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FSA DS (Women): One To Go!

By Chris Fontecchio
Patrick Verhoest

Not unlike today's elite women's ITT, the Women's FSA Directeur Sportif competition is gonna come right down to the last few meters. Unlike the men's side, the world championships are when the curtain comes down on the 2012 competition (the best yet, by far), and all that stands between us and crowning a season-long victor is one last rainbow jersey. The most coveted of all... the road race.

Fsa-ds_mediumAnd as the field hammers past the red kite, there's a two-person breakaway off the front:

  1. Take a Deep Breath, Girl, 20875
  2. Velo Donna, 20756
  3. Dumptruckfullofwomenlyawesome, 20468
  4. A fish's bicycle, 20206
  5. Hellooo Ladies!, 19088
OK, in theory, there are many hundreds of points left on the table, so if someone in the top five could gorge on them while elbowing everyone else out of the trough, we could see more than a two-team race. The likelihood there isn't great. Let's break it down!

1. Take a Deep Breath, Girl, at 0.00

DS: Straw Dog

Road Race Hopes: Marianne Vos, Evie Stevens, Trixie Worrack, Olga Zabelinskaya, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot?

Verdict: Hm, this could get very, very interesting in the minor placings. In a close competition, you need numbers to grab minor points and cancel out the challengers below. Well, Take a Deep Breath saw their hopes dented when Pauline Ferrand-Prevot and Iris Slappendel crashed out of the TTT. Heck, just in the TTT that cost them enough points to maybe make a difference. Ferrand-Prevot is still on France's startlist, though you wonder how she's healing up.

2. Velo Donna, -119

DS: Spokeswoman

Road Race Hopes: Stevens, Judith Arndt, Worrack, Kirsten Wild, Linda Villumsen, Ellen van Dijk, Adrie Visser

Verdict: Well, well, well... No Vos, but quite a stable of strong challengers for top 20 spots. I can't say I'm crazy about it, since it involves Vos not only losing but falling a ways back, but at least there is a scenario where Velo Donna get a dramatically different set of points than TADB,G.

3. Dumptruckfullofwomenlyawesome, -307

DS: Mattd82

Road Race Hopes: Vos, Stevens, Worrack, Wild, Visser, Sharon Laws

Verdict: Still more intrigue. The dump truck has zero chance of victory, really -- Visser and Laws are the only top-flite challengers not also on TADB,G. But a Vos win would probably vault Mattd82 up to the second step, at least until the last of the 20 places are counted.

4. A Fish's Bicycle, -669

DS: Sashax

Road Race Hopes: Vos, Stevens, Worrack... do you sense a pattern here?, Zabelinskaya, Shelley Olds

Verdict: Vos, Stevens, Worrack. Vos, Stevens, Worrack. That wasn't the only pathway to victory, but that's your #1, 2 and 5 overall this season. The significance of Stevens and Worrack is that they cost 10 and 6 points, respectively, yet they're performing up among Emma Johansson (50 points), Arndt (40) and Emma Pooley (40). So yeah, those two names, Stevens and Worrack, that's not exactly where the competition was won (since so many top teams had them), but for any team that didn't, that's where you lost.

5. Helloooo Ladies!, -687

DS: Jimbo

Road Race Hopes: Vostevensworrack, Ina-Yoko Teutenberg

Verdict: Jimbo has no chance to win, and frankly I only added him to this discussion to demonstrate that anyone, even you, can do well at this game. That said, he might score best of the top five teams. He might even sweep the podium.

Photo by Patrick Verhoest for the Podium Cafe

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