Velominati Super Prestige

The Velominati Super Prestige is a season-long competition wherein readers will be submitting their predictions for the top five finishers of each qualifying race.  In order to qualify, your picks via the VSP Picks form above the posts section of the VSP Event article pertaining to the race in question by the time the countdown clock goes to zero at midnight on the day of the race start. These articles are clearly marked and are generally posted at least 72 hours in advance of each event. The current leader of the competition has the honor of posting on the site bearing the VSP Leader’s badge; winners of select races (the monuments and Grand Tours) similarly gain the honor of posting with a dedicated badge for the remainder of the year. Prizes may be given for key events; these prizes will be announced on the associated VSP Event. Points will be tallied as the season progresses and the winner will be announced after Paris-Tours. Prizes to be determined.

Scoring (One-Day Races)

Readers who wish to enter shall enter their predictions for the top five placings of each race by the time the countdown clock goes to zero at midnight PDT on the day of the race. Regular Points Points will be scored in reverse order of finishing order: 7 points for first place, 5 points for second, 4 for third, 3 for fourth, and 2 for fifth.  Readers will also earn 1 bonus point for every other rider named in the top five, regardless of the rider’s placing, but riders are not scored twice. Tie Breaking In the event of a tie, the first reader to submit their predictions will be named the winner.

Scoring (Grand Tours)

Readers who wish to enter shall enter their predictions for the top five placings on General Classification of each Grand Tour by the time the countdown clock goes to zero at midnight PDT on the day of the first stage or prologue. Points Points will be scored as follows based on the final G.C of the race: 20 points for first place, 15 for second, 10 for third, 7 for fourth, and 5 for fifth; plus 3 points per rider in the top five regardless of the rider’s placing, but riders are not scored twice. Changing of the Picks* Contestants are allowed to make line up changes on one of the rest days of the Grand Tours but not both. These changes will come with a point penalty.  You will be allotted one (1) rest day to make swaps in grand tours; you may pick either the first or second rest day. The penalties for swapping will be lower for the first rest day than the second. This will allow you to swap out a rider(s) who gets caught in some first week nervousness  with a 5 point penalty for each swap. Or make some go for broke/doomed to fail break-away swap on the second rest day for a 10 point penalty for each swap. That’s it. You make one swap or five on either rest day for the corresponding 5 or 10 point penalty per swap. Additionally, if one of your riders crashes out, DNF’s, or DNS’s, you may swap them out on a rest day with corresponding penalties if you haven’t already used up your one rest day swap. Tie Breaking In the event of a tie, the first reader to submit their predictions will be named the winner. Minor Stages We will be posting VSP’s for minor stages as well. Scoring is similar to one-day racing, except no bonus points are in play for getting the rider in the wrong placing.

Scoring (Minor Stage Races)

Readers who wish to enter shall enter their predictions for the top five placings on General Classification of each Minor Stage Race (less than three weeks) by the time the countdown clock goes to zero at midnight PDT on the day of the first stage or prologue. Regular Points Points will be scored in reverse order of finishing order: 10 points for first place, 8 for second, 7 for third, 5 for fourth, and 3 for fifth; plus two bonus points per rider in the top five regardless of the rider’s placing, but riders are not scored twice. Tie Breaking In the event of a tie, the first reader to submit their predictions will be named the winner.

Posting Badges

The following badges will be worn by current leaders of the competition and sub-competitions:

Overall Super Prestige Leader:
Milano Sanremo:
VVomen’s Ronde van Vlaanderen:
Men’s Ronde van Vlaanderen:
Paris-Roubaix:
Leige-Bastogne-Liege:
Giro d’Italia Leader:
Giro Rosa Leader:
Tour de France Leader:
Vuelta a Espana Leader:
Giro di Lombardia:
Overal Super Prestige Lanterne Rouge:

