Velominati Super Prestige: la Vuelta a Espana

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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246 Replies to “Velominati Super Prestige: la Vuelta a Espana”

  1. 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.

  2. @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.

  3. @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

  4. @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.

  5. 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).

  6. @Jarvis

    you really don’t like Cav do you

    If he keeps on losing and makes himself an underdog, I’ll like him just fine!

    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.

    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…

  7. @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.

  8. @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…

  9. @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.

  10. @ all on the Sky: I for one like the kit. It parallels Raphas simple understated style w/the blue stripe on the back, the stripes on the sleeves and all. To each his own, but i like it.

    In terms of the team strategies I think it really falls directly on Wiggo and the upper management. First, Wiggo should have kept his trap shut until he produced podiums, but he did not and that is what lead everyone to have such high expectations. Thats fine if you produce, but when you don’t its disappointing. The upper management takes a little of this as well since they packed more freaking studs on this team than Wiggo could handle as a sophmore leader of a team. There were on any given day at least 2 or 3 of the riders that could individually bury themselves and win and containing that talent is up to the leader to do. When to throw them bones, when not to is Wiggo’s to do, and when they are not as power packed its easier for him to control that ambition.

    Anyway, will see next year how it goes, now that expectations are down.

  11. @Souleur
    But so many of the pieces were the right pieces. Is there a better field captain out there than Michael Barry? They did set impossibly high expectations, but those were built up by the media, too (and when team and media are one and the same…). The riders would have been better off keeping their traps shut, but I haven’t heard of much dissension in the ranks. I think they picked the right riders for this Vuelta and they set the bar at the right height. But, again, they’ve suffered some pretty rotten luck.

  12. All: Sky had a massive first part of the season, and with their enormous budget, will eventually blow everyone out of the water. Their “marginal gains aggregation department” basically seems to have one major policy: buy all good riders that come onto the market.

    And pay all non-Brits in their team to NOT ride the 2012 Olympics (if you can’t beat ’em, buy ’em). True story.

    Similar to Garmin Chipotle they won their first Grand Tour stage, and held the pink for a day. Wiggo didn’t match Banged&Felled’s 08 Tour, but otherwise they’ve been pretty good.

    Their behaviour hasn’t endeared themselves to many though – Boassen Haagen lost a stage race (Qatar or Oman – get them mixed up) because they were acting like dicks using half the road and driving it through the feedzone as no one was helping them chase (errm you guys hold the lead – it’s your responsibility you tools) so Cervelo attacked when he stopped for a piss in the leader’s jersey; their whole team crashing several times in the Giro and screwing the whole peloton up wasn’t exactly good work either – was that a marginal gain to have everyone together for most of the stage? Not an effective one if it was. In the end it’s their general smugness that just sticks in your craw.

    You feel like saying “Fellas. You’ve just got tons more money than everyone else. It’s not a good development squad, good talent spotting, or good management. You’re just flush with coin. Shut your mouths and ride your bikes.”

    They will work it out. They will eventually shred some big races (no Tour for a few years as Contador will rip them new arses every time they try) and will undoubtedly be complete arseheads about it whenever they do.

    And speaking of that – anyone else think SchleckA’s in a lot of trouble riding a Tour without Cancellara? Faboo saved his Tour this year with the “go slow” and carried them last year in the Teams TT (probably saving them 60s worth of damage? More? Less?). Without him, Andy wouldn’t have even podiumed this year, and was only 70s up on Lance last year – put him where Cervelo finished instead…

    and clearly he has a massive bout of CBF at the Vuelta. The minute SchleckF drops time on GC, they’ll be “sick” or something!

  13. @Hawkeye
    Awesome post, mate. Lots of good insights there.

    You feel like saying “Fellas. You’ve just got tons more money than everyone else. It’s not a good development squad, good talent spotting, or good management. You’re just flush with coin. Shut your mouths and ride your bikes.”

    Ex-fucking-xactly.

