Velominati Super Prestige

Velominati Super Prestige: Milano-Sanremo 2016

Milan Sanremo. I know we’ve been watching the men and women crush the cobbles already, and that’s the spiritual beginning of the season, but La Primavera is the longest Classic of them all, and the first race of the season that will be a genuine target for all the gunslingers. Which makes this the symbolic start to the season and, typically, the first event of our annual Velominati Super Prestige.

Please don’t call it a fantasy cycling game; the VSP is based on the old season-long Super Prestige (and later the World Cup) which awarded points to riders for how they finished in the qualifying races. The points were tallied and whomever held the most points at the end of the season was declared the winner, was showered in champagne, got epic bragging rights, and presumably got the girl. During the year, the leader earned the right to wear the white leader’s jersey with verticalized rainbow stripes.

Our series is based on the same principle, where you select the riders you think will be in the top five, in order of finishing. Points are awarded for getting your picks right, and bonus points are on offer for getting close. The leader of the event gets a little white jersey as their posting badge, and those who win the events for the Monuments and Grand Tours get to post with a commemorative badge for the ensuing year.

For the last several years, we’ve also been offering some crazy prizes; a custom road frame to the winner, hand built wheels to the runner-up, and a full v-kit to the runner-up-runner. This year, we’re delighted to announce that our friend Dan Richter of Café Roubaix will be offering up another of our collaboration Velominati-CR Wheelworks wheelsets. The V-Kit is the same as last year, with the addition of the possibility to choose the new VLVV design should you so choose.

The big news is that Don Walker of Don Walker Cycles and the head honcho of the North American Handmade Bicycle Show is going to be offering one of his hand-built, custom road frames. I was introduced to Don through @Haldy, who owns something like five of his bikes. There is no denying it when you meet a fellow Velominatus: instant friendship. I had him build me a track bike for The Improbable Hour on Festum Prophetae, and now we’re flirting about my first custom road frame because my other bikes just seem so impersonal now.

Don is the quintessential small frame builder; he only take 6 customer orders per year so you won’t be rolling up to the local group ride only to find four other riders on the same steed. The rest of his bikes are for his team and for the therapy of working with his hands. Working with him on the bike design is an incredible experience; delving into riding style and position and fine-tuning every detail of the build. And then it quickly devolves into shit-talking and teasing. I am so excited to share this experience with the lucky winner.

With that, start prognosticating on your picks and check the scoring guidelines. I know some of you are doing some intense analysis, and recall that last season we had a tie which we had to break by going back to see which of the two were entering their picks in earlier on average. Also don’t Delgado it; we have been known to have the odd timing glitch and even though that’s not your fault, I’m still not going to manually enter your picks because you waited around and the window closed earlier than you thought it would. The kids probably have an emoji for that.

Good luck, and may the V be with you. VLVV.

  • Café Roubaix's CR Wheelworks Arenbergs

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459 Replies to “Velominati Super Prestige: Milano-Sanremo 2016”

  1. Gonna have to sit this one out live, hide from the news (thank goodness I love a sport MOST Americans barely realize is a sport, makes it easy!), and watch later on. Got a few commitments Saturday morning that I can’t miss.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Cancellara
    2. Sagan
    3. van Avermaet
    4. Kristoff
    5. Stybar

  4. Ah, that time of the year again. What I should be doing right now is out riding; instead, I am in bed on my laptop at 17:00 on a Friday, poring over statistical analysis meditating on the spirit of the V.

    I’m not holding out for a sprint; I can’t see teams other than Katyusha and Dimension Data going for one, and the latter have Eddy Boss as a backup, so I think it’s going to be a breakaway. I’d love to see G in that group, but it looks like he’s going for stage races now (which is a shame after E3 last year—shoot that was a good race!). The upside is that sprints are dull, IMO. I’d much rather watch two or three small groups slogging it out in the last 40 km.

    P.S. Many thanks to @frank, who very swiftly unblocked my account, which a filter had picked up for spamming!

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Cancellara
    2. Van Avermaet
    3. Sagan
    4. Kwiatkowski
    5. Boassen-Hagen

  5. VSP PICKS:

    1. Fabian Cancellara
    2. Peter Sagan
    3. Zdenek Stybar
    4. Greg Van Avermaet
    5. Alexander Kristoff

  6. So… my first attempt at VSP. A mix hoping for a Brit to do well (go Swifty) and sticking in some favourites to avoid scoring a duck!

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Michael Matthew
    2. Ben Swift
    3. Kristoff
    4. Bouhanni
    5. Sagan

  7. *Write 10 names on slips of paper: throw slips into the air; pick

    them off floor in random order…*

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Fabian Cancellara
    2. Michael Matthews
    3. Alexander Kristoff
    4. Greg van Avermaet
    5. Vincenzo Nibali

  11. The weather is  gonna be too good for an escape but I hope anyways.
    Perhaps the rain are waiting for the cobbles as well as we are.

    I think Fabian wants a second win and he will get the others going.

