Velominati Super Prestige: Le Tour de France 2013

Robert Millar leads Greg LeMan on the road to l’Alpe d’Huez in 1984

The early eighties saw the tide change in the European Peloton. Components were taking on a new, curvy shape as they left their boxy forms behind. The glint of toe clips in the sun would become a rarer sight as the move towards clipless pedals would take hold in 1985. English speakers were winning the big races classically won by continental Pros.

The 1984 Tour could be my favorite edition of the race. In 1983, the rookie Laurent Fignon had won in the absence of Le Patron, Bernard Hinault. The 1984 race saw the two go head-to-head, with Fignon becoming the one and only person in history to have laughed at Hinault and lived. He did more than live, he won. The new guard was here, and they were making their presence known.

This photo is from the stage to l’Alpe d’Huez. LeMond was riding in support of Fignon, and Robert Millar, in his second Tour, was leading the King of the Mountains competition, which he would eventually win. Millar wrote an account of this stage in Issue 13 of Rouleur, which everyone should make an effort to find a copy of. He describes the attacks that come fast and furious on the penultimate climb in such vivid detail, it makes my guns ache. But worse than that is his and LeMonds effort to hold on to Fignon and Hinault’s wheels in the ride through the valley to Le Bourg d’Oisans and the base of the final climb. It is the perfect description of the suffering of the Cyclist. LeMond, in service to his leader, is on the front one moment as he reels Hinault in after an attack, before being cast into the gutter and the back wheel a moment later when the next attack comes.

Just as 1984 was a watershed moment in the Pro peloton, 2013 is a watershed year for the VSP. This year we are offering five amazing prizes from five amazing partners.

Prizes

First prize is a Veloforma Strada iR road frame, painted in an exclusive Velominati color scheme with the newly-designed Velominati Super Prestige logo. Please note that this is a brand-spankin’ new frame for Veloforma. The geometry can be reviewed here.

Second prize is a pair of Café Roubaix carbon tubular wheels. The winner of this prize will be given the choice between the sub-1000g Haleakala wheels or a road version of my beloved Arenberg wheelset. As an additional incentive, anyone who enters their picks in the Tour VSP will get a $200 discount on any wheelset at Café Roubaix.

Third prize is a pair of Bont cycling shoes. The winner of this prize will be assisted in selecting the size, color, and model of shoe.

Fourth prize is a Flandrian Best kit from DeFeet consisting of a wool U-D-Shirt, Arm Skins, Kneekers, Slipstreams, and a pair of V-Socks.

Fifth prize is a wool jersey from our Keepers Tour tour partners, Pavé Cycling Classics.

Many thanks to each of our sponsors for providing such exciting prizes.

Rules

Enter your picks for the top five riders on G.C. by the time the countdown clock goes to zero; Grand Tour scoring rules apply. Check the mapping of your picks by the end of Stage 1 and use the dispute system should it be mapped incorrectly.

We will be enforcing Piti Principle rules much more closely. We will be accepting pick disputes through the start of Stage 2. After that, it will be at The Keepers’ discretion as to whether or not we allow the dispute. If your pick is ambiguous and we map them to the wrong rider, make sure you check your disputes before the deadline; we may reject the dispute after that time. For example, should both Tony and Dan Martin take the start and you enter “Martin” as your pick, we will pick one for you and you will have to live with it if you forget to dispute it before the deadline.

Good luck, and Merckxspeed.

Update: This is the same paint scheme that the winner will have, except the VSP Winner’s Badge will be replacing the V-Lion.

[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/frank@velominati.com/Veloforma/”/]

[vsp_results id=”24179″/]

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.

Next Vlaams Orkest: Tegenwind »

Previous « Velominati Super Prestige: Giro d'Italia Femminile Internazionale 2013

View Comments

geoffrey says:

Jul 12 2013 at 9:09 am

@Mikael Liddy

@Buck Rogers

@ChrisO

This is why Contador is my favourite GC rider of the moment - always looking to attack, always watching for opportunities.

It also makes you appreciate COTHO retrospectively, a little bit - lying, doping, bullying shit he may have been but he never got caught by this sort of thing. The mental toughness and alertness required to do that throughout a whole grand tour is pretty considerable.

Amen! I have to give Cuntador credit for this one. Straight out of the Golden Days of racing. Just awesome!

And Jezhus there is a Merckx as they are saying that Malmerde is over SIX minutes back!!! YES!!!

This one was a Mick Rogers party piece, anyone who's seen Chasing Legends would remember him being the driving force behind HTC screwing over the peleton on a massive cross wind day & guess who was egging the Saxo boys on today? Biggest casualty for Sky of out of their whole ex doper clean out last year was getting rid of the guy who basically ran their tour on the road last year.

