Sep Vanmarcke rides the cobbles Kelly-Style in the 2014 stage to Port du Hinault. Photo: Cycling Tips
Cobblestones make the race, I’m not ruining any fantasies telling you that. Wet cobblestones, well, those make a legend. Nibbles rose in my esteem considerably when he rode the wet cobbles as well as he rides any mountain descent or climb; that is a boy with some nerves and some mad bike handling skills.
Wet cobbles are scarier to ride that dry ones, but they aren’t really that much more difficult to ride; you’re still playing the lottery that your wheels keep pointing where your bike is trying to go. But wet stones are definitely more draining; the mud and silt you ride through make it like riding through molasses. Awesome molasses, but molasses nonetheless.
The cobbles are back this year, and hopefully so will the rain. Let us pray for rain, because last year’s stage made the race.
The Tour de France needs no introduction but the VSP prizes deserve a gentle reminder. This is a Grand Tour, people, lots of points at stake. And those points are going towards amazing prizes including a Jaegher frame and a Café Roubaix wheelset. There is plenty of time for you to Delgado this thing, too, if you wait around until the last minute. So my advice is that you avoid doing that.
Give yourself enough time to enter your picks so if something has gone amuck, you have time to hit “reload” or come back V minutes later to try again before the event closes. Remember, your procrastination in this matter will not result in our emergency to enter your picks for you. All that said, if you do encounter a problem, please be so kind as to take a screenshot and upload it because the descriptor “it didn’t work” or “hm, not working” doesn’t help us debug the problem. Also, Internet Explorer is not supported and apparently only shows one Pick Entry box, so use Chrome, Firefox, or Safari instead.
The scoring for the Grand Tours is a tad more involved than the one-day races and one-week Tours, so look the guidelines over before making your prognostications.
So get your picks in before the countdown clock goes to zero, hit the go button, and good luck.
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View Comments
Well, that's that then...
Impressive ride by Gesink and also Barguil to come back to that selection after his crash.
Porte seemed to enjoy catching Quintana - understatement of the year
I can't imagine anyone picked a top five that looks like the current standings.
Long way to go though.
Well, barring a crushing collapse, which I suppose is possible, this race is for the scraps. Ah, I got nothing in my VSP.
@Erik
This first-mountain-stage crushing routine is a bit tiresome but that was one crazy stage.
@Teocalli
Must've been satisfying after Froomotor didn't even wait for him to finish the job before attacking on his own. I love Porte's pain-face, it's the most glorious grin-grimace.
Flipping heck, that was a hell of a lot of Frooming goin' down.
If we consider that to be a repeat of Ax 3 Domaines in 2013, should we expect Movistar and Cannondale to try and repeat the following day? Maybe Richie should have been saving himself instead of going for second on the stage.
I can't understand Movistar's tactic, why drive the pace and burn your team? Sky sat in, when Movistar was spent save for Valverde they still had 4 guy's to support Froome, wouldn't you make Sky drive it and attack them one after the other?
@frank
It was a cracker of a stage. Fun to watch, even though I was watching my VSP collapse. Froome was positively amazing. Quintana's face never reveals anything, but he didn't look bad. TVG kept it together, relatively. Truly enjoyed it.