Velominati Super Prestige: Paris-Roubaix 2014

Phinney takes flight in the Trouée d’Arenberg.

It has been a brutal week for us Keepers, having decided not to hold a Keepers Tour this year. Watching the action from half a world away has been almost too much for us to bear, and I know most of the participants from last year must be feeling similarly. On Sunday, we would be escorted by our friends and guides, William and Alex of Pavé Cycling Classics, shooting from one location to another to watch the race, eating Genevieve’s homemade sandwiches and pounding Malteni like its going out of style.

We may not be there this year, but that doesn’t change the question on everyone’s mind: can Fabian do the double a record three times? Personally, I hope not – I want the double to stay special. Until 2003, the previous winner of the double was de Vlaeminck who had managed it in 1977 at which point it had only been done six times previously. But since Van Petegem pulled it off in ’03, Boonen and Cancellara have done it twice each – that’s 4 doubles in the last 10 years.

Come Sunday morning, I’ll be gunning for Boonen. He’s been behind his form just a tad, but he forced the selection on the Koppenberg last Sunday, so he has the power. Maybe a day of killing it in de Ronde was last touch he needed and he’ll be peaking for Sunday. Fabian of course will be strong, but Sep and Greg had strong showings last week and Vanmarke is now proving to be Flecha’s replacement – hopefully he’ll have more luck taking a big win Sunday.

The points from the Paris-Roubaix VSP count towards the overall prizes plus the winner of this event also gets to post for the rest of the year in the cobblestone badge. So check the start list, review the VSP Scoring Guidelines and get your picks in by the time the countdown clock goes to zero at midnight PDT on Sunday the 13th. If you think we mapped one of your picks wrong, use the dispute system and we’ll review it. Also remember to be precise enough in your description so we know which rider you mean; in other words, if you enter “Martin”, we will use our discretion (read: wild guess) to decide if you mean Tony or Dan – and that choice will not be negotiable once the the countdown clock goes to zero, so be sure to give yourself enough time.

Don’t forget we’ve got three major prizes for the season-long VSP:

First place overall wins a Veloforma Strada iR Velominati Edition frame in addition to the customary VSP winner’s VVorkshop Apron
Second place overall wins a set of hand built CR Wheelworks Arenberg wheelset in a custom Velominati paint scheme laced to orange Chris King hubs. (CR Wheelworks is Café Roubaix’s new wheel goods brand.)
Third place overall wins a full Velominati V-Kit with accompanying custom orange Bont Vaypor+ road shoes.

Good luck, have fun with it, and don’t lose your Rule #43 spirit.

[vsp_results id=”29528″/]

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

wiscot says:

Apr 14 2014 at 7:34 am

@Chris

Bit of Paris Roubaix related stem porn for @frank. Dave Millar's bike:

Couldn't find a matching seat post of epic proportions, sorry.

What is that? 140mm? 150mm? One bolt at the back end too . . .
Chris says:

Apr 14 2014 at 7:42 am

@wiscot 150mm according to roadcyclinguk.com.

I think I remember seeing that the latest incarnation of the ARX only has one bolt (and isn't available in carbon yet).
KW says:

Apr 14 2014 at 7:47 am

@VeloVita

@KW

Yeah, I'm sorry, but I have to admit I was not super impressed with Boonen. When you've won P-R four times, do you really expect others to help you out? I'm sure it must be frustrating, but his constant gesturing seemed rather petulant, especially after he attacked the break and they came back together. Did he really expect any help then?

You mean the same way that Cancellara gestures in any race where he is in a lead group and no one will work with him because they know that if they do, he's likely to win? I wouldn't call the gesturing petulant - in the thick of the racing with emotions running high and energy getting lower with every minute it seems fairly reasonable (not Boonen's expectations, but his frustration)

My frame of reference may be much smaller, since I've only been following racing for about a year. However, from what I've seen they're very different. I've seen Cancellara gesture with the elbow flick or a wave of the hand to try and get guys to come through. This is much different from what we saw yesterday from Boonen (my interpretation anyway). Arm thrown in the air, turning, and yelling at the others in the break.

My point is this: I'm sure it's frustrating, but I think if you're Boonen, or Cancellara or anyone else who's thought of in that regard, you can't really expect a lot of help.

