Velominati Super Prestige: Tour de France 2012
We are proud to announce a change to the Velominati Super Prestige moving forward: sponsorship. We are delighted (if a little surprised) at the interest our partners showed in this endeavor, despite the short notice we gave them. Four sponsors will be gracing the sides of our team bus for this year’s race: fi’zi:k is our Super Domestique Sponsor (think Big George without the shoe covers because who’d want to cover those beauties up), while the leadout train is being rounded out by DeFeet, Pavé Cycling Classics, and Malteni Beer. As we all know, fizik gets a lot of love around here as the Contact Point Supplier, and for good reason. So we thought now is as good a time as any to announce that DeFeet has agreed to come on board as Flandrian Best Supplier, the Pavé boys, our trusted guides over the stones and bergs, and Malteni Biere which fills our bidon and keeps us making bad decisions like teaming up with the Pavé boys.
So what does Super Domestique Sponsor mean? Free shoes to the winners – that’s what it means, dillwhips. Free R3’s, yup the Aristocrats, to the three winners of the VSP: TdF GC Winner and the two Stage VSP’s. As you watch this year’s race, look for the likes of Jeremy Roy and Richie Porte riding the R3’s in complete Rule Compliance. As Leadout Sponsor, Defeet is providing a full Flandrian Best Kit including a base layer, Armskins, Kneekers, and Slipstream Belgian booties for the VSP: Tdf GC second place as well plus two pairs of D-Logo socks to each runner-up of the Stage VSP’s. The Pavé boys (also Leadout Sponsors) are putting up a limited Pavé Cycling Classics wool jersey awarded to third place. We can’t ship Malteni (also Leadout Sponsors) legally, so you’ll just have to wait until you’re in Belgium to guzzle some of that lovely nectar or join the Pavé boys for their Worlds Weekend tour with Johan Museeuw where they’ll get you stupid(er) on the stuff.
Gianni’s Ruminations
Finally, the date has arrived. We have all done our training through the winter, contested the Spring Classics, The Ardennes Races, Romandie, Oh the Giro, The Dauphine, Tour de Swiss. Not all were in the VSP schedule but I know most of you wrote down your picks for the others and tucked them under your pillows. It’s training. There has been time to taper down before Saturday’s prologue start in Liége, Belgium. A young neo-pro, The Fish, is leading in points. The hardened veterans have seen these youth come and go, the season is long. A touch of wheels, a moment of youthful idealism, Vladimir Karpets is picked to podium, The Fish goes down, he panics and by the time he is back up he will never see the front again. Or he will continue to mock us all with his astute choices and lead all the way to Lombardy.
I have staked my claim on the yellow kit ownership some time ago and still see this as an epic Cadel-Wiggo battle to the death and if not death, until one of them sits up. But this year might be the time the youth start to fill up the other three places in the top five.
The Shack’s team car has been crashing into every static object all spring and now Bruyneel has been yanked out of the driver’s seat. The ride can only get smoother but with the reluctant leader Frank Schleck staring at over 100km of prologue and time trialing, as was said in the bunker, they are going stage hunting. I could go on for hours about the 2012 TdF but we have other Keepers who need to vent.
Please check the VSP page for the rules, keep an eye on the awesome VSP countdown timer, don’t Delgado your picks. Here is the start list.
I have to give a shout out to a brave group of Velominati who are heading to the Vermont/Canadian border to draft behind a massive dump truck full of Awesome all the way to the Massachusetts state line. It’s a Cogal only deranged people would attempt and as luck would have it, we supply them here. I hope they get their picks in soon as they may be in no kind of shape on Friday to think about such important things.
Brett’s Misconceptions
It’s all about Fränk. It’s perfect. All the pressure’s off. No lil bro to hold him back. Deliberately sucking all year so far, crashing and quitting, a hint of form, Bruyneel slinks off to deflect attention (and suspicion), Fränk suddenly can time trial and a couple of Pharmy style attacks later he wins in Paris by two minutes, taking the sprint on the Champs Elysees for good measure. Maybe not the last bit. Fränk will, however, finish in lil bro’s favourite position. Or suddenly leave with a stomach bug.
Cadel will take this. It’s perfect. All the pressure’s off. No lil bro to worry about in the mountains. Deliberately almost sucking so far, but not. Hints of form, staying low, deflecting attention. Look after the time trials and command the mountains. Safe, not exciting. Or he’ll step on someone else’s dog, breaking his elbow and decapitating the dog.
