Velominati Super Prestige: Paris Tours 2012
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.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8QjoLylT1M&playnext=1&list=PL0582720E507C62A8&feature=results_main[/youtube]
VSP PICKS:
1. Ballan
2. Chavenal
3. van Avermaet
4. Flecha
5. Degenkolb
Jacky Bobby out. Driving back to Girona apparently…
VSP PICKS:
1. Van Avermaet
2. Von Hoff
3. Degenkolb
4. Cantwell
5. Boom
Anyone know of live ticker for this one? Cycling news does not hae one, at least not yet. Although, as the race is essentially a pure flat ride, might be hard to do a ticker on it.
Hmm, I’m watching it live via steephill via Sporza. Not sure about a ticker, but makes moves…5km to go!
@Ron
ahhh, I am still running off of 3G and not wifi or cable internet. Gets a bit costly watching actual feeds. Let me know who wins, okay?!
Mercato
De Vrees
Terpstra
Degenkolb
In that order. Not sure on fifth.
Found some Dutch ticker and it looks like Marcato won, De Vreese second, Terpstra third, then Degenkolb and Pichon? It was all in Dutch so I could be all wrong here!
1) Marcato 2) de Vreese 3) Terpstra 4)Degenkolb 5) Pinchon…and Stybar 10!
Pretty solid work to come back after a 2nd last year and pull off a win!
So did anyone actually score more than just having Degenkolb in the top 5!?
@Deakus
I scored a SMOKING two points as I had good old Marcato for fourth place with Degenkolb in second place. Yeah, think I need to start working for the betting sites.
@Deakus
At least (as in, didn’t look close enough to be sure nobody else did) @Adrian and @r00tdown had Degenkolb in fourth.
@San Tonio
Grats on the VSP win. Damn fine end to the season over the past few races.
Time for a ride! 8 degrees C out with 60% chance of showers. Might be a Rule #9 day depending if the rain comes.
@ San Tonio it ain’t over till….
@Deakus
Yup – I had Terpstra – nearly had him in the right place too if it hadn’t been for those pesky kids
I picked the 3 & 4 slots correctly. Not exactly something to be over the moon about, but anyway.
Shoot, pulled off a top 10 last year, guess now that I’ve slipped I have a long winter of training ahead of me…I need that shop apron!
We’re running a bit behind with mapping the picks; I’m pulling myself an espresso and will have them mapped and the results posted in a moment.
Pretty exciting finale!
@Blah
Thank You very much Sir
@Tobin
yeah, it is over
@Ron
Well, it was better than most. You took the win this time around!
@all
I always love seeing a sprinter try to bridge up solo ala Cipo at Gent VVevelgem. Respect to Degenkolb.
Ron takes the win over Trobs and Adrian in an unusually small field.
[vsp_results id=”20560″]
[/vsp_results]
For the overall VSP, @San Tonio takes the season-long Velominati Super Prestige and wins the personalized ship apron. His margin of 11 points over @G’Phant and 13 over @xyxax shows how much each of the events matter in the overall.
Thanks to everyone for participating and helping to make this an exciting game; also a special thanks to those of you who helped uncover and resolve defects in the system.
[vsp_gc year=2012/]
Woo-hoo! 45th in the world! A spectacular result. Oracle, let me know what beverage I owe you. Shooting for top 30 next year. Congrats to San Tonio for a great run of predictions.
I’m quite pleased with the results today, it has been a wonderful VSP season for me.
A BIG thanks to @frank and the Keepers for putting this together. You have done a tremendous job not just with the VSP but with entire site and community.
When I started at the beginning of the year my only goal was to have fun and hopefully win a race and get a commenting name badge. To end up winning the Overall VSP and wear the world champion stripes is beyond amazing for me.
I’ve truly enjoyed the competition and being a member of this community. I’ve learned quite a lot about cycling, the rules and looking pro and I don’t think I could’ve picked a better group of people to learn from.
Thank You all so much.
@scaler911
Who is that in the French National Champ kit? Looks the business!
I also watching this at about 7:45 this morning, while waiting for the race to come on. When the music first started I thought, “Did I accidentally start itunes on this computer?” Has happened before. Nope, it’s set over the video. And damn, I officially like and need to pick up some Miles Davis. Sad to say that I thought, “This music is awesome,” but had no idea who I was listening to…
Congrats to San Tonio and I’ll echo his words on the VSP and site as a hole. Cheers
A creditable place just outside the top 50 in season 1 and that’s having not picked for all bar two of the classics and missing the Giro completely so very chuffed all in all. Thanks to all those involved in making it happen and Chapeau to the winners. Next year, I am in from race 1!!
@Trobs
I would not say that the site is a hole….I think it is pretty good all in all, when you consider the loons that post on it and run it …however, if you meant “the site as a whole” then I completely agree…..;)
Congratulations to San Tonio!
@Deakus Oh crap, make that *whole. Its been a long day.
Thanks to Frank and all the Keepers for feeding my OCD inner rat for another season! I definitely owe you all a beverage of your choice! Now off for a hot shower and leg shaving session!
@Ron
Oh yeah, Mies Davis is sublimely, amazing “cool”. I had never listened to any jazz until my last deployment. Decided to check it out and bought a bunch of classic jazz albums including Davis’ Birth of the Cool, Kind of Blue, and my favorite of his Sketches of Spain. All amazing albums! Dave Brubeck is pure class as well, as is Charles Mingus. Great stuff!
@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
Grazie keepers! Very pleased with my debut season (part) 73 points.
@keepers
Vsp was awesome. I read way too much about cycling so being able to use this useless knowledge for something almost productive was enjoyable. 13th was ok, but not a win congrats to the San Tonio Spurs. The killer was a tie for first at Roubaix and losing on the tie breaker. I wanted that newspaper!!!
Congrats to San Tonio, thanks to The Keepers for a great VSP–and hot damn: a top 25 finish! No Lanterne Rouge for me!
Chapeau San Tonio & Ron. Thanks Keepers! Looking forward to next year.
@Captain Poulidor
I don’t know, I kinda liked Captain Fuck Around a bit better.
I’ll go with Cap’n Pou Pou instead.
@Captain Poulidor
Wait – you changed your handle? Sweet. I was thinking about changing mine as it’s a bit… blah.
But way back when, I changed my email address and lost all badge rank. Was afraid of changing names.
You didn’t lose any badge rank? Or do you even know, considering you’ve got the leafy goodness badge?
Great year as always, hope next year I approach the podium. I need to get better at the grand tours, I did terrible there.
@Rob I don’t have a day job, I work nights, which does help as I get out in time to watch the big races on the compy, then go to sleep. You get a better idea who is on form when you watch the whole race and not just the highlights and whatnot. Cqranking.com is a big help as well.
Chapeau to San Tonio and Ron.
Thanks to the keepers for the fun and games!
Next season I’ll try to get away in the breakaway rather than just cruising in with the main peloton. I have been humbled by my lack of knowledge .
@Captain Poulidor
That’s some incredible consistency. Maybe you’ll win one of these years.
Congrats Sandrolone. A fine win against such a high quality field.
That VSP thing was rather fun, and I can think of no other outlet for my misguided delusions of pro-cycling insight. I’ll be in for the gusto next season.
In the meantime, I’ll step back gracefully into the gloom from whence I came, while y’all resume talking exclusively on stuff I don’t understand.
LURKMODE ENGAGED.