Velominati Super Prestige: Giro d’Italia 2014
For the simple reason that the Cobbled and Ardennes Classics are behind us, I have not alternative but to get back on my soap box about the Giro being the best of the three Grand Tours. Well, usually, at least. Last year’s race sucked the big one (even if it was supremely Rule #9), but for the most part it is the race that is the most closely contested of the three. There are mountains everywhere Italy meaning there are less bunch sprints, the weather is completely unreliable, and the slightly lower calibre of rider seems hungrier. Or maybe the reduced pressure means riders aren’t quite as stressed out and are able to funnel that extra energy into the race.
My favorite Giro is a hard one to pick out, but its either the 1988 Giro when Andy Hampsten took the win after freezing himself stiff with Erik Breukink on the Gavia or when Pantani took his in 1998. I’ve been watching the ’98 Giro during my morning turbo sessions and Merckx-oh-me, that was an All-Drugs Olympics nail-biter. ’98 is also an interesting contrast to ’88; in just a decade, the technology had changed so much but more than that, the doping atmosphere in the sport transformed completely. From Hampsten’s Giro, EPO went from just being dabbled with on the fringes to being abused by leaders and domestiques alike by the time Pantani won. Hampsten wrote a nice piece about racing against dopers in Tyler Hamilton’s book, The Secret Race. He described the various side-effects that the popular drugs of his era had, such as bloating and a tendency to make the user over-estimate their abilities. Amphetamine made the riders do stupid things, cortisone made them retain water, and steroids made them heavy; a clean rider could use those factors to their advantage. A far cry from the rocket fuel that allowed humble domestiques to big ring up major alpine passes.
Why am I talking about drugs? There’s a race starting in a few days, people! This is our first Grand Tour, and the picks are worth more points, not to mention that strategy starts to play into things with the chance to swap your picks out on either of the rest days – at a certain point penalty. Remember that points are not accumulated; the standings on the last day of the race are what kinds, so keep the long game in mind.
Any points you win count towards the overall prizes plus the winner of this event also gets to post for the rest of the year in the pink jersey badge. So check the start list, review the VSP Grand Tour Scoring Guidelines and get your picks in by the time the countdown clock goes to zero at midnight PDT on Friday, May 9th. If you think we mapped one of your picks wrong, use the dispute system and we’ll review it. Also remember to be precise enough in your description so we know which rider you mean; in other words, if you enter “Martin”, we will use our discretion (read: wild guess) to decide if you mean Tony or Dan – and that choice will not be negotiable once the the countdown clock goes to zero. There has also been a recent scourge of people putting a rider in more than one place. Two words: Piti Principle, people! Don’t make me do a bunch of extra programming to keep you from being allowed to submit such an obviously unsportsmanlike set of picks. We will mercilessly clear out all your entries should we find you have attempted this.
Also don’t forget we’ve got three major prizes for the season-long VSP:
- 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.
Good luck, have fun with it, and don’t lose your Rule #43 spirit.
[vsp_results id=”29781″/]
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. Domenico POZZOVIVO
2. Joaquim Rodriguez
3. Rigoberto Uran
4. Nairo Quntana
5. Cadel Evans
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. Quintana
2. Weepy Cadel
3. Urano
4. Nico IrishFrenchBelgian
5. Majka
two DNFers out
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. Quintana, N
2. Evans
3. Uran
4. Niemiec
5. Arredondo
No point in swapping out Scarponi face at 10pts, but I could get something for swapping Poz for J-Rod.
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. Nairo Quintana
2. Dom Poz
3. Cuddles
4. Uran Uran
5. Scarponi
caved…
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. Quintana
2. Evans
3. Pozzivivo
4. Uran Uran
5. Dan Martin
@Chris
I think in my case that would be the equivalent to driving to the race, hopping out the car, swapping the clinchers for the tubs then swapping those for the carbon clinchers and still coming 19th in C grade. And it would rob me of the joy of purile South Park videos.
Swapping Majka for Purito
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. Quintana
2. Evans
3. Majka
4. Uran
5. Pozzovivo
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. Quintana
2. Dan Martin
3. Uran
4. Cuddles
5. Majka Raphal
Second Rest Day Swaps – Pozzi in for Rodriguez & Basso for Scarponi
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. Nairo Qunitana
2. Domenico Pozzovivo
3. Cadel Evans
4. Rigoberto Uran
5. Ivan Basso
Majka in Porito out.
