Velominati Super Prestige: Mens World Road Race Championships 2015
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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Great win.
Have you seen the footage of his foot coming out of the cleat as he powered up the hill on his attack – he hardly misses a beat and puts it back in.
Very impressive.
@brett
All of this.
I’m trying to find a photo from the awards ceremony I saw earlier where he’s got the entire medal in his mouth, rather than just pretending to nibble the end. Live deep and suck the marrow out of life.
I live just a couple hours from Richmond, but couldn’t get there because of family business up north. (It has to come back before 2035, right? Hello?) I managed to stream the race on my phone, though, and have to say that this was one hell of a day of racing. Very pleased by how Richmond represented us to the world.
Ballsy Sagan win!
@LawnCzar
Ah, here we go.
My picks were the usual crap – Nibali for the win? Hesjedahl in 2nd? What was I thinking? Awesome ride by Sagan. One of the most stylish wins in recent years. The chasers must have been going crazy trying to pull him back. I was out for a ride yesterday during the race and kept thinking “I’ll bet Saggy’s going to romp home.” True enough, he did!
Great to see Phinney at the head of affairs. I’m thrilled that he seems to be coming back to form.
Nice to see the motos behaved.
Sagan won partly because the Slovakia kit is cool and well designed. The horrible USA jersey proved to be a hindrance.
I’m just a bit wary of what’s to come next vis-a-vis Sagan’s kit. Let’s face it, the Saxo kit is pretty shite and Tinkoff has no taste. Will we see a Saxo-Tinkoff Rainbow Turd? The eyeballs boggle at the thought.
Great to see Boonen and Sagan do the pinky thing. One thing that I love about the likes of Tommeke and Vos are they are great champions and great losers. Tommeke gave it a helluva shot but came up short. He knew what Sagan had done and gave him props for it. I’m, sure Tommeke also appreciates the pressure Sagan’s had this year for a big result.
We were at the second corner of Libby Hill for the entire men’s race. VMH got some awesome photos, will get them off her phone and post some later today.
Gianni – if you think the live coverage was bad, so was some of it on the course. We stood at the top of Governor’s Hill for awhile on Saturday. They were playing the Bee Gees, George Thorogood, Billy Joel. It was bad. The big video monitor behind us wasn’t showing the women’s race, but instead a Virginia tourism advert. Oh man.
What was up with Matthews on the podium? He seems out of sorts. Tired? Pissed? Confused?
Oh yeah, I kid you not, I heard them interview goddamn Vaughters live on the Libby Hill PA. Thank god also got to hear Connie Carpenter interview.
And on Saturday during the men’s junior the 1KM to go blow up banner came down. Who did I happen to see helping pull it off the course? Ferrand-Prevot. How many other world class athletes/sports would be helping with course upkeep?
And how about the guy hounding Sagan at the finish? A Specialized rep who didn’t want his bike thrown on the ground? A Slovakian handler to keep him from going too wild? Peter was trying to kiss his gal and that guy was pulling him away!
@Ron
Thanks for the scoops! Nice to get a “man-on-the-spot” report!
@Simon
Totally; I loved how obviously he was struggling – he clearly put it all into the climb where he got the gap and then from there is seemed like he’d burnt his matches and he was just surviving to the finish. So awesome!
@Gianni
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?
@brett
Massive class that he spoke in English which he is obviously not comfortable with, and it was very very clear that he felt strongly about the message he was trying to deliver and was struggling. What a classy moment in sport.
@piwakawaka
@wiscot
Both Lizzie and Sags have a poor track record in this department. I have made my pleas on twitter, it is all I can do.
@frank
yeah, i think i heard him saying that someone just twittered that to him.
also funny how he was blabbering on about black socks with white shoes and vice versa…
and, of course, sagan rules.
wiscot – no problem! Yep, I’ll get some photos up today.
Also saw Ted King on Libby Hill, he was in the VIP section. And saw countless numbers of awesome bikes being wheeled around by fans. And saw Arnaud Demare’s spare bike hanging on the barriers before the start of the race. I was trying to inspect it but the VMH shooed me away, thought the soigneur would get upset.
