Velominati Super Prestige

Velominati Super Prestige: Giro d’Italia 2014

Johan Vandevelde wears a snow helmet on the Gavia during the '88 Giro.
Johan Vandevelde wears a snow helmet on the Gavia during the ’88 Giro.

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:

  1. First place overall wins a Veloforma Strada iR Velominati Edition frame in addition to the customary VSP winner’s VVorkshop Apron
  2. 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.)
  3. 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″/]

 

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874 Replies to “Velominati Super Prestige: Giro d’Italia 2014”

  1. VSP PICKS:

    1. Cadel Evans
    2. Nairo Quintana
    3. Joaquím Rodríguez
    4. Rigoberto Uran
    5. Samuel Sanchez

  2. No Richie Porte? Hmm, it seems like Sky either wins…or withdraws this year. Also, what is up with Hesjedal? Only two years removed and not even the Canadians ’round here are picking him. What’s going on there?

    Could Cuddles cry his way all the way to the top step? That would be crazy. And, it might ensure more photos of him with that giant woman.

  3. I’m having problems with the machine, Frank. (Possible PEBCAC acknowledged.)

    I’m logged in and made some picks  – Comment #3 – but they’re not showing as mapped.

    Hell – I even picked Cuddles. But now I’m ditching him. Had another look at the Zoncolan in the 2010 Giro. Just about the ugliest, most painful bit of bike riding ever. Yet the fight is completely compelling. Quintana will crush him in the steeps and the TT’s won’t be enough of an advantage for Cadel.

    New picks as above.

    PS. This thing woz working great when Gianni was running it.)

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Nairo
    2. Uran Uran
    3. Cuddles
    4. Pozzovivo
    5. JRod.

  4. VSP PICKS:

    1. Rodriguez, J
    2. Evans, C
    3. Quintana, N
    4. Uran, R
    5. Pozzivivo, D

  5. VSP PICKS:

    1. Nairio Quintana
    2. Joaquim Rodriquez
    3. Cadel Evans
    4. Rigoberto Uran
    5. Samuel Sanchez

  7. VSP PICKS:

    1. Evans
    2. Quintana
    3. The Chauffeur (Duran Duran)
    4. Hesjdal
    5. Sanchez

  8. VSP PICKS:

    1. Evans
    2. Scarponi
    3. Quintana
    4. Pozzovivo
    5. Rodriguez

  9. @frank

    Listen up people, I’m entering one of these for the first time since the Cobble Classics started. (I don’t enter those on account of my superstition and not wanting to jinx the riders I want to win.) And then I was away during the Ardennes. So I’m back and I’ve stored up all my prognostication, so check it out.

    Dan FUCKING Martin take the cake with Cuddle crying his way into second. From there its Columbians and dopers. Wait, is that redundant? I honestly don’t know.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Dan FUCKING Martin
    2. Cuddle Me Timbers
    3. Quintanna Roo
    4. Uran Uran
    5. J Rod

    Jeez Frank, you think you could have given me some credit for your stupid picks seeing as they’re exactly the same as mine FFS! Time will tell if we are geniuses or chumps . . . .

  11. VSP PICKS:

    1. Joaquin Rodriguez
    2. Dan Martin
    3. Nairo Quintana
    4. Rigoberto Uran
    5. Domenico Pozzovivo

  12. VSP PICKS:

    1. Nairo Quintana
    2. Joaquim Rodriguez
    3. Domenico Pozzovivo
    4. Cadel Evans
    5. Rigoberto Uran

  16. VSP PICKS:

    1. J Rodriguez
    2. N Quintana
    3. M Scarponi
    4. N Roche
    5. C Evans

  18. and my wild guess is-

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Quintana
    2. Rodriquez
    3. Evans
    4. Uran
    5. Martin

  21. VSP PICKS:

    1. Quintana
    2. J. Rodriguez
    3. Uran
    4. Domenico Pozzovivo
    5. Scarponi

  22. Battle of the non time triallers vs the poor time triallers

    Would you Adam’n’Eve it, the entire city of cycle hating Belfast has been dressed in pink – possibly an out pouring of gayness which is so long denied by our politicians, or maybe because they think there is a car race on

    Either way, I will be spending most of tomorrow stalking pros, like the rest of my clubmates, and then getting rowdy at the TTT – watch for NDCC (North Down Cycle Club) at Carson’s Monument – I’ll be one of the 400 of us giving it some noise

    Sacre bleu, it then transpires I have landed a ticket for the Royal Box for the bunch sprint finish on Saturday – check out the balcony of Robinson and Cleaver Restaurant, overlooking the finish line – I will wear my 2012 Belgian Velominati black T-shirt, as a token of respect

    We don’t normally get to see this shit – we are all going buck crazy over here!