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. Uran
2. Quintana
3. Majka
4. Evans
5. Pozzovivo
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. Quintana
2. Uran
3. Evans
4. Pozzovivo
5. Scarponi
Ten points is expensive to do the large shuffle I’d like to do – a simple JRod out, Majka in, and we’ll see how it goes.
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. n quintana
2. r majka
3. c evans
4. r uran
5. d pozzovivo
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. Quintana
2. J-Rod
3. Uran
4. Pozzovivo
5. Majka
Swaperoo…
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. Cadelephant
2. J-Rod
3. Uran
4. Pozzovivo
5. Majka
Sub out Jrod in Cadel
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. Evans, C
2. Quintana, N
3. Uran, R
4. Pozzovivo, D
5. Scarponi, M
@Floridian
I believe Gianni put the price at sacrificing your #1 to make a swap, so unless you’re sure the changes will land you the end of year win I’d probably steer clear!
Loving these 3 rest days though, means there’s a whole heap of you making big point sacrifices with 2 weeks still to go…
@Mikael Liddy
Mikael, your right about 2 weeks to go, this won’t be a cake walk. Since I was forced to make my #1 Cadel (whom I do like but was not sure the gods of cycling would support for the whole race) I am now invested in his age supported craftiness.
I have 2 questions for you, who’s Mick Jagger and did you not swap out J-Rod? Or are you being crafty yourself and going with no subs?
I will relax a bit after the time trial if Evans pulls it off because then we know that he is really in top form, as it seems from his performance so far. There will still be doubts because of his age and the chance that there could be a catastrophic implosion at any point where the Columbians, Italians or shock and awe, a Canadian divests you of the Maglia Rosa… Then we’d have to practice our curtsies!
@Mikael Liddy
Coughing up 10 points to ditch Martin or Purito is too much to bear, so I steered the mouse away from the pre-race picks I made and will not revisit that place. Floridian will ride the (remaining) steeds he rode in on.
@Floridian
Hopefully you had them in 4th and 5th?
My #1 is out and Scarpers in 5 is suspect so with luck 2-4 will carry on and Cadel winning will negate the 10 point penalty but personally a Cadel win seems a long, long shot.
Are you in state and anywhere close to Miami? I never see Velominati kit on Biscayne…
Holy Moly, just saw my new jersey!! Yikes now I know what it feels like to be Cadel…. And it’s only May. Still, I need a new frame since the #1 died 3 years ago so I hope the shity placings for the last 3 years have toughened me up for this seasons run?
Not a good day for the T-Bone. Looks like he touched his front wheel on someone’s rear wheel and down a bunch of riders went. I was hoping he might surprise me and win, as his morale has got to be pretty low these days – he hasn’t had much luck the past few years.
Bouhanni looks like he’s top sprinter dog now that Kittel has gone, but he’ll be up against Cav, Kittel, Sagan and Degenkolb at the Tour so it’ll be a whole lot different. Judging from California, Cav is coming along nicely and got a wee scare by almost doing a Zabel MSR on the line. As he should know from his own MSR win, it ain’t over till you’ve crossed the line.
Cuddles is looking good. So too is Union of the Snake. I think the TT will really sort things out.
@Rob Mick Jagger is the moniker the Velo Voices team have bestowed upon Rigoberto Uran based on a few photos he put up on social media over the off season that held a pretty reasonable resemblance to a young version of the Strolling Bones frontman.
Yeah I was tempted by J-Rod, but I’d be likely to switch Quintana up in to 3rd and place and then put in either Majka or Pozzovivo in 4th & I didn’t think the 20pts would be worth it.
Tyler doesn’t need luck, he needs to learn to ride a bike. Anyone who falls off that much isn’t out of luck, he is out of skill. The other guys must quake in fear when they see him near them. End rant.
Cuddles continues to be spot on with his positioning and race craft. Going to be a long week and a bit sweating him for the win!
@Mikael Liddy got it, saw an image of him and ya he does look almost too good to be a hard man and eagle of the peaks!
No, 20 points loss would tank you and right now you don’t need to change but I think both of us may be booted off the podium before this is done. There is a pricking in the bones that Cadel has to run into some argy-bargy before the end of this. I don’t know if it will be the man with the hammer who, they say, runs after the aged faster than the young or if it will be bad luck in all its many disguises.
What about Quintana? He’s got time time to make up time, no?
@Rob yup, just read the scoring breakdown for a GT.
1st – 20, 2nd – 15, 3rd – 10, 4th – 7, 5th – 5 & 3 points for the right rider in the wrong spot.
Even if I swapped J-Rod out & replaced him with the right choice I’d only break even, if that swap included changing 4th I’d be losing 3 points even if I did get them both right.
