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″/]
@chrismurphy92
Indeed. Look at the clothing on the podium: Fabs wearing a ball cap and hideous leggings/tights. Degenkolb wearing awful socks and a ball cap (at least it looks like the “tache” is gone.) Terpstra looked like a million $$. The proper cap, the sunnies perched just so, the great l/s OPQS jersey, perfect shorts and socks. A lesson in how to look PRO.
Great ride by Wiggins. He said he was going to go for it and put himself right in the mix. Sad for Boonen, but his loyal teammate won so there’s some consolation there. I’m sure he does not resent Terpstra’s win for one second.
We are so overdue for a muddy P-R . . .
@DeKerr
Or perhaps enough waffles? On reflection, is there such a thing?
@Gianni
Mini Phinney flatted from the lead group with 15k to go, not sure how many would recover from that. Looking at the youngsters though, Degenkolb is 25, Sagan 23/24 (PnP couldn’t quite decide last night) & Phinney is 23! There’s some good classics racing coming up over the next few years…
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.
@Mikael Liddy
yep, no recovery from that. The race was On and getting a spare wheel on the Roubaix course tough enough. Mini-phinney will eventually help me in the VSP, luckily I didn’t pick him this time.
@Xponti
I guess it played out differently. Anyone that picked that deserves the Cobbled Icon….
@Gianni
You talked me out of picking Thor. When he bridged to Boonen’s group, I figured it had to be the winning move.
@Mikael Liddy
Sadly the men in the balcony on the muppet show called Boonen “Tim” on a couple of occasions also. Not like he’s a neo pro and only done a couple of classics.
@Gianni
@Mikael Liddy
OK, I’m really liking Stijn Vandenbergh. One, he is huge and two, this is his car.
@Gianni
Begs the question, under what circumstances does one need a camo beemer ?
Wow how did I forget about Terpstra, Great solo attack. Good on Pippy for hanging with the classics boys. Don’t think we will see other modern GC guy’s do that well anytime soon.
@Barracuda
Its a camo Bimmer. Beemers are motos. Have we lost all civility?
@Gianni
If you weren’t a Keeper that is so worth the +1 badge.
@frank “Its a camo Bimmer. Beemers are motos. Have we lost all civility?”
Sorry, I come from a land down unda’. Kangaroo’s , meat pies and Holden Cars
Civility is not strong!
Can someone explain to this pedalwan why Terpstra didn’t ride out Boonen when Boonen was clearly gesturing for someone to help out – I think it was around 60km from the finish? If Terpstra had enough left in the tank to ride to the finish like he did, shouldn’t he have used that to help his primo rider? Tom Mc referred to Terpstra as a Domestique so, isn’t that his role?
Thanks
@Bespoke A lot can happen between 60km and the finish.
@RedRanger
Understood but, Terpstra didn’t seem to help out his teammate when it was called for. Am I missing something?
@Barracuda
Any circumstance I’d say. To apply a camo paint job to a fancy wagon like that is a little mad and I like that.
@Bespoke
I assume, which is dangerous in itself, that Tom had lit all his candles and had none left to light up.
@Bespoke
Tommeke was gesturing at the others he was in a break with that they should work with him, Terpstra & the other OPQS riders were back in the bunch at that point. Any attempt from them to bridge up to help would likely have resulted in Cancellara and the other favourites following along & negated the advantage.
@Barracuda you have it backwards. Why not have a camo bimmer? That thing is 110% ballin’.
@Bespoke you should ask Stijn Devolder that question.
@Gianni
What a race! Unreal final, OPQS really made sure of it this time, with a man in the break and two in the chase all they had to do was ride the Wiggans train, as he bridged the group up, for Thomas, the guys up the road were fucked which is partly why they were caught, and Terpstra has had a brilliant campaign this year, he crushed them, a very worthy victor
In the last 12 Monuments that he’s finished, his results are: 1st, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 1st, 1st, 2nd, 1st and 3rd. A simply amazing record.