    And speaking of that – anyone else think SchleckA’s in a lot of trouble riding a Tour without Cancellara? Faboo saved his Tour this year with the “go slow” and carried them last year in the Teams TT (probably saving them 60s worth of damage? More? Less?). Without him, Andy wouldn’t have even podiumed this year, and was only 70s up on Lance last year – put him where Cervelo finished instead…

    I think the Schlecks will have a hard time without Riis. I also think Berty will have a hard time WITH Riis. I think Der Jens better make it over team Lux, because that will be the only saving grace. Grumblings that Faboo might move over to another team has me hoping he may move to team Luxy, although BMC seems much more sensible from his perspective.

  14. @frank
    Man, wouldn’t that be something? That would make my season.

    Dude is hurling his guts out all day yesterday and comes back to do this. One day, I’m confident, he’s gonna be granted hardman status.

    I’ve always liked the bar tape on the G-T Felts but someone should fill T-bone in on Rule #46 ,although he may fall under the interpretive nature of that Rule.

  15. @all

    Wowzers. Really falling behind schedule here. Wasn’t to worried because I figured no one had any points yet, but BOY was I wrong. Also, it needs to be said that there were some really fantastic names in the list. Some real winners. Updates to the Lexicon coming soon…

    For the overall, we have Good Geofelephant in the lead:

    1 Geof 3 points points
    2 Jarvis 2 points points
    3 Marcus 2 points points
    4 Marko 2 points points
    5 Ben 2 points points
    6 Steampunk 2 points points
    7 Cyclops 2 points points
    8 Andy 2 points points
    9 Hawkeye 2 points points
    10 Roberto Marques 1 point point
    11 Nathan Edwards 1 point point
    12 Frank 1 point point
    13 KitCarson 1 point point
    14 Minion 0 points points
    15 Brett 0 points points
    16 Sgt 0 points points
    17 John 0 points points

    For Points, it’s Marcus, and he also is leading the Dots. He can’t wear both jerseys, though, so the Dots fall to Sgt. AT EASE!!

  16. Farrar has ben going all year though. Is he really aiming for the worlds? If he’s on his way back up here – and remember that Cavendish has two aims for 2010, the TdF and the Worlds – then he’s going possibly too well.

    Still think Philleeeepe will take the Worlds, if not Cuddles will double-up.

    Oh look, I’m near the top in the Vuealta. That’ll change

  17. Hey! What’s happened to my categorisation? Does this mean that I’m now a Hors Category contributor?

  18. Farrar for sure can win Worlds. He and Gossy were very impressive at Plouay, which from all accounts is of a similar terrain. Farrar and Cav are both hamstrung by having crap teams around them though.

    Farrar because American riders just don’t seem to give a shit about Worlds these days (can anyone even imagine Lance, Levi, ChickenGeorge, DaveZ or Banged& putting their hands up?) It’s almost like if you want to ride Worlds, you’ll get a start for the US, despite the awesome talent they have. Tyler will have a few blokes from G-T in the race though, and I can imagine them looking around in the final (downhill and flat) 8km, seeing him still there and offering their services for a fee…

    Cav’s problem is similar in that he won’t have a team, but mostly because the Brits don’t have the cattle for the road yet. And Cav hasn’t won as much, while Twiggo sucked balls this season. They’re ranked 16th at the moment (US are 5th). Does that mean only three riders? I can’t remember the rules. Couple of years time and they will be a lot better, but he will then have the problem of his complete cuntitude to deal with, where it’ll cost him a real lot to get blokes to work for him.

    It’s going to be a great race though!

    Does anyone know the (of far lesser importance) UCI rules about number of riders representing nations?

  19. @Hawkeye
    Brit’s problem is the system is crap. Another of the UCI’s attempt for globalisation that is unfair on pretty much anyone. Some blog somewhere has a more accurate account

  20. Wow. God of Thunder indeed. That was no small climb and yet he comes through in the sprint. Wow again. Classy and hard.

  21. @Joshua
    Yeah: and I thought he went too early.

    And I’ve always been an admirer of Gilbert’s, but color me a fan today. Nice to see a leader defend the jersey and then compete the finish. Some classy and hard riding there, too.

