2012 V-Moment of the Year: Boonen Goes Long
Yes, I know, I have a major thing for Boonen. But come on, wouldn’t you? Look at those guns. Look at that position on the bike. He even makes that ugly Specialized helmet look good. He even makes that ugly Specialized Roubaix look good, come to think of it. And those White Ladies? Kill me now.
Picking the V-Moment of the year is always a tough one, especially in a year when there were so many great moments. In fact, that I’m glad I didn’t get saddled with the Anti-V Moment of the Year Award because it won’t be easy to pick out a loser for that one.
Some of the greatest instants of the season were Johan Vansummeren continuing on after he went through the meat grinder at the Tour. Or Hesjedal hanging tough on the Stelvio to stay close enough to J-Rod to take the win for the first Canuckian Grand Tour at the Giro. Faboo gritting his teeth to finish the Olympic ITT in tears despite a moronic but devastating crash in the Road Race. Gilbert coming back to take a decisive win in the Worlds Road Race after a disastrous season.
Maybe its my man-crush on Boonen, maybe its the fact that we were at the roadside for both events, but two moments stand out as what must have been two of the hardest moments in racing – with the most at stake. One was Boonen riding the Paterberg at the back of the three-man breakaway with Ballan and Potato during the Ronde van Vlaanderen; his gears were jammed and he couldn’t get into his lowest gear on that brutally steep climb. As the group got to the top, Boonen was overgeared and losing ground. Standing in a Flemish field not more than 1000 meteres (as the crow flies) from the Paterberg, I could almost hear his bike cry out in agony as he scraped the bottom of the V-Barrel to hold onto the back of the group.
But that’s not the V-Moment of the year because, in the end, there was only something to be gained by holding on – he had nothing to lose. If he got unhitched from the group, he would have called it training for Roubaix, and gone home feeling good about his chances in the Queen of the Classics.
The V-Moment of the year was instead a moment that wasn’t captured on camera; it was a solitary moment that echoed inside only one man’s heart. It was a moment that must have fluttered through his mind as he came off the secteur of cobbles about 55k from Roubaix, looked around, and noticed that no one was with him. At that moment, he had everything to lose. A wiser man would have sat up and waited for the group, knowing he could conserve his energy and pick his moment later, when the risks were more manageable.
But The V isn’t about sensibility. The V isn’t about planning. The V isn’t about calculation. The V is about making your own luck. The V is about bending the odds to your vvill. The V is about making the race beg you to relent. The 2012 V Moment of the Year was the moment Boonen decided to carry on to Roubaix, alone.
@minion
Have to agree with you ….. Mortirolo then backs it up on the Stelvio …… Bingo
For me a special V mention has to go to Chris Anker Sorensen for finishing the tour after mashing his hand in the spokes trying to retrieve the daily issue of Le Monde.
@Adrian
I saw the damage and it must have been very painful indeed but he was a bit of a twit to try and reach in to his spokes and remove newpaper whilst trying to keep going…what would he have lost….10 seconds at most….they are called “bladed” spokes for a reason, I bet he never does it again!
There is a fine line between idiocy and heroism…I would say he strayed the wrong side of it but pulled it back with a heroic continuation once the damage was done..
@Deakus Anti V and V all in one move. If you’re going to be dumb, then you’d better be tough……..
@Adrian
Both your posts need to go in the Rusty Chain award. i’m with Deakus on the Sorenson affair. Dumb + tough cancel each other out.
Veino was a support player in the Olympic RR. The lead role was Uran Uran who recognised the Britishness of the occasion and replayed the world the old Landy / Bannister manoeuvre. An all-time classic. How embarrassment!
@Harminator
I agree with you both, the Veino comment was definitely tongue in check but there was a something about watching a man who ended up having to have plastic surgery for, agreed a very dumb act, go deep in the TT to maintain his GC placing.
What timing! Just yesterday I realized that I maybe had never rewatched Paris Roubaix 2012. I watched it again, then again, and then again. No matter how many times I see Boonen & Niki go clear I have to rewind and watch it again. It seems to almost happen by accident, then they’re clear, then they’re gone. I simply cannot imagine what it feels like to have to solo in for that long, over those roads, and with those dudes chasing. I get freaked out enough being chased in a Thursday night ride!