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.
@frank
That second pic? The perfect example of putting people in the pain cave!
@ChrisO
Start @ 7:20. Cool as a fuckin cucumber!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=462&v=zoCvceSbTn0
@Geraint
The youtube channel was not available in Canada. My understanding is that any country where they had a broadcaster with the rights to televise the race didn’t get the youtube feed. Sucked for me, since I don’t have cable. Steephill.tv/Eurosport to the rescue, so I got some of the action.
@Chica
Cheers. Hopefully not from recent experience with this abominable rationale!
Got this tweet the morning of the Men’s race:
Somebody knew.
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.
@Gianni
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!”
@ChrisO
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?
@frank
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.
@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.
@frank
I know I did. they were talking about Rule #28.
@brett
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.
@Ron
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.
@Pali65
Very cool.
@Pali65
Thanks for the good note, Cheers
Pali65 – Thank you very much for that information. Interesting to know.
Gianni – It was bizarre…jump in my truck Friday night after work with the VMH…and then watch 14 hours of awesome racing in Richmond. Kept on having to say, “Where am I? What is going on?” because downtown Richmond has cobbles, open-front cafes, etc. Hard to believe I was there. Also…how fucking insane that you can go watch the best of the best…for FREE! Part of the turnoff of big time sports is the ticket price.
Ha, someone with Cannondale on a local listserv just reported that they were at the Sagan/Slovak hotel on Sunday night. Report: “it was crazy.” I bet Peter partied his arse off!!!
@Pali65
Thanks for the post. I agree, to hear Sagan talk about something so heartfelt and serious at a time of great joy showed that the win meant a lot. It sure beat the increasing ubiquity of what I call the “Nascar” interview which is basically “I’d like to thank my teammates _________, all the sponsors at ______________, I’m thrilled to be with Team ____________, blah, blah, blah. I know they have to do it but when sportsmen stray from the strict PR path, I like it. Like Wiggins does/did. Even Cav’s becoming a bit too predictable these days.
@Pali65
Thanks for the info, it sounds like Sagan is doing a lot for your country and his words after the race certainly made an impact on me (not that I don’t know the horrific situation, but the fact that he used his platform to make such a bold and important statement when he could’ve just spat out the usual stuff).
Definitely my favourite rider now… I’d love to see him win a Classic in the bands next year.
Want to know more what was meant by Peter Sagan when he gave speech after the race? I just saw an interview on the airport upon his arrival to Slovakia. Here is the translation from Slovak:
“I wanted to address how the world became perverted and where it goes. I want to say that people should reconsider how we live. We waste our time with modern technologies, we are possessed by greed and everybody want from life too much. But you don’t need to own much to be happy. I think that this is a concept which could make this world a better place. Everybody should focus on the really important things in life and what’s the point in, let’s say, trying to conquer the world?”
This young gentleman surprised once again. We better listen to him.
Journalists also asked if he wants to take a rest . He laughed: “Rest? What rest? I will take a rest when I will be retired. Now I want to take my rainbow jersey and win some more races.”
@Pali65
Fantastic.
Sagan, pure class.
@Pali65
Rules #5 and #10 right there. Liking Sagan more and more.
Allright, final quote from Sagan’s press conference in Slovakia:
“The technology is advancing fast, but I feel it does too quickly. I wonder whether we haven’t jumped ahead of times. Parents give their children a phone or an iPad to be quiet, but they don’t take them outdoors. I am one from the generation that went running around the street or had barbeque in the forest. That is disappearing.
Our sport is also changing and turning us into robots. We are observing different numbers, HR, watts and feelings of the athlete are put aside. We cease to live and lose a moment for which we live. “
@Pali65
Has Sagan been brain doping? That’s completely and utterly beyond awesome.
Love it!
(says the guy who is on the internet …)
@chris
For me, this ties together a lot — a joyous and inspired win, speaking to the world’s responsibility to care for refugees, and the need to “be here now,” whether that’s going into the woods instead of going online or to riding to take joy in life instead of riding to make our stats.
