Velominati Super Prestige: Paris-Roubaix 2014
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″/]
@Chris
Already missing playing the “Spot the V-Flag” while watching on the telly!
@sthilzy
Best I can do for you, but sadly the TDU doesnt even come close
@sthilzy Already missing playing the “Spot The V-Flag” while watching on the telly!
1 down, 4 to go. Without some luck, you can’t win this thing.
Let’s gooooooooo Tommeke! Also, Thor is looking more alive than he has in years.
Underestimated the wrong guy, again, have we?
What a race!
Holy FUCK, is this gonna be a huge velodrome sprint!?
@starclimber
Looks like it could be. 11 in the lead group now!
My gosh, my gosh…8 km to go and it’s a HardMan convention!
I think Wiggins is gonna get a pass from this point on for his poor facial hair and clothing choices.
Vanmarcke, Boonen, Degenkolb, Cancellara, Thomas, Wiggins, Terpstra, Langeveld, Debacker, Sagan. This is the definition of large select group.
Attackarama. Fucking stellar.
Terpstra having quite the dig.
There’s a result I can live with. Wildly unpredictable and completely enthralling. CHAPEAU NIKI!
What a race. My VSP was pretty much destroyed, but couldn’t care less. Congrats to Terpstra.
A little disappointed at the effort from the lead group with that last attack. Beautiful effort from Terpstra though.
Piss poor broadcasting if you ask me though.
Yes, good man and great move! Although I found it strangely anticlimactic – too many strong men marking each other, or the fact that I think the time was fast and they were all blown?
@starclimber
Totally agree: great ride to win by Terpstra, great team race by OPQS.
Really nice to see Thor at the front of a race again too.
Thank Merckx Terpstra is wearing a cycling cap and not a baseball cap like Cancellara and Degenkolb. I think it shows who is most deserving of this win.
Terpstra with a proper cycling cap on the podium. True CHAPEAU for that!
Bloody good ride from Terpstra, great to see a domestique get his day in the sun. Poor form from the broadcasters missing the sprint for second though.
Did no one in that final break pay attention at Dwars dor Vlaanderen? As soon as they gave Terpstra some time he wasn’t likely to be coming back. Slightly anticlimactic given how good the last 2o odd km’s were.
@Ron Yep: if there was any doubt, I think we can put the bash on Wiggo stuff behind us. That was a very impressive ride from him. Big respect. And good to see Thor get one last kick at the can in.
4/5 in the wrong order, but totally stoked for Niki. I really thought about putting him #1 after last weeks performance. Does anyone know what happened to Kristoff? Totally expected him to be in the mix, but didn’t start watching until 15-20Km to go.
Kristoff flatted at a bad time (aka the Arenberg), had to chase from over a minute back, badda bing, badda buh-bye.
@scaler911 3/5 and only Stybar in the right spot (which doesn’t really mean much). In actual fact, I would probably have enjoyed the race a lot more without the VSP. Watching my picks go poof was a little disappointing, but that was an absolutely terrific edition. Watching Boonen animate the race and rally the breakaway was awesome. Cancellara on the cobbles really is a sight to behold…
Overslept and then found out the race won’t be shown on TV until tomorrow. Grrr!!
@tonymacaroni takes the cobble over @john and @Teocalli. Looks like a huge group got to the line together. Crazy! Going off to sort out what happened now!
@frank
NBC Sports are really screwing things up this year, no Flanders, PR not on live…at least they streamed it for free. I wonder if there is going to be less and less coverage on this shite channel as they show more and more NHL and Bull Riding!! FFS!
@frank
I’m starting to think central Europe is about the worst place to be to watch these races live. Sunday is primo long ride time, given that the shops are shut and I have to get all the stuff done on Saturday that I can’t do during the week. I just made it home from 110km/1250m to watch the podium presentation.
Or I need to get up earlier on a Sunday.
I think that the biggest surprise was Wiggin’s placing. Hats off to him!
Totally messed up my picks: 2 out of 5 and in the wrong order… Oh well, the race was interesting, nevertheless.
@paolo
What pisses me off the most is that I can’t even buy Universal Sports online because I have Comcast. I woke up around 7:30 but went into internet blackout mode assuming NBC would show it at their usual 5pm. Fucking hate Comcast and NBC.
@andrew
That last suggestion is just crazy talk.
