Velominati Super Prestige: Paris-Nice 2012
It’s right around this time of year when the little voice in my head that spurs me on in cold, wet, Rule #9 conditions starts getting overpowered by all my other personalities who at this stage are gathering stones and crowbars and getting ready to enforce their will on him regarding their preference for riding in nice, warm, sunny conditions. I feel bad for the little guy, too, since he helps me a lot in a climate like the Pacific Northwest; but truth be told, my fingers still haven’t regained their feeling from last week’s ride and I admit it would be nice to arrive home after a ride triumphant and warm instead of frozen and soaked like a wet rat.
It appears I’m not the only one ready for some warmer weather, and Paris-Nice traditionally holds a place of honor as “The Race to the Sun” for its timing is such that the race often starts in the French interior with rain (and possibly snow), and arrives on the sunny Cote d’Azur in Nice in balmy conditions.
With that we start our first stage race of the season, along with an opportunity to expose more bugs and logical faults in the VSP software. But never mind that; the same basic rules apply as do with one-day races, expect the stakes are a bit higher with 10 points for first place, 8 for second, 7 for third, 5 for fourth, and 3 for fifth plus two bonus points per rider in the top five regardless of the rider’s placing. Should the race be exciting enough to merit its inclusion, The Keepers may elect to include a bonus round on the VSP for one of the stages along the way. Watch this space for news in that arena.
Check the start list and watch the countdown timer as picks close at 5am Pacific on Sunday; up for grabs is the personalized Velominati Shop Apron to the contestent who wins the season-long competition. Check the Main VSP page for scoring guidelines and rules. Seeing as this is the first stage race, I strongly encourage you to enter your picks early, knowing that you can make changes all the way up until the VSP closes. If you notice something behaving strangely, please let us know and we’ll have time to resolve the issue.
Good luck.
@snoov
@RedRanger
The last ITT national champions include Kim Kirchen, who has retired because of his heart and Poos, Luxembourg cyclist of the year 1997. And Benoit Joachim. I only knew Kim Kirchen of that list.
A very suitable way to celebrate Wiggo’s first day in yellow
very malty, very nutty, very yummy, I think I may have found a new favourite beer….
BTW, did you see how far that ?Cofidis guy’s bike went, after the crash at 14Km to go??
@Ron
Didn’t take it negatively at all Ron…just had to make a little fun of myself for the mistake. Funny thing is I noticed what I had done almost as soon as I made the post and thought “maybe no one will notice…”
The Velominatus are far too on point to not notice that type of mistake… one of the reasons I love coming here!
@Dr C
You know, i think the Grimplette needs to drink a shit load of this. Right now, he strikes me as a Michelob Ultra, or that low-cal pish Miller is brewing kinda guy. Might put some hair on his chest as they say!
@LA Dave
Fixed.
@Dr C
BTW, Geraint contested the last intermediate sprint and came second. Then I beleive he finished near Wiggins in the bunch.
@Dr C
Oops wrong again.
128. THOMAS Geraint 26 SKY PROCYCLING 4h 39′ 36″ + 03′ 17″
@snoov
After doing his work all day long, he couldn’t keep up with the bunch anymore towards the end. You could rather clearly see him sit up, but I don’t blame you for not noticing.
Taylor, Tyler, potato, potato…
sometimes auto-correct gets ya
@Dr C
where can i get some of that nut brown ale? looks delicious.
my favourite atm is Chimay, only just realised they sell it in asda so now i have a constant stock.
luckily theres also a fine wine shop near here that sells belgian and abbey beer and a local belgian bar about 5 miles ride away.
(pic not of me but there are cyclists in it and duvet umbrellas)
the pub sponsors leek cycling club who are doing a reliability ride finishing there on sunday. seems like a good excuse to go in for a few………….
duvel* silly auto correct
@zac
I think Samuel Smyth is a fairly sizeable brewery in Lancashire – I have a Porter to try in the next few days – no idea what it will be like, but the Nut Brown is a beaut – a meal in itself
Luckily I have a Boozshop near my work that flogs all manner of Ales and Beers – I reckon they have over 70 or 80 different Ales in stock at any time – I’m having a ball since I went in once looking for some Grimbergen Dubbel (unsuccessfully) and have become a full convert to English bottled Ale – Owd Roger and Black Sheep Square Ale are my favs so far, as well as the Old Suffolk Strong Ale, which they can’t get in in large enough quantities to satisfy my capacity to hoover it up!
I bought Chimay from them last year…..not convinced, nor am I convinced by any of the Trappist Ales I’ve tried so far – clearly need to acquire a taste for it through persistent testing!!
Life is good which such simplicities as a bike, a good Ale, Eurosport and a website full of daft cycling chatter
@snoov
Ouch, poor G – I bet he had his nuts in the fire all day supporting Wiggo
@Dr C
Sounds like you are ready to move onto the cask conditioned offerings…
@snoov
I rest my case.
@Dr C
Back in the day I loved some Theakston’s Old Peculiar in Glasgow’s Bon Accord. One of the few CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) pubs around back then. They had all the top stuff. 3-4 pints and it was stagger to the station time. Happy days.
@snoov
Fairly sure the two brothers just alternate it back & forth between each other every year. Rumour has it they start one after another & ride the course side by side and so whichever one starts second wins and then they just alternate the starting order each year.
