Velominati Super Prestige

Velominati Super Prestige: Gent Wevelgem 2015

Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy oh boy oh boy! Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy!

This is it! We are really into the thick of it now! E3 Harelbeke is today, and on Sunday we have the Kemmelberg in Gent Wevelgem – the first real serious cobbled race of the year. For Keeper’s Tour in 2012 we stayed just outside Kemmel, and for KT2013 Bretto and I went off for a jetlag-neutralizing spin together into the same area and rode the climb from both sides. When I arrive in Belgium on Thursday, the first thing we’ll do is head over there again; the area feels a bit like home at this point.

All of Europe bears the marks of World War I, but this bit of Belgium is even more heavily scarred; when this many people die in one place, it lingers in the air like a thick mist. This hill in particular was the site of several battles; the Germans took it in April 1918 and it was reclaimed by the allied forces in September. Monuments, graveyards, barracks litter the landscape.

Although its short, the Kemmelberg is a brute of a climb with a steep ramp at the top; the cobbles are rough and very badly laid at the base; the best route has you swinging wide to the outside if you’re to maintain your speed. If you are unlucky enough to be forced into the inside, you will come to a standstill and find yourself chasing from the onset.

And speaking of chasing, its time to get some points on the board with the VSP so you have a chance of claiming one of our prizes. Get your picks in by the time the clock goes to zero. And for the love of Merckx, don’t wait until the last minute before flooding my inbox with complaints about the site going down. Your procrastination is not my emergency, boys and girls. But if you do happen to have some trouble (and it’s not the last minute, or the middle of the night) then feel free to let us know; we’re happy to help you out so long as the event hasn’t closed yet. So, prognosticate on the start list and enter your sure-to-be dud picks.

We are still finalizing the prize list for the overall VSP, but second place has been confirmed as being a set of CR Wheelworks/Velominati wheels. CR Wheelworks is Café Roubaix’s wheel product line, and you’ll have the choice of rim size and hub. The Velominati edition comes with orange Chris King hubs, but if that’s too bling for you, I’m sure the configuration can be changed for the winner.

First prize will be something even more amazeballs and third place will be a full Velominati kit complete with V-Cap. My wheels just arrived, and I can’t wait to ride them.

  • Café Roubaix's CR Wheelworks Arenbergs

And, we’ll wrap it up with some 2013 Gent action:


[vsp_results id=”32565″/]

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216 Replies to “Velominati Super Prestige: Gent Wevelgem 2015”

  4. After that stellar performance at E3 yesterday, I want to put Gee in here, but I imagine he’ll be riding for Stannard, so there’s little point in VSP terms. I feel like I’m betraying him, as he is my favourite rider in the pro peloton right now. Ah well.

    I’m at a stag do tonight, so tomorrow will be lying on the sofa watching the race feeling sorry for myself.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Kristoff
    2. Stannard
    3. Sagan
    4. Degenkolb
    5. Vanmarcke

  5. sep will pull a stannard on the quickstep boys and finally break free from his curse.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. sep vanmarcke
    2. zdenek Stybar
    3. nikki terpstra
    4. john dekenkolb
    5. arnaud demare

  7. Cav for the win if his chain stays on the big ring and he doesn’t puncture, crash or get dropped. Etixx Quick Step under big pressure for a big win after fucking up MSR, E3, Het Volk etc.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Cavendish
    2. Degenkolb
    3. Kristoff
    4. Greipel
    5. Viviani

  8. @frank @gianni

    @frank

    @Gianni

    Am I the only person who can’t believe how bad those CR wheels are? Fuggetaboutit! Dan, you are knocking out some nice bling there. I need.

    You gotta hand it to @winnipegcyclechick for the rocking base design. We just laid our shit over the top of it. We had done a pure Velominati design, but when I saw how strong the brand was on CR’s wheels, we decided to go for a co-branded version.

    Check out the other designs, they are bitchin.

    I would send you all the link but @Dan_R has not updated his site with the new CR designs. SHAME!!

    Thanks Gents. So pleased to help @Dan_R with these bitchen wheels, and proud to see them festooned with The Rules. I have a pair myself and can’t wait to get them on the road (with the appropriate tyres of course). Watch for a post about the redesign, maybe even before the impending Canadian invasion of Maui next week. Winnipeg winter is for suckers.

  10. Here’s to hoping Cav’s chain doesn’t drop again…..

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Alexander Kristoff
    2. John Degenkolb
    3. Peter Sagan
    4. Mark Cavendish
    5. Andre Greipel

  11. @scaler911

    And, I’m a “2” again? So what’s been happening around these parts?

    You gotta keep your shit up, man! We don’t fuck around when it comes to statuseseseses.

  14. @gilly

    @Gianni

    @wiscot

    @frank

    @wiscot

    Ok, haven’t made my picks yet, but WTF’s going on? No Tommeke, and now no Spartacus for the big races? Crazy! That being said, fine, fine win by Geraint today in the E3. Now Sky have a problem: Geraint is obviously on the form of his life – we saw that last week. Wiggo’s form? Not sure, but Sky and he have made a big hoopla over how P-R is Wiggo’s main goal for the year. So do Geraint and Wiggo start as equals or will the Welshman be subservient to his English master? Will Geraint havce to sacrifice himself or will he be allowed to have a go? My thoughts are, if it’s dry, go with Sir Tattoo; if it’s muddy, go with Wales.

    I am not too broken up about Fabs/Boonen. I would want them both in form or neither because honestly I think the 4x crown should be a pretty rare thing and I’m afraid of Fabs getting a “free” ride to it, which would have two riders of the same generation sharing that record with the Gypsie.

