Velominati Super Prestige: Tour de France 2014
Attention all Velominati. The Tour VSP is going on line and it should be a good one. Sure, between Froomy and Bertie a person could hedge their bets but Moviestar is all in for Valverde, BMC for TeeJay, Astana for the Shark and Garmin is finally committing to a team leader in Talansky. Some other teams (ahem…Trek Factory Racing for one) have resigned themselves to hunting stage wins. The Tour swings through the Yorkshire Dales, everyone but the riders can enjoy some excellent ales. As the Tour continues to Lille, Norther France and Belgium, the quality pints continue. Yes, it’s hot and the VSP generator has beer on its mind.
The route, the sprints, the climbing and even the final time trial should make this a decent Tour. Here is a start list. Everyone will have a vial in their jersey pocket, but don’t worry, it’s legal.
It is still not too late to win the overall 2014 VSP and we have made it worth your while.
- First place overall wins a Veloforma Strada iR Velominati Edition frame in addition to the customary VSP winner’s VVorkshop Apron
- Second place overall wins a set of hand built CR Wheelworks Arenberg wheelset in a custom Velominati paint scheme laced to orange Chris King hubs. (CR Wheelworks is Café Roubaix’s new wheel goods brand.)
- Third place overall wins a full Velominati V-Kit with accompanying custom orange Bont Vaypor+ road shoes.
Refer to the VSP page for details concerning scoring and rest day swaps. If you want to call yourself Pedro Delgado, you will only have yourself to blame. The VSP banner on the homepage has the countdown clock, refresh your browser and don’t be late. Good luck and good picking.
[vsp_results id=”30275″/]
If you want to check out the weather this is a good site http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=radar;sess=
That’s currently not just a passing shower or two.
@VeloJello
I’d love to see Geraint win, but he’ll be babysitting Froome-dog all day rather than being given a chance to take the stage.
Class act by OPQS to wear poppies on their jerseys as an act of remembrance for the horrors of 100 years ago in northern France/Belgium.
Froome on the deck again.
Froome hits the deck again. And they haven’t even reached the cobbles yet. This could be a disaster of a day for him.
And Froome goes down twice in 2 days. First words out of the commentator’s mouth was something along the lines of Sky taking a risk by leaving off Wiggins….Looks fooookin filthy weather wise.
@minion
Because Wiggins is so good in the rain…………….oh……………………..
The Liveticker (stuck at work, no live streaming) said that the peloton would most likely sit up and wait for Froome and that had me wondering about it. In the one day P-R race, that is part of the race and it waits for no one. I wonder what the internal, unspoken ethics will be today when a GC guy goes down?
Froome looks about to get into the team car!
He’s done! Holy shit!
Sorry to see that. Not my fave rider, but you need luck on your side and Froome didn’t have it this year.
They just don’t make Grand Tour contenders like they used to, eh? Wiggo with the last laugh, esp as he did so well at PR this year.
@KW Woah! I can’t imagine the level of battering it takes to climb in the car with the cameras pointing at you. I feel horrid. We’ll all DNF at various times, but to be the defending champ in Le Tour? Shit. I feel real bad.
Didn’t see that one coming…commence first rest day mayhem!
Wow… Froome just abandoned… Not the way this should have ended. So sad for him right now even if he isn’t my favorite rider in the world.
@wiscot
Yeah, I wanted him to lose, not fall over. Very disappointing.
In other news, Carrefour!
Well done to all those who left Froome out of the VSP thinking he would come a cropper on the cobbles.
Not so well done to Dave ‘No Plan B’ Brailsford.
Shocked at how quickly he climbed in the car. When the camera cut to him he looked like he was concussed. After Millarcopter’s comments on how much you have to mentally prepare yourself for the tour, I would have thought it would take 5 minutes of lying on the curb crying to come to the realization that you had to abandon.
Interesting to note as well that he abandoned before he had ridden any of the pave’ sectors. Is the road slick today? Liveticker not really saying.
@ChrisO
The really crazy part is that they hadn’t even reached the cobbles yet!
I think it’s safe to say that nobody wanted to see Froome out this way. He did appear to have a string of bad luck starting with his crash at the Dauphine, and just didn’t seem like the same dominant rider from a year ago.
But, I guess that’s why they actually ride the races. Anything can happen out there. And there is still a long way to go.
@ChrisO Maybe Richie Porte? Although Richie Porte doesn’t have a Richie Porte to pace him in the mountains like Froome did. I do find it odd that the most meticulous DS in cycling had no major back up plan.
@Buck Rogers
It must be with ask the crashes… At least one at every corner.
@Buck Rogers
It’s raining and very slick. He went down three times today. I think it was three. I’ve been watching for an hour and have seen 4 crashes. Still no cobble yet too.
@Buck Rogers
So you won’t want an update?
@justinevan88
Way more than 4, lost count. Froome went down 3 times alone.
There goes my million from Road ID…I knew one of the favorites would crash out… But didn’t choose correctly.
Wonder if anyone bet that he would crash out today kind of like how some people correctly bet that Suarez would bite someone at the World Cup this year.
Where’s Bertie? Nibbles looks like he’s having a good day.
Wiggo’s “look how good I am on the cobbles” at Paris Roubaix obviously fell on deaf ears at Team Sky. I can imagine the smug look on his face right now….
Bertie just needs to finish safely. He’ll pull back in the Mountains against Nibbles.
