Velominati Super Prestige: Women’s Road Championship 2012

Olympics, check, what’s next? photo: PA

It seems like just weeks ago that Cav won his rainbow stripes, things were said, umbrage was taken. Luckily we have found more umbrage so we are good to go. This course is not like last year. It’s not exactly a sprinters finish. It’s a 128 km rumble in Valkenberg and the Dutch team is there for Marianne Vos. She has finished second in the World Championships five times and only won it once. For her this is a problem. This race must haunt her. It will take some amount of courage for the stakeholders in this year’s VSP to bet against her. Yet the Italians, British and Germans, among others, have brought some serious firepower to counter the Dutch. Here is a link to a start list.

Though their prize list is only 30% of what the men get, here at Velominati it’s equal points in the VSP. Do your research, pray to your god, and tune in on Saturday.

Here is a little video from 1998. The last time the women raced in Valkenberg.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMmWzpMh-Io[/youtube]

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134 Replies to “Velominati Super Prestige: Women’s Road Championship 2012”

  1. Armistead withdraws with a illness.  Swapping in Pooley.

    Thinking maybe Bronzini can’t handle the hills… but also thinking may get a bunch sprint for the dregs.  Ah, we need at least two Dutch women in the running.  Van Vleuten in.  The scary Italian out.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Evelyn Stevens
    2. Vos Vos Vos
    3. Arndt
    4. Pooley
    5. Van Vleuten

  2. Lizzie ARMITSTEAD out off the race :(

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Judith ARNDT
    2. Marianne VOS
    3. Tatiana ANTOSHINA
    4. Emma POOLEY
    5. Belen LOPEZ MORALES

  3. Pooley moves up to 2nd now that Team GB won’t be distracted by Lizzie. Anyne notice that Pooley is out of a job at the end of 2012, and that Wiggo is offering to fund a top-notch women’s team? I think she will ride out of her skin to show that she still has what it takes. But she can’t beat Vos.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Marianne Vos
    2. Emma Pooley
    3. Charlotte Becker
    4. Tatiana Guderzo
    5. Pauline Ferrand Prevot

  4. @meursault That’s sad news.  It can happen to any of us anywhere anytime. To die doing what you love is a blessing, to die so young is a tradgedy…Chapeau…

  5. As part of my endless quest to appear like I have some kind of insight, I am not picking Vos.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Stevens
    2. Bronzini
    3. Teutenberg
    4. Johansson
    5. Hoskins

  6. Cromwell in a solo break not quite reeled in…

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Cromwell
    2. Vos
    3. Pooley
    4. Polspoel
    5. Arndt

  7. Picking against Vos is stupid, but then against sometimes it pays to be stupid

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Stevens
    2. Vos
    3. Arndt
    4. Cromwell
    5. Pooley

  8. VSP PICKS:

    1. Marianne Vos
    2. Giorgia Bronzini
    3. Evelyn Stevens
    4. Emilia Fahlin
    5. Elizabeth Armitstead

  9. @Lukas

    Full picks this time.  I think that too many racers will be marking Vos for her to be able to pull this one out.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Van Vleuten
    2. Pooley
    3. Vos
    4. Arndt
    5. Bronzini

    Just wondering, how exactly does someone mark Vos?  Does that go something like this?

    “Okay, when we hit the Cauberg, I’ll sit on Vos’s wheel and you break away from her.”

    “Good plan. Tell me again, how am I going to break away from her.”

    “Just ride faster.”

    “Oh. Okay. That will be easy.’

  10. @Erik

    @Lukas

    Full picks this time.  I think that too many racers will be marking Vos for her to be able to pull this one out.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Van Vleuten
    2. Pooley
    3. Vos
    4. Arndt
    5. Bronzini

    Just wondering, how exactly does someone mark Vos?  Does that go something like this?

    “Okay, when we hit the Cauberg, I’ll sit on Vos’s wheel and you break away from her.”

    “Good plan. Tell me again, how am I going to break away from her.”

    “Just ride faster.”

    “Oh. Okay. That will be easy.’

    Thanks for that – the coffee that shot up my nose upon reading this was delightful.

  11. VSP PICKS:

    1. Vos
    2. Zabelinskaya
    3. Bronzini
    4. Cooke
    5. Johanssen

  12. “Pray to your god.” I really like that, Gianni! One, it could be taken as necessary to have any hope of picking this, since many of us don’t follow the women as closely as we follow the men. And, picking races in general isn’t easy, as demonstrated by the stats ChrisO (I think, right?) ran. And, I enjoy the small “g” and the openness to multiple gods. Nice! Universalist Unitarian VSP!!!!

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Vos
    2. Van Vleuten
    3. Bronzini
    4. Pooley
    5. Arndt

  13. Hoping for a kiwi dark horse on the podium (mixed metaphor I know)

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Vos
    2. Arndt
    3. Vilmussen
    4. Johanssen
    5. Pooley

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