    I’m pretty sure its going to be muddy, so that also opens it wide up. Gerraint rode very well in the wet last year at the Tour; he might be my #1. I can’t say I disagree on your strategy for the brits, though if I was DS I’d have them both start as leaders; too much can happen at Roubaix.

    Agreed. Co-leaders and let the chips, crashes and punctures fall where they may. I just hope we don’t see Geraint being stymied if he’s feeling good and having to wait on Wiggins.

    Fuck Wiggins. There, it’s out there. I’d make Twiggo ride for G, by golly. I can’t even remember if Twig was in Paris-Nice or Terreno-Adriatico because I never saw him do anything. Did he finish whatever he was racing in? Has he earned his spot at P-R besides his monster engine? We will see if he races Gent on Sunday and how his form is but I don’t think he deserves the leadership role at P-R, because I’m a cranky old guy.

    Have to agree. G was clearly strong at PR last year and the photo of him and Wiggins with their backs to each other after the race spoke volumes in body language terms. G buried himself that day but Wiggins either didn’t have the legs to go with Terpstra or made a bad call in not doing so. Brailsford has to make the right decision and I can’t believe  that G will go into PR as anything other than team leader. If that’s not the case, I think Brailsford is in danger of losing the real quality guys that he has in G and Peter Kennaugh who have more than earned their spurs. But i think we need to remember what an astute guy DB is; how we all laughed when he said that Sky would win the TDF. They have had a really strong start to the Classics season and based on G’s attack yesterday, Sagan doesn’t appear to have cast off his last 10 K demons. It’s going to be a cracking couple of weeks!

    I think Sky/DB have learned their lessons from a hopeless classics campaign in ’13 and an only marginally better one in ’14. They set out trying to control the races for a nominated leader like they had done successfully in the TdF in ’12 and ’13, and found that it just didn’t work. Geraint could have won P-R last year but he’s a team player and Wiggo was the nominated leader. The irony is that P-R is the last race you can try to control given all the elements of risk, but they’d got to within 10k of the line together and still managed to throw it away. This year I think (hope) the team tactics are much more about staying out of trouble and let the rider(s) who feel good on the day do their own thing and go for it. We saw that at MSR, when it didn’t quite come off, and again at E3, when it absolutely did.

    All that said, going into P-R saying they’re riding for Wiggo might just draw attention away from other options. The other teams might mark Wiggo out of the race like they did with Faboo last year.

  15. @Minnesota Expat

    Would have picked Degenkolb until I watched him go over the handlebars at E3 Harelbeke. He is going to be hurting on Sunday. Bad.

    Bah! It was Van Avermaet that went over the handlebars and earlier Degenkolb hit the ground hard. Still not picking either to win, place or show.

  16. VSP PICKS:

    1. CAVENDISH Mark
    2. DEGENKOLB John
    3. KRISTOFF Alexander
    4. BOASSON HAGEN Edvald
    5. LOBATO Juan Jose

  17. VSP PICKS:

    1. Zdeněk Štybar
    2. Peter Sagan
    3. Alexander Kristoff
    4. Mark Cavendish
    5. Andre Geipel

  19. VSP PICKS:

    1. Zdenek Stybar
    2. Daniel Oss
    3. Peter Sagan
    4. Alexander Kristoff
    5. Arnaud Demare

  20. Sprinters’ teams keep Vanmarcke, Thomas, et al. in check. Cavendish has a mechanical on the Kemmelberg. Head to head between the two young French guns. Heart would love to see one of them take the win.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. A. Kristoff
    2. A. Demare
    3. N. Bouhanni
    4. J. Degenkolb
    5. P. Sagan

  30. VSP PICKS:

    1. John Degenkolb (Ger)
    2. Mark Cavendish (GBr)
    3. Alexander Kristoff (Nor)
    4. Elia Viviani (Ita)
    5. Andrea Guardini (Ita)

  31. Cav could be in the finishing mix if he doesn’t drop his chain.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Z Stybar
    2. A Greipel
    3. S Vanmarcke
    4. J VanSummeren
    5. I Stannard

  36. Kinda going off a limb for this one.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Trentin, Matteo
    2. Degenkolb, John
    3. Kristoff
    4. Sep Vanmarke
    5. Andre the Greipel

  37. @xyxax,

    Now wait just a cotton-pickin’ minute…

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Trentin, Matteo
    2. Degenkolb, John
    3. Kristoff
    4. Sep Vanmarke
    5. Stybar

  43. VSP PICKS:

    1. Mark Cavendish
    2. Alexander Kristoff
    3. John Degenkolb
    4. Arnaud Demare
    5. Peter Sagan

  45. third place will be a full Velominati kit complete with V-Cap. My wheels just arrived, and I can’t wait to ride them.

    Fuck wheels – means the V caps have a deadline. That’s a win right there.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Vanmarcke
    2. Terpstra
    3. Kristoff
    4. Degenkolb
    5. Stybar

  47. VSP PICKS:

    1. Alexander Kristoff
    2. John Degenkolb
    3. Peter Sagan
    4. Ian Stannard
    5. Geraint Thomas

  48. VSP PICKS:

    1. Alexander Kristoff
    2. John Degenkolb
    3. Peter Sagan
    4. Mark Cavendish
    5. Sep Vanmarcke

  49. An attempt at a original thought, but not really.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Stybar
    2. Kristoff
    3. John Degenkolb
    4. Sagan
    5. Vanmarcke

  50. Cavendish in for Bouhanni

    VSP PICKS:

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

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