@Dr C
Me and the missus once darkend the door of the Sam Smith Brewery in Tadcaster, it is big and very funky, I begged a few bar towels from the bartendress, like I was the very first person to ever ask. No gift shop there. They have signed a distribution deal with the devil hisself as I find Sam Smith’s Nut Brown Ale in tiny stores in the jungle in Hawaii. Crazy, but good.
@Gianni
Wow, Hawaii – awesome distribution effort!
I believe the owner is a larger than life English Gentleman (Sam Smyth himself??) – jodhpurs and a hunting jacket, cigar and a permantly broken double barrel over his forearm – owns all of Tadcaster, and he drives them all mad – stubborn as hell and insists on all the traditional methods, which is probably why it tastes so good!
@Chris
Rude not to I guess….
@Mikael Liddy
Fränk has actually never been a national champion ITT.
@Netraam
It would appear you’re correct, admittedly I came up with that based on a half baked recollection of him in the national colours in a Tour TT a couple of years back…
Taylor (not Tyler) Phinney has borrowed Grimplette’s sick note and has not taken the start this morning. It seems that a number of riders have the squits and have dropped out. Not amongst them is Kaisen who has gone home with a sniffle.
Sickly bunch aren’t they?!
@Mikael Liddy
To be honest, I did research yesterday and found out that in the last 10 years only Benoit Joachim, Poos, Kim Kirchen and Andy Schleck have been luxembourg time trial champions. 3/4 are now retired.
@Fausto
Yeah Adam Hansen has bailed from Lotto Belisol with Bronchitis according to his twitter feed as well.
@Mikael Liddy
Bronchitis? Pffft. Wouldn’t have stopped the Black Knight.
How the fuck am I supposed to watch P-N AND T-A at the same time while trying to ride OUTSIDE and get ready for work? Nevermind I want to catch up on all the goings on at Velominati. And I don’t have a “smart” phone. I have a dim phone. Other phones call my phone names and steal its lunch money. Sometimes it drools on itself. I can’t watch Eurosport on it. And I can’t cruise around Velominati on it.
@Jeff in PetroMetro
You know the drill, treat it like you’ve just joined the site & tell the boss your productivity is about to take a dive but instead of the normal 50% drop, I’d say giving him the heads up on a 75-80% reduction might be more accurate.
@Mikael Liddy
I’m calling in disinterested. Or pre-occupied. Honesty is the best policy.
Sickness continues to take riders out of the race:
Phinney, Bakelants, Posthuma, Hansen, Kaisen not starting today.
Are they not using race radios in any race this year or just some races?
@Fausto
Finished the “Slaying the Badger” book recently and one of the most amazing things in the book was the story (stories) of LeMan having the “trots” literally while riding and having it streaming down his legs and he still kept riding and would not quit.
Dude was hard as nails.
Just don’t make them like they used to, eh sonny?
No real changes in the GC today folks.
Westra looking good, if he survives tomorrow he is in the top-10.
Alternatively, when this event finishes I will be nowhere near the top-10
How do you pronounce Westra’s name? Frank?
Oh boy, finally able to watch the final 10kms of Stage 4. Ha, a man named Gianni pulls off a nice sprint win. Good work, Gianni!
Pretty wild last 5km. Crashes (Simon G.) tons of dudes riding off the road on one bend (those spectators were lucky to not get smashed) & many different attacks. Exciting racing.
How do folks feel about the Vaconsoleil kit/bike paint? The kit is a bit busy for me, then the bike is busy too. Some celeste, some black (dark blue?). Then paired with the KOM jersey. Yikes, I kind of got dizzy there.
I see the Samuel Smith’s in a lot of shops now. It’s darn good.
@DerHoggz
I’ve always gone with “Lerrvey Vestra” although that’s me taking my Danish speaking tongue & applying it to all Euro names…
I still think my top 3 will be money, leipheimer, wiggins, then valverde. I dont see wiggins climbing with the california kid (or old man).
Wow tomorrows stage looks rather exciting, plenty of climbs with a “Cat 1” finish. Should be some shake up in the GC:
Where will the attacks come? On the Chabrits or the Neuve? Or even the Estrade?
@Ron
They are trying to mix all the sponsor colors and it just doesn’t really work. I really dig that they are on Bianchi, but celeste + navy or whatever isn’t doing it. The bikes look mostly good, but the stripes of blue throw it off. What is on the downtube, looks like writing? Did you notice their skinsuits for the TT had a lighter shade of blue than their standard kit?
@DerHoggz
His first name is Lieuwe, and I can see how that poses a problem to everyone who does not speak Dutch or Frisian. In fact, I can’t even come up with an explanation that would make sense in any language other than Dutch.
Wait, just let me try. L-ieuw(as in the French oui)-è
@Netraam
Well I never knew the two were connected. Hell of a way to end your career…
@brett
2010 Tour de Suisse. He was asked if he wanted to ride for Leopard in 2011, but he was not given clearance due to his heart condition. I haven’t heard from him since, so I suspect he is now retired.
@nico
…..we’ll see…
Wiggins can climb. He even survived the Angliru, which was quite a bit worse than this.
@King Clydesdale
some nasty looking sections there – the Estrade is going to hurt someone badly, then a bun fight up the final climb – awesome
Whenever I look at Bradley Wiggins or say his name out loud I can’t help but want to enrol him for school at Hogwarts.
Uh…I give you…last year’s Stage 5 winner from the same Mende mtn. top finish. Apparently he’s not at the start line today.
A double fingerbang?
@Cantona7
If he actually wins this race, Ill start calling him Ender.