Velominati Super Prestige: Paris-Tours 2013

All Haul Ass-Andrea Tafi

Oh brothers and sisters, we find ourselves here again. It was but a few moments ago when the Milan-Sanremo VSP went up. Racers fought the sleet, producing an unforgettable start to the Velominati VSP season. Cancellara, Nibali, Froome and, and Horner were all big points winners for our astute and well informed audience. But now it has come to Paris-Tours, the last big road race of the season, unless you count the Tour of Beijing, which we don’t.

Authon-du-Perche to Tours, 235 km of relatively flat riding; a sprinters route.  Or a passista’s route judging from some of the former winners: Tchmil, Tafi, Museeuw. Or if you inject enough epo into him, a climber’s route: Richard Virenque. I say this every year when this race comes up; his win here almost made me like him. I actually liked him a lot for this win but his overall obnoxious quotient kept him firmly in the hate.

So place your bets carefully. This race is quite hard to predict, it could go so many ways. And this is almost the last chance for bragging rights in the 2013 VSP so pray to your gods for guidance and make a move before Sunday. It would be a shame to Delgado the penultimate event of the VSP season.

Start list is here. Here is the very classy Andrea Tafi showing how you win a sprinters race the hard way.

Gianni

Gianni has left the building.

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  • Every time I think the season is over, the Race of the Falling Leaves keeps on livin' on...

    The best part is that I can justify sitting around Sunday morning after a ride and recovering, rather than working on the house. Nice!

  • pretty funny discussion about caps going on the eurosport stream.

    "We used to cut the tops off our caps so we didn't overheat on hot rainy days, so you'd end up with a visor"

    Blasphemy.

  • Degenkolb for the win with T-Bone again just missing the podium.  Poor guy.  At least he has a team for next year.

    1
    John Degenkolb (Ger) Team Argos-Shimano
    5:29:19
     

    2
    Michael Morkov (Den) Team Saxo-Tinkoff
     
     

    3
    Arnaud Demare (Fra) FDJ
     
     

    4
    Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin-Sharp
     
     

    5
    Michael Van Staeyen (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise

  • OK, Skip kicks ass. Bat Chainpuller too slow on the draw.

    Final Race Results
    1. DEGENKOLB John
    2. MORKOV Michael
    3. DEMARE Arnaud
    4. FARRAR Tyler
    5. VAN STAEYEN Michael
    Final VSP Results
    1. Skip (11 points)
    2. Bat Chainpuller (11 points)
    3. jeyrod (11 points)
    4. wiscot (10 points)
    5. CanuckChuck (10 points)
    6. starclimber (9 points)
    7. Buck Rogers (8 points)
    8. freddy (8 points)
    9. Bianchi Denti (8 points)
    10. DCR (8 points)
    ...
    59. scaler911 (0 points)
  • A top  10 result - better late than never! Add that to  a glorious 100kms in fantastic fall colors his morning and volunteering for a local noon-profit's fundraiser his afternoon and all's right in my world.

  • I missed the race unfortunately due to a family outing. I came here first for the race results! I will have to find a good source for a race recap.

    How was the finish of the race? Anything exciting?

  • @wiscot

    @mouse

    @Buck Rogers

    @Gianni

    @Buck Rogers

    Also Gianni, isn't there the Women's Chronos race the weekend after this one on the VSP schedule so there will be just one more after this one, correct?

    Balls! Yes! I am wrong. You are correct. I will edit. Women's Chrono...who can remember such races?

    You said it, not me. Didn't there used to be a men's Chrono race at the end of the season back in the '80"²s? Seems like it. I need to research that one.

    Grand Prix des Nations

    Indeed, the Grand Prix des Nations. Back before there was a World TT championship, there was the Nations. A sad omission from the calendar. Working o a piece on Daniel Gisiger who won the Nations twice and the Baracchi Trophy three times. Before Faboo, there was Danny G.

    Chrono Des Nations on this weekend in France.  Same race as GP des Nations, just renamed.  Stared in 1982. 

    UCI 1.1 rating, won by Tony Martin last year.

  • @scaler911

    @seemunkee

    No time to think about this, son is getting married in 2 hours. hopefully better than a Delgado

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Farrar
    2. Van summeren
    3. Voukler
    4. Van averermaet
    5. Hausler

    You know how you know when you're a Velominati? When your son is getting married in 2 hours, and you're getting your VSP picks in. That's how it's done lads.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Terpstra
    2. Van Avermaet
    3. Voeckler
    4. Boom
    5. Van Summeren

    it got my one point, and a new daughter.  Not a bad weekend.

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