While the The V Moment of the Year is the moment during the season when the sport demonstrated the most pure example of spirit of The V, the Anti-V Moment of the Year similarly acknowledges the moment in which all those things that make The V great were ignored. This is more than just cheating or climbing into the broom wagon; this is reserved for under-handed tactics, or wheel-sucking to the win, complaining about dangerous descents, canceling races for bad weather.
The Anti-V is a virus. It starts small, as a nagging doubt perhaps about form or willingness to suffer that day. It replicates and feeds on itself; giving in to doubt is easier when you’ve done it before, and the more you do it, the easier it gets. It manifests itself in an absence of those things we love most about cycling: a combination of guts, class, and panache.
Before I go any further, I’d like to point out that we had even more trouble deciding on the Anti-V moment than we did the V Moment. Bretto made the case for les Fréres Grimpeur, but couldn’t dial in on a specific incident of Anti-V and kept repeating, “Every time they looked around, or when they mounted their TT bikes!” We did the only thing we could do, and had CERN crunch the data for us. They confirmed the Schlecks spent the equivalent of three full weeks rubbernecking and nearly a quarter as much working on their time trialing – too much to mathematically isolate a single moment. Sometimes the best decision in the midst of indecision is simply to make one, and that’s exactly what I did.
At the very instant when Johan Van Summeren was doing a reverse 270 cannon ball into the deep end of the V-Pool to bring us the V Moment of 2011, Jonathan Vaughters was clutching his shoulders as he gingerly waded into the kiddie pool – dragging a handful of race favorites with him.
The race was shaping up beautifully for Garmin-Cervélo. Van Summeren had read the race and left the favorites at the Trouée to join teammate Gabriel Rasch up the road in the day’s breakaway. The plan was to keep Johan in reserve at the front while the Garmin team worked to bring the break back, giving Thor Hushovd an armchair ride to the finish with the considerable advantage of having teammates in the finale. A beautiful plan, and I love it when a plan comes together.
But Garmin’s firepower wasn’t quite enough to bridge up in time, and Faboo wasn’t thrilled about the prospect of riding into Roubaix with Thor getting a leadout from three teammates. In typical style, he took the race into his own hands and left the others to their own devices. Hushovd, Flecha, and Ballan came along for the ride and the four made huge inroads on the gap with Cancellara doing the bulk of the work.
And here the sticky tentacles of the Anti-V set in. Faboo started doubting whether he should really be hauling such a fast finisher as Hushovd up to his teammates and sat up when the gap had gone down to within arm’s reach.
At this point, Garmin’s plan wasn’t as solid as it had been a few dozen kilometers before:
The plan was in need of some quick-thinking to maintain the upper hand, and everyone knows driving while strategizing is dangerous. So, for safety reasons, Vaughters called in Garmin’s pocket Timid Tactician: His Turtleneck Sweater. New plan:
Cancellara, Hushovd and Vaughters all had their hand in making this the Anit-V Moment of the year, but Vaughters takes the bulk of the blame not only because his was inflexible and unimaginative thinking, but because he was playing both sides: the rider up front can’t work if he’s got a rider coming up, or the rider coming up can’t work because he’s got a rider up front. Pick one.
But worst of all, there is nothing more Anti-V than two riders within a chance of winning riding along gesturing to each other as they both refuse to take a pull for fear of dragging the other to the win. Certainly, a rider must be sure not to do too much work and place themselves at a disadvantage, but this should never come at the risk of losing the opportunity to win the race in the first place; I’m sure we can all agree it is much more in the spirit of the V to fight and get beaten into second place than to never fight at all and throw your chance away. In this, Cancellara and Hushovd each had a hand in the pie, but Vaughters and his Sweater were were the masterminds behind the stalemate.
We truly love what Vaughters is trying to do with Garmin by making it their mission to race clean, but racing clean is no excuse for uncorking an entire case of Vintage 2011 Anti-V. Vaughters races his team like they are weak with nary a chance to win, when in fact they are one of the strongest teams in the sport. It is time to wrap the bars in white tape, set aside the underdog tactics, and start racing like leaders. And by all means, fire the Sweater.