Wiggo could take this. It’s perfect. A lot of form. A lot of km’s against the clock. Not too many big hills. Too tall socks. Cav left to fight alone. One bad day is waiting there though, the sort of bad day that not even winning the final TT by 2 minutes can alleviate. Or he’ll crash in the first week, breaking both elbows after getting a sideburn caught in his crazy bio pace chainrings.
Sagan will win the first twelve stages, then leave with a stomach bug. Gossy will gratefully step into the vacant green in the greatest heist since Gerro won San Remo. And the Rug Salesman will be all spotty, due to getting in a long break and not sucking as much as even he expected. That’ll help him to 5th and Zubeldia level evanescence.
None of this may actually come close to happening, but whatever does I hope it’s an exciting race. Good luck to those battling hard for three weeks in the VSP race too, it could just turn out to be the main point of interest a couple of weeks from now.
Marko’s Reckoning
The Fish loses two spots on the G.C. but manages to eek out a pair of R3s in a sub-VSP as G’phant peaks in le Grande Boucle and walks away with le Grande Bouprize. Sad thing is, G’phant is legend but nobody remembers him because he only shows for races, not group rides anymore. Fausto rides a calculated, if not boring, race to move up a spot but just misses out. Gianni gets a glimpse of the podium going into the 16th stage and the Tourmalet but drowns in a lactic acid and caffeine soaked bath in that stage’s VSP. Marko Delgados virtually the entire event while he continues building his family a house in direct violation of Rule #11, which is more than we can say for Brett and Frank who were last seen going in the opposite direction with Bruyneel in a Radiotreksanshack team car dragging a muffler through Liege on its way to a USADA hearing near Austin.
In the meantime, two dudes from the Commonwealth – one with sideburns approaching muttonchops and another with an ass on his chin – duel it out in France. There will be some Italian, Spanish, and Russian dudes there too in an epic the likes of which hasn’t been seen in years. Fuck Yeah people, Vive le Tour.
Frank’s Delusions
It happens every single time. I get all weepy-eyed about the Giro and how it’s the Velominatus’ choice for a Grand Tour. Less crazy, better terrain, a comparatively weaker field usually yielding a closer race. But come the Tour, I get all starstruck as the big names line up in the best form they could muster for the season.
I also had decided to pick Twiggo for the big win, but now I’m not so sure. I love that the guy is tall and can get over a mountain, but there is one irrefutable fact that I can’t get over. He looks much too much like Gianni’s avatar, only not as well-kept. The sardonic look on his face along with those whispy sideburns are just too much for me to take. I’m back to rolling with my heart and my questionable sensibilities to favor Grimpelder this time round, now that he’s out of the shadow of his little brother and will be able to put the swivelnecking energy into the pedals instead of looking behind him.
The good news is that the racing always winds up being awesome. And that’s what its about: panache. So long as Wiggo doesn’t pull an Indurain and take 6 minutes on an early TT, I’ll be happy.
Epilogue
Pick carefully, don’t Delgado, and think twice about those rest day swaps; they come at a heavy price and there are some nice prizes on the line which make the Velominati Shop Apron look like a Schleck’s chamois during the descent of the Peyresourde.
The Fine Print: each contestant is of course encouraged to enter all VSP events, but everyone is eligible to take the prizes on only one VSP. If a contestant takes more than one VSP event (GC or Stage) the prize for that VSP will then be awarded to the player with the next highest score. In the event of a tie we’ll do our best to find the fairest way to break the tie. If something doesn’t make sense, please ask; we’re making this up as we go along.
Get your picks in by the time the countdown clock goes to zero, and good luck. Vive le Tour.
@Mikael Liddy
Would it surprise you to see Rickshaw at Sky next year?
@DerHoggz
I love these pics – nice one @DH
I don’t mean to blaspheme, but do you think there will be an online community in a few years riding around taking snaps of themselves at the top of big hills pulling an F shape with their hand – I might subscribe to them – he is the King of Cool, and poor little Satan will just never cut it – nice of him to talk to him, before looking like he smells something on his shoe….
According to Jens Voight, the “magic number is” VV!
Suppose I could have spelt Voigt correctly!
@G’phant why thank you!
@Dr C … and thank you too. Nice to find a good home for a daft pun.
@Dr C
Not really, but if he does go back to him it would probably vindicate Cycling Australia’s decisions not to use him in national teams due to his perceived loyalty to Cav.
@DerHoggz Thanks for posting all those pics! I wonder how many other sports use un-logoed or rebadged stuff like cycling does?
@mcsqueak
I went with the iPad app instead and now my iPad keeps crashing. The log files show low memory so I expect there is some memory leak in the app.
@SwissToni
@wiscot
I remember back in the mid 90’s when Rugby Union was still an ‘amateur’ sport, the players couldn’t be seen to promote personal sponsorships so a lot of them would have to cover their boots in black shoe polish to hide the branding.
