Velominati Super Prestige: Tour de France 2015

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.

[vsp_results id=”33262″/]

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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Mikael Liddy says:

Jul 20 2015 at 9:21 pm

Anyone up for a quick revision session on Rule #85?

Fair dose of Rule #70 involved from Sagz as well, could easily have rolled down with the group knowing he would easily win the gallop for 2nd, but instead went balls out to pull back the minute gap on what's known as a pretty sketchy descent.
il muro di manayunk says:

Jul 20 2015 at 10:21 pm

Sagan is friggin' amazing. Sure, he doesn't have a stage win to show for his efforts yet, but his day to day consistency is just incredible.

It seems like he has been in every break for the last four stages. Category 2 climbs don't appear to bother him, obviously he can sprint with the best of them, and he descends terrifyingly well.

After he finally snags a couple monuments (maybe in his late 20s) I'd love to see him drop about 20-25 pounds and focus on improving on the Cat 1 and HC climbs.

Is it ridiculous to think he could transform himself into a serious GC contender in the Grand Tours?
Beers says:

Jul 20 2015 at 10:37 pm

@gilly

@chris

@Mikael Liddy

Apparently, Barguil apologised at the finish but blamed TvG for pushing him.

It doesn’t sound like he was overly pissed off about the incident. Cycling News had the follwoing:

“I’m alright, I’m a bit shaken up but fine. I’ve had a lot worse. It’s frustrating, I tried so hard to get over the climb, I don’t know why some guys just sit where you are on the descent. What’s the difference between fifth and third. Just get down the descent. Everyone knows it’s a tough descent.”

“I guess the doctor will ask me my name and date of birth soon,” he said in another interview. When asked if he could remember, he joked: “Chris Froome”.

“A nice Frenchman [pulled me out of the ditch]. They are nice here, there’s a few that aren’t, but a nice Frenchman. I lost my glasses as well – they don’t even make them anymore,” he continued.

He doesn’t strike me as the type to make a big thing of something like that although he might not have seen the footage of it at that point. Barguil’s approach into that corner was suicidal. Thomas probably did him a favour by being in the way.

Nice to see how concerned Barguill was for G, I know they’re racing but he’s 10th, not pushing for Yellow, he didnt so much as glance at where G went off. Agreed Mikael, his line through there was garbage, bit of a cheap shot blaming Teej.

Barguil is saying he got bumped by TJVG, which knocked his hand from the brake, and hence he went flying in sans front brake (for TJVG had bumped his left and he has euro braking I assume).

G is a must watch interview for me, he is brutally frank in his interviews. The day he took time out of everyone and Spider won by 2 minutes, he genuinely seems surprised how good he felt.

I think fatigue will start to play a part this week, and am very much looking forward to it.

And yes, as douchey as some things Sagan has done, he is awesome on a bike. Needs to sharpen up his nous, I think he is Cancellara + (alleged)motorbike type strong at the moment, and can just win by pulling everyone then still sprinting off the front, rather than pussy footing around and watching the lead man run away from him.
piwakawaka says:

Jul 20 2015 at 11:47 pm

@il muro di manayunk

ride(s) of the Tour so far for me, he's doing most of it solo as well, and yes ridiculous, he will never be a GC guy, he has far too much fun on a bike for that sort of carry on!

The GT interview is gold! As is he, a late sixties, skin tight flared kind of gold, Chapeau.
Oli says:

Jul 21 2015 at 12:14 am

@Beers

I must have watched the crash 20 times now and no matter how many times I do I can't see TvG hitting Barguil first, although it's possible they might briefly contact after Barguil has already lost control. It was all his fault, no one else's.
Mikael Liddy says:

Jul 21 2015 at 12:28 am

@Oli

@Beers

I must have watched the crash 20 times now and no matter how many times I do I can’t see TvG hitting Barguil first, although it’s possible they might briefly contact after Barguil has already lost control. It was all his fault, no one else’s.

yeah, there might be contact between the two of them, but Barguil was going in way hot well before he got to TJ. Reminded me of an F1 car shooting up the inside with both fronts locked up.
RobSandy says:

Jul 21 2015 at 12:33 am
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. Froom
2. Quintana
3. Contador
4. Valverde
5. Van Garderen
brett says:

Jul 21 2015 at 1:01 am

Holy shit, GT's one tough mofo! That would've snapped me in two.

Agree with the Sagan sentiments, he's the rider of the Tour for sure. Who cares if he gets twenty 2nd places, at least he's trying to win. Classy rider.
brett says:

Jul 21 2015 at 1:10 am
I Delgado'd the start, so I'll have a crack from here for shits and giggles...

Quintana goes nuts in the Alps, Froome cracks in the rain Ullrich-style, TJ can't cover the accelerations from Conti and Quinti, while Valverde does nothing out of the ordinary.

But probably not.

VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. Quintana
2. Froome
3. Contador
4. TJvG
5. Valverde
VeloJello says:

Jul 21 2015 at 1:25 am

@Mikael Liddy

Anyone up for a quick revision session on Rule #85?

Fair dose of Rule #70 involved from Sagz as well, could easily have rolled down with the group knowing he would easily win the gallop for 2nd, but instead went balls out to pull back the minute gap on what’s known as a pretty sketchy descent.

This.

Always had a soft spot for Sagan, though I wouldn't leave him alone with my wife.