2016 Velominati Super Prestige Schedule

Les Hommes

Start

End

Event

Race Website
18.03.2017 18.03.2017 Milano-Sanremo www.milanosanremo.it
26.03.2017 26.03.2017 Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields www.gent-wevelgem.be
02.04.2017 02.04.2017 Ronde van Vlaanderen – Tour des Flandres www.flandersclassics.be
09.04.2017 09.04.2017 Paris-Roubaix www.letour.fr
16.04.2017 16.04.2017 Amstel Gold Race www.amstelgoldrace.nl
19.04.2017 19.04.2017 La Flèche Wallonne www.letour.fr
23.04.2017 23.04.2017 Liège-Bastogne-Liège www.letour.fr
05.05.2017 28.05.2017 Giro d’Italia www.giroditalia.it
04.06.2017 11.06.2017 Critérium du Dauphiné www.letour.fr
10.06.2017 18.06.2017 Tour de Suisse www.tds.ch
01.07.2017 23.07.2017 Tour de France www.letour.fr
29.07.2017 29.07.2017 Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian www.klasikoa.net
19.08.2017 10.09.2017 La Vuelta ciclista a España lavuelta.com
08.09.2017 08.09.2017 Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec www.gpcqm.ca
10.09.2017 10.09.2017 Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal www.gpcqm.ca
20.09.2017 20.09.2017 Mens World Championship Time Trial
24.09.2017 24.09.2017 Mens World Championship Road Race
07.10.2017 07.10.2017 Il Lombardia www.illombardia.it

La Femmes

Start

End

Event

Race Website
26.03.2017 26.03.2017 Gent-Wevelgem In Flanders Fields www.gent-wevelgem.be
02.04.2017 02.04.2017 Ronde van Vlaanderen / Tour des Flandres www.flandersclassics.be
16.04.2017 16.04.2017 Amstel Gold Race info@amstelgoldrace.nl
19.04.2017 19.04.2017 La Flèche Wallonne Féminine www.letour.fr
23.04.2017 23.04.2017 Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes www.letour.fr  et www.pesantliege.be
11.05.2017 14.05.2017 Amgen Breakaway from Heart Disease Women’s Race empowered with SRAM amgentourofcalifornia.com
30.06.2017 09.07.2017 Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile
20.07.2017 20.07.2017 La Course by Le Tour de France www.letour.fr
29.07.2017 29.07.2017 Prudential RideLondon Classique www.ridelondon.co.uk/events/classique
17.08.2017 20.08.2017 Ladies Tour of Norway www.ladiestour.no
26.08.2017 26.08.2017 GP de Plouay – Lorient Agglomération www.grandprix-plouay.com
29.08.2017 03.09.2017 Boels Rental Ladies Tour www.hollandladiestour.nl
10.09.2017 10.09.2017 Madrid Challenge by la Vuelta lavuelta.com/Madridchallenge
19.09.2017 19.09.2017 Womens World Championship Time Trial
23.09.2017 23.09.2017 Womens World Championship Road Race

Standings

[vsp_gc year=”2017″/]

Past Results

[vsp_gc year=”2016″/]

 

[vsp_gc year=”2015″/]

 

[vsp_gc year=”2014″/]

 

[vsp_gc year=”2013″/]

 

[vsp_gc year=”2012″/]

 

[vsp_gc year=”2011″/]

2010 VSP G.C.

1. Andy 56 points
2. Geoff 53 points
3. Steampunk: 51 points
4. Frank 48 points
5. Gianni 47 points
6. Marcus: 43 points
7. Jarvis 42 points
8. Hawkeye 40 points
9. Rob 38 points
10. Brett 37 point
11. Robert Marques: 36 point
12. Joe 35 point
13. Marko 32 points
14. Scott 26 points
15. Roadslave 25 points
16. Ben 21 points
17. Ken 17 points
18. Pont 15 points
19. Nathan Edwards: 11 points
20. Souleur: 10 points
21. Crossy: 10 points
22. KitCarson 10 points
23. Mr Haven 7 points
24. Cyclops 6 points
25. Daniel 5 points
26. Sgt 3 points
27. David: 2 points
29. Dan O 2 points
30. Joshua 2 points
31. David 1 points
32. James 0 points
33. Jim 0 points
34. Ben: 0 points
35. Dale: 0 points
36. Houdini 0 points

*The Changing of the Picks rules are designed to promote fair play and keep the competition fun and open throughout the three-week race.  Abuse of these rules will be managed through the “Piti Principle”: if we we feel you are attempting to exploit loopholes or otherwise take advantage of the Changing of the Picks rules, we will penalize you by deducting points from your total score. Much like the UCI doping suspensions, the amount of points deducted will be based on how egregious the abuse was.