I think its a little strong to include Rogers in the "ex doper clean out" list.
Mikael Liddy says:

Jul 12 2013 at 9:13 am

@geoffrey well he was one of the identified riders in the reasoned decision affidavits last year & then despite being road captain through a ridiculously successful stage racing campaign all year his contract wasn't extended...
Cyclops says:

Jul 12 2013 at 9:13 am

@ChrisO

Cav after today's stage: "When echelons start...it's kind of like, you know if you have a feeling if you fall through ice, you've got five seconds? You've got five seconds, or it's over. And that's exactly what it's like in an echelon. You've got five seconds to make it right, otherwise that's it"

Me after the Tour of Sharjah: "Being shelled is like ice breaking. It starts behind you, then the deadly crack reaches your wheel and you plunge into the void."

I'm with you buddy...

Nice.

I think Cav definitely remembered when HTC blew a stage apart in the crosswind a few Tours back.
wiscot says:

Jul 12 2013 at 9:34 am

@Cyclops

@ChrisO

Cav after today's stage: "When echelons start...it's kind of like, you know if you have a feeling if you fall through ice, you've got five seconds? You've got five seconds, or it's over. And that's exactly what it's like in an echelon. You've got five seconds to make it right, otherwise that's it"

Me after the Tour of Sharjah: "Being shelled is like ice breaking. It starts behind you, then the deadly crack reaches your wheel and you plunge into the void."

I'm with you buddy...

Nice.

I think Cav definitely remembered when HTC blew a stage apart in the crosswind a few Tours back.

Just goes to show that even on flat, "easy" stages you have to pay attention. Cav's no dummy. Admittedly Malmerde was unlucky with a puncture, but from what I've gleaned from coverage so far, he bollixed up the bike change. I'm no COTHO fan, but he did pay attention at all times and took opportunities when they arose.
sprider says:

Jul 12 2013 at 9:42 am

I've got Quintana in my top 5, but I didn't have Contador...
Steampunk says:

Jul 12 2013 at 9:55 am

@razmaspaz

I had Quintana, and you missed Rodriguez, who's in 10th (Martin is 11th), so that's two I had (along with Contador and Froome), but I picked Contador to win it, so I'll be needing another couple of days like today. I doubt it counts for much, but I was sorely tempted to put Fuglsang in"”he would have been my sixth or seventh, and it's nice to see him going well, even with a much diminished team for support.

Sadly, I don't see Movistar pushing the envelope in the mountains anymore, which is a shame for me, since Valverde is the first casualty from my top five. That might turn out to be a huge boon to Froome (or Valverde will make up good time if nobody follows him) if he suffers less pressure. But maybe Belkin are waking up. If I'm Bjarne Riis, though, I'm very pleased with today.
Buck Rogers says:

Jul 12 2013 at 10:11 am

@Steampunk

@razmaspaz

I had Quintana, and you missed Rodriguez, who's in 10th (Martin is 11th), so that's two I had (along with Contador and Froome), but I picked Contador to win it, so I'll be needing another couple of days like today. I doubt it counts for much, but I was sorely tempted to put Fuglsang in"”he would have been my sixth or seventh, and it's nice to see him going well, even with a much diminished team for support.

Sadly, I don't see Movistar pushing the envelope in the mountains anymore, which is a shame for me, since Valverde is the first casualty from my top five. That might turn out to be a huge boon to Froome (or Valverde will make up good time if nobody follows him) if he suffers less pressure. But maybe Belkin are waking up. If I'm Bjarne Riis, though, I'm very pleased with today.

Huh, guess I have J-Rod as well then. I didn't realize that he was in 10th. thought he was further back. Goooooo J-ROD!!! (needs to climb to 3rd place for me to be right, not too likely!)
Nate says:

Jul 12 2013 at 10:13 am

Sounds like a cracker of a stage. Eff'd up my VSP, but these sorts of things always happen to Piti in the Tour.
razmaspaz says:

Jul 12 2013 at 10:22 am

@Steampunk

@razmaspaz

I had Quintana, and you missed Rodriguez, who's in 10th (Martin is 11th),

Right you are, I pulled that from the CN live feed, must have changed after the provisionals.

so that's two I had (along with Contador and Froome), but I picked Contador to win it, so I'll be needing another couple of days like today. I doubt it counts for much, but I was sorely tempted to put Fuglsang in"”he would have been my sixth or seventh, and it's nice to see him going well, even with a much diminished team for support.

Sadly, I don't see Movistar pushing the envelope in the mountains anymore, which is a shame for me, since Valverde is the first casualty from my top five. That might turn out to be a huge boon to Froome (or Valverde will make up good time if nobody follows him) if he suffers less pressure. But maybe Belkin are waking up. If I'm Bjarne Riis, though, I'm very pleased with today.

It's alright, I think Saxo has enough in Kreuziger that he may be able to soften up Froome for Contador, and we might yet see some glimpses of Contador's 2011 Giro antics. Also Quintana has shown he is capable of outriding Froome, so he may yet be a factor when things tilt up.

It is going to be a fun final week.
meursault says:

Jul 12 2013 at 10:23 am

@Mikael Liddy

On another note, look what I got 'given' by the local book store today!

They do daily prize giveaways through twitter & today's was a tour based special. I've a feeling there was a touch of the sympathy vote involved cos they've had to keep telling me that The Rules has been delayed in getting shipped out here.

Want. Looked for it in Smiths today, but didn't have it, also sold out of The Rules.