The final race of the 2012 Velominati Super Prestige season is upon us. It’s not the most inspiring race, supposedly a race for the sprinters. The long straight final run in to the finish line begs for a mass sprint. It should be called Châteauneuf-en-Thymerais-Tours. The route is 235.5 km of small rollers through the French countryside. There is not a categorized climb on it.
Captain Fuck Around is eleven points behind @san tonio. If the captain stops fucking around like he did with last week’s Lombardia winning pick @g’phant could be mincing around Wellington in a different apron from the one he usually wears. @xyxax, a few points behind el captaine, is swirling his hands over his crystal ball in his Gotham lair, his flying monkeys grinning and hopping with excitement over his shoulder. @ san tonio is standing tall, a few decent choices and he will win this whole thing but this is a tough race to call. It’s October, who has any gas in the tank? This could be a true sprint finish with remnants of lead out trains, or won from a small break or something freakish like a climber holding off the whole chasing peloton.
Did France’s ex-golden boy get off the EPO after the Festina affair? Did he win Paris-Tours by holding off the whole field on a day-long break with Jackie Durand riding on bread and water? For me it was easily his greatest win. It was much better than all his king of the mountain wins with their self-righteous finish line salutes to his own cheating ass. He was a climber, he was supposed to win mountain stages. But to end up being the lone fox chased by the whole pack, holding them off and winning this so called sprinters race, it was beautiful, Voight-esque. It’s how a race should be won. This win actually made me like him again, a little bit. Sprinters get enough wins already. They are over-rated.
Here is a provisional start list, good luck and good picking, no Delgados, please.
Below is a barely adequate video of the 2001 race and Virenque’s win, all in French and too many shots of him in his sweater. But it is short.
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@Ron
Laurent Jalabert. Penned an article on him, which may or may not be good. Or crap. You may see it soon. Or not, depending on quality control with The Keepers.
@Trobs I am not normally anal about spelling..jeez I make enough mistakes myself..it was just the absence of the "w" gave the sentence a "whole" new meaning....so I could not resist poking a little fun at it...
Thanks to the Keepers for another great VSP season and congrats to San Tonio on the win!
@Deakus Arsewhole (sorry)
Loved entering the VSP, great job on organising and well done to San Tonio on the win. Can't wait for next year, just have to get through summer now.
So I started the series with high hopes but totally lost steam by july, none the less almost made the top 200...
What blows me away is the 385 contenders and the hard fought battle in the top 51(King Clydesdale with Steampunk breaking bad at 50 and these guys are scoring in the 100's). Then we have the top 10! Man do you guys have a day job? Do you sleep at all? Where are you getting the inside tips, do you have a direct line to the team buses?
I know 3 of the top 10 and the weird thing is they are not geniuses (well actually they may be?) nor ex pros. It amazes me that they and the rest of you high score people got so many picks from so many options.
Huge bouquet and podium girls to San Tonio.
And special mention for lantern rouge to Gerard.
Congratulations San Tonio. Wear the stripes well!
And thanks, Keepers, for another great season. Give yourselves a raise.
Chapeau, San Tonio! Thanks Keepers for all your efforts. Going for the podium next year!
San Tonio - Congratulations. An excellent effort of consistent race-picking, and a well-deserved shop apron. Wrench well.
Keepers - thanks, again, for a great VSP. It's a lot of work, not made easier by a consistent community enthusiasm for obscure nicknames submitted at the last minute, but your dedication to the task is outstanding and really appreciated.
Xyxax, Blah, Gerard and everyone else - congratulations / commiserations, as appropriate.
As for me? Having now placed 2nd (2010 VSP), 3rd (2011 VSP) and 2nd (2012 VSP), I realise that no matter how much I reduce my fucking around I am am destined to be the "almost" guy of this decade, and have changed my name accordingly.
- The Contestant Previously Known as G'phant
A monument win & a final result just outside the top 30 reflects a season I'm reasonably happy with, many congratulations to @San Tonio for the win & comiserations to @Captain Poulidor for yet another podium...looking forward to next year & seeing what the Keepers can come up with for VSP '13