I could be wrong, but that's the way I saw it.
Steve-o says:

Apr 14 2014 at 8:29 am

@paolo

Just a heads up for anyone in the US who may not have seen it, there is now 4.5 hrs of "as live" coverage streaming on nbcsports.com under livestreaming...replays.

Tried to do this, but I apparently don't subscribe to enough channels to be able to stream. I got by watching various streams online. I don't watch enough TV to justify paying what they want.
andrew says:

Apr 14 2014 at 9:22 am

This is the one I watched today -- pretty much the full Eurosport UK broadcast with the ad breaks edited out.
Ron says:

Apr 14 2014 at 9:35 am

@andrew

...and anytime someone starts with "I'm obviously delighted for Niki but...", whatever comes next negates whatever was before the 'but'.

Hmm, reminds me of this. I went from a large, public high school to a small private college. I got to know some of the co-eds who had attended private prep schools. Many of them would say, "I love her to death but..."

I always thought that was a really silly way to begin a sentence and oh yes, negated all before the "but" part.
VeloVita says:

Apr 14 2014 at 9:35 am

@KW

@VeloVita

@KW

Yeah, I'm sorry, but I have to admit I was not super impressed with Boonen. When you've won P-R four times, do you really expect others to help you out? I'm sure it must be frustrating, but his constant gesturing seemed rather petulant, especially after he attacked the break and they came back together. Did he really expect any help then?

You mean the same way that Cancellara gestures in any race where he is in a lead group and no one will work with him because they know that if they do, he's likely to win? I wouldn't call the gesturing petulant - in the thick of the racing with emotions running high and energy getting lower with every minute it seems fairly reasonable (not Boonen's expectations, but his frustration)

My frame of reference may be much smaller, since I've only been following racing for about a year. However, from what I've seen they're very different. I've seen Cancellara gesture with the elbow flick or a wave of the hand to try and get guys to come through. This is much different from what we saw yesterday from Boonen (my interpretation anyway). Arm thrown in the air, turning, and yelling at the others in the break.

My point is this: I'm sure it's frustrating, but I think if you're Boonen, or Cancellara or anyone else who's thought of in that regard, you can't really expect a lot of help.

I could be wrong, but that's the way I saw it.

I agree 1oo% on your point - its just that venting your frustration when others around you aren't working is pretty standard fare.
Ron says:

Apr 14 2014 at 9:38 am

@scaler911

@Ron

What to think about the build of Niki? He's tall, but has pretty slim legs and arms. Nothing like Boonen, Cancellara, Sagan. Not really the bulk of a cobbles man, but he's an Awesome Dutchman, of course.

PRO: no silver shoe covers halfway to his knees

CON: don't his bibs seem a bit, long, considerably longer than the rest of QuickSteppers?

Did anyone else see the LeMan discussion afterwards? The funny Italian host, Flecha, and LeMan. LeMan seems a bit nervous in front of the camera. Flecha...looked ace and seemed cool, composed and gave really sharp, insightful answers.

Ya, LeMan did seem fidgety it front of the camera, but this is new to him, so I'm going to cut him a bit of slack. It looked like he said he'd be doing the same thing for le Tour, so I'm sure he'll get some broadcasting coaching between now and then.

I bet he will. Oh yes, for sure. The guy is a great cyclist, can't also be a great announcer. I wasn't being critical as much as I was saying that Flecha seems pretty good at it, while LeMan seemed a bit nervous. Like he had something equally insightful to say, but wasn't as good at talking in front of a camera. That's all. I'm not one to criticize such a great champion.
Ron says:

Apr 14 2014 at 9:43 am

@Bespoke

@Gianni

I'm pretty sure that's a vinyl skin.

To put him above the UCI weight limit for apres-bicycles transport?
andrew says:

Apr 14 2014 at 10:03 am

Y'know, after reading Geraint's comments about being fully committed to Brad in the final and how had hoped Brad would do more to chase Niki, and then Brad's comments about having good legs at the finish, I wonder if G doesn't have a bit of reason to be cheesed off at Sir Twiggo. If the upshot of the chat near the end was that Brad was feeling ok and that G should go up with De Backer to try and chase down for their respective guys, for Brad to basically cruise to the finish and play the star-struck innocent afterwards ('such an honour just to be there with those guys') seems a bit rough. Couldn't Brad have committed more to the chase if Geraint was going to anyway? It's not like they agreed to give it up as a lost cause, considering G went straight up the front after their tÃªte-Ã -tÃªte.