Velominati Super Prestige: La Fleche Wallone 2014
Midweek in Belgium in Spring is a wonderful thing. Hordes of people come from seemingly nowhere to fill the bars and line the roadsides when presumably they’d usually be working, or at school, or some such. That the only ones who appear to be working are the bartenders and frites dispensers reinforces my belief that Belgium is the greatest country in the world.
You can bet your bottom dollar that the town of Huy will once again be heaving on Wednesday when the riders of La Fleche Wallone tackle the horrible, beautiful Mur de Huy three times in the afternoon (whether you regard the climb as horrible or beautiful largely depends if you’re on a bike or in the pub). While three times up the Mur is never going to be fun, the last ascent has to be one of the most brutal finishes to any race, on any climb, anywhere. It truly is horribly beautiful.
I guess the talk will now centre on Dr Phil and whether he can repeat, threepeat or maybe even Steve Peat his way into the history books after his wins in Brabantse Pilj and Amstel Gold in the last week. The way he’s riding, the only surer bet you could make is that Abandy doesn’t show up. So with that thought, get thee to the start list, watch the timer (if we’ve managed to work it out) and get your picks in to stay in GC contention for the greatest prize pool in internet based cycling related tipping competitions.
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 and bottoms up!
[vsp_results id=”29637″/]
My mistake — green is not always Europcar.
The finale looms….
My stream is not working either. Audio but no video.
Cunego crashed out under 3k
I’m not a fan of Valverde winning at the best of times, but it’s even worse when he was going to be my VSP pick.
Yowza!
Cunego & Purito keeping up my streak of riders to suffer a mishap and take them out of contention….
Ha! 1st and 4th picked correctly, I’m slowly getting into this season.
You know what really fucks me off more than that douchebag winning? The fawning, cotho-esque treatment he gets off the commentators…
Damn, was hoping Danny boy could pull it off! Fine effort by the lad and here’s hoping for a better result on Sunday. PhilGil was cooked. Schleck fell off. Sorry to see wee Damiano fall too – I’ve always had a soft spot for him.
More shite and worthless picks coming for Sunday. I’ll miss the race because of the Cheesehead Roubaix. Reports are the gravel roads are ok until the end, then it gets kinda bad.
Crap! Was so tempted to pick Valverde for the win but got caught up in the Gilbert/Ardennes Sweep hype. Oh, and I guess Dan Martin’s knee really was a 100% today.
Good to have the heart racing while sitting at the desk this morning — with coffee!
Fuckin MalMerde. And that’s all I have to say about that!
Malmerde wins. It had to happen. Just saying.
[vsp_results id=”29637″/]
Holy crap – 11 points – even a blind squirrel can find a nut. You guys are teaching me stuff……..
@Buck Rogers Seconded.
@Nate
Thirded.
No idea how I did in the women’s race, I can’t seem to load the posts in any browser or anything.
@The Grande Fondue
What the hell is up with Betancour? He looked like a million dollars earlier in the year, and looked like he cruised through Amstel, but here he finished a minute down. Does he only ride when he’s there for the win?
Also, fuck crashes on the Mur. At least I didn’t put JRod in.
Also, fuck Malmerde.
@The Grande Fondue
Now I’ve actually watched the video I that back. Gilbert just didn’t have the legs.
Still fuck Malmerde, but he knows not to go too early on the Mur. Dan Martin & Kwiatkowski need to watch Evans’ win in 2010 and watch this one again.
well Glad to see Martin is ok. not a big deal, but it says i got two points when I believe that should be seven, 5 for Martin and 1 each for the kiddo and Valverde
@Chris S
Ah then…
@The Grande Fondue Betancour got a virus after Paris Nice & then pulled out of Pais Vasco with a knee issue after the first stage so he may not be as sharp as possible at the moment…watch out for him at the Giro though.
Fuck me, 9 points!
Delgado’d the ladies race though…doh!
Valverde is in serious danger of almost waring knickers, I mean W.T.F. Major Rule #27 violation. While Martin’s short length seems perfect to me, his sock length is getting close to Footballer category.
@Mikael Liddy
Agree, agree and agree again.
Im not liking the Valv at all. But I hear he speaks highly of me, meh
6th’d or 7th’d, and I thought him likely to win, but I’m never picking him to win, ever. Fuck the VSP.
do I need to hit the “submit Post” button to lodge a dispute, or just the dispute button? (got no points for 5th pick)
@Rom Hit the dispute button for the 5th place. Somehow there are two Slaghter (?) names in the VSP data bank. One has a hyphen, ones does not, yada, yada, yada, Was he your 5th place pick?
One point.
Im shit at this!
@Gianni
Hi @Gianni, yes I meant the Slagter that came 5th
@Barracuda
Aargh, at least you didn’t Delgado… damn midweek racing.
@Gianni Where is this dispute button, should I have specified D Martin
@anhtony
Fuck yes you should have. And I quote-
On the right side of your picks is a triangle. Hit that and activate the dispute button. I promise nothing.
@Gianni OK OK! Totally my fault. In my defence it was late and I was drunk most likely, and while I am frequently a fool, I am not dumb enough to pick The big German to finish second In such a contest.
@Gianni
Hi Gianni
I’ve hit the dispute button on Tom Jelte Slagter twice. No update. I’ll take no hypen but every other character represented and in the correct order. that 1 point may make a difference at the end of the season. Probably not.
@JohnB
Sorry, I thought just correcting the pick would award you the point (s). I’ll open up the machine.
@Gianni I’m obliged. Slagter was my semi educated ‘pin’ into the start list and gaining even one more measly point, or in a more positive tone, increasing my race score by 100% would go a small way to validating the selection process!
VLVV
@JohnB
Hi Gianni
same with with me and I’ve still got no points for Slagter.
looking to double my points awesomeness here.
cheers
rom