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
[vsp_results id=”33262″/]
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Bonne chance, lads! Ride like hell for leather and earn me some much-needed points!
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Continuing my “no Astana” bent, even though I think the Nibbles got skillz
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Really hoping my finishing order is wrong but picking with my head this time. Maybe we will see Astana and Sky wear each other out. Couldn’t believe how much time Saxo-Tinkoff spent at the front during the early parts of each stage in the Giro. I hope they learned because it almost cost them dearly.
I doubt he he has the goods to finish on the podium again but very little talk of Purito so far…
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Others who I’d love to see on the list include TJay the DJ, Pinot, and either of the Yates brothers. It’ll be a great three weeks!
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Bertie is going to run out of gas somewhere and end up beyond the top five. TJ, not on podium, Froome in the ditch.
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froome is flying
quintana will always go up fast
bardet, van garderen and pinot will be swapping places alot
nibbles will be thrown out with rest of astana
cuntador will crack in last week and lose ten minutes.
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If it rains on the cobbles it could change everything
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@Teocalli
I’ll pay that.
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http://www.letour-livetracking.dimensiondata.com/
will be up and running from tomorrow’s stage
@xyxax
Would be interesting to see if the wisdom of the Velominati worked…..
@xyxax
I had to get mine in earlyish this time round due to internet issues scheduled in my area. Seems we both came to almost the same conclusion. Just Froome & Contador switched.
Froome & Nibali*
@JonnyG
I’ve been tempted just throw up whatever seems the best at first blush. Probably just wasting a bunch of electrons for no evident benefit. Don’t have the guts though.
I did post VSP picks from Chad once, though, where internet and red-heads are equally scarce.
@ped
I do believe in the wisdom of crowds in most instances, except in this case, you know, because it’s us.
Quintana squeezed ahead of Nibali as my top pick because he’s riding a Canyon. Heart over head on that one. In with a real chance of winning it obviously. Only 18s seconds down on the fastest of the other big three today though. That’s a tick in the plus column for him.
Fabians bike for tomorrows stage under construction
And it’s on. Moviestar still can’t ride in wind. Saxo can, proving why they bought a couple of old diesels along. Froome in the right place, at the fucking front (take note Ryder, meercatting at the back is a recipe for disaster). Surprised to see Nibbles caught out. So glad they don’t just do 8 sprint stages to warm everyone up any more.
I seriously just took a screen shot of the standings because that is never going to happen again.
And I just took one of my comment because I have a yellow jersey next to my name. (I know it is sad).
@girl
First Female Yellow? Kudos!
@Daccordi Rider
Surely @frank has statistics about this on hand?
I’m sure another female has been first at some point. It’s just that based on the method I use to make my picks it really shouldn’t happen.
@xyxax
I don’t either, for the most part. I find too many here pick with their heart and not their head*. However, others picks are interesting in a tactical (strategic?) sense. If first and second place are truly a toss-up, then there is merit in being contrary. Otherwise, we just all move along smartly at the same pace and there no changes in the standings.
* Of course, my heart put Pinot in fifth place, when clearly Van Garderen is favored after the Fab Four. Oh well. At least I didn’t put Bardet in there too.
@Daccordi Rider
What is with Movistar?! I’ve been hearing for weeks this is a rock solid experienced team. Guess I know who’s getting swapped on the first rest day. And Saxo with their smart old diesels. Looked like Stage 13 from the 2013 tour. Finally, the replay is precious, lot’s of hand gestures and Sicilian curses flying around in the peloton.
@Minnesota Expat
You really didn’t need to be too smart to see that one coming, Dutch coast, bad weather, splits in peloton……..
This from Rohan Dennis explains the split, interesting.
Dennis, the winner of Saturday’s opening stage time trial, said he saw the decisive split unfold right in front of him.
“We were going through a lot of roundabouts and I was sort of toward the back, thinking it was safe because it wasn’t too hard,” he said. “Then Pinot led the gap go. He swung out and basically looked at me, saying I had to close it. I looked around and saw Nibali was there as well. So I made the call not to chase because if Nibali losses time, it is better.”
Dennis said the reality of losing his grip on the leader’s yellow jersey after a single day sunk in while riding with the second group the last 40 kilometers.
“It was a bit hard to swallow, but I came to terms with it,” he said. “I could have closed the gap and taken Nibali with me – which more than likely would have meant I would have kept the jersey. But by sitting up, Nibali lost time, which makes it better for Tejay, who is our goal for the Tour.”
Atta boy Cav. If you’re not gonna get the sprint, might as well sit up with meters to go and let Faboo steamroll you.
Anyone else stupidly excited about today’s stage?
@RobSandy and the day after. In fact, the whole first week looks great – lots of variety.
@RobSandy
Three who can defend and cover and two who have to attack come the mountains. Nice. Though the Pave still to come. Based on last year expecting Nibles to lay it down there. It sure ain’t shaping up to be boring.
@Minnesota Expat
Ha! Me, too, something made Pinot go in fifth; he had no margin for error and the team time trial will be the end of his noose. But good for TJ-Veejayjay.
Picking based on others is good for the end when wanting to hold a position, I guess. But favorites are favorites for a reason; and for the season VSP, the odds will be against you in the long run when daring to be different. Maybe I should LTFU? (lighten the fuck up)
Something else I’ve just remembered -did anyone else think it looked like Cancellara’s thighs looked too big to get past his top tube during the prologue?
Beyond Gun Envy. Gun Awe.
From the live text:
15:36:56 BST
Fabian Cancellara is hoping to defend his yellow jersey today but he has admitted that he has never raced or even ridden the Mur de Huy during his long career.
Surely that can’t be true?
@RobSandy
I would imagine that there’s not much crossover between the Cobbled Classics and the Ardennes Classics. And given that Faboo was always tearing it up around Flanders and Roubaix, it’s probably not that surprising. I can’t remember Phil Gil ever bouncing accross the cobbles.
Going to have to pay NBC for better coverage. Just lost my pirate signal from Steephill with 200 meters left and Purito on the front. That sucked.
@Erik
Hey, get TunnelBear or your favorite VPN (a year’s worth is probably no more than the NBC thing), and route yourself through France and use the official Tour coverage stream. It’s in French, but it’s full coverage and who understands the Pauls anyway?
@ridley4033
Beautiful. Who would have thought, it even spins nicely end-over-end through the air.
@xyxax
I would listen to the coverage in Swedish, to save the agony of listening to Bob Roll/Phil Ligget/Van De Velde and now Jens Voight. What a clown car.
I have a question. Anyone who lnows please chime in but I am guessing that Frank or maybe Chris O knows. On the TTT the time is taken when the 5th man crosses the line yes? So what if you are left with only 4 riders by the time you get to start the TTT ? Is the team out? Because technically they wont have completed the stage ? Or am I being a bit dim? And has this ever happened ?
@Minnesota Expat
No truer words. I admit to following Jens on Twitter but within a few weeks, “Shut Up Mouth” was all I could think of. Unfollow.
@paolo
I was wondering that myself. Dim and Dimmer.