2,331 Replies to “Velominati Super Prestige”

  1. @Teocalli

    Quintana could not stay with Porte up to the finish today. Is he still to peak or just not in decent shape for the TdF?

    And today the tables were reversed. I hope this will actually be an interesting and competitive/combative TdF this year.

  2. Dang but Quintana is going to struggle on GT GC when he gets hammered on the ITTs.  Needed him to hang in there for me but I seem to have slipped down standings on the final day…..

    and on the OVO Energy Women’s Tour – we didn’t do so well collectively!

     

     

  3. ….and overall. @RobSandy manages to close the gap a little and I seem to have crept up a few places but I could have peaked for the season.

  5. So a little bit of a rest before…..

    Friday, 6 July 2018 Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile 1.WWT
    Tuesday, 17 July 2018 La Course by Le Tour de France 1.WWT
    Saturday, 7 July 2018 Le Tour de France GT

  8. @Rick

    @Teocalli, Perhaps a bit of a niggle, but would it be any trouble to ad the Dauphine to my palmares?

    0

    It is but it’s the flag before the Giro – a limitation of the fact that the flags are excel Icons but the Giro is and embedded image so I can’t get them to show in order – though maybe if I put in spaces I can rig it around……

  12. this time of year is always exciting.  i’m never quite ready for the Giro, because i always wish classics season were longer..  lol  but by now, it’s well into the summer and the Tour is really something.

  13. @Cary

    this time of year is always exciting. i’m never quite ready for the Giro, because i always wish classics season were longer.. lol but by now, it’s well into the summer and the Tour is really something.

    0

    I see Movistar are officially going with 3 leaders at least for the first 9 days.  Plan or team appeasement?  Burn out all 3 by the end of the second week?

  14. @Teocalli

    I see Movistar are officially going with 3 leaders at least for the first 9 days. Plan or team appeasement? Burn out all 3 by the end of the second week?
    How’s that going to work with the reduced team numbers? You can imagine the chat when they’re at the bottom of the last climb and they’ve burnt out the domestiques
    After you old chap. No, no, nonsense after you, I insist.
    Team appeasement or pandering to three prima donnas?
    Landa isn’t looking too impressive these days, neither he or Quintana can time trail for toffee and whilst Valverde is looking good, its only been in relatively short races and he may be just a bit too old for this sort of thing. 
    Having damned them like that I’d best put all three in my picks.

     

  15. @chris

    @Teocalli

    I see Movistar are officially going with 3 leaders at least for the first 9 days. Plan or team appeasement? Burn out all 3 by the end of the second week?
    How’s that going to work with the reduced team numbers? You can imagine the chat when they’re at the bottom of the last climb and they’ve burnt out the domestiques
    After you old chap. No, no, nonsense after you, I insist.
    Team appeasement or pandering to three prima donnas?
    Landa isn’t looking too impressive these days, neither he or Quintana can time trail for toffee and whilst Valverde is looking good, its only been in relatively short races and he may be just a bit too old for this sort of thing.
    Having damned them like that I’d best put all three in my picks.
    0

    Yup!  Good summary.

  16. @Teocalli

    @chris

    @Teocalli

    I see Movistar are officially going with 3 leaders at least for the first 9 days. Plan or team appeasement? Burn out all 3 by the end of the second week?
    How’s that going to work with the reduced team numbers? You can imagine the chat when they’re at the bottom of the last climb and they’ve burnt out the domestiques
    After you old chap. No, no, nonsense after you, I insist.
    Team appeasement or pandering to three prima donnas?
    Landa isn’t looking too impressive these days, neither he or Quintana can time trail for toffee and whilst Valverde is looking good, its only been in relatively short races and he may be just a bit too old for this sort of thing.
    Having damned them like that I’d best put all three in my picks.
    0

    Yup! Good summary.

