Velominati Super Prestige: Vuelta a España 2014
Did everyone got tired of seeing a nearly naked Marcel Kittel on the massage table for the Tour’s VSP page? I know I didn’t. Young Kennaugh will be sporting his British road race jersey and his proper shoe/sock pairing in this Vuelta. Get used to it.
Ladies and gentleman we have a race. We have some Giro winners, we have some Tour de France winners and we have some Vuelta winners all lining up for the 2014 edition.
Quintana won the Giro but wants to prove he is the real deal. Is Malmerde working for him? Froome, he has been training in Sonoma, California. Talansky lives there, maybe they have both been training with egg timer. I think we can count out Horner to repeat or Bertie to do anything other than put some points in his jersey pocket. Carlos Alberto Betancur is here to lose some weight. David Millar is in to show he really deserved to ride the Tour de France. Boonen is here to train for the World Championships. Maybe everybody is here because their boss said get your skinny (or fat, in Betancur’s case) ass to Spain and ride the damn Vuelta.
No matter, the reason you, dear readers are here, is to show your total domination in the VSP. Stare at the start list until olive oil pops out of your tear ducts and stigmata appear on your palms. Redemption, points, the Worlds, spite or orders from the boss are all equally good reasons to get riders on the start list. How many people picked Chris Horner to win last year? Just a moment, I’ll query the VSP generator for archived results.
“Fuck off, I’m full”
The VSP generator is channeling Mr Creosote, that’s not a good sign. The point is, if there is one, this season’s VSP* is hanging in the balance on the Vuelta. Don’t consult the professional odds makers, that is like doping. Who is motivated? Who has a great team? Who does not make too many kit transgressions? Who looks fantastic on the bike? These are the questions.
Who has the answers?
*Prizes are as follows:
- First place overall wins a Veloforma Strada iR Velominati Edition frame in addition to the customary VSP winner’s VVorkshop Apron
- Second place overall wins a set of hand built CR Wheelworks Arenberg wheelset in a custom Velominati paint scheme laced to orange Chris King hubs. (CR Wheelworks is Café Roubaix’s new wheel goods brand.)
- Third place overall wins a full Velominati V-Kit with accompanying custom orange Bont Vaypor+ road shoes.
[vsp_results id=”30805″/]
@piwakawaka This.
Just because no one seems interested in the Vuelta, here’s a shot of the Cannondale boyz from Friday’s Le Grand Prix Cycliste – Quebec! Beautiful fall day in a beautiful city. Now we’re off to Montreal for tomorrow’s race up and down Mount Royal. 17 times.
@unversio
10 fuckin’ Tours back to back! And then there is all he does off the bike.
@Minnesota Expat I’ve enjoyed it so far, Bertie seems to have worked out Froome, by sucking his wheel and only attacking at the end where Froome is unable to respond to his acceleration and runs out of road to reel him in. That’s great bike racing right there, Valverde, Rodriguez and Aru seem to be running on different fuel but their battle has been tactically fascinating and with Aru exciting as well, at only 23 he is an excellent bike rider with plenty of room to improve. Quintana would have added something but as I said at TDF that’s racing, I can’t see any changes in the top five now, but still a TT means they will have to race as opposed to a ceremonial parade with a sprint finish.
@piwakawaka
I confess, there are close to 24-hours of unwatched Vuelta stages on the hard drive at home. But therein lies the problem, I haven’t been home for almost two-weeks. I’m just surprised there is not more commentary here. This Vuelta is everything the Tour was not (as it began in the UK) with Quintana, Contador, Froome, Rodriguez, Valverde and Aru competing head to head.
On that note, more from Quebec!
@piwakawaka
I suspect the game would be quite different if Froome was ahead on the GC, which could have been quite likely if they’d had an early ITT. Contador is milking his advantage””there’s no question””and he looks terrific, but would he have the same pop if it was Froome shadowing him while he searched for a few seconds here and there?
@Steampunk
But they started with a TTT, where Sky lost 8 seconds to Saxo-Tinkoff, and then Stage 10 was an ITT where Froome lost 53 seconds to Contador.
