Velominati Super Prestige

Velominati Super Prestige: Milano-Sanremo 2015

Le Primavera has arrived. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 2015 Velominati Super Prestige. It’s been a long quiet winter of very little cycling news, little racing and barely a scandal. This Sunday marks the real beginning of the season for us cycling fanatics.

The true beauty of MSR, that despite its length, only on the descent of the Poggio and the run in to Sanremo does the race really show itself.  No one is going to solo away in the last forty kms. No one is going to drop everybody on the Poggio and ride away to arrive a minute ahead on the Via Roma. The descent off the Poggio is its own race. And it’s the reason inept descenders like Frank Schleck are not pulling on the shoe covers this Sunday. Getting down to the Via Roma at the front requires some bravado. It will be a sprint of some fashion; maybe one, maybe two, maybe twenty. One is going to have to watch 290 kms of racing to understand the last three.

There is talk of rain on the coast. Rain is not required for Milano-Sanremo. It is for Paris-Roubaix. Here is a provisional start list. Be specific about your picks, just entering Chavanel can get you in a spot of bother your whining will not get you out of. And the betting window closes when the countdown timer goes to zero so refresh your page to know for sure. Or better yet, get your picks in early, like your taxes.

This 2015 Milano-Sanremo will be a good one. It is a very open field with many viable winners. Getting on the Big Board early won’t be easy this Sunday. Whatever OCD ritual you need to do to get good picks in, do it correctly, many times, then one more time for good luck.

The VSP is a race. It bestows some bragging rights on those that do well. Feel free to mock others picks, just acknowledge it when they drop you like a sack of nails. If you are supreme, omniscient and your god is a cruel (they all are) yet fair god you may win a Velominati oven mitt. But if you are supreme (supremely lucky) over the whole VSP season, then dear reader, you are going to win something special. These are the prizes for the overall 2015 season. Due to the fact that we are unable to recognize the passage of time in a meaningful way, we have yet to complete the prize list, but here is a teaser:

First place– Something big and awesome, to be determined.

Second Place– A Café Roubaix/Velominati wheel-set, Chris King hubs, hand built by professional wheelsmith and Velominatus Dan Richter.

Third Place– A Velominati kit: jersey, bibs, and cap.

The VSP generator has been rebuilt with new o-rings, auxiliary pull-start and tube amplifiers. The specifics of the VSP can be found on its slightly out of date page. Let’s do this.

[vsp_results id=”32514″/]

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212 Replies to “Velominati Super Prestige: Milano-Sanremo 2015”

  1. VSP PICKS:

    1. Kristoff
    2. Degenkolb
    3. Sagan
    4. van Avermaet
    5. Cavendish

  2. Holy Shiet, I guess it’s time to make some bold predictions. Malmerde…boom. I may be the only person who is including him! I want Fabs to win but I don’t think so, nor Cav, probably not Sagan. Points, I don’t need no stinking points. I’m going to hell. See ya!

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Degenkolb
    2. Valverde
    3. Cancellara
    4. Sagan
    5. Stybar

  3. @brett

    Bunch gallop in the rain. Heiny gets his revenge. Well I have to pick him because I said he’d win a Classic this year!

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Haussler
    2. Cav
    3. Kristoff
    4. Degenkolb
    5. Sagan

    Really? I’m finally off the Haussler wagon, after picking him to do something for years. I guess that means it’s time for him to win a Classic. Bold choice.

  6. I want to patriotic and select Cav for the win, but I just don’t think he has the kick to take Kristoff

  7. VSP PICKS:

    1. Peter Sagan
    2. Alexander Kristoff
    3. Mark Cavendish
    4. Michael Mathews
    5. Edvald Boasson Hagen

  9. I’m having serious issues trying to post my picks – getting 502 errors, gateway timing out

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Cancellara
    2. Kristoff
    3. Cavendish
    4. Degenkolb
    5. Sagan

  11. VSP picks

    1 – Cavandish

    2 – Kristoff

    3 – Matthews

    4 – Sagan

    5 – Cancellara

  12. @girl

    @RedRanger

    @girl

    Random post: Just noticed that Emma Pooley is racing Ironman Melbourne. Can’t wait to see her bike split.

    Yup, she can actually make a living competing in TRIs versus just road racing. Sadly.


    @RedRanger

    Which saying something as there isn’t much money in tri racing.

    A little boast – I beat her in a TT last week. She may have rode there and back and did a run off the bike – but we won’t mention that.

  16. @rfreese888

    Yes I think there must have been a problem. I came to make some late changes and put Lobato and Matthews in place of Cavendish and Kwiatkowski, but got repeated Error 502 messages.

