What a difference four years can make. In Beijing, Nicole Cooke was the dominant rider in Women’s Cycling, taking wins in every important race on the Women’s calendar for several years running. Fast finish, good in the hills, good against the clock, she helped give context to what we mean by the term “all rounder”.
Four years on, she’s been struggling with injury and the pressures of forming her own team which has resulted in the inevitable reduction in results. But don’t count her out just yet; she has been showing some form already this year and during the last Olympic year, she burst into form for the event to take Gold. Add to that the motivation a British rider is sure to feel racing at her home Games, and you’d be a fool to leave her off your list of considerations.
Be that as it may, she’s facing up to a strong field. Kristen Armstrong dropped out of the Cascade Classic (while leading it) in order to prepare for the games. Not to mention Marianne Vos, who dominated the Giro last month – or Giorgia Bronzini, whose website I find vaguely frightening.
Review the route and study the weird, paged roster if you like pretending that helps you, and get your picks in by 5am Pacific on Sunday. (If you find Time Zone Mathematics too complicated, just get your picks in by the time the giant countdown timer in the banner goes to zero), regular One-Day VSP rules apply. Good luck.
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@Buck Rogers
This
@Ankush
That's been the plan other times, like during last year's road race, and The Cookey Monster manages to find herself a good reason to deviate from the plan and do her own ride. I'm not saying they won't be united, I'm just saying Pooley isn't capable of controlling Cooke.
@eightzero
Two curiosities: First, I thought you detested Evey more than bamboo shoots being slowly inserted under your finger nails, and second, what asterisk? Did I miss something? She test positive for something?
@eightzero
have you been asleep since Beijing? If so, what happened in the meantime is that we allfound out your country is broke - along with most of Europe.
China has lots of money. And we have some because they buy our steel.
VSP PICKS:
1. Vos
2. Armstrong
3. Arndt
4. Olds
5. Teutenberg
@frank Ah no, have you gone all political on me???
That roster page looks like a collection of Wanted posters. Gut-feeling tells me Team Specialized-lululemon might just be the Sky/Quickstep behemoth of the women's peloton, and their riders will probably do well for their nations, too. The Dutch have to feature, though, and while I have a feeling I'll won't be earning any points for these picks, I'm backing Van Vleuten over Vos.
I'm counting on Worrack to provide the women's equivalent of Jens Voigt - the weather-beaten German hardwoman will inflict masses of pain. Fahlin is dangerous enough on her own, Ferrand-Prevot is a long shot with Arndt in the picks being the equivalent of a point-blank shotgun into a barrel.
VSP PICKS:
1. Trixie Worrack
2. Emma Fahlin
3. Annemiek Van Vleuten
4. Pauline Ferrand-Prevot
5. Judith Arndt
A problem with predicting (or, trying-to-be-original-with-predictions) in female endurance sports is that the field is often so small that the gaps in ability are too large to be ignored. I mean, if hundreds of thousands of male cyclists dream of being competitive, at least 50,000 make it to ProConti, of which around 1000 make it into the UCI ProTour teams. That's a pretty harsh selection that ensures that the worst and best at the very top level are all still pretty damn incredible. Women's endurance sports don't have such deep fields to begin with, so with less options, the gaps are often bigger.
Like Chrissie Wellington's domination on the Ironman circuit, it appears as through there are around 10 female cyclists who each, on a day with good legs, can punch the peloton a new orifice. Van Vleuten, not too long ago, dropped the peloton, caught Vos and her breakaway companion, and then dropped those, too - just like that. Arndt has been dominant for a decade or so, Worrack, like Voigt, never seems to fade. Armstrong has been untouchable at the TT, too. The few who are an exceptional talent stand out so high that others pale in comparison.
VSP PICKS:
1. Armitstead
2. Hosking
3. Olds
4. Teutenberg
5. Vos
@frank
1. I'll support Evie in the Olympics. The Olympics are all about money, so she's a good fit. I even saw her recent comment about the selection for the TT. Essentially "glad they picked somone better for that. 4 years ago I was behind a desk." Yeah. Years ago when Bill Johnson won the first US Olympic skiing medal, some TV dude pushed a mic in his face and asked him "what does an Olympic medal mean to you?" He smiled and answered rather truthfull, "Millions."
2. When talking about cycling, we need to differentiate between Armstrongs. There is Kristen (Armstrongnoasterisk) and COTHO. Don't confuse them.
@Marcus
Oh, Evie has lots of money. Pretty sure she had an address not in Colordao, but on Wall Street. And that makes all the difference in the world.
And yes, I am now willing to let this go.