Podium Cafe

sounds fun, enjoy!

gravel road - January 29, 2012 reply

Watching the race, I had a question

Belgians had all but 2 of the start positions on the front row. Since this is Worlds, would it be more fair to give a spot on the start row to top 8 countries? Since starts are so crucial.

Douglas Ansel - January 29, 2012 reply

based on uci points, right??

R Mc - January 29, 2012 reply

right

Ron... - January 29, 2012 reply

And guys would still be passed...

and I doubt it would have made a difference today because the Belgians would have dominated the 2nd row

Vlaanderen90 - January 29, 2012 reply

Niels. don't you feel that you're killing the sport?

blackswangreen - January 29, 2012 reply

Ha!

"Radek Simunek was the top foreign finisher, in 8th place more than a minute behind the last Belgian."

He was actually 2’15" down. Yikes~!

2:15 down on Albert

1min plus down on 7th place

Douglas Ansel - January 29, 2012 reply

Durr

I fail reading comprehension

It's early....

VirtKitty - January 29, 2012 reply

Yes it is

Actually, for me, it’s late….

That’ll be my excuse :p

Surprised the Albert interview in English

Is he Wallon?

The immediate post race interviews are all in English.

blackswangreen - January 29, 2012 reply

(and done by an Italian)

blackswangreen - January 29, 2012 reply

uci requirement, thinks me

R Mc - January 29, 2012 reply

They are killing the post race interviews.

others have said it is a requirment

He spoke much better English than the interviewer

And so nonchalant. It’s like what just happened didn’t even register with him.

If they play the wrong anthem by accident

there will be trouble

At least they probably have a decent copy.

What? No reglegs on the podium for Redlegs?

VirtKitty - January 29, 2012 reply

Wow,

Rob Peeters scarves.

Where was his baby?

I was so disappointed

but then I thought, given there are UCI regs about what you can wear on your head on the Worlds podiums, babies have to be banned!

I can't wait for tgsgirl's take on this

jaa

Should we send someone over to make sure she’s OK?

She is fine!

Little frostbitten, but most happy. Though Sven’s sadface gives me sadface too.

I'm all sadface now too. Styby is in bed with a fever and moping via Twitter.

Should I go to Essen?

Albertina - January 30, 2012 via iPhone app reply

Yes.

But how would you get there?

You are going to drive to Oudenaarde and pick me up.

This is important.

Albertina - January 30, 2012 via iPhone app reply

Limburg had snow today

quite a lot too. Did it snow in Oudenaarde?

There were teenytiny flakes falling, when I left Oudenaarde this morning

Sarah Connolly - January 30, 2012 reply

None at all in Ghent

I even went out to ride my bike this evening, completely dry roads

broerie - January 30, 2012 reply

Teeny tiny flakes while we were walking into town this morning too

Albertina - January 30, 2012 via iPhone app reply

Why is this relevant to you driving me to Essen?

Albertina - January 30, 2012 via iPhone app reply

I hate driving in snow

I'm thinking someone doesn't really care?

Jens - January 30, 2012 reply

I'm thinking someone can get their own damn ride

if she wants to get up close and personal with Stybs’ pink panties

Someone has just fainted

Albertina - January 30, 2012 via iPhone app reply

Maybe the pink panties are your prize?

Given the result I’m pretty sure he won’t be putting those on for warmups again.

Jens - January 30, 2012 reply

The man in the pink panties would be preferable

Albertina - January 30, 2012 via iPhone app reply

From Twitter.

places one to seven! can someone be annoyingly smug for me on @PodiumCafe please?

that's what I was looking for!

I'm trying

I just don’t do smarmy that well.

ahem

You’re from where? I mean, we New Englanders expect at least two titles a year now.

she stood next to me throughout with extreme smugface

Albertina - January 30, 2012 via iPhone app reply

Blended in nicely with the other 50000 smugfaces I suspect.

Jens - January 30, 2012 reply

The first non-Belgian smugface finished 50,001st.

