Velominati Super Prestige: Tour de France 2012, Stage 16
Which bold rider has this stage circled in their tour bible? Wednesday July 18th, Stage 16, 197 km. The day after a the final rest day. A climbing day with two HC climbs followed by two Category 1 climbs and a serious descent toward the finish. The Aubisque, Tourmalet, Aspin and Peyresourde: you better be a fearless climber and a good descender, but a better climber. This is not a stage for Sagan or Fränkie Schleck (sorry Frank). If Wiggo was going to have a bad day, this would be a special one to have it on. And this follows a rest day? Could the weather finally make a difference? Will the mad tacker return? Will climbers just try to survive this stage to perform on the fearsome Stage 17? More questions than answers in the Velominati Super-Bunker.
All VSP bettors better give an extra shake of the monkey bones before casting them down. Study them well. There is much at stake: Fizik R3s for the winner, 2 pair of DeFeet socks for first loser. The rules are the same as for the first single stage VSP. Points are awarded for correct place only. Delgado might have enjoyed this stage but don’t be like him.
@Dr C
This. Sometimes the most straightforward scenario is correct.
@minion
Of course it’s correct, just painful to watch. Good on em, they won the race the way they could do best.
This tit however, gets my prize for least suprising announcement of the year, and should be shot – ruined a good tour for so many people – what a wanker – makes me wonder when someone from Bulgaria wins on an impossible climb by 3 mins, why they didn’t get the labs to analyse his sample that night – you could see the EPO pouring out of his shitty little body – bastard
Ivailo Gabrovksi, a Bulgarian rider who had a spectacular stage win for a Continental-ranked Turkish team at the Tour of Turkey and went on to win the race tested positive for EPO after that stage win, the UCI has announced. He has been provisionally suspended.
@brett
Truly this was one of the most painful things to watch – I am a not Cadel fan, but that was ghastly – it is sometimes not right that the cameras spend so much time on such a high profile star, who has contributed so much, fighting with the man with the hammer – my heart really went out to him – hope he has a better day today
@Dr C
1 29 actually.
@RedRanger
I love him, but he is such a cartoon character – he even shoves a bike the wrong way (maybe there isn’t a right way) – apparently his sisters were at the finish line, which was nice
@Dr C
You want a first class tit? Listen to Andy going on…
“Today I can tell you that I am disgusted with cycling,” Schleck said. “I love this sport more than anything but now it’s really hard for me and for the whole family.”
Poor little twats. The sport’s done them wrong.
@minion
Great article on Henry Cardenas. Thanks a million, Minion.
@Mikael Liddy
One of the things that attracts me to this sport is the notion that it’s a sport for those who take responsibility for their actions and results, something that seems increasingly lacking in society with all the X-Factor instant celebrity and entitlement culture. Instead I find myself surrounded by a whole bunch of people moaning that Sky have made this race boring because they’ve had a look at the route, assessed their strengths and weaknesses, come up with a plan and executed it to a t.
Wiggo gained time in the time trial and has been expecting his rivals to try to make it back up. Why would he look to attack and use up energy when there are several days left when he might still be attacked by a number of teams and that expended energy might prove decisive? So what if that’s not Merckxian, if everybody did that it would lessen the legend and the ignorant public wouldn’t ever believe the sport was cleaning up it’s act.
If anyone has made this dull it’s the other teams and their main players for not fronting up and having a serious, concerted do-or-fucking-die go. everyone knew they’d need to make up time to counter his TT but so far there’s been no real attempt to do so. BMC have been a complete joke, after buying up all the available stars you’d be forgiven for not realising they were actually a team for the lack of assistance they’ve given Cadel; Radio Missin’ Schleck couldn’t even work out who their team leader was and we’ll probably never be sure as to whether one of them committed chemical Schleckupu to avoid embarrassment or if he was poisoned by his evil manipulative boss; Liquigas haven’t been quite as embarrassing but they’ve not shown the power that they demonstrated at the Giro, maybe they could have driven the peloton from the front as they did for Basso in Italy to try and soften up the Sky train or are their hearts not in supporting Nibbles now that they know he’ll be taking the silverware with him?
It would be nice if Wiggo rode away from his rivals, including Froome, at today’s summit finish as he hinted he might do to Nibbles at the top of the Peyresourde when his stamped on that last attempt.
@Mikael Liddy this little rant isn’t aimed at you, more at the other teams for bottling it. I just can’t see how doing something well and to your strengths can make a race dull when the other teams haven’t done anything to counter. Obviously if someone takes a flier and puts time into him today then great but I can’t see it.