Ha, I have been a big fan of the Specialized helmets since the M-series ones of the early 2000s. But, their top model for the last year or two has been bulky and ugly. Good call, Frank! People continue to buy them ’cause lots of top PROS are in them, but I just think they’re ugly.
And I had no idea about the jammed gear; now I’ll have to go rewatch that!
Here’s the P-R video in case ya want to watch it again and haven’t found it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZWbZoX3rig
@Ron
Thanks for the link. As I started watching it I thought I would have to search for the part where Tornado Tom drops everybody and its the first thing on the broadcast with like 1 1/2 hours left.
Soloing to victory with 55 km to go.
Amazing everytime
@strathlubnaig
This was probably the racing moment I got most excited watching all year – or maybe Rabottini winning stage 15 of the Giro, but I have to agree with Frank’s pick here on Boonen’s decision to go it alone in PR. Being a huge Boonen fan as well, when he took off I was disappointed and remember posting on the VSP page that he blew it and went too soon, but as I watched kilometer after kilometer, I was happy to have to remove a little more of my foot from my mouth after each one. A deserved win in both PR and the V-Moment of the Year (I think we all know which is more prestigious)
I tend to get more jazzed by bikes that I don’t see that many of in the wild. Thus, smaller outfits or anything a bit rare gets my interest. That being said, Treks and Specialized bikes can be hot. Or not. Same thing goes for Colnago though. I’ve seen plenty of ugly, Rule-breaking Colnagos too. Any frameset holds lots of potential.
When I lived in Sicily, not one bike shop sold Spesh(on the entire island). so when you saw one on the road it was a rare sight indeed. I always wonder what Italian think is zoot.
For me, the best moments of the year were De Gendt climbing the Motirolo and the Stelvio, Ryder winning the Giro in fine form, and definitely Boonen leaving everyone in the dust on the pave.
@brett
That’s exactly right. There is an enormous list of things I find ugly, some of them I use myself and cherish – for instance, my Bonts – and many of them are very good products. Being a perfectly good product and being beautiful things are different subjects entirely.
I prescribe a massive helping for Rule V to anyone getting wound up about this.
@Marko
Since you haven’t done the Anti-V moment of the Year yet, maybe you can switch it to people getting their panties in a bunch over a joke.
For me, Ryder has a place atop my highlight reel for patriotic reasons but I also like Voigt this year.Stage 6 of Paris-Nice where he was heading to the line with LL Sanchez – he did lose in the sprint but the guy is 40 and was in a long breakaway. Voigt again was a stud at the USA Pro Cycling Challenge when he dropped the group on Independence Pass and solo’d for the next 100km to take the stage…not bad for an oldtimer!
For people with a short-term memory:
2012 Cycling Season Compilation by Sporza (Flemish commentary and subtitles. Anyway, nice footage)
part I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVRigW3TESs
Part II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcbq6Csv_HE
Not wanting to be a) starstruck, or b) nervous about making anti-Boonen comments, bout take it y’all saw him retweet the link to this article last night at 7pm CET?
@Roadslave525
Someone get Fronk the smelling salts!
https://twitter.com/tomboonen1
RT @velominati V isn’t about sensibility or calculation. V is about bending the odds to your vvill.Boonen: http://bit.ly/UttaWM@tomboonen1
@graham d.m.
Ah, that’s what I like to see here – budding bromance springs eternal. I’m thinking a certain Tommeke deserves a custom engraved v-pint for his win here.
@Roadslave525
Jeeezzhus! I think that the V site just climaxed! Un-fookin-believable!
@graham d.m.
That’ll teach me to check my Twitter account more than quarterly – what about a whip round for a V Pint and a decal – you never know the team publicity people just might let him stick one on his winter training steed.
That’s what the winner get’s, A V-Pint glass. Last year Jonny H said he’d put it in his pool room.
Hmmm, I seem to be mistaken about that. What did Hoogerland get his V-pint glass for or am I remembering a dream?
http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/rule-5-racing-hoogerland-style/
@eightzero I think Boonen deserves to have his pint hand delivered to him by the Velominati at KT2013.
@brett
@brett
Touche’
@G’rilla
Yes!
Perhaps Minion should present it to him right after repeating his statement above.
