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

Deakus says:

Jul 10 2013 at 2:03 am

@ChrisO

@piwakawaka

The Mighty Douche, is technically correct, he makes it look like he smacks into Veelers, mostly it's the extra speed he is carrying as Veelers " unintentionally " drifts across TMD's sprinting line. Greg Henderson did exactly the same to him when Greipel won stage 6, Veelers knew where he was and was happy to make the route around him that little bit further. That is racing. Could TMD have ridden round Veelers ? Hell yeah! Did he have to ? Not technically. The Mighty Douche.

All of which may explain why OPQS are apparently lining up Renshaw to come back and do a proper leadout so Cav doesn't have to deal with that shit.

If Veelers had tried that on Renshaw he'd have backed up over him just to make sure.

Plus I guess Renshaw has not really made the impact he wanted to going solo. It is now more important to have the fastest train, than the fastest outright sprinter. If your train can outpace the rest and deliver you to the line the wins should follow even if you are not the fastest off the blocks. When your train fails or you stick fucktards in the back to block the others then life is going to get bumpy, the more I review this the more I feel Cavs frustration and the more I feel Veelers got off pretty lightly....
ChrisO says:

Jul 10 2013 at 3:52 am
Ramadan kareem everyone...
- the sun is shining (it's 45 C, which is several degrees cooler than yesterday)
- we only have to work 6 hour days so I get to go home at 3pm
- I can watch the tour coverage starting at 4pm
- and listen to Test Match Special
Now if only the Swedish twins down the hall accept my invitation...
minion says:

Jul 10 2013 at 4:19 am

I think the fact Cav hasn't been fined is telling. Veelers couldn't have fucked it up much more, he couldn't make it out of the way of the sprinters safely and drops his head in the middle of the bunch while drifting right after blowing. It's also telling that he was the only one to go down (AFAIK). Kinda indicates that everyone else was paying attention.

Cav's been dealing with shit like this as deliberate tactics for ages. More than once he's gone down as a result, a significant number of times he's won sprints from s'house positioning. I'm not saying this is the law of averages at work, but Veelers didn't help his own cause with this one. Bad luck and unfortunate timing for Veelers, but I'm not seeing anything malicious from Cav.
Deakus says:

Jul 10 2013 at 4:28 am
@ChrisO
Ramadan kareem everyone...
- the sun is shining (it's 45 C, which is several degrees cooler than yesterday)
- we only have to work 6 hour days so I get to go home at 3pm
- I can watch the tour coverage starting at 4pm
- and listen to Test Match Special
Now if only the Swedish twins down the hall accept my invitation...
That would be Lars and Sven right?
Steampunk says:

Jul 10 2013 at 4:59 am

I'm going to throw this out there and wait for the sharks to pounce:

Regardless of your interpretations of yesterday's sprint, "Cavendouche" is so 2009. Over the past couple of years, Cav has quietly gone about his business: being the fastest sprinter on the planet by a very long shot. Nobody would deny he's always been ridiculously and impressively fast (though they might complain he takes some of the anticipation out of flat sprints). He's not come across as the hothead he appeared to be and he hasn't run his mouth in the kind of way that had many wishing he'd keep it shut. He's buried himself in two successive Giros in very classy attempts to win the points competition. And there are very few riders who appreciate cycling heritage more than he does.
Deakus says:

Jul 10 2013 at 5:21 am

@Steampunk

I'm going to throw this out there and wait for the sharks to pounce:

Regardless of your interpretations of yesterday's sprint, "Cavendouche" is so 2009. Over the past couple of years, Cav has quietly gone about his business: being the fastest sprinter on the planet by a very long shot. Nobody would deny he's always been ridiculously and impressively fast (though they might complain he takes some of the anticipation out of flat sprints). He's not come across as the hothead he appeared to be and he hasn't run his mouth in the kind of way that had many wishing he'd keep it shut. He's buried himself in two successive Giros in very classy attempts to win the points competition. And there are very few riders who appreciate cycling heritage more than he does.

Pounce 1! Bravo...bang on...nuff said.
ChrisO says:

Jul 10 2013 at 6:28 am

@Steampunk

I'm going to throw this out there and wait for the sharks to pounce:

Regardless of your interpretations of yesterday's sprint, "Cavendouche" is so 2009. Over the past couple of years, Cav has quietly gone about his business: being the fastest sprinter on the planet by a very long shot. Nobody would deny he's always been ridiculously and impressively fast (though they might complain he takes some of the anticipation out of flat sprints). He's not come across as the hothead he appeared to be and he hasn't run his mouth in the kind of way that had many wishing he'd keep it shut. He's buried himself in two successive Giros in very classy attempts to win the points competition. And there are very few riders who appreciate cycling heritage more than he does.

+2
Buck Rogers says:

Jul 10 2013 at 6:46 am

@starclimber

@Sauterelle

@starclimber

Hold nose. Insert Malmerde. Blech.

VSP PICKS (1st Rest Day Swaps):

1. Froome
2. Contador
3. Evans
4. Valverde
5. Martin

Malmerde!!! Nearly spewed my iced tea when I read that!

You're welcome.

As to Cav's Veelers takedown, it's very much like Ryder's Kennaugh whacking. Aggressive guys in a bad place seeing an opportunity get closed off and making sure as fuck the other guy takes the low road. Watch any sprint carefully and you'll see numerous attempts to shove guys off their lines and grab better, 'deserved' wheels. Relax at any time in this race and you're road kill.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph I am slow on the uptake. I just got this. Malmerde is soooo perfect. That is lexicon worthy in my opinion, even if he does already have another lexicon name. Chapeau!
Chris says:

Jul 10 2013 at 7:39 am

@minion @Steampunk Nipple Lube. Or is that 2009 as well?

I still can't see any malicious intent in yesterday's coming together.

Cavendish has his moments but by and large he's fairly spot on has a go about team fuck up's and he's quicker to praise his team when it goes well.
Chris says:

Jul 10 2013 at 7:43 am

Regardless of what happened yesterday the reported abuse of Cav today are completely out of order. That really is disgusting.