    Matthews will take the sprint.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Fabian Cancellara
    2. Peter Sagan
    3. Greg Van Avermaet
    4. Zdenek Stybar
    5. Michael Matthews

  13. VSP PICKS:

    1. Fabian Cancellara
    2. Peter Sagan
    3. Michael Matthews
    4. Greg van Avermaet
    5. Alexander Kristoff

  14. VSP PICKS:

    1. Alexander Kristoff
    2. Edvald Boasson Hagen
    3. Fabian Cancellara
    4. Michael Mattews
    5. Peter Sagan

  15. VSP Picks:

    1. Alexander Kristoff

    2. Michael Matthews

    3. Greg VanAvermaet

    4. Peter Sagan

    5. Vincenzo Nibali

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Alexander Kristoff

  16. Milan – Sanremo is finally Here! Now begins the Best month of the racing calendar. The Game is On y’all!

    VSP PICKS:

    1. CANCELLARA
    2. KRISTOFF
    3. SAGAN
    4. BOUHANNI
    5. BOONEN

  20. VSP PICKS:

    1. Fabian Cancellera
    2. Greg VanAvermaet
    3. Edvald Boasson Hagen
    4. Michael Mathews
    5. Peter Sagan

  21. VSP PICKS:

    1. Alexander Kristoff
    2. Fabian Cancellara
    3. Peter Sagan
    4. Michael Matthews
    5. Fernando Gaviria

  22. Here we go…and the season begins!

     

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Matthews
    2. Sagan
    3. Van Avermaet
    4. Kristoff
    5. Cancellara

  25. cheers

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Greg Van AVERMAET
    2. Michael MATTHEWS
    3. Peter SAGAN
    4. Edvald BOASSON HAGEN
    5. Fabian CANCELLARA

  30. My wild guesswork…

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Edvald Boasson Hagen
    2. Peter Sagan
    3. Geraint Thomas
    4. Fabian Cancellara
    5. Greg Van Avermaet

  31. My Wild Guesses:

    Though I’d really like to see Sagan on the top step….

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Kristoff
    2. Sagan
    3. Cancellara
    4. G. Thomas
    5. Van Avermaet

  32. VSP PICKS:

    1. Fabian Cancellara
    2. Peter Sagan
    3. Greg Van Avermaet
    4. Michael Matthews
    5. Edvald Boassen Hagen

  37. All right. New browser. Like new wheels, only far less satisfying. (Thanks for the suggestion, Frank.) I think Matthews hangs tough (think about that time trial he pulled out over Dumoulin last week) and crushes it in the sprint because even with the stubble he’s super aero. He does this while emerging from a scrum of big men: Sagan, Kristoff, Cancellara, and Boassen Hagen. In this reality I not only read the future but get rich off of it.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Mick Matthews
    2. The Sagster
    3. Kristoff.
    4. Spartypants
    5. Boss Hog

  38. @Minnesota Expat

    Right you are. La VSP Primavera is a bit like the real thing: too early to gauge much in the way of real VSP form. We’ll have a better sense of who has the legs after the Spring Classics. And the the Grand Tours will shuffle the deck. So long as you’re within spitting distance before le Tour, there’s still everything to play for.

    Best of luck, mate!

  39. For he is mighty, but Spartacus is mightier…

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Spartacus
    2. Sagan
    3. Matthews
    4. Van Avermaet
    5. Boasson Hagen

  40. Thanks Frank!

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Peter Sagan
    2. Fabian Cancellara
    3. Greg Van Avermaet
    4. Zdenek Stybar
    5. Michael Matthews

  42. Hopefully this VSP season will be an improvement over last year…

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Kristoff
    2. Cancellara
    3. Sagan
    4. Van Avermaet
    5. Matthews

  44. VSP PICKS:

    1. Michael Matthews
    2. Peter Sagan
    3. Greg Van Avermaet
    4. Fabian Cancellara
    5. Vincenzo Nibali

  45. VSP PICKS:

    1. Kristoff
    2. Sagan
    3. Michael Matthews
    4. Greg Van Avermet
    5. Cancellara

  46. VSP PICKS:

    1. Michael Matthews
    2. Peter Sagan
    3. Alexander Kristoff
    4. Greg Van Avermaet
    5. Zdenek Stybar

  47. Asked for devine inspiration and God told me to fuck off since I don’t believe in him.

    Nothing is for free anymore.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Matthews, Bling out your dead
    2. Cancellara, F
    3. Sagan, Pete
    4. Kristoff, Al
    5. Avermaet, Van Greg

  48. VSP PICKS:

    1. Fabian Cancellara
    2. G Thomas
    3. Edvald Bossen Hagan
    4. Sagan
    5. GVA

  49. Couldn’t go past my top 3 man-crushes for the podium

    .

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Spartacus
    2. Sagan
    3. Bling
    4. Kristoff
    5. GVA

  50. Do I go with the heart or head?

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Bling
    2. Spartacus
    3. GVA
    4. Sagan
    5. Stybar

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