@minion
Ha! I like that. I believe the photo is of the much disliked, @pedale disapproved, super wide angle shot that makes the great Tomeke look like a monkey fucking a tennis ball.
@minion Sir Hoy is a fucking machine!
@strathlubnaig
You never know in Canadian sports media. Canadians don’t always get that hockey is only watches by a few hundred million people, where as cycling has about a billion fans – based on unique google searches that is. With the hype surrounding Wiggo’s plan to go after the Giro, it seems to me that even the cycling media is writing off Ryder’s chance of a defence. By all means bring it I say. Contador and Purito, Nibbs. The whole bunch should be striving to take the Giro from RH
@G’rilla
Agreed!
@Gianni
(shudders orgasmically) eeerrggghhh yeah that’s the spot. I have massive Boonen man love, that’s more like it.
Have to agree with Pedale that fisheye lenses don’t always improve the image.
@G’rilla
Oh Sweet Baby Jesus if you throw Bonnen into the Keepers Tour you will have to have caddle prods to keep the people from over-running it.
Ahh, goddammit! Make that “Cattle” prods, not “caddle” prods. I was just looking at that old thread “Guilty be Association” or whatever it is called with Cuddles face and his fuckin mutt and somehow crossed wires there! Man, I am too young to be going senile!
@Dan_R
Lord above I hope Wiggins / Sky do not win the Giro next year, it’s bad enough listening to the Anglos still going on about 1966…. I’d need to re-migrate back to the Le Vieux Pays again.
What are the opinions on Sky & their tactics during this race? Could they simply not real Boonen in or did they do a poor job of chasing him & using their numbers?
Well I just had my V moment for the year, heading up Greenhill Rd climb (6.5% for 7km) and right at the bottom Rachael Neylan comes past me. Naturally the compunction is to chase, swapped a couple of turns, reduced to wheel sucking about halfway and dropped about three quarter way to finish 50m back. I was utterly on the rivet, I suspect she was not! Still I smashed my best time and probably will spend the rest of the day in the foetal position.
http://app.strava.com/rides/34459603
@Daccordi Rider
Great job, especially considering the company she keeps.
http://www.rachelneylan.com/
@strathlubnaig
As a Yorkshireman living in Scotland, I never bring up 1966 and don’t know any Englishmen who do either. In my experience it’s the Scots who like to perpetuate the myth that we keep going on about it, as it gives them something to complain about!
@Ron
One of the only things I’ve learned riding the Roubaix cobbles is: it’s impossible to draft. Everyone is trying to get across to the next paved section. When Boonen is the strongest on the cobbles the only chasing can happen on the asphalt parts. And that means everyone has to be finishing the cobbles together so they can form a paceline. And that is very hard to do.
Roubaix is a particular race. Team tactics don’t work well once the cobble sections begin. The baddest, strongest rider on the stones can really open up some gaps that are very hard to close on the short asphalt parts.
Ah, got it Gianni! That makes sense. Love that I’m always learning something new about this awesome sport! I hadn’t considered how difficult, or impossible, it is to draft on cobbles. Now I just need to get there so I can find out for myself.
@strathlubnaig oh I hear ya! I spent a large portion of my military career in a highland regiment. Nothing like ‘neeps & haggis. Accept an Englishman making himself look stupid.
@McTyke bloody Campbell.
VLVV
@Dan_R
I posted in another thread where I was guessing you being in Alberta you was an ex- PPLI, regardless, Chapeau.
@McTyke
Living in Scotland that’s a good tactic. It’s the meeja in englandshire who harp on.
@Daccordi Rider
Got confirmation of this from Miss Neylan this morning, when I brought it up she said ‘oh was that the MIttiga guy? Yeah he did ok to start with…’
great choice,boonen’s the MAN.
@motor city
That was fucking classic, wasn’t it? My goodness my Merckx – and even the motorcycle drivers (if you can call those scootery things that) were pumped. Great moment. Like we said – lots of great moments this year – hard one to call!
@Buck Rogers
I blacked out for two days after that. Has anything cool happened in the mean time? Because if it did, I missed it.
@brian
Yes he is.
@Mikael Liddy
Ouch!
@Daccordi Rider I hope you told her I am 41, don’t train full time and weigh more than 45kg dripping wet! She should Yale pity on me.