That was the guy who sold pink Boas at a huge markup before the race.

straw dog - January 30, 2012 reply

Some of the people around us

gave her very good sympathyface. Especially the older ladies, they felt very sorry for poor Albertina.

I, instead, gave her my Flemish hat.

Which I removed with total unimpressedface.

tgsgirl is mean in real life.

Albertina - January 30, 2012 via iPhone app reply

You really should've known that

from the Leffe count. Which I totally got away with not serving you. Haha!

You didn't bring it. For that, I add 50 to the tally.

Albertina - January 30, 2012 via iPhone app reply

Now that I know we can meet

and I can walk away totally not broke, you can add all the Leffes you want girl.

I have a feeling that observing this interaction in the flesh...

…would be more amusing than observing it here, but only marginally.

Ed K - January 30, 2012 reply

I hope someone had Belgium, Belgium, Belgium in a quinela box

Yes!

Odds 500-1
Leffes on me

Given the season

Probably wouldn’t have gotten that good of odds.
One to Seven on the other hand…

Anything for a Belgium-Belgium-Belgium-Belgium-Belgium-Belgium-Belgium bet?

The dominance reminded me of this one of Bettini

Frinking - January 29, 2012 reply

Does Albert even care?

He’s barely even smiling.

All right there's a smile

Still, not really much of a reaction

he's feeling

the pressure that comes with being world champion

No, I think it was because

he realized he didn’t know the words to the song

"Allons enfants de la patrie …"

:)

He knows the words, probably afraid to sing out loud with all the cameras on him

He was probably frozen

(I know i was!)

Rob has the same headshape as Wilfried

Wielfried = egg

-e

Is it customary to wear two jerseys like Albert is?

Well, three now

erm...

when it’s cold?

So is one more of a jacket, that just looks like his jersey?

It just looks strange seeing the same collar up there twice. Meh, whatever. I noticed it, it’s a thing.

Major disappointment for Sven

I thought the idea was that he packed it in when it became obvious he wasn't winning gold

Maybe so? If he can't get gold, let the kids get the medals?

Douglas Ansel - January 29, 2012 reply

Somebody was giving that impression in the other thread

Multiple somebodies, perhaps

Did Sven say he was done?

Yes, with Worlds

:'(

sadface

awwww, have a hazelnut jenever

Albertina - January 30, 2012 via iPhone app reply

All righty PdC, time for me to try to catch a nap

Always delightful watching with you folks, even when it’s an event I don’t quite understand. Bring on road season~!

OK Celtic

Are you drinking with us during the Tour of Flanders? Koppenberg should come at about 7:30am eastern.

That's a little early for me. :)

But if it’s Belgian beer – it might be worth it. :)

Duh, don't go to sleep - becomes "late"...

You have Dutch lineage?

Because if it’s Flemish, then I KNOW you’ll be joining us on Ronde van Vlaanderen day.

I didn't here the question

But it sounded like Sven said he was done with cross

can't be

maybe for the season?

They were pressing him to think carefully

He said “of course,” but….

cyclingdiva: RT @ednl: Nys dejected. “Might have been my last Worlds.” Sounds like he means it. #koksijde #cxworlds

hm

Well, Sporza hasn’t crashed so maybe the shock hasn’t set in yet?

Maybe just after race disappointment.

Yeah, I heard, "Ik schie er mar uit"

Which spelled badly, means I’m out…

Not with cross. But stated that one day races like WC are not his thing.

Maybe focus more? on GvA, WC and SP

Frinking - January 29, 2012 reply

Ahh - I didn't hear the question

That makes sense.
I have to concentrate to completely comprehend.

He was talking about being done with the world championships

that perhaps he should not worry about getting another title and leave it to the others to focus on it, because such one day events apparently are not his strength.

bvl - January 29, 2012 reply

As opposed to the cyclocross stage races?

Yes

The GVA, Superprestige and World Cup series.

Series are different.

