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″/]
Eddie with a great leadout…
@frank
I must admit surprise that Cav’s usurper arrived so quickly…
@therealpeel
I don’t know, check out the NBC Sports replay of the Tour of California Stage 1 finish on Steephill.tv. Cavendish sprinted for the win, shouldering Sagan out of the way and catching Degenkolb from behind. It’s impressive.
Come on, its a rest day, lets get those swaps moving!
@simonsaunders
Exaclty! And would it be possible to give those who’s Delgadoed a second chance while you’re at it?
@Mirko
Really? It’s bad enough that there are rest day swaps (does Vaughters get to replace Martin?) but why should you get a second chance if you couldn’t be bothered enter your picks on time?
Just checked my picks and remembered that I hadn’t chosen Dan Martin because I really wanted him to do well, but didn’t want to tempt fate in any way…
@Chris
This.
@Patrick
Easy. Blame Frank.
@Mike_P
Oh yeah, BABY! My favorite Grand Tour VSP subject! Time to HTFU, people!
Did Delgado get a time adjustment when he turned up late?
VSP PICKS (1st Rest Day Swaps):
1. Nairo Quintana
2. Cadel Evans
3. Joaquim Rodriguez
4. Rigoberto Uran
5. Julien Arredondo
@Geraint DNS
Rodriguez targets Giro d’Italia in 2014 — cyclingnews
“[Racing in] Italy is hard in itself, which suits me. It’s hard to find a completely flat stage there, they always put something in it,” said Rodriguez. “And those stages are better for me than riding 200 kilometres on the flat, because anything can happen there – you can have bad luck and lose a grand tour.” “” Rodriguez
Swapping one Irishman for another…
VSP PICKS (1st Rest Day Swaps):
1. Quintana
2. Rodriquez
3. Evans
4. Uran
5. Roche
Dan Martin out, Rigoberto Uran in.
VSP PICKS (1st Rest Day Swaps):
1. Quintana
2. Cadel Evans
3. Rigoberto Uran
4. J-Rod
5. Pozzovivo
@Minnesota Expat
I was really thinking more of Kittel. That sprint was very impressive, but Cav sends to have lost his absolute dominance.
VSP PICKS (1st Rest Day Swaps):
1. rodriguez
2. quintana
3. scarponi
4. evans
5. uran
VSP PICKS (1st Rest Day Swaps):
1. Nairo Quintana
2. Cadel Evans
3. Michele Scarponi
4. Joaquim RodrÃguez
5. Rigoberto Uran
VSP PICKS (1st Rest Day Swaps):
1. Evans
2. Uran
3. Quintana
4. Pozzovivo
5. Scarponi
VSP PICKS (1st Rest Day Swaps):
1. Quintana
2. Uran
3. Rodriguez
4. Evans
5. Scarponi
Ha, it actually worked and I COULD participate despite delgadoing. Thank you admins!
And as for the haters, I wish you all the haircut of Theunisse.
VSP PICKS (1st Rest Day Swaps):
1. Quintana
2. Uran
3. Rodriguez
4. Evans
5. Scarponi
Ugh oh, first rest day and everyone’s gettin’ worked up. This should be interesting.
Also, no matter how many times I see ATOC I think, “What the fuck is that?” It also happens with USMNT when I’m reading futbol news. “Why are they writing about mountains?…”
And “webinar”…I always read it as WAbeeNUR. What the fuck is a wabeenur?
Anyone see news on Niemiec? I think he crashed yesterday.
Swap or not? Numerically, the odds are against me with a swap. I lose five to potentially gain 7.
Play what you came with.
No swap.
@Mirko
Ha! Don’t I wish that I could have good ol’Gert’s hair! Although I probably could have a skullet if I was allowed to grow out what hair that I have remaining!
VSP PICKS (1st Rest Day Swaps):
1. Fuck'in Quintana
2. J-Rod
3. Uran-Duran
4. Cuddles
5. Scarponi-Face
@Buck Rogers
BTW, I did NOT actually do any swaps. Not sure why it has my picks listed? Maybe it’s just b/c they are so FUCK’IN awesome. That must be it.
The lead photo also never ceases to amaze. Froome road in a full body stocking last week. Yesterday in Ireland guys were in booties, leggings, and amazing hi-tech jerseys and jackets. Snowing in the mtns, I’ll go for…my regular kit. Amazing!