  22. @Steampunk
    You gotta admire the way that guy fights. When he’s on, he’s on. Starting to totally dig that guy. Not to mention his adherance to Rule #15. Any time they pull that one off, they go up a notch on the Frank Scale of Subjective Awesomeness.

    @all
    THOR THOR THOR!

    No change in the VSP standings today, fucktards.

  23. @Jarvis

    Hey! What’s happened to my categorisation? Does this mean that I’m now a Hors Category contributor?

    You’ve reached the next level, mate. There’s two more levels above you (until we need to make more!), but no-one has made it to them yet. A few others have Gray Order status, but they’re all wearing leadership badges so you can’t tell. At least I think so.

  24. @Nathan Edwards
    it’s not quantity that the Velominati are interested in, it’s quality.

  25. There are going to be a lot of changes to the picks come rest day…

  26. @Nathan Edwards
    at least you can tell people you BIG RING it everywhere then

  27. @all
    Here is the update to the VSP:

    1 Geof 11 points
    2 Marcus 6 points
    3 Ben 6 points
    4 Cyclops 6 points
    5 Roberto Marques 5 points
    6 Jarvis 2 points
    7 Marko 2 points
    8 Steampunk 2 points
    9 Andy 2 points
    10 Hawkeye 2 points
    11 Nathan Edwards 1 point
    12 Frank 1 point
    13 KitCarson 1 point
    14 Minion 0 points
    15 Brett 0 points
    16 Sgt 0 points
    17 John 0 points

  28. @Jarvis

    Whatever happened to the Rule about no compacts?

    I think we never settled on a Rule for that. That said, BigRingRiding‘s rebuttal to our conversation on the topic was pretty dead-on:

    YOU DON’T GET THE NICKNAME ‘LION’ BY RIDING A COMPACT. TAKE THE HINT, FUCKTARDS.

    That, I believe, also represents the second time the word “Fucktards” has shown up in this VSP.

  29. I don’t think it matters what crankset/chainring combo you ride as long as you are dropping your riding companions.

  30. @michael
    it is not about what you do, but how you do it. If you can do it well with then you are the best. Using a compact is not stylish.

  31. @Jarvis
    I still think performance should trump most of the rules. If I’m dropping you with hairy legs and a compact crankset, I’m likely not a douchebag.;)

  32. You obviously haven’t read The Rules as performance isn’t a requirement of them. This is about the beauty and the aesthetic of cycling. Measures of performance can be found on the race results website.

  33. I frickin love Moncoutie! 1st yesterday, in the break again today. When he races, he’s shit hot. When he doesn’t, he’s kicking back in the deckchair, battling with Zabriskie for last wheel.

  34. IMO the beauty and aesthetics of cycling cannot be separated from speed and hardness. Sure that guy with really short shorts dropping you is more of a douchebag than the guy with an nice bike, nice kit and hairy legs dropping you. The rules are relative, there are exceptions (Yates’ shorts) and if you aren’t riding with ‘style’ you really should go home. IMO ‘style’ transcends many of the rules, beyond your racing category, your kit, your bike and equipment and the whole thing should be looked at a bit closer.

  35. @michael
    You’re on the right track. The over-arching ethos behind The Rules is this: Ride your bike, and look good doing it. “Looking good” in this case, is monumentally influenced by the culture, tradition, and history of the sport; naturally, the best riders influence style more than anything else. The style and sensibilities of riders like Merckx, the Badger, Coppi are writ into the fabric of our sport.

    It is believed that at a certain point, one can transcend The Rules. We haven’t seen it happen yet, it’s best to just stick to the Rules and be safe.

    You don’t need an expensive bike to Obey the Rules; but it does need to be meticulously cared-for, the bars, saddle, tape must all be in compliance, and there better not be a big pile of spacers under the stem. If you can afford bibs and a jersey, you can afford a nicely matched set which you keep clean, even if it’s not the V-Kit. Anyone can shave their legs. Sure, it’s a vanity in many respects, but not being willing to shave them is just as much a vanity issue. It is a message, though. It says, “I care more about cycling than I do whether you think it’s strange that I shave my legs.”

    The point is, there is no reason not to look good riding your bike. If you care enough to get good at riding a bike, you should care enough to look good doing it.

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