@brett
I reckon it’ll turn out that he was poisoned, and it’s all Bruyneels dirty work, and we’ll all come to love the Schlecks again – well actually, we won’t care, as they aren’t really competitive anymore
I wonder where this leaves Faboo and Jensie??
http://www.bikeradar.com/road/news/article/video-wiggins-on-froome-the-future-the-tourmalet-34649/
I love Wiggo. No bullshit, and as an avowed Indurain fan I have zero problem with Sky’s “asphyxiation” of the Tour.
@Dr C If I went Tommy V I’d probably get my tongue stuck in the spokes.
I’d love to ride it purely on the V-Meter but I still quite new to all this so I like to compare what my body is telling me with a bit of data. I do find that I’m looking at the numbers less and less these days but being my first TT I was a little wary of going to hard at the beginning and popping before I got out of sight of the start.
Who knows I may get to the stage when I can ride by feel alone but at the moment I can go harder, closer to my perceived limit with a bit of data. The trick will be to push that limit point out a little bit each time.
I usually just display speed, cadence and HR but set it to flip to time of day on page 2 so that I could go for a warm up ride without risk of missing my starting slot. For whatever reason it refused to show the second page until I hit the start timing button as I set off. After that it seemed that every time l looked down it was showing the time which I really hate to see as it reminds me of how much more time I have to endure the pain for.
Can’t believe someone poisoned Frankie, just because I had him in my picks….this is an outrage!…He was due to go on a solo break today and tear his 9 minutes back out of Brads eyeballs! O…the injustice of it all….how am I going to pay back the Indian Bookies now :( ……
@Dr C that chick’s tongue terrifies me.
@Oli Now that’s a good sporting interview. Wiggo is class.
@Marko
if that were more common, the male of the species could quickly become obsolete
Tommy V, team bibs, far better than white polka dot bibs, apart from his face, a classy rider.
@Oli
That is just fantastic. Boy, has that guy come far in terms of comfort speaking to the press even in just 3 weeks…I prefer a race with more fireworks, but this has been a beautiful win by what appears to be a very level-headed guy.
@Mikael Liddy
First of all, Mikael Liddy. Harminator, frank have all won their asshole badge for the week. The hours upon hours these three spend on this blog has gained them much asshole merit. All three! I would agree that my post are short and concise and require reading and thought. These three men are prone to scan posts and fall happily into uncomprehension bliss. Remember one thing when you three are here (giggling at posts) or out on your bike (giggling) — “try harder” and you will find meaning.
@frank
Why do you delight in throwing your own under the bus? And you have used the Google joke before. Please “try harder”
@Harminator
“And you sir!” I have been riding hard all week and have had little to contribute here — other than I have been riding the hell out of my bike. The times that I do contribute are short and to a point about cycling. You may have to seek and understand the point, but I promise that it is not buried. The other posts that I read here give a sense that their actual bike riding time is buried by time on this blog. I know that you mean no harm, but you also mean no result or product. It does not matter (to you). You continue to sneer and I will continue to ride and maintain the hell out of my bike.
Ahh, I’m only joking. Only had to say something here. To contribute as an online community.
@brett
I’m done and over the swivel brothers. I really tired to get behind them, but it’s always an excuse “my chain came off and now my stomach is filled with anger”, ” I was poisoned”, “my vajay jay hurts”, “I wasn’t really prepared for the Giro”. Go away now and leave the racing to the real hard men of climbing.
@Oli Wiggins has massively gone up in my estimation. Everything he said in that interview was spot on, always about the team, the sacrifice and the workload of your team mates, never a singular thing.
He speaks a whole lot better than he did after the 2009 TDF and it’s great that he is seeing and appreciating how hard everyone has worked for him and not just in the race. Would ove to see him domestique for Froome next year but I don’t see it, also hard to see where Cav will fir into this GT hungry team.
Froome in the Vuelta against Clenbutador and Grimpedler’s slightly more pissy brother should be good.
@scaler911
+1
@Marcus
A rewrite to appease three unnamed Velominati assholes:
Marcus you don’t undertsand the sport then “” entirely. For me today’s ride was about using the biggest effort the entire time. Not your ideal of the smallest effort possible at all times. I was not planning to sit in and wait. I planned to go off the front today with The V Meter and would not look back to the chase. This is how my day was won and I realize that you are expressing the tactic of sitting in the overall stages to survive the Tour.
My point: the effort in a bike race is “never little” if at all possible.
No response from the three unnamed Velominati assholes is required, but would be appreciated by others here.
@versio My problem is not Marcus’ understanding of the sport but anything that you ever posted. You’re borderline incoherent.
