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.

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[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.

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View Comments

brett says:

Jul 19 2013 at 8:42 am

@Bianchi Denti

Yeah, but that guy also said Lance was clean too...

http://stevetilford.com/2013/07/18/froome-power-released/

If Froome is such a freak, why wasn't he a freak as a junior, or even neo-pro? And all his bullshit "ooh, I didn't expect to win that satge... or this one... or this one"; fuck off, if you're that much better than everyone else you would be expecting to always win.
VirenqueForever says:

Jul 19 2013 at 8:57 am

Anyone hear of this story from yesterday:

basically Voigt in no man's land waiting to be caught, tries to give a bidon to a kid, kid gets pushed out of the way by some Dude, Voigt sees it, turns around, goes back down the hill a bit and shames the Dude to give bidon back to the kid - crowd goes wild!

http://video.lequipe.fr/video/2cf051f2b00s.html
ChrisO says:

Jul 19 2013 at 8:59 am

I don't like him, he's a doper, prove he's clean, no I don't like that proof, he rides bad, he's a dick, he smells, he doesn't like kittens.... burn the witch.

Christ it's SO fucking boring.
scaler911 says:

Jul 19 2013 at 9:14 am

@ChrisO

I don't like him, he's a doper, prove he's clean, no I don't like that proof, he rides bad, he's a dick, he smells, he doesn't like kittens.... burn the witch.

Christ it's SO fucking boring.

A-Merckx. Can we get some kind of fucking moratorium on discussion around who is or isn't doping for, say, 10 years? I get enough of it at work (with all the folk who's only knowledge if cycling is a: the TdF and b: COTHO). I'd hope that we (VM) hold ourselves to a higher standard, whether we privately think anyone is doping or not.
unversio says:

Jul 19 2013 at 9:19 am

@ChrisO @brett At some point the dust should be allowed to settle. Keeping this sort of "stank" going is not good for getting on -- or with cycling. I am guessing that you choose to believe the legendary rides from the rich history of cycling and decide to distrust any legendary efforts happening at the moment.
frank says:

Jul 19 2013 at 9:20 am

@G'rilla

@piwakawaka

Go BD!

If he wins, he will become Veloforma Denti and will be known as VD.

Perfect.

@brett

You should try buying one like I did. You know, instead of being a whiney twat.
frank says:

Jul 19 2013 at 9:23 am

@Buck Rogers

@Bianchi Denti

I'm really starting to dislike Froome. No need to be a tosser just because the French officials didn't fall for Sky's feeble ruse. He may be falling into the trap of believing that people give a crap what he thinks.

"At the end of the day a rule is a rule and if I've been given 20 seconds I'll have to take that, but if you look at the technicality it was actually Richie Porte who fed from the car not myself. I fed from Richie Porte so maybe that's something that needs to be taken in consideration,"

Wow! If that is true, what a tosser fuck he is. Talk about bullshit! Fuck'in take your punishment and move on. Massive loss of respect for him on that one.

They've been feeding inside the zones for the entire Tour, its about time they gave him a ding for it. Its been pissing me off that they've been getting away with it. This time he was so fucking blatant about it, raising his arm up and everything, that its just off the fucking charts arrogant to think they can squeak by on a technicality.
frank says:

Jul 19 2013 at 9:28 am

@scaler911

@Bianchi Denti

@Buck Rogers

@Bianchi Denti

Great stage! Now everyone please just hold their places to the end. I've got 1, 2, 3 and 5 in order!

But Contador does not look happy. He may lose 2nd place tomorrow without some top-notch recovery.

It's 3:30am in NZ, I've been drinking for 4.5 hours, and have to be at work in 3 hours. Anyone else in this predicament?

Holy SHIT!!! NICELY done. How many swap point penalities???

5 (Porte for Quintana). But I got my picks in early, so I'm in the lead for the first time ever!

I also made it to work on time, but couldn't face breakfast. So little do my so-called superiors know, but beer is currently my only fuel. I hope there were some slow release carbs in it.......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Bit of advice. Don't start picking out kit for it quite yet (you know, how light and sexy can I afford to make it). You'll lose the yellow tomorrow.

Mine is 6.35 kilos. That's under 14 pounds for a 61cm with pedals, name badge, bidon cages, 7 feet of seat post, three yards of stem, and no spacers.
frank says:

Jul 19 2013 at 9:36 am

@scaler911

@ChrisO

I don't like him, he's a doper, prove he's clean, no I don't like that proof, he rides bad, he's a dick, he smells, he doesn't like kittens.... burn the witch.

Christ it's SO fucking boring.

A-Merckx. Can we get some kind of fucking moratorium on discussion around who is or isn't doping for, say, 10 years? I get enough of it at work (with all the folk who's only knowledge if cycling is a: the TdF and b: COTHO). I'd hope that we (VM) hold ourselves to a higher standard, whether we privately think anyone is doping or not.

Seriously. I'm over it. Its taking all the fun out of watching. Going back to just watching the race at face value has made it SOOOOO much more fun for me...It's his problem if he's doping, not mine.
Tartan1749 says:

Jul 19 2013 at 9:54 am

@Chris

@Tobin Fantastic work by the lad in the blue shirt.

Did anyone see a drunk running fan get shoved out of the way by one of the moto cameramen at 5.7km to go? Exit stage right. Rapidly.

And in other news of fandom/awesomeness. Sorry, I don't know who to credit.