Velominati Super Prestige: Tour de France 2014

Marcel’s tan lines are crisp

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″/]

Gianni

Gianni has left the building.

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View Comments

wiscot says:

Jul 25 2014 at 6:55 am

@KW

@wiscot

Ok, ok, I'll keep the debate going:

1973 Luis Ocana won, Merckx did not start

1976 Lucien van Impe won, Merckx did not start

1980 Joop Zoetemelk won, Hinault retired injured

1983 Laurent Fignon won, Hinault did not start

We could argue from here to eternity if these winners would have won if Merckx and Hinault had started and been healthy. They didn't. Every one of these winners deserved to win, no question. They were great riders with great palmares. At the end of three weeks they had ridden skillfully and smartly and finished with the least time elapsed. Froome and Contador started, didn't finish. End of story. We can debate this forever just like you can so many other situations in other sports. No asterisks on clean wins.

Great riders with great palmares.

Perhaps a bit lost in all this is the fact that should Nibali go on to win this Tour, he will become only the 6th man to win all three GTs in his career. He'll join the likes of Anquetil, Contador, Gimondi, Hinault, and Merckx. That's pretty good company if you ask me.

Yes indeed, and a few more GT's to come I'll wager.

Unless, of course, Froome and Contador ride next year when, as we all, know, Nibbles will be lucky to get on the podium because had THEY been riding this year it would have been a two-horse race as they are sooooo superior to everyone else . . . Is there an emoticon for pure sarcasm?
KW says:

Jul 25 2014 at 7:21 am

@wiscot

@KW

@wiscot

Ok, ok, I'll keep the debate going:

1973 Luis Ocana won, Merckx did not start

1976 Lucien van Impe won, Merckx did not start

1980 Joop Zoetemelk won, Hinault retired injured

1983 Laurent Fignon won, Hinault did not start

We could argue from here to eternity if these winners would have won if Merckx and Hinault had started and been healthy. They didn't. Every one of these winners deserved to win, no question. They were great riders with great palmares. At the end of three weeks they had ridden skillfully and smartly and finished with the least time elapsed. Froome and Contador started, didn't finish. End of story. We can debate this forever just like you can so many other situations in other sports. No asterisks on clean wins.

Great riders with great palmares.

Perhaps a bit lost in all this is the fact that should Nibali go on to win this Tour, he will become only the 6th man to win all three GTs in his career. He'll join the likes of Anquetil, Contador, Gimondi, Hinault, and Merckx. That's pretty good company if you ask me.

Yes indeed, and a few more GT's to come I'll wager.

Unless, of course, Froome and Contador ride next year when, as we all, know, Nibbles will be lucky to get on the podium because had THEY been riding this year it would have been a two-horse race as they are sooooo superior to everyone else . . .

Don't forget Quintana.

Is there an emoticon for pure sarcasm?

Yup.
oldensteel says:

Jul 25 2014 at 9:43 am

With the TT tomorrow, I fully expect some major shake-ups in the Top 5. It won't be enough for my VSP picks to come through, but it will surely be as interesting as the last few weeks. I really did enjoy seeing Horner put in a move yesterday though and TJ seems strong enough to at least move up a bit in the standings. God luck to all.
Ron says:

Jul 25 2014 at 9:52 am

@Fausto Crapiz

I wouldn't even bother to watch this tour if it weren't for the two Frenchmen beating each other up. I'm bored with the sprints. I like him, but I'm also bored with nibali. I want some real racing. Nibali looks as if he's attacking a women's cat 4 group. Nyehh. Just ranting.

Hold on a minute. Are you off your energy drinks?
Teocalli says:

Jul 25 2014 at 10:31 am

@Ron

@Fausto Crapiz

I wouldn't even bother to watch this tour if it weren't for the two Frenchmen beating each other up. I'm bored with the sprints. I like him, but I'm also bored with nibali. I want some real racing. Nibali looks as if he's attacking a women's cat 4 group. Nyehh. Just ranting.

Hold on a minute. Are you off your energy drinks?

