he’s saying he’ll win a monument – independently from this event.

  7. and a top ten finish for Clinton Avery!

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Gilbert
    2. Shpilevsky
    3. Cooke
    4. Haussler
    5. van Avermaet

  8. The big boys are here for some training & will keep the powder dry, there’s a few around that’ll be looking for a win on the board early to help along negotiations later in the year…

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Ale Ballet
    2. Sauceler
    3. The Arrow
    4. Dynamite
    5. Ciolek

  9. Boonen to keep burning his form too early in the season and Burghardt as my roughie.

    C’mon Heinrich!

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Boonen
    2. Flecha
    3. Aussie Heinrich
    4. Boom
    5. Burghardt

  10. One complete flyer of a pick just for fun. Happy racing everyone!

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Boonen
    2. Boom
    3. Amorison
    4. Klier
    5. Boom

  11. Trying again. :-(

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Boonen
    2. Boom
    3. Amorison
    4. Klier
    5. Phinney

  12. @Mikel Pearce
    Bold call on Phinney! Nice one.

    @CanuckChuck
    Was tempted to throw in Boivin, who’s been going well, but opted for Rollin instead who tore up the early spring last year. Which means that Offredo will be the FDJ guy in the final selection.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Double H on the comeback trail
    2. Nose Candy (TB)
    3. Boom goes the Dynamite
    4. Johnny Degenkolb
    5. Rollin Canuck

  13. Yoann soloing to the win with fletcha taking the sprint for second.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Offredo
    2. Flecha
    3. Boom
    4. Tjallingii
    5. Leukemans

  14. Out on a limb for the first race. Big names to not fire for this but use it as recon for later races and a training run. Going to let their Loyal helpers for the bigger races get a chance at victory

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Van Summeren
    2. Cooke
    3. Van Avermaet
    4. Flecha
    5. De Gendt

  15. @RedRanger

    Anyone know of any video feeds that will show this race?

    Cycling.tv I think. Also try Cyclingfans.com. There are links on the right hand side, some work some don’t depending on where you live I think. But some of the common-taters are pretty funny. They cuss and shit during the feed.

  16. Nicole is NOT riding the mens race. There’s a problem for you right there @frank

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Van Summeren
    2. Baden Cooke
    3. Van Avermaet
    4. Flecha
    5. De Gendt

  17. If someone could point me toward a start list for the women’s race, I need to print it out and stick it to my dartboard.

  18. @Calmante

    If someone could point me toward a start list for the women’s race, I need to print it out and stick it to my dartboard.

    Nice. I’ll throw it out there, your stock is slowly rising.

  19. @Xponti

    Nicole is NOT riding the mens race. There’s a problem for you right there @frank

    Funny. That was automatically mapped because more people have used “Cooke” to mean Nichole than Baden (we did a VSP on the Women’s Worlds Road Race last year) – the logic doesn’t account for the possibility that a man and woman might have the same name. I might have to add the sex of the rider and the race type if this happens more often. I’m guessing its not worth the hassle, though. Baden doesn’t win often, and doesn’t get picked often.

    That aside, you fixed it by being more specific, so it automatically updated your pick to point at Baden.

  20. I’m so happy the VSP and V-worthy races are back. Whenever I tell my students that I participate in something akin to fantasy cycling (I couch it in these terms so they’ll understand) I get two responses: laughter and “wait, you’re actually serious?” So serious that we’ll get up at 5am on a weekend to watch a shitty live feed before we go out for our rides.

  21. VSP PICKS:

    1. Gilbert
    2. Shpilevsky
    3. Baden Cooke
    4. Haussler
    5. van Avermaet

  22. Third time lucky.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Phast Phil
    2. One an two Flecha
    3. Johan “The Lips” van Summeren
    4. Greg Van Avermaet
    5. Big Stanny

  23. @ramenvelo

    @Buck Rogers-Hair splitting not necessary, I was saying (although not explicitly) that his form is looking good and he’ll take this on his way to bagging a Monument (Paris-Roubaix) because Gilbert will probably take Flanders.

    Ahhh, mea culpa. Sorry about that. Just wanted to make it clear for any new readers as I often learn a ton about cycling history around here and did not want any confusion for others.

    As for his taking a monument this year, YES, man, I hope he takes both the Ronde and Roubaix (but I’ll settle for either of them!!!).

  24. Those of you thinking you’re in for an apron can dream on this awesomeness:

    Now I’m off to meditate about Saturday’s results while sitting on some genuine Flandrian cobblestones. I’ll be back later with my picks.

  25. VSP PICKS:

    1. Gilbert
    2. Boonen
    3. Björn Leukemans
    4. Sep Vanmarcke
    5. Thor Hushovd

  26. Methinks that Sylvain is gonna give it a go…

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Sylvain Chavanel
    2. Lars Boom
    3. Phillipe Gilbert
    4. Juan Antonio Flecha
    5. Johann Van Summeren

  27. Wow, and Thor complained about Garmin having too many leaders? Are you kidding me…

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Juan Antonio Flecha
    2. Stijn Devolder
    3. Philippe Gilbert
    4. Lars Boom
    5. Johan Van Summeren

  28. VSP PICKS:

    1. Greg Van Avermaet
    2. John Degenkolb
    3. Sebastian Langeveld
    4. G Ciolek
    5. Will Clarke

  29. Here goes my first VSP

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Bossen Hagen
    2. Haussler
    3. Langeveld
    4. Leukemans
    5. Phinney

  30. VSP PICKS:

    1. Langeveld
    2. Navardauskas
    3. Offredo
    4. Paolini
    5. Will Clarke

  31. @Calmante

    If someone could point me toward a start list for the women’s race, I need to print it out and stick it to my dartboard.

    cyclingfever.com, start lists for everything. See, I’m not a total dick. Nice ONCE kit on whatever other thread I saw that on.

  32. @scaler911

    @Calmante

    If someone could point me toward a start list for the women’s race, I need to print it out and stick it to my dartboard.

    cyclingfever.com, start lists for everything. See, I’m not a total dick. Nice ONCE kit on whatever other thread I saw that on.

    And if you’d been around awhile, you’d know I can’t tell the difference anyway. @Frank: did you clear up my sexuality with marko btw?

  33. VSP PICKS:

    1. 1 LANGEVELD Sebastia
    2. 34 FLECHA GIANNONI Juan Antoni
    3. 81 BOOM Lars
    4. 21 BAK Lars Ytting
    5. 41 GILBERT Philipp

  34. @Nate
    Hope u get it taken off u (and awarded to me) when Frank retrospectively bans rest day picks. U know u didn’t win with panache. And yes I am a bad sport

  35. @mouse

    Nice pick on Will Clarke :-) He did well at the TDU and it would be great to see him in the mix on a course like this.

  36. @ChrisO
    Yeah, He’s a bit of a hard luck story but really deserving. Got class. Hope he can continue to show fine form and make it out of the Pro Conti leagues.

  37. Thought I’d pick one from left-field. Might be a couple of years too early from him, but I think he’s a good dark horse to take out a classic on a gnarly day in the next few years…

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Stannard
    2. Boonen
    3. Gilbert
    4. Kittel
    5. Freire

  38. was hoping Offredo doesn’t get suspended for his missed controls but now since he’s been, I will make the change in my VSP picks

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Boonen
    2. Flecha
    3. Langeveld
    4. Boom
    5. Maasjkant

  39. VSP PICKS:

    1. Thor Hushovd
    2. John Degenkolb
    3. Sebastian Langeveld
    4. G Ciolek
    5. Will Clarke

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