    0

    Is it not a bit of an admission that none of them is in scintillating form?

    Or perhaps the ‘3 leaders’ thing is just a smokescreen, and actually they will all ride for whoever they know is the strongest.

  18. @RobSandy

    See http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/landa-movistar-might-have-the-strongest-team-at-the-tour-de-france/ do you think he is confusing Strongest Team with maybe the Best Bunch of Individuals?

  19. Looks like Bernal is in the provisional line up for the Tour. I wonder if that giving GT a warm fuzzy feeling about his role as the other leader?

    Or have Sky decided to go with the Three Leader strategy as well?

  20. @chris

    Looks like Bernal is in the provisional line up for the Tour. I wonder if that giving GT a warm fuzzy feeling about his role as the other leader?

    Or have Sky decided to go with the Three Leader strategy as well?

    0

    What about the theory of being too young to go for GC on a GT?

  21. @Teocalli

    @chris

    Looks like Bernal is in the provisional line up for the Tour. I wonder if that giving GT a warm fuzzy feeling about his role as the other leader?

    Or have Sky decided to go with the Three Leader strategy as well?

    0

    What about the theory of being too young to go for GC on a GT?

    0

    When a rider has a Vo2 max in the 90’s I am not sure being “too young” hurts his chances.

  22. I guess Stage 9 will be cycling’s equivalent of “Le Crunch”* and may well determine who is de facto team leader for a number of teams.

    *The annual England v France Rugby International is sometimes referred to as Le Crunch.

  23. @RobSandy

    @Teocalli

    @chris

    @Teocalli

    I see Movistar are officially going with 3 leaders at least for the first 9 days. Plan or team appeasement? Burn out all 3 by the end of the second week?
    How’s that going to work with the reduced team numbers? You can imagine the chat when they’re at the bottom of the last climb and they’ve burnt out the domestiques
    After you old chap. No, no, nonsense after you, I insist.
    Team appeasement or pandering to three prima donnas?
    Landa isn’t looking too impressive these days, neither he or Quintana can time trail for toffee and whilst Valverde is looking good, its only been in relatively short races and he may be just a bit too old for this sort of thing.
    Having damned them like that I’d best put all three in my picks.
    0

    Yup! Good summary.

    0

    Is it not a bit of an admission that none of them is in scintillating form?

    Or perhaps the ‘3 leaders’ thing is just a smokescreen, and actually they will all ride for whoever they know is the strongest.

    0

    Three “leaders”? What could possibly go wrong?

    Not to be too self-referential, but: http://www.velominati.com/2016/04/guest-article-prim-and-proper/  This had been done before . . . and not well I may add.

     

  24. i’m very interested in how many stages Gaviria is going to win.  i think Kittel’s fastest man crown is in jeopardy.

  26. @chris

    Phil has just told me that Froome is not to be allowed to start the tour!

    0

    yeah.  Froome disallowed this morning!

  27. @Cary

    @chris

    Phil has just told me that Froome is not to be allowed to start the tour!

    0

    yeah. Froome disallowed this morning!

    0

    I am not sympathetic to dopers but I feel for Froome here. Guilty or not guilty this case should have been resolved by now. Having said that, I fully support Prudhomme’s position in protecting cycling’s biggest race.

     

  28. Time to sort your picks for….

     

    Friday, 6 July 2018

    Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile
    1.WWT

    Saturday, 7 July 2018

    Le Tour de France
    GT

  29. @Rick

    @Cary

    @chris

    Phil has just told me that Froome is not to be allowed to start the tour!

    0

    yeah. Froome disallowed this morning!

    0

    I am not sympathetic to dopers but I feel for Froome here. Guilty or not guilty this case should have been resolved by now. Having said that, I fully support Prudhomme’s position in protecting cycling’s biggest race.

