Velominati Super Prestige: Tour de France 2015
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.
Café Roubaix's CR Wheelworks Arenbergs
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Here’s how it’s going to happen:
The forecast rain for the TT on Saturday and the cobbles on Tuesday.
This will be too much for Quintana; as much as I love the little mountain goat—bless him—his time-trialling really isn’t up to snuff (cf. last year’s Vuelta), and he will drop out of contention (or retire) on the wet cobbles.
After last year, Froome will be extra careful on the cobbles and will number-crunch brilliantly in the mountains.
Contador will try to exploit Froome’s cautious approach and will crash in the wet. He won’t pull out (cf. Giro; collar-bone) but will lose time that he will struggle to regain later. Additionally, Sagan will want the Green Jumper again and won’t like playing second fiddle so will act out when he’s needed for domestique duty.
The choices of Pinot, Van Garderen (that’s a pain to type) and Bardet are based on palmarès, current form, and a lot of time on the internet researching team politics, bookies’ odds*, ambitions. Also a lot of V-channeling.
And those will be the final standings on the Champs-Élysées on the 26th.
Alternatively, none of the above.
VLVV!
*This is not advised. Bets are still on for Aru, Pozzovivo, and (most hilariously) Cadel Evans.
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Ticklehimalot for Teklehaimanot?
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I’m not winning shit, I’m a cynical old fuck, but Quintana has a better team around him than any of these other fellas.
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It’s all so complicated.
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With any luck I will garner some points…
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@el gato
Yes, this, exactly what everyone was thinking except in an easy to follow, simple diagram.
@piwakawaka
Either one. It would be so cool if he competed for the polka-dot jersey.
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@razmaspaz
Does nationality play into this notion? I presume TJVG isn’t pereniuminally (see what I did there?) overhyped outside of the English language media. Everyone of course discusses everyone, but you gotta say the Brit media covers Vroome massively, naturally the Eyetalians prop Nibbles, El Spanyerds hype Bertie, Columbians NQ etc… So in American centric media, your man, your favourite, is none other than TJVG. He is looking good though…
Me? I’m picking in order of derision. This time I will pick in the highly scientific order of ‘meh’. This list leaves me cold. I mean hey, picking my favourites in the past never helped. Lets see how we do!
We will witness history and Bertie will do the double/grandslam after Froome falls off whilst slipping in his own poo as Bertie and Nibbles attack the decents. Nibbles will fight all the way but not quite have the horsepower. Quintana will lose time in the first week and suffer a string of strange mechanicals as Malmerde tries to get back team leadership.
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Is there not a Giro Rosa VSP too?
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Let me add here that i’d love to see more Rad French Guys but i can’t see it happening. Taking Quintana because I love him and oh how he climbs, and Tejay for ‘murca reasons.
I hate Froome but he seemed to have some legs in the Dauphine.
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2. Contador
3. Nibali
4. Pinot
5. Hesjedal
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placeholder picks for now
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I’m pumped for the Tour this year. Can all 4 of the top contenders make it all the way to Paris? I’m going to take a chance and say, “No.” Contador and Nibali are proven winners so they’re up there. I’m also taking a big chance that TJ will podium this year. I’m inspired that so many people are picking Hesjedal so I put him on as well–instead of Rodriguez. Luckily my boss is getting into cycling so I’m hoping he won’t fire me when he sees me on Steephill every morning. Good luck to everybody.
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And nrs 6-10:
Van Garderen, Rodriguez, Bardet, Valverde, Peraud.
First man to wear the Yellow Jersey: om Dumoulin.
Probably jinxed it already too much with all these predictions.
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Like one or two others it’s hard not to believe one of the big four will crash or fail somewhere along the line, just a question of who? I picked Contador to crash out of the Giro – he did the shoulder thing but wouldn’t stay down, fair do’s to him. Froome would be unlucky/stupid to go out twice in a row. Nibali or Quintana? Coin flip, I like Quintana, but sorry.
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@frank
He could just nominate which colour sunnies he wants to go with each rider
http://twitter.com/ORICA_GreenEDGE/status/616879338835845121
@hhbiker
But now the deeply suppressed superstitious side of me frets, as I observe my mobile device spellchecker tried to change “Nibali” to “Invalid”.
@unversio
He’s a Sagittarius
@ Frank
@ Gianni
Can someone map Bertie across for me? Other 4 picks have mapped but not him.
Many thanks!
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Team Sky is stacked and as much as anything the Froome pick is a pick for Stannard leading him thru the 1st week. If Froome doesn’t win this thing with the team he has behind them, then there was some bad luck along the way is my guess. And yea, I’m also guessing Contador’ll have issues. Did he have a team with him at Giro?
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@el gato
Ni
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@KogaLover
Oops… I just realized I forgot to add a few predictions to my VSP picks – so here goes, jinxes or not:
– This Tour has Quality-Quintana written all over it – so yeah.
– Contador will perform admirably for two weeks. Then, for reasons completely unknown, he’ll fold like a lampshade.
– Mollema will kick ass because he’s Dutch.
– I don’t know shit about any of this.
Right. Jinxes in place. Bring it on.