Cricket is another for it where the governing bodies have limits on how large a sponsor’s logo can be on a pair of gloves, pads, etc so you’ll often see players cover offending logos with medical tape.
More like What are the chances of Cav and Renshaw teaming up at Quickstep after Cav fails to win at the Olympics and then realises that even if Sky win the yellow jersey this year, they aren’t likely to turn around next year and say “Here you go Cav – your turn this year, we’ll just give Brad one helper.”
@Mikael Liddy
There’s a fair bit of re-badging in cricket with bats. Batsmen get quite attached to certain models and just get them stickered up if they change sponsor. I heard it’s quite common in golf, too, where there are a couple of custom club builders that service most of the pros.
So, who’s off to see this thing for real. We’re off to the Alps on Monday and are planning on catching stages 11 and 12.
Oh year and we’ve got the small matter of The Alpine Cogal next Wednesday too……..
Bring it on!!!!!!
@frank
I forgot to say something about this the first time around (distracted by that giant helmet), but the shoe cover talk reminded me. Is Millar hiding something under those socks?
@Mikael Liddy
And wasn’t there a Navratilova episode where she was using Dunlop racquets while sponsored by Yonex so she’d play with these black spray painted tennis racquest with no names anywhere.
@936adl
Alpine Cogal…..wassat??
I’m taking wednesday 18th off – club bike ride in the morning, then down the pub to piss everyone off by turning the big screen to Eurosport and smashing the remote control
@Chris
How appropriate for the Fastest Show on earth
loving the yellow earpiece and cable, coolness +
“Look Nissan Radiocheck or whatever people, it is a tradition that I am in yellow for the first week of the tour”
@Dr C
Actually @Chris, this is a real belter of a picture, with so much going on – look at Veino’s face in the background – “all those years of busting my ass, and one wafer thin transfusion….. where did it all go wrong for me…?”
Loving the teams all lining up. Very cool.
@Dr C
Sigh… Faboo doesn’t look at me like that…
Does Farrar ever actually sprint?
@936adl we’ll be there for stage 11! staying in grenoble on wed. night, then we’ll try to hitch a ride to the top of either croix de fer or get to the finish at la toussuire. where will you be? any chance you’ve rented a camper & need 2 people to help pay for it for the night?
@RedRanger To be fair it sounds like he was held up by the crash 3km out.
@Chris
I think he caused the crash! Slow motion off balance wheel touch I think. Sagan went down over Farrar’s bike.
Andre is a beast! Really happy for him. Hard worker and a super nice guy.
@harminator I stand corrected! Ticker only today.
@harminator
Has to be better for him too since his win yesterday wasn’t a head to head with Cav like today. And given that there’s no love lost between those two, he managed nicely.
Sky’s got their hands full, which again, I think will be Wiggos undoing.
@harminator
The sight of Cavendish losing Greipel’s wheel… great work Team Sky.
@ChrisO
Yeah Cav looked spent! He was second wheel in the peloton at one point. The crash really messed up one of the best organised bunches I’ve seen. Did Sky abandon their lead out after the crash?
I was screaming for Gossy but he was forced into going early. Greipel timed his run perfectly. I love the way he’s so genuinely appreciative of his win. That’s what’s missing from Sagan – he doesn’t yet know the rare value of a stage win.
@ChrisO
@scaler911
@harminator
Speaking of T-bone, does anybody else hear crickets chirping…? I wonder what’s going on with him these days. Seems not to be in the mix in either the peloton or the media. Bummer, I miss the guy.
@razmaspaz Not sure but he’s probably wearing fizik R3’s. Did we mention you can win some here?
@harminator
I don’t think it was a lead out – it was a Keep Wiggo Out of Trouble Line.
Once they got inside the 3km it was ‘Good luck Cav, see you on the other side’
See, I’m struggling to map out a winning scenario for Cav. OK he doesn’t need a team to win, but he does need a team to win five stages and the green jersey.
So if he stays with Sky then he becomes a stage-hound, picking up the odd win here and there where he can. Hardly a great career move for the most devastating sprinter possibly of all time. And he isn’t going to get faster from this point onwards.
And let’s say Sky wins the Tour. They will go all out to defend it next year, leaving Cav on his own again.
Or let’s say Sky doesn’t win the Tour. Are they likely to say, ‘You know what, it’s just not our thing, we’ll give up that GC business and win stages.’
So where’s the upside ?
Cav should have had something written in his contract that he can terminate if they don’t support him for the green jersey.