Froome is trying to make up time mostly lost in TTs, and as you say Contador is quite rightly taking advantage of it. Although to be s Contador early on was fighting for bonus seconds on the line and in intermediate sprints.
@ChrisO
It’s been an abominable season for Sky in general, and if the ITT had been flatter…
All I meant was that in comparison with their next encounter, the advantage will rest solidly with whoever gets out in front first. Last year’s Tour showed what Froome could do with the advantage (granted: Contador was a shadow of his current performance, but if Froome were getting the free ride up the hills, I imagine he’d be pulling away, too). Their next encounter will boil down to who can jump out to the early lead.
@Steampunk
True that and lets hope the same crew comes to the tour fit and with Quintana. it has been a great race to watch. One thing, giving Contador his due as a great mountains rider, I just don’t like his style. Meaning that it always seems he is only doing what needs be and never really truly going for it like a Campionissimo. Maybe I’m wrong, he has done some great rides, but none that my old brain remembers as being epic a la Coppi, Merckx. It seems he just does what is needed and no more?
@dancollins takes the overall win today in the Vuelta – possibly the closest GC of any of the GT’s this year. Nice!
As for the overall VSP GC, here are the current standings:
[vsp_gc year=”2014″/]
@Minnesota Expat speaking of the Canadian races, Gerro got to practice his best Phil Anderson impression overnight…
@Steampunk
And in the end Froome is second by 1:10, having lost 1:01 in TTs. Marginal gains, marginal losses.
@Rob
I have a theory here Rob… which is that in this modern age the rides seem less heroic, not quite so epic, because we see them all unfold minute-by-minute.
Had Merckx, Coppi et al been televised live for every moment of their races I suspect the weight of the mundane hours would make them seem less glorious.
We view them mainly through the prism of descriptions by writers and still images, both of which are invariably edited to present the most exciting imagery.
Film is no more than a few selected minutes, which was partly a physical limitation – a roll of newsfilm only lasted a couple of minutes, and it was bulky to carry around, expensive and had to be developed.
I think Contador rides like a champion in this age, as does Froome in his way, and Quintana. They attack, they don’t give up, they fight but yes they do what they need to do to win.
With big money and sponsorship at stake, the likes of which nobody pre-Armstrong could even imagine, they have to consider the wider reality, and in some ways that also makes them champions because it is extra pressure and responsbility.
Those are the only three I would put in that bracket of the current riders.
@ChrisO
Well said.
@Steampunk
And it got worse on the Vuelta podium for Sky. Despite trying to do the right thing and give Froome a proper cycling cap to wear and not some friggin baseball cap, they ended up giving him something that looked like a Sky version of what Casey Jones would wear driving his train. Woeful effort.
Some advice for Sky – go on the interwebs (I’m sure you have access), type in Niki Terpstra, Paris Roubaix 2014, podium. That, Mr Brailsford, is how you do a cap and podium attire. Marginal effort require, maximum education.
Oh, and next time, try a black cap.
@Rob & @ChrisO:
That modern racing thing. Contador is adept at whittling the field of GC contenders down to one. He’d prefer to clinically break down a single rider””reduce the risk. Most of his GT wins have involved eliminating contenders one at a time until he can go mano a mano. Maybe it lacks the heroism, but it’s no less tactical and requires precision. As for his domination of a race: Giro 2011? Nobody else was ever going to be close. To the point he was gifting stage wins so as not to leave with an embarrassment of riches…
@Mikael Liddy
Nice day, a little chilly, but good venue. Orica had it dialed in, Friday and Sunday! I think they’re leadout was in place and in front at least 1000m (?) from the finish. We were at the 100m on the finish straight just as Gerran’s last lead out pulled away. I was going to take pictures, but wanted to enjoy the finish!
The boys on climbing Mount Royal!
@Minnesota Expat yeah it was interesting in that they were two very different wins. As you said, Sunday was a lead out by the numbers where no other team could even keep up, but Friday’s was pretty interesting in that he basically had to jump on his own to chase down Dumoulin in the last 500m.