@Mikael Liddy what ever happens… good luck the Maglia Rosa looks damm good on you!
@Rob he’s in 9th @ 1:45, but with a TT after this next stage I’m guessing he’s gonna go backwards before he makes up any time…
@Rob as do those stripes on you.
Silence
Classy stage win from Mick Rogers – great to see him get his day in the sun after serving Clenbutador and others so well in recent years. Hard to believe that this is his first stage win in a Grand Tour!
@Rhodri
GIRO BIG START CARAVAN
Preceding each day’s racing this advertising parade gives participating sponsors the opportunity for brand exposure and product sampling to hundreds of thousands of fans along the roadside.
During the three weeks of the Giro d’Italia over 12 million spectators will watch the race from the side of the road. Of these, studies have shown that half come first and foremost to see the Publicity Caravan.
Professional cycling has included branded publicity caravans in the race convoy since the 1930’s. The parades have won over brands and the public becoming an essential part of the race experience.
The Caravan goes hand in hand with the race it precedes, with the multi-shaped and multi-coloured procession creating a wave of excitement in towns and villages along the race route. Young and old alike along the roadside marvel at the creativity of the branded cars and vans. The Official Caravan Stops attract considerable attention as promotional items are handed out at these pre- advertised locations.
Stage Start and Finish locations are also an important location for Caravan vehicles to distribute their promotional items.
Over the three days of racing in Northern Ireland and the republic, conservative estimates will put the spectator numbers at over 1 million roadside viewers. This is an incredible opportunity for your brand to interact with such a captive audience over three days.
@Daccordi Rider
Nipple lube. Tyler could fall off a fucking tricycle in a swimming pool, it looked to me straight away like he’d had his front wheel taken out which means he was overlapping wheels somewhere. I haven’t checked if that was the case, but seeing the crash twice it seems pretty evident.
And Cuddles is slaying it. Be interesting to see what’s gonna happen after the tt.
Robert Millar post on Evans:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/robert-millar/how-long-can-cadel-evanss-luck-last
Hope he’s right and there’ll be some good racing in the final week.
@Tom Mc
Ha! This post killed me. Not sure if you are being tongue in cheek or not, but either way, too funny! “Serving Clenbutador”. You do realize the irony of that statement, right???
Sory, couldn’t resist. Carry on, no doping references here. And for what it’s worth, it was a great ride. Another question about yesterday was did Cuddles actually slow the field at the end to help his “Mate” win?
@Buck Rogers
Agreed. If you (well, not you personally, Buck) want to spout off all the old cliches/shit about doping, head on over to Cyclingnews. I like that we take a more discerning and intelligent attitude around here. It was a great, ballsy ride from Rogers. Did Cuddles help him? Hard to say, but again, Saxo have no GC contender and maybe Cuddles was putting some more credits in the bank.
@Rhodri All Millar says is word. My only thought (hope, because I’ve now got Cuddles in #1 after the rest day) is that this years mountain stages seem a little more mellow than in some recent years, 3 climbs not 5 for the hardest stage. That may mean that he can limit the damage from a bad day, a puncture, etc.
I think today will give a hint of if the mountains will make or break. If Cadel pulls out a big lead then it is sure that his form is top and given his experience he may (with luck) pull it off.
What ever happens the next 10 days is sure going to be entertaining!
@Rob
I think Sean “Fucking Mayhem” Kelly’s commentaries are fantastic, but Miller would, I think, be equally good. He just has that “been there, done that” experience that cuts through the crap.
No. 1 and No. 2 on the course now
Ulissi is on top
DAMN! Come on Cuddles! Not looking good!
Uran takes 1.17 off Ulissi! Fantastic effort.
WHAT A STAGE!!!! Whoever said ITT’s are boring wasn’t watching this stage! Huge lead for @Spencer!
That was great. Not so much for Evans, although really a fantastic ride it’s just that Uran was a steamroller! Dam this means it will be a nail biting ride through the mountains, whoooeee!
I thought it’d be the mountain TT where Evans lost time… he could potentially get a pasting there.
@Rob
Un-FUCKIN-believable! NEVER ever expected that. Hope you go thtat screen shot of the stripes this monring!!!
@frank Yes that was unusually fun and one could really see the difference in styles and power, Pozzivovo was interesting in that he looked choppy but strong and Nairo was impressive but Uran was unbelievable!
Congrats to @Spencer, wear it well!
@Buck Rogers sadly did not think I’d be stripped so soon. Funny how naked I feel now…
That livens things up nicely.