  18. Great finish, chapeau to Geraint, if he’d just had a bigger gap at the top of the Poggio…

    Result:

    1 John Degenkolb (Ger) Team Giant-Alpecin    
    2 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Team Katusha    
    3 Michael Matthews (Aus) Orica GreenEdge    
    4 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff-Saxo    
    5 Niccolo Bonifazio (Ita) Lampre-Merida    
    6 Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits    
    7 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Trek Factory Racing    
    8 Davide Cimolai (Ita) Lampre-Merida    
    9 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal    
    10 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) MTN – Qhubeka

  19. Chapeau à Paolini, as well, for working so hard to get his leader on the podium.

  20. Mathews was unlucky to get boxed in. He did well to finish third after having to check his sprint and move two riders across.

  21. Many, Johny Boy comes through!! What a finale, he was so far back and then BOOM!! Perfect finish. Haven’t seen any photos yet to know if Kristoff kept his helmet on straight or not.

    @dylander takes the lead and last year’s runner-up, @steampunk gets a good start in second. Nicely done!

    [vsp_results id=”32514″/]

  22. @frank

     Haven’t seen any photos yet to know if Kristoff kept his helmet on straight or not.

    Looks OK in this pic, but the spotlight wasn’t on him this time.

  23. Clearly it didn’t rain enough for Hairstyle Haussler.  Bling Matthews came oh-so close too.  Nevermind, well done to Freddie Mercury and Kristoff-from-Frozen.

  24. Solid start to the season – hopefully I’ll finish the season off a little better this year. I think it’ll be tough to match the scores of the last couple of seasons – the grand tours will be as hotly contested this year as they were last year (although surely we won’t see the same crazy shenanigans at this year’s TDF), but I think the real difference will be in the Women’s races. The women’s field has really compressed at the top with more teams possessing serious contenders and Wiggle, Boels and HiTec all getting closer to Rabo-Liv.

  26. We should do a VSP on how many times Cav is gonna drop a chain this year…

  29. @Barracuda

    What’s he doing changing chainrings any way? Sur Le Plaque Fucktard.

    The way Big John pushed his way through the pack was masterful, you could see Bling getting boxed. He will win this one day though, if Caleb doesn’t beat him to it.

  30. @Daccordi Rider

    @Barracuda

    What’s he doing changing chainrings any way? Sur Le Plaque Fucktard.

    The way Big John pushed his way through the pack was masterful, you could see Bling getting boxed. He will win this one day though, if Caleb doesn’t beat him to it.

    Agree, Caleb will do the business next year. Heard it here first  !

  31. @Daccordi Rider

    You think he was changing gears? I doubt it, and there’s no way he was changing to the big ring in the middle of a sprint last time.

    I think the new FSA chainrings aren’t stiff enough. They also look shit.

  33. @The Grande Fondue

    @Daccordi Rider

    You think he was changing gears? I doubt it, and there’s no way he was changing to the big ring in the middle of a sprint last time.

    I think the new FSA chainrings aren’t stiff enough. They also look shit.

    He said it fell to the outside (and that Tom Boonen had similar incidents), which means either his mechanic is so shit he fucked up a Di2 derailleur install, or he was actually in a very hard gear.

    I had this happen on a regular basis, in the end I nailed it down to a bent tooth on a chainring (yep, you guessed it – FSA) and, more importantly, bad chainline. It would drop in the harder gears, and in the 52-11, the angle was so bad the chain went off even backpedalling. I nearly castrated myself when the chain fell and jammed in a sprint. In the end, some combination of new chain, chainrings and a spacer at the crank stopped it from reappearing, but I’m still apprehensive about using the 11. I also wrecked the wheel last week, so I’m hoping the replacement will be better in that regard, with a more inward freehub.

  34. Rode out of town to meet a friend, then did a road ride, then got to his place in time to see the final 25 km. Couldn’t get the volume to work, so we had to call it ourselves. Still want to rewatch Farrar spiking his helmet.

    Impressed by Paolini and Kristoff. Very nice moves by Degenkolb. Also…Cancellara? I never, ever saw him and he turned up 7th. Wow, he’s always in the mix.

  35. @tessar

    @The Grande Fondue

    @Daccordi Rider

    You think he was changing gears? I doubt it, and there’s no way he was changing to the big ring in the middle of a sprint last time.

    I think the new FSA chainrings aren’t stiff enough. They also look shit.

    He said it fell to the outside (and that Tom Boonen had similar incidents), which means either his mechanic is so shit he fucked up a Di2 derailleur install, or he was actually in a very hard gear.

