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.

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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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Oli says:

Jul 22 2015 at 8:06 pm

I like this thread where people regurgitate what we're all watching anyway. #pointless
Minnesota Expat says:

Jul 22 2015 at 8:45 pm

@Oli

I like this thread where people regurgitate what we’re all watching anyway. #pointless

Yeah, but did anyone catch this Phil Liggettism? During the approach to the base of the climb;

Paul: One rider that is looking forward to the descent off Col d'Allos is Romain Bardet. He gained a minute and a half on the descent at the Criterium du Dauphine.

Phil: I hope he does a better job than the other day when he knocked Geraint Thomas off the road!
RobSandy says:

Jul 23 2015 at 1:24 am

And that's the last rest day so I'm stuck with TVG now!
Mikael Liddy says:

Jul 23 2015 at 4:46 pm

@Minnesota Expat

@AJ

I was gonna swap someone out for Valverde yesterday. Glad I didn’t do it, because I wouldn’t have dropped TJ off my list. Sad the American hope is gone, but I think the guy lacks some mental toughness.

This, and it’s why I’ll never pick him for a position on a grand tour podium. I think Van Garderen (and Porte for that matter) need to look for some two-week grand tours.

Pray tell where they might find such a thing?
The Grande Fondue says:

Jul 23 2015 at 8:28 pm

@Mikael Liddy

@Minnesota Expat

@AJ

I was gonna swap someone out for Valverde yesterday. Glad I didn’t do it, because I wouldn’t have dropped TJ off my list. Sad the American hope is gone, but I think the guy lacks some mental toughness.

This, and it’s why I’ll never pick him for a position on a grand tour podium. I think Van Garderen (and Porte for that matter) need to look for some two-week grand tours.

Pray tell where they might find such a thing?

http://www.tourdesuisse.ch/en/tds-2015/stage-plan/overview/ is pretty close. Except for the grand tour thing. And it's not quite 2 weeks. But apart from those details..
Minnesota Expat says:

Jul 23 2015 at 9:47 pm

@Mikael Liddy

@Minnesota Expat

@AJ

I was gonna swap someone out for Valverde yesterday. Glad I didn’t do it, because I wouldn’t have dropped TJ off my list. Sad the American hope is gone, but I think the guy lacks some mental toughness.

This, and it’s why I’ll never pick him for a position on a grand tour podium. I think Van Garderen (and Porte for that matter) need to look for some two-week grand tours.

Pray tell where they might find such a thing?

Exactly. That's my point. We might all be tired of hearing about the "Fab Four", but seriously, the last two days we see why these four guys win grand tours. All four are peaking in the alps, racing together, marking each other, and attacking. You can't have a bad day on a grand tour, because barring a crash or flat, these guys will be game on and perfect for three-weeks.
wiscot says:

Jul 24 2015 at 7:17 am

Shit. We've got some racing today.
VeloJello says:

Jul 24 2015 at 7:37 am

@wiscot

Don't let @Oli know, he's watching it already and doesn't like spoilers.
chris says:

Jul 24 2015 at 8:28 am

@Minnesota Expat

All four are peaking in the alps, racing together, marking each other, and attacking. You can’t have a bad day on a grand tour, because barring a crash or flat, these guys will be game on and perfect for three-weeks.

Peaking in the Alps isn't exactly awesome if you've lost three minutes or more in the first week or so. If we're talking band names it's Fab Froomie and the Feeble Four. Or it was until one of them went home.
LeoTea says:

Jul 24 2015 at 9:17 am

Hmmm - wonder if we're going to hyperbolic reaction about today's performance. After all, if Froome is "out of this world", then how do you classify Quintana and Nibali? *sarcasm off*

One thing I did notice - when Quintana attacked, Froome was a few riders behind, and when he responded, Majka chose that exact moment to swing off and got in Froome's way. For about the next 2 minutes, that was pretty much the gap between the two of them. Makes me wonder if Froome hadn't been badly placed and delayed, whether Quintana would have sustained the attack. Any time he's attacked before on a summit finish, he's only ever tried once. If it doesn't work, he generally sits back.

And if Quintana gets another 30 seconds tomorrow on Alpe d'Huez, then Froome won the tour on Stage 2 in the crosswinds.