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@Dr C
I disagree, it wouldn't mean a thing if it had been some lowly nobody having a whine but it's exactly because of who he is and the fact that under most circumstances he'd have just got on with the job.
Even if he had been saying I'm off when we hit the the 20 to go mark his body language points to it being a delivered as a whine. If he ridden up to JV and without gesticulating or raising his voice coldly announced that "At 20km out I'm going to disembowel your rainbow pretty boy, you fucking clothes horse" and left it at that it would have been fine, casually deliberate as it were.
@Chris
To which I would add the words of the Cycling News report:
"Rather than attack Gilbert in turn, as might have been expected, the Schlecks appeared resigned to the fact that the Belgian was simply the strongest man in the race, and ultimately they all but carried him to the finish.
For his part, as was the case from the Roche aux Faucons, Gilbert contributed his share of the pace-setting, but was always careful in his positioning as he looked to avoid an ambush.
Even under the red kite, however, neither Schleck was able to summon up an attack to cast at least some doubt on the outcome. "
Did Andy drop his chain at 6km? He did well to get back on but they didn't look too damaged. Frank looked fairly relaxed at 2km.
@ChrisO @Chris
you're probably right - I'm just soooo in love with Faboo, that in my eyes he can do no worng - that would probably sound better if I was a girl admittedly
I suppose when you are Cancellara you get a lot of riders keen to ride your wheel. Over the years you've carried hundreds of weaker riders to better positions - some to places they've no right to be. That's OK. It's part of the package. Most of the time you can bury them at will...
But I can see how you might get the shits when riding at the highest level, in the biggest race of the year, the top riders in three other teams, one of which is wearing the bands, have no other strategy in the race except to sit in and be carried up to a winning position.
Just watched LBL finale again for the first time since seeing it live (thanks @Chris).
OMFG what a pile of steaming horseshit that was.
6km to go: sweet - about to see the Schlecks one-two the big dog... what will happen?
5km to go: any second now...
4km to go - leaving it a little late; com'n guys...
3km to go - WTF? Go now, one of you, go now!
2km to go HAVE YOU TWO EVEN SEEN A RACE BEFORE? DO YOU KNOW YOU'RE ALLOWED TO ATTACK HIM???!!!!111!!!?
1km to go: NOTHING? YOU'VE GOT NOTHING?
Even when the one on the back (you know what? I don't care which one it is - they're the same guy) winds up to attack at the line, Gilbert doesn't even notice because he's started his own bemused sprint and just draws gently away.
Anti-V?
Well, V was as far from here as it could be. The Schlecks managed to deprive the world of seeing Gilbert lay down some V, so yeh, we are minus some V in 2011 because of this moment.
@Blah
And to the point above about Cuddle's TdF win being diminished by his rivals, if Gilbert hadn't been such a badass all year Frandy would have diminished his LBL win. Put down the Frandy coolaid and take off the tinfoil cycling cap. There's nothing to see there (litterally and figuratively).
@Chris
A la Ronnie Johns, "F'kin' spot on, mate!"
@brett
Because none of you fucking stood up when we were discussing it! Well, Brett did, but couldn't pick a moment, and Gianni and Marko were silent. Liege as Anti-V was never brought up. Besides, I wouldn't have stood for it anyway, because you can't award the Anti-V to the only two riders willing to stand up and fight Gilbert. Maybe the Anti-V goes to the rest of the bunch for being total asshats who just roll over and play dead.
Not to mention that none of you were willing to write the piece, which I asked if you would.
You lads need to go into your email and uncheck that box that says "Treat All Email From Frank as Spam".
@Oli
I know, I was twisting your words because you were twisting mine!
@Blah
The problem with watching the finale is that you miss the fact that they attacked from way back, and they left everyone else behind. The 60km of racing to that point is what emptied the tank and made for an admittedly infuriatingly frustrating finale. They are obviously cooked and Gilbert is not. Its no contest - they are simply outclassed. But at least they fought, which is more than the 217 other riders did.