Bottom bracket short of a full chainset?
Gianni says:

Jul 25 2014 at 11:29 am

@wiscot

@KW

@wiscot

Ok, ok, I'll keep the debate going:

1973 Luis Ocana won, Merckx did not start

1976 Lucien van Impe won, Merckx did not start

1980 Joop Zoetemelk won, Hinault retired injured

1983 Laurent Fignon won, Hinault did not start

We could argue from here to eternity if these winners would have won if Merckx and Hinault had started and been healthy. They didn't. Every one of these winners deserved to win, no question. They were great riders with great palmares. At the end of three weeks they had ridden skillfully and smartly and finished with the least time elapsed. Froome and Contador started, didn't finish. End of story. We can debate this forever just like you can so many other situations in other sports. No asterisks on clean wins.

Great riders with great palmares.

Perhaps a bit lost in all this is the fact that should Nibali go on to win this Tour, he will become only the 6th man to win all three GTs in his career. He'll join the likes of Anquetil, Contador, Gimondi, Hinault, and Merckx. That's pretty good company if you ask me.

Yes indeed, and a few more GT's to come I'll wager.

Unless, of course, Froome and Contador ride next year when, as we all, know, Nibbles will be lucky to get on the podium because had THEY been riding this year it would have been a two-horse race as they are sooooo superior to everyone else . . . Is there an emoticon for pure sarcasm?

Yeah baby. During the Dauphine, when Nibbles was not quite peaking it was all about Froomy and Bertie. With Sky in its present shape, Froomy would be in trouble even if he was healthy. Never having a jour sans really makes you a badass in the Tour, it would have been a real battle and Nibbles might have burned them both anyway.
Teocalli says:

Jul 25 2014 at 11:47 am

Interesting to liven up the tub vs clincher debate........

http://velonews.competitor.com/2014/07/tour-de-france/exclusive-review-tony-martins-new-specialized-turbo-cotton-clinchers_338196

....or the marketing value of the peleton?
Teocalli says:

Jul 25 2014 at 12:33 pm

@Gianni @Wiscott et al

I like to think that the GC contenders are getting isolated as showing things are cleaner and it is getting back to mano a mano for the GC contenders. Would be good to see a 3-4 way slugfest next year.
piwakawaka says:

Jul 25 2014 at 2:15 pm

@KW

@wiscot

Ok, ok, I'll keep the debate going:

1973 Luis Ocana won, Merckx did not start

1976 Lucien van Impe won, Merckx did not start

1980 Joop Zoetemelk won, Hinault retired injured

1983 Laurent Fignon won, Hinault did not start

We could argue from here to eternity if these winners would have won if Merckx and Hinault had started and been healthy. They didn't. Every one of these winners deserved to win, no question. They were great riders with great palmares. At the end of three weeks they had ridden skillfully and smartly and finished with the least time elapsed. Froome and Contador started, didn't finish. End of story. We can debate this forever just like you can so many other situations in other sports. No asterisks on clean wins.

Great riders with great palmares.

Perhaps a bit lost in all this is the fact that should Nibali go on to win this Tour, he will become only the 6th man to win all three GTs in his career. He'll join the likes of Anquetil, Contador, Gimondi, Hinault, and Merckx. That's pretty good company if you ask me.

Damn straight, he's not there yet tho'....
frank says:

Jul 26 2014 at 9:34 am

Goes to show how few of us have the two Frenchmen in our picks; the results are largely unchanged even though they shuffled places!

Provisional Race Results

1. NIBALI Vincenzo

2. PERAUD Jean-Christophe

3. PINOT Thibaut

4. VALVERDE Alejandro

5. VAN GARDEREN Tejay

Provisional VSP Standings

1. Two Ball Billy (27 points)

2. frank (23 points)

3. Dave R (21 points)

4. slideorama (20 points)

5. BaltoSteve (20 points)

6. oldensteel (18 points)

7. piwakawaka (17 points)

8. Rom (17 points)

9. il muro di manayunk (17 points)

10. Tobin (17 points)

...

163. RHE218 (0 points)