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Quintana
    2. Weepy Cadel
    3. J-Rod
    4. Nico IrishFrenchBelgian
    5. Dan IrishFrenchBelgian

  25. VSP PICKS:

    1. Nairo Quintana
    2. Cadel Evans
    3. Joaquim Rodriguez
    4. Domenico Pozzovivo
    5. Przemyslaw Niemiec

  27. Shortest podium in Grand Tour history?

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Nairo Quintana
    2. Uran Uran
    3. Good Cadel Evans
    4. Niemiec
    5. Pozzovivo

  28. VSP PICKS:

    1. N Quintana
    2. C Evans
    3. J Rodriguez
    4. R Uran
    5. D Martin

  29. Hungover, so using Oddschecker for guidance.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. J Rodriguez Oliver
    2. N A Quintana Rojas
    3. C L Evans
    4. R Uran Uran
    5. D F Martin

  30. Psyched.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Quintana
    2. Evans
    3. Rodriguez
    4. Uran
    5. Pozzovivo

  31. VSP PICKS:

    1. Rodriguez
    2. Evans
    3. Quintana
    4. Martin
    5. Pozzovivo

  32. VSP PICKS:

    1. Quintana
    2. Rodriguez
    3. Evans
    4. Pozzovivo
    5. Scarponi

  33. Couple of dark-horses, just to cover the bases

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Nairo Quintana
    2. Dan Martin
    3. Robert Kiserlovski
    4. Pierre Roland
    5. Cadel Evans

  34. VSP PICKS:

    1. Rigoberto Uran
    2. Joaquím Rodríguez Oliver
    3. Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas
    4. Cadel Evans
    5. Domenico Pozzovivo

  35. Friday start nearly caught me out. Not that a Delgado would matter all that much given my desultory VSP performance to date.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. EVANS Cadel
    2. QUINTANA ROJAS Nairo
    3. URAN URAN Rigoberto
    4. MARTIN Daniel
    5. ROCHE Nicolas

  38. VSP PICKS:

    1. EVANS Cadel
    2. QUINTANA ROJAS Nairo
    3. URAN URAN Rigoberto
    4. MARTIN Daniel
    5. RODRIGUEZ OLIVER Joaquim

  39. totally shooting in the dark…

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Quintana
    2. and Uran, Uran so far away
    3. Cadelephant
    4. Dan Martin
    5. J. Rodriguez

  40. Commence 3 week wait.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. EVANS Cadel
    2. QUINTANA Nairo
    3. RODRíGUEZ Joaquim
    4. SCARPONI Michele
    5. URAN Rigoberto

  41. VSP PICKS:

    1. Quintana, N
    2. Rodruigez
    3. Uran
    4. Niemiec
    5. Arredondo

  44. VSP PICKS:

    1. Evans
    2. Quintana
    3. Rodriquez
    4. Pozzovivo
    5. Duarte

  45. VSP PICKS:

    1. Evans
    2. Quintana
    3. Rodriguez
    4. Pozzovivo
    5. Duarte

  46. Not happy with these overall, but I think J Rod finally gets it…

    VSP PICKS:

    1. rodriguez
    2. quintana
    3. uran
    4. pozzovivo
    5. evans

  47. VSP PICKS:

    1. Nairo Quintana
    2. Joaquim Rodriguez
    3. Rafal Majka
    4. Cadel Evans
    5. Fabio Aru

  50. VSP PICKS:

    1. N Quintana
    2. R Uran
    3. J Rodriguez
    4. D Pozzovivo
    5. C Evans

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