The inaugural Velominati Super Prestige continues with its the final Grand Tour of the season, la Vuelta a España, on Saturday, August 28. This will be the final opportunity for contestants to rake in a load of points; and with the list of injuries, and non-starts together with riders using the race as preparation for the World Championships in October, it will make it all the more challenging to pull together some good picks.
This particular Grand Tour is simultaneously the most boring and most exciting; various sections of Spain features desert with dead-straight roads where little is to be seen aside from a colorful peloton gliding along a road for 6 hours. On the other hand, the mountains are steep and brutal, and the weather this time of year can be atrocious, so the mountain stages tend to showcase fireworks like we don’t see elsewhere during the season.
Having run the VSP Giro and Tour editions where we tested the ruleset for picks, and I think by this time we’ve managed to set up a scoring system that seems fair and helps to close down the competition to afford newcomers the ability to catch up with some good picks. There is a full overview of the rules and standing at the VSP Schedule, Rules, & Results page, but here is the ten-second overview:
Every contestant is to choose their top five General Classification picks of the race. The final podium of la Vuelta is worth 15 points to the winner, 10 points for second, 5 points for third, 3 points for fourth, and 2 point for fifth. Given the effect crashes can have on a tour, there are guidelines around making changes to your lineup during the race: you’re allowed to change your lineup if any rider in your pick list drops out for any reason without any penalty; rest days will allow contestants to make changes to their lineup, however those changes will come at a point penalty. (Visit the VSP Schedule, Rules, & Results page for a complete breakdown of these points.)
Every day, the leader in the points standings will have the honor of wearing the Golden Jersey when posting on the site; the overall winner will wear the Golden Jersey for the remainder of the season and will also earn an “Obey the Rules” bumper sticker. All reader’s points qualify towards the final prize of the free Velominati Artisan’s Shroud. As always, if you are inclined to enter, simply post your predictions for the top five placings.
Continuing with our jersey picks from the Tour de France edition is the competition of naming the winner of the points and climber’s jersey winners. There will be no points awarded towards these two jerseys, but the leader of the competition will have the honor of commenting with associated jersey badge throughout the competition and the winner will earn the right to comment with that badge until next year’s race. The contestant who picks both the final points and climbers jersey winners correctly will win a Velominati Logo bumper sticker. Tie-breakers will go to the first contestant who posts their entire lineup (all 5 GC picks plus points and climbers jersey winners). Given that this sub-competition has no points, pick substitutions will only be granted under the DNF regulations of the VSP; no rest-day substitutions are allowed.
Sub-competitions will be conducted while the Vuelta is underway for specific stages. These stages will be chosen a few days prior to the stage being held and will be selected based on the current race conditions with the aim of choosing the most decisive and exciting stages of the race, so check back often to make sure you don’t miss out. Sub-competitions will be held in separate editions.
Good luck!
Rules and results are posted Velominati Super Prestige page.
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After today, maybe we should start a poll on how many Sky riders finish the Vuelta. Over/under=4.
And I'm reminded of the genius of the Harmon/Kelly team. Very accessible during the Tour, but talking at such a more sophisticated level at the Vuelta, now that only real cycling fans are left. It's hard to shift and hit your audience so well. More from Kelly is always a good thing.
For my money, I love any GT with categorized climbs on the second stage.
@all
I'm imagining that the changes will be rung on the first rest day now that Schlecklet Grimpeur Minor lost 14 minutes today
@frank
you really don't like Cav do you. Old rims, saw and missed bidding on some Mavic SSC rims the other day. Could have had them for 99p, no bids on them in the end.
@Steampunk
Just hoping that Peter Kennaugh doesn't get ill. One to watch he is, shame that Ben Swift abandoned though.
@Steampunk
posted that, went off to read Velo Nation only to discover that Kennaugh has also been ill and was last one home today. Rubbish
@Jarvis
Yeah: you couldn't have scripted a worse first season for them. Don't like the kit and I find Wiggo weird, but there's a lot of interesting riders in that squad, many of whom are easy to like.
And is there a better all-round rider out there than Gilbert at the moment? The guy pisses class on the bike. He's got to be the best shot at winning all five monuments among today's crop (pax, Spartacus).
@Jarvis
If he keeps on losing and makes himself an underdog, I'll like him just fine!
I've been momentarily distracted by John who claims to have a pair of those puppies layin' in his attic, still in the original wrappings...I have yet to see pics, though, but that deal you're talking about is a screamer...Now, where do I find a 1991 C-Record freehub, I wonder...
@Steampunk
I love the "idea" of team Sky. I love that their whole model is to win through aggregation of marginal gains. I suppose that takes a while to build up, so the idea that they'd win the first season is probably unfair.
That said, I think they picked a number of riders who have chips on their shoulders or at least have something to prove. I'm thinking of guys like Twiggo, who made so many idiotic statements about Garmin and then his chances to win the Tour that he necessarily had something to prove. I'm talking of Simon Gerrans who showed wicked talent and then left CTT because he felt he wasn't shown the respect he deserved to not being the Tour team. Ultimately, a team comes together through teamwork and team unity.
That is hard to do when people want to prove something, rather than to work together.
@frank
Oh, agreed. I wasn't expecting them to take the Pro Tour by storm, not with the stable they had. In retrospect, Gerrans probably should have been in the Tour last year, and Twiggo is likely coming to terms with the fact that he was a flash in the pan (and that's got to be tough for anybody). But they picked up a couple of good and established riders to complement some exciting youngsters. More character from the senior riders would have been nice (though Flecha oozes it and Barry is a classy guy), but I like the idea, too.
While we can laugh (and have laughed) at the Footon-Servetto/Geox approach of sending a team full of kids to the TdF (and we can definitely still laugh at that kit), they've provided some valuable experience to their young riders and THEN brought in a couple of leaders. Maybe this is the better way to go...
@Steampunk @frank
agree on the Sky kit. Complete wank - but it's probably designed for marginal gains. As a Brit I should support them, especially as they are the product of those people who put British cycling on the world map. But, they talked big and have landed on their faces big time. A lot is being written about them at the moment and none of it particularly flattering - and most is aimed at the fact they talked big and swaggered onto the scene and nine months later all it boils down to is some posh buses, their own bed linen and Jaguars. I much prefer the way Garmin have gone/go about things.
Now here's the rub, I heard that Wiggins had signed for Sky pretty much bang-on a year ago. The reason, other than wanting to return to the British Cycling camp, was that Garmin, despite appearances, were quite disorganised, especially in races. Perhaps this explains why they don't manage to win that much and could also be explained by Vaughters saying he delegated too much last year. But you could argue that Sky haven't achieved as much as Garmin/Slipstream did in their first season, but as a Brit it has been a great year for British cycling.
As Steampunk notes, there are some interesting riders on Sky. Wiggins is quite an extreme character, I think he's said before that if he hadn't got into cycling he'd have been in jail by now. I really hope that Geraint Thomas gets a chance to ride for himself in some/all of the classics next year, you couldn't get a more genuine guy. The other standout British rider is Kennaugh.
Sky haven't had the best luck in the world, but they're going to have to hope for a Tour route like '09 otherwise they'll be stage hunting next year. And I hope that Wiggins does have a crack at Roubaix, he got 20th in '09 without knowing what he was doing.
Anyway, la Vuelta. Anyone got Gilbert down for a top 5? How to destroy a field, although J-Rod was looking good as well. Kind of wishing I'd gone with my first thought of sticking Nico in the top-5.