That said, presumably he has to be able to win a fair number of individual races in those to be competitive, no? And do so on single days over fairly widely spread periods of time.

Maybe peaking for a single race isn't his strength

Or he just doesn’t want to do it … if the WC were one or two months earlier, I think he’d have won more of them.

bvl - January 29, 2012 reply

It's true that in the years he's won Albert has either been forced to...

…or seemed to not focus much on the series.

Pat being interviewed

Incredibly a good interview

yep,

the guy moving his head stayed out of view too

I can't wait

to talk to him in Louisville. “Pat, we’re doing an alphabetized list of reasons why your tenure has been an utter disaster and I’m struggling with the letters M, T and Y. Could you help?”

M = Meat is no longer eatable
T = The Belgian Hegemony has arrived
Y = You are a wanker

nicely done

"T = The Belgian Hegemony has arrived"

Why is that a bad thing?!

“My corruption”
“Total corruption”
“Years of corruption”

I found I have a great-great aunt whose last name was McQuaid. So I have sent the UCI a letter demanding that I run the Dauphiné this year.

Well played!

Misogyny

I suppose you need help with T and Y

This.

that's not a very good T

+2

Stupid question

Who is Pat?

UCI ~~Dark Overlord~~ President Pat PcQuaid

McQuaid, UCI president

a dick

No, he's just a bit of a dick...

VirtKitty - January 29, 2012 reply

O/T: Dumoulin wins Grand Prix La Marseillaise

2nd Marcato

Grzdylu - January 29, 2012 reply

wee man!

Damn, I was hoping for a french top 7

een, twij, drie, vier, fijf, zijs, seven

kebouters in kebouter land

wuk?

All right - have a good day all (or night if you're across the pond...)

uninformed consent - January 29, 2012 reply

It's funny how the brain tries to make sense of the foreign language

I heard “Are you wasted?”

They are talking about next year in Louisville

He doesn’t sound enthusiastic. Think he said expects 15-20,000 spectators? and said something about primetime…

uninformed consent - January 29, 2012 reply

Peter Van Den Abeele was enthusiastic

Start of the pro race will be local time 1pm in order to make it 8pm in Belgium, for prime time TV. (As opposed to a 3pm start and 10pm in Belgium.)

uninformed consent - January 29, 2012 reply

There is a perfect example of cross-cultural dissonance

from his tone and facial expression I had the opposite impression!
Thanks Ted

Rob Peeters suggested in the post race interviews that Styby may have been afraid of the crowd

and he thought that was the reason he was so bad today.
A very strange remark IMO as he’s a crowd favorite.

Yes, that was weird

Also very weird

considering he got a lot of cheers, and no booing at all.

perhaps it was the one fan with pink boots and a rather large sack with "not a kidnapped crosser in here" printed on it.

Who could possibly be scared of me?!

tgsgirl can testify that I am in fact entirely normal.

Albertina - January 30, 2012 via iPhone app reply

As normal as

all the other crazy cross fans ;)

He had the biggest cheer-reaction, warming up

and Albert was being boo-ed, where we were, in most of the laps

Seriously? That's just sad

No one got boo-ed where we were. Just some were cheered more than others.

You were not together?

Sarah picked out a quieter spot for the men's race

Urbs, Albertina and I were smack in the middle of the big crowd on Herijgers’ dune.

Oh, Albert dune. That doesn’t sound too bad.

Nope, and he deserved that dune

I am pretty useles about standing up for huge amounts of time without something to prop myself on

so found somewhere less manic!

At first I wondered if boo-ing means the same thing here as in the UK...

And

considering the crowds haven’t been a problem for him for the last two years.

Today we saw why the Kocksijde site is not the best for WC. Too much sand. Favors certain rider

too much. I think WC should have a combination of terrains so the best all around rider wins.

ZoeRochelle - January 29, 2012 reply

oops. Added an extra c - Koksijde.

ZoeRochelle - January 29, 2012 reply

tsssss

By 'accident'

surely

The French version is fun, too: Coxyde

sounds

like poison