Velominati Super Prestige: Milano San-Remo 2012

Fignon drills it on the Pogio in 1989. Photo: L'Equipe

The Poggio. It’s probably one of the most famous easy climbs in the world; going through old cycling photographs, I rarely come across one where the leaders haven’t moved Sur La Plaque. It has a reputation, however, for being a real leg breaker, mostly because any climb is a big climb once you cross its summit after a paltry 291 kilometers. And the descent provides one of the twistiest, most exhilarating finales in the sport.

This race stands apart as the longest on the calendar, and represents the only of the five Monuments where the sprinters have a chance at final glory. But this can have it all: the long, solo break routinely makes it to the finish uncaught. The final attacks on the Poggio regularly stick. The attack that goes away on the climb often gets caught on the descent. And, sometimes the whole thing stays together for a bunch gallop. Essentially, any ride who is on form has a chance at glory. This is a unique race.

The question on everyone’s mind is wether Cavendish can get over the Poggio in position to make it to the finish in the first group. If he does, then you can jot down the winner right now. He’s lost some significant weight in the last few weeks, so his climbing should be good; we also have it on good authority from our eyes and ears on the roads in Italy that the Manx Mouth has been spotted training in the hills of Italy with the express intention of making it over the last bump. If, on the other hand, he gets spat out the back like a rainbow turd when the road points uphill, it will be a free-for-all. The fast semi-climbers with descending skills like Nibbles are talking big about their chances. And who in their right minds would ever discount Faboo with his brommer or Gilbert once he fires the howitzers.

So rub your lucky rabbit’s foot and throw some salt over your shoulder; you’re going to need some divine intervention on this one. This year’s VSP is also the first year where we’ll be offering a special badge to the winner of the monuments. We can’t unveil the MSR Badge yet, but the winner of this VSP event will have the honor of posting with the badge until next year’s event. The winner will also receive a free Symbol Pack. Check the start list and get your picks in by 5am Pacific on Saturday morning; if timezone arithmetic isn’t your strong suit, just watch the countdown timer in the banner at the top of the site. As usual, your points go towards the overall VSP as well.

Good luck.

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537 Replies to “Velominati Super Prestige: Milano San-Remo 2012”

  1. Gilbert is too fat to climb, Cancellara and Cavendish both look really strong so I’m guessing it will be Spartacus against Team Sky, with Freire and Sagan as other close finishers. Boonen is now lacking the speed he had in 2005, but he has proven he can handle MSR and he is still a fast finisher, not to mention he is also in shape.

    Can’t wait for Saturday!

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Cancellara
    2. Cavendish
    3. Freire
    4. Sagan
    5. Boonen

  2. Alright here we go.
    Also the link for the start list lead to last years list.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. M. Cavendish
    2. A. Greipel
    3. F. Cancellara
    4. V. Nibali
    5. O. Freire

  3. VSP PICKS:

    1. gerant thomas
    2. mark cavendish
    3. fabian Cancellara
    4. philippe gilbert
    5. thor husold

  4. VSP PICKS:

    1. Mark Cavendish
    2. Fabian Cancellara
    3. Peter Sagen
    4. Mark Renshaw
    5. Tom Boonen

  5. But really, rooting for Boom!

    VSP PICKS:

    1. CANCELLARA Fabian SU
    2. BOONEN Tom BEL
    3. FLECHA GIANNONI Juan Antonio ESP
    4. O’GRADY Stuart AUS
    5. 132 SAGAN Peter SVK

  6. Fuck! Fuckidy fuck fuck…………Cav or Giblets, or neither, fuck……….

  7. VSP PICKS:

    1. Fabian Cancellara
    2. Phillipe gilbert
    3. Thor Hushovd
    4. Peter Sagain
    5. Tom boonen

  8. VSP PICKS:

    1. CANCELLARA Fabian SU
    2. BOONEN Tom BEL
    3. FREIRE GOMEZ Oscar ESP
    4. O’GRADY Stuart AUS
    5. SAGAN Peter SVK