In some senses I’m really annoyed because last year was perfect for me. As an Aussie-English I could support Cadel for the overall and cheer Cav for the stage wins. Now it’s all gone pear-shaped.
Cav just didn’t have it today. Look at the body language as he crossed he line – shattered. He’s a great wheel jumper and can read a sprint, but hitting the deck yesterday had its effects today. I’ll be surprised if he goes to Paris. Looks like the Green jersey will be between Greipel and Sagan.
@wiscot
True. But if Greipel wants the green, he needs to start hitting those intermediate sprints. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sagan in green in Paris.
@ChrisO I doubt Cav stays in the whole tour. He won the green last year, so this year was all about the Olympics, so he is ok with not having a lead out train. I bet his agreement with Sky was to bag a couple of stages and see how he feels through the mountains. Sure, he’d like to win in Paris again, but not if it means being tired for the Olympics. This strategy would work out for everyone involved for 2012. Next year? Who knows, but did he really think he was going to get preferential treatment over a legit GC favorite?
@Marko
I hadn’t heard that ;) I’m actually wondering if he was covering up the fact that he wasn’t wearing them for some strange reason. Isn’t fizik the Garmin shoe sponsor?
So did Nibbles go down again?
@ChrisO
all very relevant questions
If Wiggo doesn’t land the maillot-juane, i cannot see Sky giving up on GC
Ultimately, its a dichotomy, would Sky ever do the lead out train for Cav, or keep Wiggo loaded with domestiques. It would almost be irreconcilable in my mind that Cav stay there AND be successful in hit sprint/lead out and green jersey pursuit. Luckily as mentioned, he may be looking to London this year and maybe worlds then?
Am I the only one who gets a real kick out of reading the Blazin’ Saddles blog? Really golden stuff that I think fits in well with the V Sense of Humor.
@actor1
Cool. We’re camping in Saint Jean de Maurienne and will be riding as much if the stage aspossible on Stage 11. If you see the V-kit passing on a steel Rourkegive me a shout!
Have a good one!
@Marko
Farrar was none too happy after today’s stage. Must take a lot to rile up a placid PNW’er like this:
@Tartan1749
Yeah, pretty funny stuff – he’s quite a prolific tweeter too. But judging by his tweets whilst visiting Oz last year, he would do well to take Rule #9 to heart, with a healthy dose of The V. Typical whinging Pom – just sayin’.
@Nate
True that. We’re usually too drunk and/or stoned to care much about shit. That said, last summer in a local race, one guy dumped a bidon full of Cytomax on another dudes head for some dumb move. After the race, when they were toe to toe yelling, I thought; you might wanna take off your shoes, hard to fight in those backwards high heels.
I have to say that I’m getting a bit over these crashes inside the last 3km, it’s getting to the point where the conspiracy theorist in me says that the lower ranked riders/teams are being paid off by the big boys to keep their guys safe by taking out the opposition – just seems that once the teams get organised for the finish some f–kwit takes out half the peloton making some dumbass decision or move. Course no GC ranking is affected, in fact I guess you could argue it maintains the status quo which for the promoters is nice and close and exciting.
And as to Cav, my hero, the lad is busting his balls but it’s like watching Robbie at Lotto when Cuddles was riding for GC there – and there is only so much he can do on his own. If I was him, I’d cut my losses and head home. Like @ChrisO I’m a Pommie Aussie so last year was just about perfect for me. Liggett and Sherwin had it right last night, the team should respect that WC jersey a lot more. Of course if Brailsford brought home green and yellow, that’d be pretty much a knighthood….. Sir Dave…now there’s a thought…
@Giles
Cavendish won the intermediate sprint, and he has gone down quite a few times, so no faulting him for not winning everything. He is still a major player even without a train.
Here is a video of Farrar going down for the third day in a row, no wonder he is pissed. Greipel has some amazing recovery and instinctively steps on to him to balance.
@scaler911
exactly, its like a fighting cat on a steep pitched ice covered roof, lots of stuff flying, lots of scratching and too much movement to really know what is where, but nothing really happens. My experience is I only did it once, then figured out, best to rest, clean up and then talk like gentlemen.
@Giles
Couldn’t agree more, the crashes are getting old. Will be sad if green jersey decided upon how many crashes you managed to avoid rather thAn best rider. I know crashes are part of racing but it is every day at the moment. Not sure what has changed but this seems to be something from the last few years….
@Nate I’d dare say hitting the deck 3 days in a row could have a pretty demoralising effect on a fella. Last night’s looked pretty painful.
@DerHoggz
Not sure why he went after Veelers, yeah they were leaning on each other, but it looks like it was Ale-Jet coming across that actually took his wheel out.