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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@ 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.
Did you guys see that Fignon died? A sad loss indeed.
@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.
Could somebody tell me what happened to A. Schleck - how did he end up 14 minutes down?
@Cyclops
Didn't a couple guys slip on olive oil?
@Steampunk
Stuart O'Grady?
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!
BOOM SHACKALACKA! Crazy prediction: Farrar can win the Worlds!
@Hawkeye
Awesome post, mate. Lots of good insights there.
Ex-fucking-xactly.
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.
@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.