The bike is a huge source of inspiration to me, in part because when we shut the laptop and turn off our phones and just ride, then your focus narrows and it’s all about the climb, or making the next turn, and the banality of day to day worries fades away… and really, when we remove that clutter and live life in the moment, we can get to what’s really important and strive to get that right.
Riding, late summer.
Nothing but the wind, my breath,
and the cicadas.
@LawnCzar
Everything you say is true and right but this bit made me chuckle. I recently got a new Garmin, a 520 which displays notifications of phone calls, texts and emails if you pair it with an iPhone and possibly certain Android phones. I have a Windows phone as that’s what work provides me with.
On Sunday I rode with my club. It turned out that we had too many people for one B group not enough for a social (C group) and as I’d turned up just in time to ride I found myself in the second, slower, of the two groups which included a few people who would normally have ridden in the social group. Progress was not quick but it was a nice day with good company so I completely lost track of time until we about 30 km from the end at which point the two slower members had decided to drop themselves and continue alone.
From that point I pushed the pace as much as I could and took some big turns on the front but when I got back to the finish there were numerous missed calls and a txt asking where I was. I’d been expected home some time earlier and still had about 45 minutes to ride to get home.
Sometimes turning off the phone and riding can cause no end of trouble!
@chris
What you say is also true and right as well — with great power comes great responsibility.
It reminds me of one of the last ride a buddy and I took together before he moved out of the area — we hit some favorite climbs, noodled a bit, tried for one last PR now and again, caught onto a random shop ride that happened by, that sort of thing… just enjoying the day’s adventure… and then I got not one but two flats and he ended up getting home way later than he needed to.
We had to scuttle dropping by a local brewery’s growler hour on the way home, too. That’s insult to injury.
It was a great ride, though.
I’ve always liked Sagan for his amazing abilities and joie de vivre on the bike. I was a bit worried that after the goofy victory salutes and pinchygate that we were going to see a true talent marred by stupid antics. Boy was I wrong. His post WCRR win interviews are a real antidote to the likes of Froome et al who are so calculating in everything they do. More power to him. If he puts his mind and legs to the task, all the monumernts are within his grasp.
finally detoxing from the 6 day bender that was Richmond. Saw the ITT and all road races. We were parked out in front of the jumbo-tron on Sunday and I did my best to spin the phone around without taking my eyes off the screen.
Slovakian fan celebrating right after the finish on Sunday. Was pretty fitting that he is on the Belgians shoulders after Peter put the hurt on GVA on 23rd Street for the winning move.
I am thrilled about the prospect of a whole year of seeing Peter Sagan in the rainbow stripes. And what is more, every time I see him in the rainbows next year, I’ll be able to tell my kids that we were there when he earned them. Anything I can do to try to get them into the sport at a young age…
Question for the group: What happens when the wearer of the rainbow stripes is also entitled to wear, for example, the Green Jersey at the TdF? Does he have to choose between the rainbow or the green? Or would they produce a special green-with-rainbows jersey for him? Or, for that matter, a polka-dot-with-rainbow jersey?
@MikeR
No, in a given race they have to wear the race competition leader jersey, whatever that may be.
@frank
Jersey looks canny…
But UCI obviously don’t want him to look fabulous…
“Under UCI rules we can only have team issue shorts or white shorts. We haven’t decided which Peter will wear yet but the rules mean he can’t use black shorts.”
White shorts FFS?!!
Finally got the photos from the VMHs phone. YeeHaw. Gianni, I’d say we were at the third corner. Entrance with a slight right, then a hard left, then this right. The awesome part was you could kinda see them enter Libby Hill, then they disappeared, and you had to wait to see them come around the barriers. Final lap…seeing Stybar emerge, chased by Degenkolb and then (I think?) GvA…man, that was the thrill of a lifetime!
These are all final lap. Farrar has blown up. Phinney has blown up. Stybar getting chased by Degenkolb. Sagan chasing Stybar & Degenkolb. Boonen coming through a few back. And one from the Women’s Race. Evelyn Stevens at the front…with Sister in background! Enjoy.