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″/]
I love the Giro! A race for the grinders.
VSP PICKS:
1. Quintanarama
2. Good Cadel
3. Lowkeyim Rodrigues
4. Positivo
5. BarbUran BarbUran
I love the Giro. A race for the grinders.
ERROR: please type a comment.
VSP PICKS:
1. Nairo Quintana Rojas
2. Joachim Rodriguez
3. Cadel Evans
4. Rigoberto Uran
5. Domenico Pozzovivo
If he gets up, he deserves a fucking knighthood. Old man smooth in there for one last hurrah.
VSP PICKS:
1. Good Cadelephant
2. Mick Jagger
3. J-Rod
4. Quintana
5. Count Basso
VSP PICKS:
1. Quintana
2. Evans
3. Nibbles Nibali
4. Uran Uran
5. Martin
would be good if Cadel got up but ..
VSP PICKS:
1. Quintana
2. Evans
3. Nibbles Nibali
4. Uran Uran
5. Martin
Although Nairo Has not done a whole lot since Argentina, I am going with my heart with this, I love this kid, the way he climbs, his fucking awesome story, he is tough as nails and humble. Go Colombia! I am not to worried about his TTing he is better than the rest of the little guy’s out there
VSP PICKS:
1. N. Quintana
2. R. Uran
3. C. Evans
4. J. Rodriguez
5. D. Pozzovivo
“Always a bridesmaid , never a bride” – no longer.
El Purito finally steps on the top step of the podium in a Grand Tour.
VSP PICKS:
1. El Purito
2. N. Quintana
3. Pozzovivo
4. Dan Martin
5. Mediocre Cadel
VSP PICKS:
1. Nairo Quintana
2. Joaquim Rodriguez
3. Rigoberto Uran
4. Domenico Pozzovivo
5. Michele Scarponi
5. BarbUran BarbUran made me smile, nice one!
VSP PICKS:
1. Cadel Evans
2. Dan Martin
3. Joaquim Rodriguez
4. Nairo Quintana
5. Thomas De Gendt
Cadel is the course specialist and has specifically targeted this as his Grand Tour for the year. Pete Kennaugh is my wild card, I just remember some balls out climbing last year and a hard man recovery from a spell in a ditch. JRod I think is fucked from his crash (won’t finish) and both Columbians are first time team leaders and Cadel will deploy his cunning to outfox them and back it up with some time trialling. Danny Boy…just not sure but the field is limited.
VSP PICKS:
1. Good Cadel
2. Peter Kennaugh
3. D’Uran D’Uran
4. Nico Roche
5. O Danny Boy
@Deakus Kennaugh is out, so as you know.
VSP PICKS:
1. Quintana
2. Joaquim Rodriguez
3. Evans
4. Uran Uran
5. Nibali
@anthony Thanks for the heads up…time to pick another chancer!
Feeling the pressure, think Dan is about to deliver, he has all of Ireland and Garmin behind him, Quintana is up for it but not this time,his team are not strong enough, and he will win TDF 2015, Uran’s team will get him to the podium, BMC will get Evans a top five and an Italian because it’s the Giro!
VSP PICKS:
1. Dan Martin
2. Quintana
3. Uran
4. Evans
5. Pozzovivo
Kennaugh out…that pesky columbian marsupial is in….
VSP PICKS:
1. Good Cadel
2. Quintanarooooooo
3. D’Uran D’Uran
4. Nico Roche
5. O Danny Boy
VSP PICKS:
1. Quintana
2. Martin
3. Uran
4. Cuddles
5. J Rod
VSP PICKS:
1. Quintana
2. Dan Martin
3. Uran
4. Cuddles
5. J Rod
Come on baby! Come to papa!
VSP PICKS:
1. Quintana
2. Dan Martin
3. Nibali
4. Pozzovivo
5. Uran
I’ll likely rue snubbing the Italians, but I snub the French every July anyway…
VSP PICKS:
1. N. Quintana
2. R. Uran
3. C. Evans
4. J. Rodriguez
5. R. Majka
Like fuck I have any idea. If Cuddles can have a mechanical – free Giro then he’ll still get beat like a red headed mule. Dan Martin, IMNSHO oesn’t have a shit show chance in hell of making the podium in the last week, and Garmin will continue to not win anything while sponsored by The Ugliest Helmet Company In The World* (tm copyright property of POC based on the fact they make the ugliest helmets in the world).
VSP PICKS:
1. Quintana
2. J Rod
3. Uran
4. Heysjedahl
5. Cuddles
Danny Boy to smash everyone up the climbs, Rigo marked too heavily to be allowed any room to get away and Nairo to have not quite peaked. J-Rod to lose too much time on TTs and Bad Cadel to make a heart-breaking return at some point and upsetting his claim to the podium.