Porte is Skys plan B now…
@Buck Rogers
I suspect Froome’s wrist was giving him handling trouble before the day started…
Really gutsy performance from a lot of guys today, including Nibali. Who saw that coming?
Holy fuckballs, that was AWESOME. Very aptly named @slideorama takes the lead.
Well that should liven things up to be not-a-boring-tour. Shame about Froome but hope Porte has a great run from here. Didn’t see there how much he took out of Contador.
That was fucking awesome, it’ll be interesting to see what effect a stage like this has on the riders in a week or so. Nibbles showed just how fucking good a bike rider he is, I’m throwing it out now, he’ll win a PR in the future if he wants to have a crack.
Massive kudos to every rider who finished today, hardman status achieved!
That was the tits, a bit surprised Fabian did not have it to turn on the afterburners in the last section but Sagan is going so well he would have been giving a free ride…
Kwiatkowski is the sleeper here me thinks?
btw, Boom just got congratulated by Hinault, Merckx & Thevenet as the official party after the podium preso, that’s the kind of VIP greeting that carries gravitas.
I think Boom fell as well, right? Feel like I saw him slip out at some point, but maybe I’m wrong. Difficult to remember all those crashes! Nice win for soon-to-not-be Belkin. Hope they can keep that squad of riders together.
Hell yeah, the decision to leave Wiggins off the squad, after how he rode in P-R this year now seems really, really terrible move.
I guess Vino’s letter to the Shark worked…
Gotvroomit didn’t get to even see Froome’s praying mantis mating with a tarantula stylings make it to the pave.
@Ron
P-R in the sunshine vs his track record in the rain…………hmmm. Equal chance they could have been down to 7.
Crazy and fantastic. I also loved how, in a post-race interview, Cancellara essentially stated the description for Rule #9 when asked how important confidence is for riding the cobbles, especially in the rain. To paraphrase, he said it starts in the morning, you wake up, look out the window, see the rain, and their you go.
Another amazing show by a GC guy on the Pave’. First Wiggo’s Top Ten at P-R and now Nibbles showing today. I understand why they do not ride them every spring but I sure wish they would. Who knew that Nibbles would go so well in such shit conditions on such a hard course.
@ChrisO
Isn’t Porte the SKY ‘Plan B’. Wasn’t he supposed to be the GC rider for SKY at the Giro ? I mean really, Porte is probably as good as most any teams GC guy on the road today.
@Teocalli Very good point.
Although to be fair they couldn’t have know at the time of selection that it would rain, whereas Froome was always considered suspect on the cobbles.
@Minnesota Expat
Not really. At the time of the selection kerfuffle when people were saying Brailsford should take Wiggins as a backup plan, he responded by saying it was very rare that you could go into these things with a Plan B and find that you still won. Effectively there was no such thing.
I see his point, but on the other hand it was more than a Plan B, as the cobbles were always going to be Froome’s weakness.
As for Porte, he has had a poor season and there were big question marks over whether he could even be a super-domestique let alone a genuine contender. He showed some fight today so let’s see. Maybe he will find the field-marshall’s baton in his musette.
@Buck Rogers
I think it was perfectly predictable, Nibali has great bike handling skills (rides like Sagan), he’s aggressive and attacks (ref this year’s San Remo), can ride in the cold, rain and on wet pavement (again, ref his descent on the Cipressa at the end of San Remo and 2013 Giro). This guy is really growing on me.
Nibali just flew up the respect charts for me! What a ride! Have seen plenty of messages, including some from friends, who say that cobbles don’t belong in the Tour. The cobbles weren’t the problem, the rain was! Froome crashed twice on pavement and never even got to the cobbles. And he was the only one to abandon. Dude got hurt yesterday, on a sunny, flat stage due to a guy in front clipping his wheel. He probably couldn’t hold the bars today. That’s bad news if you race in the rain. VSP picks shot to hell…for now.
Twitter quote from Froome just now: “Devastated to have to withdraw from this years TDF. Injured wrist and tough conditions made controlling my bike near to impossible.”
Memorable stage indeed. As Cancellara said, “Chapeau to Astana”. I have not been a big fan, but that was a solid display to honor the yellow jersey.
@ChrisO
True all that. But, great interview (long one) with Brailsford on the Telegraph Tour podcast yesterday. He places a higher value on a cohesive team (Froome-Porte) that can get along for four weeks, rather than Froome-Wiggins and team friction as a Plan B. Besides, poor season aside, we know that Porte has the tools in the toolbox.
Personally, I would’ve picked Wiggins for the team. Although he probably wouldn’ve had trouble in the rain too (I still can’t shake the images of him descending in the rain at the 2013 Giro. It was sad).
Epic stage, chapeau to Boom and especially Nibbles.
Sorry to see Froome go out, but now (as I suggested in the main VSP thread) Sky’s team selection looks a bit daft, as Brailsford once again has a failed plan A and no realistic plan B. Is Porte really going to pull back 2mins on Nibbles AND hold a 40s lead over Contador, with all the mountains and a 54k ITT to come?
Yes, Wiggo might have crashed too – but he’d still have given Sky a bit more resilience. Faboo, Chava, Kittel, Fuglsang, Haussler, Van den Broeck (I think) all hit the deck, and there were plenty of others.
Anyway, main point is the race is already epic after only V stages, should be a fascinating fortnight ahead.
Was it a 2.30min gap Nibbles put in to Clenbutador today? Nibbles can time trial too so I think I may just hit the penalty for dropping Froome on the rest day reselection… Either way, the Lantern Rouge is safe.