Why would Wiggo take it upon himself to ride off the front at any point other than the very end of of today’s stage? Assuming he could have done so, which today’s distancing of niblles suggests that he could have done, he may have broken one or two riders earlier but that would leave him open (and unnecessarily tired) to attacks from other teams in the days that followed.
I wouln’t say it’s been the most exciting race in terms of the GC but put that down to an embarrassing failure by anyone else to take the challenge to him. What the fuck do you want him to do? Wait for Cuddles to catch up?
@Chris
“Everything” ?? That’s not good. I will make an effort to only contribute when needed.
Why are you now discussing Wiggo going off the front? I never mentioned Wiggens. I was only adding to Marcus’ statement that the sport is about “using as little energy as possible at all times.” And I simply gave an example (my personal experience this week training) that sitting in is not what the sport is about “at all times”. You fellas need to read more often and look at the context of each post. So let’s leave it at that.
@versio Indeed, if you can’t understand your previous post then what hope do we have. You’re right, lets leave it at that.
@Chris I do estimate that you will become an incredible attribute here and contribute to the nonsense when needed. Don’t become so exclusive while you’re at it.
Gone riding for the next 3 hours. Hope to return to this wonderful site for some positive-cycling-affirmation afterwards.
A certain poster who will go unnamed seems to think he has “deep” posts. In reality his posts are a sophomoric attempt at intelligent discourse, not too different from the garbage I handed in to my English professor last year (which would really make them freshmanic). Need to pad up a word count, sweet, grab a thesaurus, then throw adjectives around like a madman.
Pointed at no one in particular. From an unnamed Velominati asshole
Man, I’m sorry but I have to comment. I really have tried to hold back but Frank, is there a chance of voting someone of the island around here? Hell, you can vote me off if you want. But, come on Frank, what do you say?
Borderline incoherent
@Dr C
to be fair, he is wearing cycling shoes. you cant really run or get much traction for a good solid push.
@mcsqueak
except that guy is awesome.
@RedRanger
I never implied he wasn’t awesome! I just said borderline incoherent.
@RedRanger
Oh, and I had to try and be cool by copying Scaler911, but that’s par for the course.
@mcsqueak
I was actually the one implying something. my NYC sarcasm does not translate well in written form.
@RedRanger
Ah, I’m picking up what you’re putting down now. I’m a little slow.
Yet another reason Frank really has to work on coding in some friendly emoticons.
@mcsqueak
Emoticons!!??!! If Frank codes those on this site, I’m driving straight to his place and kicking him squarely in the twig and berries.
@mcsqueak
That’s your first problem right there then…
@versio
This kind of affirmation?
@scaler911
More likely is that I’ll add some code to remove them. Fuckin’ hate those things. Just say what you mean merckxdamnit and if you can’t take the time to express yourself fully, don’t say anything or do a piss-poor job of it and we’ll rip on you for a while and get a kick out of it.
Hi, Welcome to VAA, Velominati Assholes Annonymous, lets get the meeting underway.
Hi, I’m Minion and I’m an Asshole, (All; Hi MInion) I frequently disagree with comments on completely irrelevant points, for no other reason that arguing over arcane cycling facts or points of view for arguing’s sake. I spend time at work formulating smartarse responses to other posters, and use obnoxious images and videos from well known television shows and movies to try and make a humorous point.
Problem, me? Fuck no I don’t have a problem. I blame Marcus, that fucker’s got it bad. And the rest of you lot, you’re ALL fucked.
What 12 point plan? Step one’s 20 hour riding weeks?
(apologies to teetotallers and people who have dealt with AA/NA that shit ain’t funny)
@Bianchi Denti
Cheers, ironically if Bretto had read that article, he might have understood what I was getting at. But he didn’t have his Clifford the Big Red dog book with him, to look up the words he might not know.
@scaler911 I voted for that guy.
@Marko
Ha! I gave him $5.
I’d be more impressed if you voted for this guy:
@DerHoggz
You just implied that “these” posts were deep. Grammar Queen! I am only disappointed at this “cycling” community with the observation that most all of my past and recent posts have been very simple. A few contributors here (unnamed) have been perplexed by these posts from the past. Even confused. And then they (unnamed) do not move on. No more to say, but I will continue to bait you thru this thread.
OH, and one for all the dopers:
@Buck Rogers
Buck — man, I’m sorry but I have to comment. I visit this site often only to find that you are still licking balls in your clique.
And sure, ask Frank to handle it. Vote me away from your community. Do as you see fit. (You guys really lose control)
You may not like me as an online personality. But you would prefer me as a fellow cyclist that knows Campagnolo. Knows every spec on the machine that I ride. And continues to train, race and look to other fellow cyclist to further the experience. You and DerHoggz are becoming a real asses. You could use a punch in the face.