@frank
I Have ATT U verse and they don’t carry Universal either! Other than that they have been excellent and I would never go back to Directv or Time Warner. Did Universal have PR on? I really do fear for the future of Cycling coverage on NBC, they seem determined to slowly eradicate it.
Final 10 k is already up on youtube
@scaler911
Kristoff dropped out soon after (maybe during?) the forest of Arenberg. 2 flats within a few km and he couldn’t get back on.
Wiggins 9th, ahead of Boonen and with the big pack racing for 2nd. Pretty good effort I thought.
Interesting how good Cancellara’s sprint is now. He beat Sagan and Boonen, and it took a pretty serious sprinter (Degenkolb) to beat him.
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.
@Jay
True, I would have bet some money that Sir Twig would have been rattled to death. Chapeau to him. Damn, it would be fun to have a monster engine.
That was a fine race, couldnt believe that line up in the last 10km, and an excellent move by Terpstra, though I thought the Sky pair may have teamed up to chase, thankfully not.
Two interesting comments from the Eurosport ticker…
“The host broadcaster failed to show the final spring for the remaining podium positions! Terrible stuff there – they were following the third group to the line!”
“Thanks for joining us today for what was an utterly scintillating race – perhaps even better than last week’s Tour of Flanders.”
While this race was great, I got more pumped up watching the Ronde last week. But, as many Followers and Keepers, and all us at the line!, seemed to suffering viewing issues. The Ronde was an unwavering streaming broadcast for me last week, watched over 3 hours online routed to my t.v., no issues. Lots of drops this week.
Fans seem to have fucked the racers up last week, the broadcasters seem to have fucked up the fans this week.
*Not too much fan interference today, minus the dude with the French flag who nearly took out Boonen. I’d like to see Boonen get his hands on that feller…
@Gianni
And if you missed it, around 7 k or so to go, when things got wild again, Thomas and Wiggins were at the back of the chase talking about what to do, likely how to play it in terms of how they each felt. Thomas did then get back up to the front.
Imagine the awesomeness of sitting in with a pal/friend, thinking your head and lungs might explode and leaning over, “Hey sport, do you want to cover this move, or should I?” One of those things that probably is lost in the moment, but an experience many of us would love to feel…that close to the finish line at the Queen, sitting in with a ‘mate, discussing strategy at top speed.
Viewing issues here too. Damn interwebs. Live feed shat itself.
Unfortunately I watched the last 10k on youtube. What a display of Anti V! Looked like a payoff to me. The who’s who of in-form classics rider holding tempo while Terpstra rides away? Pfft! Booooo. WTF were Thomas and Twiggo discussing?
“Should one of us respond to the attack from the peaking, hungry, Dutch hardman?”
“Ummm I guess so. Next year we should work this out in advance don’t you think?”
“Oooh but my legs are hurting somewhat.”
What a crock. Boooo.
Good grief – I got on the podium.
I still can’t figure out how the math works for scoring, let alone how the Keepers manage to “interpret” some of the entries. Nonetheless, I’m happy with my 4 points and a position in the front swarm of the VSP peloton.
Chapeau Terpstra! Go Norway!
Whoop – a classic in the bag!
What a race – apart from the coverage of course.
Got to show my brit colours and would loved to have seen a tour champ on the podium #allezwiggo
@The Grande Fondue
I think he flatted a couple of times and then crashed while still at the back. Left in an ambulance apparently.
@DeKerr
?Norway? Hushovd finally had a decent ride but Terpstra is Dutch.
And no mini-phinney toward the end? I’m learning, over the years, to stop putting him, Boss-Hog and Farrar into my P-R picks. I also believe I shot my mouth off about Thor no longer being the god of thunder, and implying he was a maybe the god of static electricity when one scuff around the living room rug in socks. Shut up mouth!
@Steampunk
I agree and hope so, but some will continue to bash him regardless…
Interesting fact presented on Eurosport in the intros – apparently Wiggo was the first Grand Tour winner to start P-R in 20 years. It seemed to surprise LeMond.
@PT
Oh Crap! My bad. That should read “Go Netherlands!”
I apparently didn’t eat enough bacon this morning.
@frank
Yeah, and wait until the FCC give Comcast the green light to really dominate the market. I’m sure everyone’s choices will get so much better . . .