@Bespoke
Boonen’s team-mates were in the following chase group, so the best they could do to help him get away was not push, as that would only help close the break down. Boonen was frustrated that there was little to no co-operation in the breakaway, as while Thomas was taking turns on the front, the others weren’t. Someone on Inrng even though Boonen was trying to get Thomas to help with the gesticulation at one point.
@wiscot
Dripping with sarcasm! Boonen sounds like a bit of whiner in some of the interview excerpts:
…and anytime someone starts with “I’m obviously delighted for Niki but…”, whatever comes next negates whatever was before the ‘but’.
@Mikael Liddy
@andrew
Thanks both. I understand now: his gestures of frustration were to his group that weren’t sharing the load, not to his teammates.
@Gianni
I’m pretty sure that’s a vinyl skin.
@Gianni
Where is it, I can’t see it?
Sorry awful joke. “Beemers” rather than Bimmers in the UK as well as Aus too as far as I know
@Rhodri
AKA Nazi Sleds.
@andrew
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?
@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)
@Ron
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.
Bit of Paris Roubaix related stem porn for @frank. Dave Millar’s bike:
@Chris
What is that? 140mm? 150mm? One bolt at the back end too . . .
@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).
@VeloVita
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.
@paolo
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.
This is the one I watched today — pretty much the full Eurosport UK broadcast with the ad breaks edited out.
@andrew
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.
@KW
I agree 1oo% on your point – its just that venting your frustration when others around you aren’t working is pretty standard fare.
@scaler911
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.
@Bespoke
To put him above the UCI weight limit for apres-bicycles transport?
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 tête-à -tête.
@wiscot
and no dust cover? that kind looks like shit.
@Bespoke
http://cyclocosm.com/ is always worth checking out for a post race recap.
@RedRanger Outstanding. Pretty much nailed it in 5 minutes.
@RedRanger Just perfect! Love his stuff!
Yeah Cosmo is awesome at what he does, if I miss a race and really want to know what happened that’s the place I go, plus he’s funny
@Bespoke
Nah bro, it will probably be Plastidip. Cool shit! Spray it on for a matt finish, it is what you oftentimes see on the matt finish paint jobs driving around..
@VeloVita
This. Fabs races have been ruined (as in he has finished second or third rather than winning!) in the past by being marked such by a middle of the bunch group (i.e. excluding the team leaders). Tom happened to have it happen to him this time. He was epic to watch attacking, and the somewhat arrogant sounding interviews are to me common to most team leaders who don’t win, for I have a theory that you have to be more self assured, and therefore come across as self centred, to succeed in most top level sports. Dissapointment at not winning is a byproduct of that, some just handle it with a bit more grace, though sometimes language can be a barrier. You have to step on some heads to win as many times as these guys have..
@andrew
Thomas was more of a stud than Twiggo. In the Tommeke bunch all day, in the wind, sent up the road by Twiggo to attempt a chase at Terpstra, then still beat Twiggo home, all of the Wiggins fanboyism is a little unjustified in my eyes, his slight break was nothing but a 15 seconds of fame “I hit the front” moment. Got sick of hearing about where Twiggo was in the bunch. Props for a top 10, but far from a story requiring so much adoration IMO, he sucked wheels all day, hardly covered himself in glory or justification, there’s been less printed about Cancellara or Degenkolb..
Glad it’s not just me as a biased Welshman, was pretty disappointed to read the comments afterward that suggested Geraint was working for Wiggins. I know he’s a TDF winner and better rider than some give him credit for, but would it not be better for the classics specialist who’s been plugging away at them for years steadily improving to have the team working for him rather than the star who fancies a go?
@andrew
@Beers
Wiggo’s effort was even more disappointing since he was one of my picks and I finished the VSP in 196th and last place. I think it will sink in now for Sir Brad that if Terpstra could time trial to the finish then he might have done the same, perhaps his only chance to win ever and he blew it. “Have a dig for fuck sake” is something I may have shouted at the TV in the last 20km.