Velominati Super Prestige: Women’s Ronde van Vlaanderen 2016

Queen Lizzie leads the chasing group up the Oude Kwaremont

Has anyone checked the weather report for Sunday? Seriously. Have you checked? Wind. Rain. This. Is. Going. To. Be. EPIC. And you can all thank me for that because this is the year I chose not to head over there, naturally. I’m annoyed that we didn’t do a Women’s Gent-Wevelgem; we somehow missed it even though we should know better because Belgium is way ahead of all the other countries in terms of holding both Men’s and Women’s events. But we’re not missing this one.

Queen Lizzie has been crushing it this year, but since I can’t find a start list I’m just assuming she’s on it for Sunday. The weather will be a real wild card because wet cobbles are very different to gobble up than dry cobbles, especially when it comes to cornering hard and climbing steep bergs; if they haven’t trained riding the Paterberg or Koppenberg in the wet, those could be decisive in the outcome. And while we focus on the cobbled climbs, there are significant secteurs of pavé on the flat and rolling terrain, sometimes involving tight, high speed corners; wet cobbles could play a significant factor there as well.

And I’m not an expert on wind strength, but 16 kmph of wind seems like it might be strong enough to blow some of the ladies off the road if they are on deep section rims, so that will be interesting as well.

Remember there are prizes on offer; Don Walker is giving a free custom steel frame to the winner of the VSP overall, and Café Roubaix is awarding a set of their CR Wheelworks Arenberg wheelsets to the runner-up. Third place gets a free V-Kit. Boom. So get prognosticating and get your picks in before the clock goes to zero. Good luck!

Update: Thanks to @hudson for a start list.

[vsp_results id=”40379″/]

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.

Next Velominati Super Prestige: Men's Ronde van Vlaanderen 2016 »

Previous « On Motors and Bikes: The Next Ride

View Comments

Fred says:

Apr 1 2016 at 5:42 am
Can't wait!

VSP PICKS:
1. ferrand-prevot
2. armitstead
3. blaak
4. emma johansson
5. van der breggen
Roobar says:

Apr 1 2016 at 5:56 am
VSP PICKS:
1. Johansson
2. Armistead
3. Elvin
4. Longo Borghini
5. Cromwell
LeoTea says:

Apr 1 2016 at 6:05 am
Looks like there'll be a kosher livestream to watch.

VSP PICKS:
1. Queen Lizzie
2. Chantal Blaak
3. Longo Borghini
4. Emma Johannson
5. Warpdrive
Minnesota Expat says:

Apr 1 2016 at 7:29 am
@LeoTea
Looks like there’ll be a kosher livestream to watch.

VSP PICKS:
1. Queen Lizzie
2. Chantal Blaak
3. Longo Borghini
4. Emma Johannson
5. Warpdrive
You guys are freaking me out, picking Chantal Blaak.
LeoTea says:

Apr 1 2016 at 7:34 am
@Minnesota Expat
@LeoTea
Looks like there’ll be a kosher livestream to watch.

VSP PICKS:

Queen Lizzie

Chantal Blaak

Longo Borghini

Emma Johannson

Warpdrive
You guys are freaking me out, picking Chantal Blaak.
Pffffft. It's not like I know what I'm doing. My method for picking women's races goes something like this:
1. Is Lizzy in decent form? If so, stick her in first.
2. Who's been winning recently (Blaak has 2/3 other wins this season).
3. Who did well in this race last year.
4. Tiffany always goes in at number 5, cos she's gotten me good results in the past.
mulebeatsdrums says:

Apr 1 2016 at 7:35 am
The Queen has made no secret of the fact that her two targets this year are RVV and the Olympics, so naturally she's at the top of my list. Also, she's British; if we can do anything, it's succeed in bad weather!

Vos has returned, and has started winning already. She's not on the startlist, but I'm going to keep a keen eye on the team presentation on Saturday, because if she makes an appearance, she's on the podium for sure.

Provisionally:

VSP PICKS:
1. HM Queen Lizzie
2. D'Hoore
3. Blaak
4. Van Der Breggen
5. Johansson
frank says:

Apr 1 2016 at 8:01 am
@Wietse Verbrugghe
@frank

I don’t know where you get your weather forecasts, but no way it’s going to be a rough day Sunday. The whole weekend will be sunny, warm and mostly dry. Also, no wicked winds, at least not compared to Gent-Wevelgem last week, although it never really stops being windy around here. Just a heads up, don’t expect too much.

VSP PICKS:
1. Queen Lizzie
2. Johansson
3. D’Hoore
4. Blaak
5. Longo Borghini
Back on Weds when I was showing it, Google was predicting a shit storm. Disappointed it will be warm and sunny!
chuckp says:

Apr 1 2016 at 8:12 am
Hard not to pick Lizzie. I admit putting PFP on the podium is more an emotional rather than rational pick. But I think two Boels on the podium is not unrealistic.

VSP PICKS:
1. Armistead
2. Ferrand-Prevot
3. Guarnier
4. Borghini
5. Blaak
fignons barber says:

Apr 1 2016 at 8:30 am
VSP PICKS:
1. Armitstead
2. Borghini
3. Blaak
4. Van Der Breggen
5. Checchini
bwjosh says:

Apr 1 2016 at 9:05 am
VSP PICKS:
1. C. Blaak
2. E. van Dijk
3. E. Longo Borghini
4. E. Johansson
5. G. Elvin