Velominati Super Prestige: Giro d’Italia 2015

The Prophet crushes fools on the way to the Tre Chime in the '68 Giro

This is the most exciting thing that’s happened in Cycling since April. Yes, that’s a full two weeks with nothing exciting happening and its been killing me. I know its been killing you, too.

I love the Giro, the master alchemist of bad weather and big mountains that keeps the racing exciting from the first day through the last. You can generally count on enough climbing in the first week to see the leadership bounce around like one of those singing ping pong balls on Sesame Street. The race has its fair share of provenance as well, with many a legendary battle fought between legendary riders.

This year’s race is also remarkable for the fact that a GC rider is not only racing both the Giro and the Tour, but for Contador’s publicly stated objective of doing the Giro-Tour double, a feat not matched since Pantani crushed it back in 1998. That is an awesome goal, I just wish it was a goal set forth by a rider I could get enthusiastic about. A quick scan of the start list has me wondering who is made of the same stuff Bertie, and I’m coming up short. Uran Uran and Pozzovivo are the standouts; and I have serious doubts about Porte being able to come up with the goods, not to mention my boy Ryder who, despite having actually won the Giro, does not inspire confidence in his ability to repeat the feat. It is looking like energy bars may be Contador’s biggest rival for the title, like in last year’s Tour.

Now that I’ve given you three paragraphs of useless drivel that you’ve probably already skipped over, I feel comfortable getting down to Road Tacks. This is the Giro, people, lots of points at stake. And those points are going towards amazing prizes including a Jaeger frame and a Café Roubaix wheelset. There is plenty of time for you to Delgado the thing, too, so my advice is that you avoid doing that. Give yourself enough time to enter your picks so if something has gone amuck, you have time to hit “reload” or come back V minutes later to try again before the event closes. Remember, your procrastination in this matter will not result in the only Keeper with database skills diving into the backend to enter your picks for you. (And if you do encounter a problem, please be so kind as to take a screenshot and upload it as the descriptor “it didn’t work” doesn’t help us debug the problem.)

The scoring for the Grand Tours is a tad more involved than the one-day races, so look them over before making your prognostications. (One of the best things about the VSP is that I usually get to use the word “prognostication”, an opportunity one should always relish.)

So get your picks in before the countdown clock goes to zero, hit the go button, and good luck.

[vsp_results id=”32941″/]

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

Next Rampant Inflation »

Previous « La Vie Velominatus: The Holy Land

View Comments

wiscot says:

May 24 2015 at 8:09 am

@Mikael Liddy

@TommyTubolare

if you’d bothered clicking on the link I put in point 5, you’d see it’s a story on cyclingtips written from within the peloton (albeit by an anonymous rider). To quote the relevant passage:

The whole Astana situation is something that’s been the talk of the peloton for a fair while now. I for one haven’t got a clue what the UCI were up to when they allowed Astana to keep their licence. The team and their situation pisses so many people off; they’re a joke really.
And as for Fabio Aru, well, I’ll keep my mouth shut. I’ll learn from the mistake made by Greg Henderson, a man I have huge respect for. To people who say the omertà is still alive and that riders should just speak out if they know something: get a grip. In this day and age throwing around accusations without evidence is tough; you can’t say anything for fear of getting sued. But I know after Greg Henderson put “that” tweet out many people made the effort to shake his hand and praise him for saying what he did.

In terms of whether or not Henderson should have spoken out about it, I think he’s absolutely within his rights to do so. Given the ability of the UCI to deal with Astana so far this year, I can understand why making a comment via official channels perhaps didn’t fill him with confidence about something being done…

I agree that something doesn't smell right with Astana, but does the UCI want to shut down a team featuring Nibali and Aru - two of the most exciting prospects in the sport? If Astana had folded, where were Aru and Nibali going to go? All the other big teams had their rosters filled and couldn't absorb these two and heir salaries. That means the Tour champ is sitting unemloyed. Makes the sport look silly. It would be like Barca folding and Messi looking for a team mid-season.

Follow the money. Teams have enough trouble attracting sponsors. Killing Astana will be very detrimental to the pro game as a whole. Sponsors might think twice about getting in. I'm hoping things will get better under Cookson (they could hadly get much worse than they were in the McQuaid/Verbruggen years) but I'm not hopeful. In pro sports, money rules bove everything else. Porte gets slammed for an infraction that he hardly benefitted from, but a dodgy team get the green light to continue.
wiscot says:

May 24 2015 at 8:12 am

Oh, and vis-a-vis Sky, does their top rider get to use Richie's bus?
Gianni says:

May 24 2015 at 9:47 am

@LeoTea

Looks like Richie ain’t winning anything. 1:57 down on Kiriyenka after just 17km.

