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

rfreese888 says:

Jul 17 2015 at 9:42 am

Degs looking like he spent of the V bank big time today.

Shoes are awesome btw.
Ccos says:

Jul 17 2015 at 6:45 pm

Ok I'll ask, what do Jean-Christophe Peraud's friends call him? Jean-Christophe, JP, Jean?...

I mean, I'm sure F. Murray Abraham's friends don't call him "F."
JonnyG says:

Jul 18 2015 at 9:08 am

Spectator threw a cup of piss at Froome today whilst shouting 'doper'.

Doesn't matter where you come down on the current situation. You cannot throw piss at someone.
Teocalli says:

Jul 18 2015 at 9:25 am

@JonnyG

Spectator threw a cup of piss at Froome today whilst shouting ‘doper’.

Doesn’t matter where you come down on the current situation. You cannot throw piss at someone.

I have to say the comments from people like Jalabert do not help at all. For someone who was subsequently shown to be doping to make such comments is a bit ripe. Smacks me of jealousy that someone who had to dope to keep up (albeit in the known doping era) starts to throw stones at someone in an era where testing is far more extensive. That it leads to the above and apparently people throwing full coke cans at the Sky cars is just sad. Such people are idiots not cycling fans.
Teocalli says:

Jul 18 2015 at 10:18 am

Cummings beating two French guys in the run in is going to please the French Press too............
ped says:

Jul 18 2015 at 12:19 pm

TWAT

Eduardo Sepúlveda (Bretagne-Séché) disqualified. His chain broke and, unable to ride, he rode 100m in Ag2r car to get to his team car
gilly says:

Jul 18 2015 at 3:26 pm

@Teocalli

@JonnyG

Spectator threw a cup of piss at Froome today whilst shouting ‘doper’.

Doesn’t matter where you come down on the current situation. You cannot throw piss at someone.

I have to say the comments from people like Jalabert do not help at all. For someone who was subsequently shown to be doping to make such comments is a bit ripe. Smacks me of jealousy that someone who had to dope to keep up (albeit in the known doping era) starts to throw stones at someone in an era where testing is far more extensive. That it leads to the above and apparently people throwing full coke cans at the Sky cars is just sad. Such people are idiots not cycling fans.

And that prick Rasmussen, I can't believe that any network or publication would give that COTHO a voice
gilly says:

Jul 18 2015 at 3:28 pm

@Teocalli

Cummings beating two French guys in the run in is going to please the French Press too…………

And prevented Petulant Pinot taking a stage!
VeloJello says:

Jul 18 2015 at 3:30 pm

@Teocalli

@JonnyG

Spectator threw a cup of piss at Froome today whilst shouting ‘doper’.

Doesn’t matter where you come down on the current situation. You cannot throw piss at someone.

I have to say the comments from people like Jalabert do not help at all. For someone who was subsequently shown to be doping to make such comments is a bit ripe. Smacks me of jealousy that someone who had to dope to keep up (albeit in the known doping era) starts to throw stones at someone in an era where testing is far more extensive. That it leads to the above and apparently people throwing full coke cans at the Sky cars is just sad. Such people are idiots not cycling fans.

Chris Boardman was talking about this on ITV4's coverage. He made 2 good points...

1) out of the millions of roadside spectators, you will always get at least one idiot.

2) He got maced during his TDF career!

It happens, it has happened, it will happen again.
piwakawaka says:

Jul 18 2015 at 5:36 pm

another boring stage, Ha! Brilliant finish Mr Cummings, never, never give up. Incredible break away, dead last on the final climb, almost made contact at the summit, would love to see some footage, Eurosport had the bit when he smoked past the old enemy at the end, he must have absolutely nailed that descent, he flew past those twits like they were standing still.