    0

    There is the chicken-and-egg thing, though, that if the UCI or WADA or whoever had suspended Froome 9 months ago, there would’ve been a load more pressure put on them (by Sky, for a start) to sort this all out. As it is, I wonder whether Sky have just been… let’s say “not uncooperative” because it wasn’t directly affecting them.

    As far as dopers go, if a legit reason is given and corroborated, I’ll accept it. This goes for Wiggins – who was my first inspiration for getting into this sport, so I am so angry at him now – and Froome, whom I dislike for being arrogant and selfish (and having the ugliest riding style ever seen), but I’d gladly take a reason to disrespect his results too.

  30. Giro Rosa VSP Picks:

    1. Megan Guarnier
    2. Pauline Ferrand-Prevot
    3. Dani Rowe
    4. Lucinda Brand
    5. Marianne Vos

    Tour de France VSP Picks:

    1. Chris Froome*
    2. Geraint Thomas
    3. Nairo Quintana
    4. Rigoberto Uran
    5. Romain Bardet
    6. [Richie Porte]

    *In the event Sky’s bribes don’t work and Froome remains suspended, can I be cheeky and request he is removed everyone shifts up a place (so Gee is in 1st, Porte is in 5th).

    Side bet: Yates repeats his brother’s Giro, looks strong throughout and then dies the day before Paris.

  31. Like @Mulebeatsdrums, if Froome indeed is not allowed to start, his entry should be removed and like in excel, rows should move up.

    1. Froome

    2. R Porte

    3. Quintana

    4. Landa

    5. The Nibbles

    6. Tom Dumoulin

    For the female Giro d’Italia:

    1. C Blaak

    2. Longo Borghini

    3. Niewiadoma

    4. Van Vleuten

    5. Vos

  32. @mulebeatsdrums

    @Rick

    @Cary

    @chris

    Phil has just told me that Froome is not to be allowed to start the tour!

    0

    yeah. Froome disallowed this morning!

    0

    I am not sympathetic to dopers but I feel for Froome here. Guilty or not guilty this case should have been resolved by now. Having said that, I fully support Prudhomme’s position in protecting cycling’s biggest race.

    0

    There is the chicken-and-egg thing, though, that if the UCI or WADA or whoever had suspended Froome 9 months ago, there would’ve been a load more pressure put on them (by Sky, for a start) to sort this all out. As it is, I wonder whether Sky have just been… let’s say “not uncooperative” because it wasn’t directly affecting them.

    As far as dopers go, if a legit reason is given and corroborated, I’ll accept it. This goes for Wiggins – who was my first inspiration for getting into this sport, so I am so angry at him now – and Froome, whom I dislike for being arrogant and selfish (and having the ugliest riding style ever seen), but I’d gladly take a reason to disrespect his results too.

    0

    “They knew that they were going to do this, but they’ve left it until the last moment in order to try to fuck him over. That’s completely unfair of them. I never thought I’d be sitting here and defending Froome, but it’s a joke now. If they’re going to hold riders to a certain standard, then they need to get it right themselves.”

    Fuck, I’m agreeing with Landis. Arse.

  34. Froome back in the mix!  does this whole proceeding strike anyone else as a giant pissing contest between regulating agencies?

  35. @RobSandy

    “They knew that they were going to do this, but they’ve left it until the last moment in order to try to fuck him over. That’s completely unfair of them. I never thought I’d be sitting here and defending Froome, but it’s a joke now. If they’re going to hold riders to a certain standard, then they need to get it right themselves.”

    Fuck, I’m agreeing with Landis. Arse.

    It looks to me like the UCI have flicked the ASO a massive finger.

    The ASO were totally out of order. It doesn’t matter what you think of Froome or the process, including the overlooked bit about anonymity, waiting until only a few days before the start was cowardly.

    My vote for the anti-V award for 2018.

  36. @chris

    @RobSandy

    “They knew that they were going to do this, but they’ve left it until the last moment in order to try to fuck him over. That’s completely unfair of them. I never thought I’d be sitting here and defending Froome, but it’s a joke now. If they’re going to hold riders to a certain standard, then they need to get it right themselves.”

