Velominati Super Prestige: Giro d’Italia 2015
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.
Café Roubaix's CR Wheelworks Arenbergs
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Well…it’s already happened, someone has had the temerity to choose that fuck Zakarin. The new Froome, disgusting elbowey form and all.
Frank, it has been a long two weeks, hasn’t it? Now we get the Giro…and we get to see if the Tour of California, a state that probably has 3 million design engineers and artists, can come up with slightly less shite leaders jerseys.
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No rest day swaps for me again this year, I need to make the picks good from the beginning. This is exactly how its gonna go down.
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May Merckx have mercy on my selection.
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So may Aussies think Porte can do it. I’m not so sure…
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Figure the time trial will set the top two apart more than the parcours.
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where are the Italians? I’d love to put a few in the top five, but there’s nobody to believe in. Pozzovivo? He’s going to lose three and a half days on the time trial…
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In other news, it appears old habits die hard at Astana, Aru looks like he wants to sue Hendo for claiming the “stomach virus” was something a little more sinister.
Junior Cotho?
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What a sketchy list, I like Ritchie, he’s almost one of us, a Kiwi, but you know his first DS was Bjarne…
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@Fausto
@TheDon
(If you two could enlighten me as to how in THE FUCK all y’all keep managing to enter less than 5 picks, I would be very greatful. Please use the messages as to not clog this thread up with me asking you to be more specific.)
@Phillip Mercer
What do April Aussies think?
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Nothing will effect Uran.
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Abandon Hope all ye who tip these, for by the first rest day they shall be slain.
I know Porte won’t do it, his traditional lose 10 minutes in one stage will see to that, but, apparently, I need to be slightly patriotic. The field has a stronger “which doper to choose” flavour to it than usual and lacks a bit of depth.Too many teams “aiming for a top ten GC finish” and seemingly scared of the top 3-4 riders.
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If having database skills require diving into the backend, I’m glad I don’t really have them.
And I watched Red Ryder getting shelled on a climb in Romandie. That’s never a good sign when the Giro is a week away. Maybe no one would pick him anyway, or Tom Danielson.
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Correction: Simon Clarke
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@piwakawaka
Sadly, out of all the list picks thus far, including mine, I feel only one of the contenders, namely Richie with the child sized bike, is on bread and water. Gonna have to be good bread and water to stave off the likes of Bertie sadly.
Having said that, bring on the Giro, my favorite GT.
There were only 4 picks listed as my iPhone decided to submit the post halfway through typing it; my next post had all 5. Looking at it looks like @thedon had similar problems. Not sure why iDevice stability is an issue on here – this reply was being penned in white text for reasons unknown but just switched over to black as I typed ‘here’. My attempts to add a comment after my second lot if picks yesterday wouldn’t work at all. Just an observation, not a complaint!
Porte is the only one of my picks that I can sort of stand….
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There is a depressing lack of variety in the picks here. Probably means that someone will score a blinder with an obscure set.
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I’m wasting a lot of time at work *prognosticating* on this. But hey, I’m not a doctor or a pilot, so it’s a victimless crime.
I feel a bit dirty with my top 2, but I can’t see anyone beating The Butcher if he’s riding like he did at the Vuelta. I’m kind of willing the Aussie to do well, but I can’t see him getting higher than third, despite his form thus far this season. Uran is my wild-ish-card, and I think Basso will sneak into fifth as his role as Bertie’s super-dom. And now I feel apprehensive about leaving Pozzovivo out. DAMN THIS IS DIFFICULT! Also, hilariously, some bookies have odds on His Nibs at 11:1 . . . despite not actually being on the startlist.
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