Velominati Super Prestige: La Course 2014

Women in Paris

It has been many years (25!) since professional female cyclists have raced on the cobbles of the Champs Elysées. While running the Giro Donne concurrently with the Tour de France makes no sense to me, this Sunday’s women’s race does make sense. It should be the model for a Women’s Tour de France: the route, infrastructure, roadside fans are in place already. By default, this Sunday’s race should get the most TV coverage of any women’s race this year. That is more a commentary on how little TV coverage women’s racing gets, but everything is already in place to cover the last day of the Tour, why not use it? Luckily M. Vos is behind this race being the beginning of something bigger, and when Marianne Vos is pushing something, it gets pushed all the way.

So, your Froomy and Bertie picks crashed out your plans for VSP domination? Your desperate, pallid rest day swaps did not garner enough points? Are those orange Bonts receding over the horizon? Well, buck up and do your homework, these are quality one-day race VSP points for the earning of awesome season-end prizes. Here is an imperfect start list. Keep an eye to the count down timer on the VSP banner or your name will be Delgado.

[vsp_results id=”30444″/]

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wiscot says:

Jul 28 2014 at 8:47 am

@Kevin

@VeloVita

Well, I Delgado'd this one like a champ.

@wiscot

@razmaspaz

@Gianni

@ramenvelo

Why the hell do I keep betting against Vos?

What is wrong with us? It's like betting against Merckx, there is no money in it.

American TV, NBC did a completely shiet job of covering it, what douches. The last km, if that. Dicks.

I was out riding during the live coverage so I didn't see it, but they were building up to it for 3 days. Did they really only show the very end of it? They had a 6:30 time slot set out for it. I have to say that the state of US coverage is pretty poor to begin with, but if they can't show more than the last 5k of the race, that's terrible.

But a shite job by NBC would be par for the course with regard to their coverage of women's sports. There's almost a palpable reluctance to admit that in other parts of the world, sports besides football, baseball and basketball are popular and that there are world class athletes who are not American. The tide might slowly be turning with soccer, but I think it'll take a very strong showing in the next women's and men's world cups to achieve that. Part of the issue is that the big 3 US sports have completely sold out to corporate/TV interests and allow the pace and flow of their games to be dictated by TV commercials. Isn't it interesting that in the US, where the almighty $$ rules in sports, none of the big 3 sports carry advertizing on their jerseys/uniforms? TV $$ rule and until other sports capitulate to what TV producers want, they will be minority sports in the US.

Wasn't the full race shown on Universal Sports though?

Universal Sports had an hour and a half of coverage, about the last 41km. Great if your cable/satellite provider has it, not so great if they don't.

I think the coverage was good. They had pre race sign-in, interviews with Chrissie Wellington and post race with Vos. Craig Hummer, Dotsie Bausch and Todd Gogulski commentated. The crowds were not as big as the men's race but good size.

Shame that Lizzie Armistead crashed in the last KM!

I got tired of paying cable for the three channels I watch regularly. I'm "over-the-air" now. Not great but saves me a decent amount of $$ that can go on bike stuff,
freddy says:

Jul 28 2014 at 10:40 am

@mouse

Lizzie Williams finished 12th.

Amazing result considering not 4 months ago she was racing domestically here in Aus.

Had the great pleasure of racing with her in summer crits here in Melbourne.

Classy rider with an amazing future.

Also great seeing Canadian Leah Kirchmann making progress with an impressive podium finish just behind Vos and Wild.
razmaspaz says:

Jul 28 2014 at 12:26 pm

@wiscot

@Kevin

@VeloVita

Well, I Delgado'd this one like a champ.

@wiscot

@razmaspaz

@Gianni

@ramenvelo

Why the hell do I keep betting against Vos?

What is wrong with us? It's like betting against Merckx, there is no money in it.

American TV, NBC did a completely shiet job of covering it, what douches. The last km, if that. Dicks.

I was out riding during the live coverage so I didn't see it, but they were building up to it for 3 days. Did they really only show the very end of it? They had a 6:30 time slot set out for it. I have to say that the state of US coverage is pretty poor to begin with, but if they can't show more than the last 5k of the race, that's terrible.

But a shite job by NBC would be par for the course with regard to their coverage of women's sports. There's almost a palpable reluctance to admit that in other parts of the world, sports besides football, baseball and basketball are popular and that there are world class athletes who are not American. The tide might slowly be turning with soccer, but I think it'll take a very strong showing in the next women's and men's world cups to achieve that. Part of the issue is that the big 3 US sports have completely sold out to corporate/TV interests and allow the pace and flow of their games to be dictated by TV commercials. Isn't it interesting that in the US, where the almighty $$ rules in sports, none of the big 3 sports carry advertizing on their jerseys/uniforms? TV $$ rule and until other sports capitulate to what TV producers want, they will be minority sports in the US.

Wasn't the full race shown on Universal Sports though?

Universal Sports had an hour and a half of coverage, about the last 41km. Great if your cable/satellite provider has it, not so great if they don't.

I think the coverage was good. They had pre race sign-in, interviews with Chrissie Wellington and post race with Vos. Craig Hummer, Dotsie Bausch and Todd Gogulski commentated. The crowds were not as big as the men's race but good size.

Shame that Lizzie Armistead crashed in the last KM!

I got tired of paying cable for the three channels I watch regularly. I'm "over-the-air" now. Not great but saves me a decent amount of $$ that can go on bike stuff,

I got tired of paying for just 2 of them. Still can't believe that Universal Sports parent company, Comcast, doesn't carry US.
Mikael Liddy says:

Jul 29 2014 at 4:36 am

Wanna look at what it's like winning on the Champs-Ã‰lysÃ©es? Have a look at the move she pulls at 40s to get the wheel she wants leading in to the sprint!
Kevin says:

Jul 29 2014 at 6:38 am

@Mikael Liddy It takes a special jersey and a great acceleration to make that move! A risky move but you need to take risks for a chance to win!