    Fuck, I’m agreeing with Landis. Arse.

    It looks to me like the UCI have flicked the ASO a massive finger.

    The ASO were totally out of order. It doesn’t matter what you think of Froome or the process, including the overlooked bit about anonymity, waiting until only a few days before the start was cowardly.

    My vote for the anti-V award for 2018.

    0

    The UCI decision was made BEFORE the ASO announcement. Which is presumably why the UCI and Sky kept pretty quiet about it until today.

    ASA look fucking stupid now.

    I would still like to know more of the ‘why’ exceeding the limit does not constitute a AAF in Froome’s case.

  37. @Teocalli

    Time to sort your picks for….

    Friday, 6 July 2018

    Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile

    1. Borghini

    2. Van Vleuten

    3. Guarnier

    4. Blaak

    5. Niewiadoma

    Saturday, 7 July 2018

    Le Tour de France
    GT

    0

    1. Froome

    2. Porte

    3. Bardet

    4. Dumoulin

    5. Quintana

     

  38. @RobSandy

    @chris

    @RobSandy

    “They knew that they were going to do this, but they’ve left it until the last moment in order to try to fuck him over. That’s completely unfair of them. I never thought I’d be sitting here and defending Froome, but it’s a joke now. If they’re going to hold riders to a certain standard, then they need to get it right themselves.”

    Fuck, I’m agreeing with Landis. Arse.

    It looks to me like the UCI have flicked the ASO a massive finger.

    The ASO were totally out of order. It doesn’t matter what you think of Froome or the process, including the overlooked bit about anonymity, waiting until only a few days before the start was cowardly.

    My vote for the anti-V award for 2018.

    0

    The UCI decision was made BEFORE the ASO announcement. Which is presumably why the UCI and Sky kept pretty quiet about it until today.

    ASA look fucking stupid now.

    I would still like to know more of the ‘why’ exceeding the limit does not constitute a AAF in Froome’s case.

    0

    Either way, I’m going to have to take a couple of days off work. There’s too much fun to be had baiting the tinfoil hat brigade on the Cycling News comments pages.

  39. @chris

    @RobSandy

    @chris

    @RobSandy

    “They knew that they were going to do this, but they’ve left it until the last moment in order to try to fuck him over. That’s completely unfair of them. I never thought I’d be sitting here and defending Froome, but it’s a joke now. If they’re going to hold riders to a certain standard, then they need to get it right themselves.”

    Fuck, I’m agreeing with Landis. Arse.

    It looks to me like the UCI have flicked the ASO a massive finger.

    The ASO were totally out of order. It doesn’t matter what you think of Froome or the process, including the overlooked bit about anonymity, waiting until only a few days before the start was cowardly.

    My vote for the anti-V award for 2018.

    0

    The UCI decision was made BEFORE the ASO announcement. Which is presumably why the UCI and Sky kept pretty quiet about it until today.

    ASA look fucking stupid now.

    I would still like to know more of the ‘why’ exceeding the limit does not constitute a AAF in Froome’s case.

    0

    Either way, I’m going to have to take a couple of days off work. There’s too much fun to be had baiting the tinfoil hat brigade on the Cycling News comments pages.

    0

    lol.  you win the internet for me today.

  42. @wiscot

    https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/jul/02/chris-froome-cleared-by-uci-in-anti-doping-investigation

    I just call BS on the whole thing. He was twice the legal limit and when it looked like Froome wouldn’t start the Tour, hey presto a decision is made that absolves him. Stinks as bad as Trump’s new tariff act.

    0

    I would be less cynical if the UCI and/or WADA had provided some sort of explanation for the positive test and why it did not constitute a violation.

  43. @Rick

    @wiscot

    https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/jul/02/chris-froome-cleared-by-uci-in-anti-doping-investigation

    I just call BS on the whole thing. He was twice the legal limit and when it looked like Froome wouldn’t start the Tour, hey presto a decision is made that absolves him. Stinks as bad as Trump’s new tariff act.