Yeah, I bet he will be packing his bags tonight. Even before he crashed he never seemed to be attacking Bertie. Maybe he was saving himself for the last week. Oooops. It's the last week, time for Ryder to make his move and justify me picking him for 2nd place.
wilburrox says:

May 24 2015 at 12:44 pm

@wiscot

@Mikael Liddy

@TommyTubolare

if you’d bothered clicking on the link I put in point 5, you’d see it’s a story on cyclingtips written from within the peloton (albeit by an anonymous rider). To quote the relevant passage:

The whole Astana situation is something that’s been the talk of the peloton for a fair while now. I for one haven’t got a clue what the UCI were up to when they allowed Astana to keep their licence. The team and their situation pisses so many people off; they’re a joke really.
And as for Fabio Aru, well, I’ll keep my mouth shut. I’ll learn from the mistake made by Greg Henderson, a man I have huge respect for. To people who say the omertà is still alive and that riders should just speak out if they know something: get a grip. In this day and age throwing around accusations without evidence is tough; you can’t say anything for fear of getting sued. But I know after Greg Henderson put “that” tweet out many people made the effort to shake his hand and praise him for saying what he did.

In terms of whether or not Henderson should have spoken out about it, I think he’s absolutely within his rights to do so. Given the ability of the UCI to deal with Astana so far this year, I can understand why making a comment via official channels perhaps didn’t fill him with confidence about something being done…

I agree that something doesn’t smell right with Astana, but does the UCI want to shut down a team featuring Nibali and Aru – two of the most exciting prospects in the sport? If Astana had folded, where were Aru and Nibali going to go? All the other big teams had their rosters filled and couldn’t absorb these two and heir salaries. That means the Tour champ is sitting unemloyed. Makes the sport look silly. It would be like Barca folding and Messi looking for a team mid-season.

Follow the money. Teams have enough trouble attracting sponsors. Killing Astana will be very detrimental to the pro game as a whole. Sponsors might think twice about getting in. I’m hoping things will get better under Cookson (they could hadly get much worse than they were in the McQuaid/Verbruggen years) but I’m not hopeful. In pro sports, money rules bove everything else. Porte gets slammed for an infraction that he hardly benefitted from, but a dodgy team get the green light to continue.

Hammering a century ride up mountains in under 4.5 hours... after a couple of weeks of daily racing. And keep it up all week. WOW.
Geraint says:

May 24 2015 at 1:41 pm

Wow, Astana were really strong today.
Teocalli says:

May 24 2015 at 2:32 pm

@Geraint

Wow, Astana were really strong today.

Sarcasm I trust...............
TommyTubolare says:

May 24 2015 at 2:45 pm

@Mikael Liddy

I did bother the first time Mikael, but thnx anyway bruh!
gilly says:

May 24 2015 at 2:46 pm

So disappointing to see Astana showing such strength today, two weeks into a GT. To have one up the road with another three riding strong in the maglia rosa group felt like going back 15 years. The concerns I had about legitimacy back then now manifest themselves as just feeling cheated. I've got Aru for 2nd in the VSP but loathe myself for doing so. The UCI needs to take a long hard look at itself. The thread earlier and particularly the comments from @Mikael Liddy are disappointingly spot on regarding the money, but what the fuck happened to integrity? Probably not the best time for me to be posting as the recovery beverages have flowed well tonight, but it feels like we've gone back to the dark ages with this year's Giro and I for one am feeling seriously let down. Don't even get me started on that COTHO Vinokourov. In fact, might I suggest that for all Gunderson's transgressions, surely @frank, COTHO2 should be entered into the Lexicon for Vino. This isn't how I had my second favourite GT of the year ( Vuelta #1 ) mapped out.
Mikael Liddy says:

May 24 2015 at 5:25 pm

Porte nearly 30 minutes down today, I predict a chest infection & a return to the sunnier climes of Monaco shortly...
CoachRobDC says:

May 24 2015 at 6:50 pm
Swapping picks:

Contador

Aru

Konig

Porte

Uran

VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. Contador
2. Amodor
3. konig
4. Porte
5. aru