Or something like that anyway.
VSP PICKS:
1. Dan Martin
2. Rigoberto Uran
3. Nairo Quintana
4. Cadel Evans
5. Joaquim Rodreguez
Cadel will be the Antipodean filling in a vicious Colombian love sandwich
VSP PICKS:
1. Quin Quin Quintana
2. Low Cadence Cadel
3. I ran Uran
4. Jumping Joachim Rodriguez
5. Sky high Scarponi
dreadful 2014 so far, these picks are for the 3 weeks, no changes
VSP PICKS:
1. Joachim Rodriguez
2. Nairo Quintana
3. Cadel Evans
4. Domenico Pozzovivo
5. Rafał Majka
Ahhhh, who knows anymore?
VSP PICKS:
1. Quintana
2. Cadel Evans
3. Dan Martin
4. J-Rod
5. Pozzovivo
Just got a feeling about Tjarllingii. No rational explanation for it.
VSP PICKS:
1. N Quintana
2. C Evans
3. M Tjarllingii
4. R Uran
5. J Rodriguez
!
VSP PICKS:
1. nairo quintana
2. rigoberto uran
3. michele scarponi
4. cadel evans
5. julian arredondo
VSP PICKS:
1. Quintana
2. Evans
3. Uran
4. J Rod
5. Pozzovivo
I put 20 fish in a barrel with top contender names painted in nail polish then using the trusty sawed-off, one shell, these 5 floated to the top… This has to work better than Gianni’s chicken bones?
VSP PICKS:
1. Rodriguez Oliver
2. Uran
3. Quintana
4. Pozzovio
5. Scarponi
VSP PICKS:
1. Quintana
2. Evans
3. Rodriguez
4. Uran
5. Pozzovivo
@kixsand I’d hate to see you miss out on points cause you picked a guy that’s not in the race.
Nibali is not riding the Giro this year. He’s riding the Tour.
VSP PICKS:
1. Purito
2. Quintana
3. Pozzovivo
4. Uran
5. Majka
Giro D’Italia 97Ëš: Dates, Route Map, Stage Previews and TV Coverage Info
Change of heart
VSP PICKS:
1. Uran
2. J-Rod
3. Uran
4. Cuddles
5. Basso
VSP PICKS:
1. Quintana
2. J-Rod
3. Uran
4. Cuddles
5. Basso
here goes nothing!
VSP PICKS:
1. Quintana
2. Uran
3. Rodriguez
4. Majka
5. pozzovivo
VSP PICKS:
1. Quintana Roo
2. J-Rod
3. Cuddles
4. Uran Uran
5. Dan Martin
VSP PICKS:
1. Dan Martin
2. J-Rod
3. Quintana
4. Cuddles
5. Scarponi
VSP PICKS:
1. Quintana
2. Evans
3. J Rod
4. Aru
5. Martin
Based upon my spring classics performance, I view my picks as having the same effect as the Sport’s Illustrated cover curse. So the listed guys are probably now fucked.
Your welcome.
VSP PICKS:
1. Dan Martin
2. Nario Quintana
3. Roberto Uran
4. Cadel Evans
5. Joaquin Rodriguez
Would love to see Rodriguez finally win a grand tour. I think he’s been a great animator of races over the last few years while others have been more content to wait. That Zoncolan climb on Stage 20 could be really interesting. It should suit the ‘diesel’ climbers like Basso and Evans a bit better than some of these smaller, punchier guys. I think Basso put like two minutes into the field to win the Giro the last time a stage finished on top of it. Of course, at the end of three weeks and several very hard stages, who knows.
VSP PICKS:
1. Purito
2. Uran Uran
3. Cady Evans
4. Basso
5. Quintana
Like I said, I’d have to make a change. Going with my gut here.
VSP PICKS:
1. Nairo Quintana
2. Cadel Evans
3. Joaquin Rodriguez
4. Domenico Pozzovivo
5. Rigoberto Uran
VSP PICKS:
1. Rigoberto Uran
2. Nairo Quintana
3. Joaquim Rodriguez
4. Brent Bookwalter
5. Michele Scarponi
VSP PICKS:
1. Nairo Quintana
2. Rigoberto Uran
3. Joaquim Rodriguez
4. Cadel Evans
5. Michele Scarponi
Quintana
Uran
Rodriguez
Evans
Scarponi
VSP PICKS:
1. Quintana
2. JRod
3. Pozzivivo
4. Uran Uran
5. Dan Martin
Fire in the hole…
VSP PICKS:
1. Quintana
2. J-Rod
3. Uran
4. Pozzovivo
5. Majka
VSP PICKS:
1. Quintana
2. J. Rodriguez
3. Uran
4. Pozzovivo
5. Scarponi