@Ron
So, in that photo, has Frahnk just hit him in the head with a snowball in his quest to take out a rider in each Grand Tour or what? Fuck’in fantastic photo, though.
@Mirko No hate but being allowed to join a grand tour two stages late cheapens the whole affair.
VSP PICKS (1st Rest Day Swaps):
1. Quintana
2. Rodriguez
3. Uran
4. Hesjedal
5. Evans
@Chris
True, and I am very vocal about my LOVE of Rest Day Swaps (Frank knows he can count on me to bitch about a free game where no one is forcing me to play) but Mirko does start out at negative 25 points (5 points per rider) so it pretty much still sucks to be him (or her?).
Still think that one should be able to go final negative on points, though!
@Chris
And, to rub some salt into the wound, it is three stages late, not two. Your welcome.
VSP PICKS (1st Rest Day Swaps):
1. Uran
2. Quintana
3. Roach
4. Evans
5. Pozzovivo
@Chris
No hate here either – but if the defending Tour champ didn’t get a pass, then neither should we. ATMO.
didn’t realize last friday I missed the cutoff as the race started on friday this year. I know they aren’t super prestigey for points and all, but I’ll play along on my own.
VSP PICKS (1st Rest Day Swaps):
1. Quintana
2. Rodriguez
3. Majka
4. Cadel
5. Uran
@Buck Rogers
Yeah right. You are secretly changing your picks in spite of your rep.
Actually I think @frank in his wisdom makes all posts on rest day re-post picks. Let’s test that; here are my initial picks which are not changing:
Quintana, JRod, Pozzivivo, Uran Uran, Dan Martin.
@Erik
Wouldn’t swap until at least the 2nd rest day.
What the hell. Let’s see if the big Canadian fella can work wonders. Danny boy let me down, so I’m counting on the lumberjack to chop some wee bits of Spanish and Columbian lumber down to size. Timber!
VSP PICKS (1st Rest Day Swaps):
1. Ryder Hesjedal
2. Cadel Evans
3. Nairo Quintana
4. Rigoberto Uran
5. Joaquim Rodriguez
Lets curse another Irishman!
VSP PICKS (1st Rest Day Swaps):
1. Nico Roche
2. Good Cadel
3. Quintana
4. D. Pozzovivo
5. R. Uran Uran Uran Uran
VSP PICKS (1st Rest Day Swaps):
1. Quintana
2. Pozzovivo
3. Purito
4. Evans
5. Uran
@Buck Rogers
That’s what comes of being away all weekend. At least I got my picks in though…
135km tomorrow, then a catch up session on the Sky Box.
VSP PICKS (1st Rest Day Swaps):
1. Nairo Quintana
2. Joaquin Rodriguez
3. Rigo Uran Uran
4. Cadel Evans
5. Domenico Pozzovivo
I may be talking (typing) shite here, but I only swap out when one of my picks drops out of the race. I don’t just swap out because I think someone looks like they have form. Had Danny Boy still been upright and riding, I’d have made no changes but stuck to my original picks. I think this is fair, especially if a pick has retired due to a crash. If they just decide to “retire” to save their legs for another race – no swap should be allowed.
Delgados are shit-outta-luck.
Swapping Dan Martin for Cadel Evans. Cheerio!
VSP PICKS (1st Rest Day Swaps):
1. Quintana
2. Cadel Evans
3. Nibali
4. Pozzovivo
5. Uran
VSP PICKS (1st Rest Day Swaps):
1. Quintana
2. J Rod
3. Good Cadel
4. Scarponi
5. Uran
VSP PICKS (1st Rest Day Swaps):
1. Quintana
2. Evans
3. Rodriguez
4. Hesjedal
5. Uran
Martin out and Evans in.
VSP PICKS (1st Rest Day Swaps):
1. Joaquin Rodriguez
2. Cadel Evans
3. Nairo Quintana
4. Rigoberto Uran
5. Domenico Pozzovivo
@therealpeel
Yeah. His acceleration was amazing. He just blew by Sagan. I’ll buy the idea that Cavendish has more real competition today, than three years ago, but he still has the speed to win against the best.
In the meantime, Wiggins buried the field in today’s ITT in California. It looks like his head is back in a good place and he’s having a good year.
@Chris
Yes undeniably.