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.

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View Comments

Chris says:

May 9 2015 at 3:48 pm

Some big gaps there before the racing gets personal. I'm glad I'm not counting on Porte to make up 27 seconds before taking into account his off days.
Gianni says:

May 9 2015 at 3:59 pm
@Alex
It is shaping up to be a really fascinating race. I suspect though that Alberto is coming in a little under and Richie and Rigo are on song already and climbing and time-trialling very strong.

Watch for Hesjedal. I’d rate him higher as I think he really is back to top level again and has proved to be a consistent performer at the Giro. Unfortunately his team will let him down starting tonight in the TTT.

Anyone remember when Garmin were a force in TTT’s? Orica really took that sport from them.

VSP PICKS:
1. Porte
2. Uran
3. Contador
4. Aru
5. Hesjedal
Yep, nothing like being down a minute before anything starts. Garmindale looked like they never practice riding in a paceline, so shabby.

They were a force when they had same serious TT boys like DZ, Millar and Maggie Backstedt to keep the pace up. Maybe this team is all climbers. I hope so, for their sake.
ChrisO says:

May 9 2015 at 8:42 pm

@Chris

Some big gaps there before the racing gets personal. I’m glad I’m not counting on Porte to make up 27 seconds before taking into account his off days.

With a 60km ITT to come? Even if the rest of the race was flat these gaps wouldn't mean anything in a couple of weeks.
piwakawaka says:

May 9 2015 at 11:23 pm

@ChrisO

@Chris

Some big gaps there before the racing gets personal. I’m glad I’m not counting on Porte to make up 27 seconds before taking into account his off days.

With a 60km ITT to come? Even if the rest of the race was flat these gaps wouldn’t mean anything in a couple of weeks.

remember Porte only has to make up 20 seconds to Contador, but I'm sure he'd rather he didn't have to...
Chris says:

May 10 2015 at 2:06 am

@ChrisO

You've looked at the stage profiles? That's ungentlemanly behaviour that's tantamount to cheating.
Jay says:

May 10 2015 at 8:45 am

@piwakawaka

Two weeks in time, yes, but two additional weeks of racing. Time is linear. The additional wear and tear of two additional weeks of racing is cumulative, not linear.
1860 says:

May 11 2015 at 12:40 am

Anyone understand how the Gorilla did not manage to win yesterday's stage? His legs were bigger than the 1st and 2nd place finishers combined.
piwakawaka says:

May 11 2015 at 2:02 am

@1860

no lead out, Greg where were you, and too long in the wind…he basically led out first and second.
Teocalli says:

May 11 2015 at 2:25 am

@1860

This would not have helped http://velonews.competitor.com/2015/05/rider-journal/chad-haga-giro-journal-safety-first_369574
RobSandy says:

May 11 2015 at 3:38 am

Fuckitty fuck. Went away for the weekend and Delgado'd like a bastard. Also, during the weekend away I went for a short ride and snapped a spoke chasing my mate up a hill, and also my knee still hurts a bit.

And I caught a cold, have lost my voice and can only hear out of one ear.

Yes I'm grumpy and you can all shit off.