    I had this happen on a regular basis, in the end I nailed it down to a bent tooth on a chainring (yep, you guessed it – FSA) and, more importantly, bad chainline. It would drop in the harder gears, and in the 52-11, the angle was so bad the chain went off even backpedalling. I nearly castrated myself when the chain fell and jammed in a sprint. In the end, some combination of new chain, chainrings and a spacer at the crank stopped it from reappearing, but I’m still apprehensive about using the 11. I also wrecked the wheel last week, so I’m hoping the replacement will be better in that regard, with a more inward freehub.

    Yeah, Etixx need to get this fixed asap. It’s getting embarrassing. It’s got to be equipment rather than mechanic.

    Pity Etixx didn’t at least place, then we would have been spared the three baseball caps on the podium. They always get that part right these days even if their chains don’t stay on.

  38. @Steampunk

    @Ron

    Is that Cancellara’s worst finish in a Monument since 2007?

    I think it ends a streak of 7-8 consecutive podium finishes in monuments.

  39. @Ron

    Rode out of town to meet a friend, then did a road ride, then got to his place in time to see the final 25 km. Couldn’t get the volume to work, so we had to call it ourselves. Still want to rewatch Farrar spiking his helmet.

    Impressed by Paolini and Kristoff. Very nice moves by Degenkolb. Also…Cancellara? I never, ever saw him and he turned up 7th. Wow, he’s always in the mix.

    Ciolek not Farrar. Great footage of Gilbert hitting the padding in that crash at Cyclocosm HTRWW.

  40. @tessar

    @The Grande Fondue

    @Daccordi Rider

    You think he was changing gears? I doubt it, and there’s no way he was changing to the big ring in the middle of a sprint last time.

    I think the new FSA chainrings aren’t stiff enough. They also look shit.

    He said it fell to the outside (and that Tom Boonen had similar incidents), which means either his mechanic is so shit he fucked up a Di2 derailleur install, or he was actually in a very hard gear.

    I had this happen on a regular basis, in the end I nailed it down to a bent tooth on a chainring (yep, you guessed it – FSA) and, more importantly, bad chainline. It would drop in the harder gears, and in the 52-11, the angle was so bad the chain went off even backpedalling. I nearly castrated myself when the chain fell and jammed in a sprint. In the end, some combination of new chain, chainrings and a spacer at the crank stopped it from reappearing, but I’m still apprehensive about using the 11. I also wrecked the wheel last week, so I’m hoping the replacement will be better in that regard, with a more inward freehub.

    Thanks for the info, mine was based on supposition and wild guess work. So he was shifting into the big ring I would guess and it over shifted? Moral of the story, keep your gear happy, don’t mix rice with pasta etc. Every test I’ve ever seen wonders why people use proprietary chainrings instead of the correct branded stuff as it never runs as well. I know Cav has sponsor obligations but….

  44. @Daccordi Rider

    Thanks for the info, mine was based on supposition and wild guess work. So he was shifting into the big ring I would guess and it over shifted? Moral of the story, keep your gear happy, don’t mix rice with pasta etc. Every test I’ve ever seen wonders why people use proprietary chainrings instead of the correct branded stuff as it never runs as well. I know Cav has sponsor obligations but….

    Not necessarily even shifting the front. In my case it was just a case of bad chainline in the small cogs pulling the chain off the ring – all it takes then is a hard effort, some rocking of the bike or a bump in the road.

    FSA’s top rings are pretty damn good, and there’s no necessity to match cranks to the groupset. Many bikes these days don’t come with Shimano cranks because they don’t offer a 30mm spindle, and while Shimano rings are amazing, Di2 shifting components will work well with pretty much any crank. Most of the peloton runs the “wrong” crankset – mostly because of the powermeters. My Rotor 3D with a power2max power metering spider and SRAM rings works flawlessly on a Shimano 7800/6700 drivetrain.

  48. @Pedale.Forchetta

    I know he’s in front of him & so appears a little bigger, but have a look at the size difference between those guns!

    Greipel’s packing a pair of cannons, Vincenzo has a pair that look more like long barreled rifles

  49. @Pedale.Forchetta

    @RobSandy

    But as you can see he’s leading Nibali!

    Yeah, go big guy!

    @Mikael Liddy

    Greipel’s packing a pair of cannons, Vincenzo has a pair that look more like long barreled rifles

    And have you seen the photo comparing Greipel’s guns to one of the German track sprinters? Makes Greipel’s look like pea-shooters.

  50. @Pedale.Forchetta

    @RobSandy

    But as you can see he’s leading Nibali!

    You should put your pic of Van Avermaet up here.

    That guy has a Gold Rewards Card to the Pain Cave. Such an exciting racer. I really hope he gets a good win this season.

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