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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View Comments

piwakawaka says:

Jul 16 2015 at 1:57 am

TJVG was sayin' on NBC he's just waiting for the Alpes....
LeoTea says:

Jul 16 2015 at 2:05 am

@wiscot

@rfreese888

@Dean C

We got Degs and Kittle selling caffeine shampoo on Eurosport every 30 minutes!

Interesting how they now call it “German Engineering for your Hair.” The ads are awful because it sounds like they are dubbed and Kittlel’s hair is far from it’s pompadour best.

They were using the "German Engineering" line last year on the sponsorship stings on eurosport, so that's not new. And the ads look dubbed because some of them are! There are 2 versions of the one with Degs, but they only shot it once, but then produced a second one with a dubbed final line. And because the that was the first one I saw, it sticks in my mind that they're all dubbed.
VeloJello says:

Jul 16 2015 at 4:44 am

@ped

Team tactics aside, I’m just thankful he kept those Oakleys on and didn’t wink at the camera

This ^

I like a wink once, but more than once is just creepy...
VeloJello says:

Jul 16 2015 at 4:48 am

@chris

Does Majka’s stage win chasing mean that Saxo Tinkoff have given up on Bertie as a contender?

I doubt it. It's the usual break away tactic, send one of your team up front then you have an excuse not to take a turn on the front of peleton. If anything it means Contador got a relatively easy ride with the rest of the main GC riders.
RobSandy says:

Jul 16 2015 at 8:04 am

My hero...
Julez says:

Jul 16 2015 at 8:16 am

@RobSandy

My hero…

I have basically worshipped the ground G rides on since the 2013 Tour (the race that first got me into cycling) and he rode the whole three weeks with a fractured hip!

I also love that character-wise he is the perfect medium between Cav & Wiggo (very entertaining but can be total dicks when they want to be) and Froomey (friendly and soft-spoken, but kiiiiiiinda boring). G is basically really funny and also really cool.

There was also a yoghurt with his face on it last year, which made me laugh SO MUCH. It was also delicious!
GalleySlave says:

Jul 16 2015 at 8:18 am

He just gets better and better....Top man!
Teocalli says:

Jul 16 2015 at 1:43 pm

@Julez @RobSandy

He was the Pro Guest associated with the Dunkerque - Roubaix ride (along with Stephen Roche) and was really open with everyone there. Came over as a really nice guy and really mixed in with the participants.

Below is the moment when Froomey rang GT during the pre-ride dinner presentations. The "skipper" saw Froomey's name come up on GT's phone so got GT to turn it on speaker and then also proceeded to interview CF. CF actually came across really well, though must have wondered what the hell was going on.

To paraphrase:

CF - Just wondered if you fancied going for a ride tomorrow

GT - Sorry mate I'm a bit busy tomorrow.

CF - Oh OK

GT - Look mate you are talking to a room with about 120 people in it and a guy here wants to ask you some questions.......
brett says:

Jul 16 2015 at 1:50 pm

@Mikael Liddy

@brett

G Thomas hanging in the mountains? What’s going on there?

A guy who has always been mooted to have GC potential starting to show it now that he’s stopped dividing his attention between track & road, and therefore has shed some track weight?

I've never heard him touted as a GC guy... not saying he hasn't been, lots of riders get the next big Tour thing status (Talansky, what a joke). Some even claimed that Pharmy was touted as a GC guy before cancer and never having finished a Tour. So I don't doubt that there are some making these claims, but I've always believed GT was an OK Classics rider, not someone hanging with the big guys in the Pyrenees. Losing weight is probably it though, it seemed to work for Pharmy and Wiggo.
RobSandy says:

Jul 16 2015 at 1:54 pm

@brett

Yeah, I'm still not convinced he's a good enough climber to be a true GC contender (although he's improved a lot), and I always think he should TT better than he does. I just think he's fucking cool.

Here he is at our local track, where my son is starting out cycling and I train and race.