Velominati Super Prestige: Mens World Road Race Championships 2015

The Prophet has spoken

The last time the US hosted a World Championship, it was for the Cyclocross and it was totally badass. But potholes are part of the fun in CX; we’ll have to see how a speeding peloton deals with them.

My Pedalwan Nephew will be roadside watching this weekend in Richmond, and I have to say I hate him a little bit for having that opportunity at such a young age; he better be wearing Velominati gear or I’m disowning him. I also now realize in a face-palm moment that I should have sent him the V-Flag. What day is it? Can I still overnight it? Is that even worth it?

Ok. Back on message. I really hope the police don’t shoot any of the riders, or arrest the peloton for speeding. Assuming that doesn’t happen, I suggest you meditate on the start list, pull a few aces out of your sleeve, and lay down your picks. 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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John Irvine says:

Sep 28 2015 at 10:18 am

A big joy in cycling is watching the kids grow up, as raw talent gets more refined and focused. Not just learning how to read a race, keep their powder dry, and attack at the right time, but developing as human beings. Sagan went from pinching podium ass to showing some serious class yesterday.
brett says:

Sep 28 2015 at 12:08 pm

@Gianni

Am I the only one watching NBC Universal sports? They essentially show the last hour of the race, the last 30km. Fucking losers.

Really, the last 30 is all you need... watching road racing for longer than a couple of hours will bore you shitless. (*Cobbled Classics excepted, of course!)

Got up at 5.30am and went to @Bianchi Denti's to watch, and at 8am I was thinking "fuck, coulda stayed in bed and not missed a FUCKING THING!"
brett says:

Sep 28 2015 at 12:12 pm

@ChrisO

Have to admit not being Sagan’s biggest fan – I think he too often races for a result rather than a win.

Think you're well off the mark there mate... anyone who finishes second so often is surely going for the win. If he'd been rolled in the last 5m yesterday, would that have been racing for a result?
Gianni says:

Sep 28 2015 at 12:16 pm

@frank

I watched the first few hours on the mobile app (streaming to the TV) and then Paul and Christian took over for a while on NBC…I feel like it was more than just the last 30km though…

You were smart. I had tivo record the channel that was advertising it but over on another NBC channel the real race was being shown. I was stuck with "go-go and some other dude, < 1 hour of coverage. Granted, it was a good hour but really, I need a three hour lead-up to get my blood pressure high enough.

@Ron

Excellent you were there on Libby Hill, what a spot to watch from. Some Rule#5 was being thrown down on that hill. Cool.
Oli says:

Sep 28 2015 at 2:54 pm

@Ron

The guy hassling Sags was probably a dope testing chaparone. They can't let the rider out of their sight, and the test has to be done in a timely fashion - I think before the podium presentation.
RedRanger says:

Sep 28 2015 at 3:05 pm

@frank

@Gianni

@Geraint

Cheers. I am a moron. I should have known US TV might do a half assed job.

I watched the first few hours on the mobile app (streaming to the TV) and then Paul and Christian took over for a while on NBC…I feel like it was more than just the last 30km though…

By the way, did anyone hear the commentator on the app’s stream tell people to go to Velominati and check out The Rules?

I know I did. they were talking about Rule 28.
Geraint says:

Sep 28 2015 at 6:01 pm

@brett

@Gianni

Am I the only one watching NBC Universal sports? They essentially show the last hour of the race, the last 30km. Fucking losers.

Really, the last 30 is all you need… watching road racing for longer than a couple of hours will bore you shitless. (*Cobbled Classics excepted, of course!)

Got up at 5.30am and went to @Bianchi Denti’s to watch, and at 8am I was thinking “fuck, coulda stayed in bed and not missed a FUCKING THING!”

I think Yogi's move was at just under 40k to go, and Kwiatkowski has said it was a strong move he knew he had to chase, but then he had nothing left after bridging across to it. Sounds like it might have put quite a few people in the cave.
Pali65 says:

Sep 29 2015 at 3:24 am

@Ron

And Frank…couldn’t agree more about Sagan’s message about things going on in the world. How awesome for a young kid, which is what he is, to take a moment during his biggest success to remind people there is a lot of bad, bad fucking stuff happening right now around the world. I’m guessing he was referring to the refugee situation. I would be scared to try and tackle that in my native language. Also has me wondering if maybe in his family history, with all that has gone on in his homeland part of the world…maybe his family was displaced at some point? Maybe a Slovakian Follower knows.

No matter what, to take a moment to point out that there is more out there than riding bikes, but also to highlight that sports can inspire and help things, if just a bit, impressed me big time. Say what you want, but for an athlete to remind everyone about world strife during their moment of glory takes some maturity and perspective.

Refugee crisis is a big subject for weeks in Slovakia now. Media exaggerating it ad absurdum. Some people are scared from influx of so many moslems (our civilisation is dying out more or less) and some people are horrified of the suffering of the migrants. There was a horrifying case of 71 refugees suffocated in a lorry which was originally from Sagan's home town poultry factory (Hyza). We don't know what is Peter's viewpoint on all of this but he repeatedly claimed that part of his motivation to win was to make a statement about the issue.

If we discard the small percentage of haters, Slovakian people have a tradition in helping strangers. There are examples of hiding US WW2 bombing crews shot down though there was death penalty for doing so. There are more than 500 "Righteous Among the Nations" in Slovakia who helped Jews to survive war. Though Slovakia was nominally ally of Germans the common people were against it and it ended in 1944 uprising. I don't have any information if his family was involved in any way (in fact only Germans and Hungarians were displaced after WW2 from Slovakia).

It is very important that Peter made the statement because people are looking at him and his words have more impact than anything said by politicians at the moment. If I'll find out more I can post it here.

Due Sagan publicity we face a huge rise of popularity of cycling in the last years. Even Peter is the driving force for "Peter Sagan's children tour" where little kids are competing and we hope for new talents apearing soon.

Slovaks are very proud of him and you can't imagine how the morale of this little nation is raised by his example.
Oli says:

Sep 29 2015 at 4:26 am

@Pali65

Very cool.
wilburrox says:

Sep 29 2015 at 5:17 am

@Pali65

Thanks for the good note, Cheers