  9. VSP PICKS:

    1. Cavendish
    2. Gilbert
    3. Gerraint Thomas
    4. Sagan
    5. Renshaw

  10. @Netraam
    thanks.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. CANCELLARA Fabian SU
    2. BOONEN Tom BEL
    3. FREIRE GOMEZ Oscar ESP
    4. O’GRADY Stuart AUS
    5. SAGAN Peter SVK

  11. @paolo
    No, I read his twitter feed.
    1. I’m a student in the Netherlands, not in Italy
    2. Even if I was in Italy right now, flying over the Poggio dropping Cavendish, feeling his head?

    @Rickx
    You’re welcome.

  12. total crap shoot!

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Cav
    2. Boonen
    3. Henrich Hausler
    4. Cancellara
    5. Thor..God of blunder

  13. VSP PICKS:

    1. Fabian Cancellara
    2. Tom Boonen
    3. Phillipe Gilbert
    4. Peter Sagan
    5. Daniele Bennati

  14. I can’t wait for this one. Yeehaw! Faboonen = the classics duels between Fabian and Tomeke. “Looks like 2012 is going to be another Faboonen year in the classics.”

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Boonen
    2. Cavendish
    3. Faboo
    4. Sagan
    5. EBH

  15. @Netraam

    I love you posts. They are strange and bizzare.

    “2. Even if I was in Italy right now, flying over the Poggio dropping Cavendish, feeling his head?”

    I have no idea what this means and yet still I want to see it on a T shirt.

  16. @marko

    I can’t wait for this one. Yeehaw! Faboonen = the classics duels between Fabian and Cancellara. “Looks like 2012 is going to be another Faboonen year in the classics.”

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Boonen
    2. Cavendish
    3. Faboo
    4. Sagan
    5. EBH

    Between Fabian and Cancellara LOL. A Fabian divided against himself will not stand!!

  17. @Marko

    @paolo
    HA! I noticed my typo as you posted – fixed. That was a funny one.

    oi..no fair! We cant edit our posts when we make mistakes!!!!

  18. Merckx help me………I’ll change this 10 more times before the weekend.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Manx Mouth
    2. Freire n chips
    3. Petacchi
    4. Nibbles
    5. T Boo

  19. I think Cav gets over the Poggio with the peloton and three or four of his Sky flight attendants, and if that happens, I don’t see how you can bet against him, given his season so far.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Cav
    2. Faboo
    3. Boonen
    4. Nibali
    5. Greipel

  20. @Dr C
    I will gladly offer my whereabouts and have drug testing, if only to show the world that I have not used performance enhancing methods.

  21. Totally pulled a Ron and missed the last race. Doubt I can catch back up now, but we’ll see!

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Haussler
    2. Cavendish
    3. Boonen
    4. Thor
    5. Sagan

  22. I’d love to see Tommeke win it. Wouldn’t be surprised given his early season form. Still not betting on him though….

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Nibali
    2. Cav
    3. Freire
    4. Boonen
    5. EBH

  23. Oh yeah, the mankx muff will probably be in there, as he will exert ZERO energy during the entire race, having his face securely planted in some much stronger team mate’s bib shorts. He’ll have beau-coup energy for the last 20 yards.

    ‘There is no glory in riding 298 kilometers with your face in another, much stronger man’s bib shorts’

    -General George S. Patton (March 26, 1945)

    VSP PICKS:

    1. THE GOD OF THUNDER
    2. Boon-Boon
    3. Petacchi
    4. Ty
    5. Gossy

  24. @Bianchi_Bob
    George Patton’s idea of glory was making the Germans so afraid they would run upon seeing his army, even though he had no ammo or fuel.

  25. In retrospect, I’d love to see 2 people chasing each other the entire race, going flatout for almost 300 kilometres.

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