    0

    I would be less cynical if the UCI and/or WADA had provided some sort of explanation for the positive test and why it did not constitute a violation.

     

    Froome’s defence appears to have rested on a 1,500-page reported that was submitted to WADA earlier this year.

    Maybe because no-one read the whole friggin report? Just as a comparison, not one of the many editions of Tolstoy’s War and Peace listed on Amazon is 1500 pages long. They range from around 1000 to 1450 pages.

     

    What’s the old saying? “If you can’t dazzle ’em with diamonds, baffle them with bullshit.”

     

    1500 pages my arse.

     

  44. @wiscot

    @Rick

    @wiscot

    https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/jul/02/chris-froome-cleared-by-uci-in-anti-doping-investigation

    I just call BS on the whole thing. He was twice the legal limit and when it looked like Froome wouldn’t start the Tour, hey presto a decision is made that absolves him. Stinks as bad as Trump’s new tariff act.

    0

    I would be less cynical if the UCI and/or WADA had provided some sort of explanation for the positive test and why it did not constitute a violation.

    What’s the old saying? “If you can’t dazzle ’em with diamonds, baffle them with bullshit.”
    1500 pages my arse.
    0

    If I recall correctly, Pharmstrong bought WADA a $10 million testing machine for their silence. I wonder what this verdict cost Sky……..

  45. It’s a pretty crazy Froome situation.  I, too, would like to hear the explanation why it’s not a violation, and why it took so long to decide.  Either have rules and apply them consistently, or don’t bother.

    My VSP season is pretty much fucked, so having some fun with Le Tour and leaving Froome out for now…

    1.  Nibali

    2. Uran

    3. Roglic

    4. Bardet

    5. Porte

    I wanted to put Adam Yates and Landa in there, but the field is too crowded.  Quintana and Landa will be too busy fighting for team leadership to make it work.  So sayeth my lousy predictions.

     

    Women’s Giro

    1. van Vleuten

    2. Blaak

    3. Borghini

    4. Niewiadoma

    5. Vos

  47. My last post got a bit mangled. Sky sent a 1500 page report to WADA. I looked on Amazon, none of the editions of Tolstoy’s War and Peace is longer than 1500 pages. The highest was 1450. Maybe that’s why it took so long to reach a decision: they were reading something that was infinitely even less entertaining, and they lost interest half way through.I imagine the conversation went like this behind closed doors, “Ok, who actually read this all the way through? Be honest.” (sounds of crickets chirping) “I thought not. F*ck it. Let’s exonerate him, ok?” Trebles all round!

  48. Tour de France
    Froome
    Porte
    Roglic
    Bardet
    Fuglsang

    Giro Rosa
    Blaak
    van Vleuten
    Vos
    Borghini
    D’Hoore

  49. @Rick

    @wiscot

    https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/jul/02/chris-froome-cleared-by-uci-in-anti-doping-investigation

    I just call BS on the whole thing. He was twice the legal limit and when it looked like Froome wouldn’t start the Tour, hey presto a decision is made that absolves him. Stinks as bad as Trump’s new tariff act.

    0

    I would be less cynical if the UCI and/or WADA had provided some sort of explanation for the positive test and why it did not constitute a violation.

    0

    I’m going to remain quietly optimistic that this will be provided, hopefully in some detail, as doubts will remain without it.

    But reading the WADA statement this morning they have basically admitted their test for this substance doesn’t work. I.e. you can take the medicine within the permitted limit and can return a concentration in your urine over the threshold.

  50. @Rick

    Not usually a fan of Velonews but this is a good read: http://www.velonews.com/2018/07/news/expert-froome-case-shows-system-unequal_471254

    0

    There aren’t any actual facts in that article though, are there? It’s based on the assumption that the reason Froome has been cleared is that Sky have bought off the UCI and WADA by fair means or foul, not because they successfully proved he didn’t exceed the maximum dose.

    It seems like whatever Froome does he gets piss thrown over him, metaphorically and literally.

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