Velominati Super Prestige: Tour de France 2017

Favorites ascending. Photo: Gruber Images.

As many of you know, I write a monthly column for Cyclist Magazine where I answer Dear Abby-esque questions, and the most recent query pertained to whether I consider the Tour the best race of the year, or whether it’s an over-publicized circus. The question made me realize something about myself: I have a weariness around the Tour de France not unlike a romantic whose heart has been broken one too many times.

The fact is, as much as I prefer a race like Paris-Roubaix or the Giro d’Italia to the mid-summer shit show that is the Tour de France, nothing gets my anticipation going quite the way the Tour does, which is undeniably the pinnacle of the season; all the classifications and stages are prestigious enough that racers of all sorts are all arriving at the start in peak form. There is a promise of hard racing from day one, but the first week consists mostly of me worrying about the big favorites crashing out. As soon as we get through that mess, my heart is usually broken on the first day in the mountains, when the favorite takes a decisive lead and the rest of the race is most about stages than the GC.

At least, these are the dreads of a man who lived through the Indurain and Armstrong eras of racing.

Nevertheless, the Tour always manages to seduce me, and this year is no different. Maybe this year, she won’t be such a cruel lover. And, maybe this year, I won’t make horrible picks in the VSP. Just maybe, just maybe. You know the drill; get your picks in by the time the clock goes to zero, and you get some swap options on the rest day. Good luck!
[vsp_results id=”104413″/]

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

stooge says:

Jul 11 2017 at 5:49 am

@RobSandy

@stooge

Picks won’t be recorded anywhere whilst modification is closed, and nobody is going to do it manually. It looks like the best we can hope for is for 2nd rest day swaps to be open when the time comes.

Maybe someone could get the word the Keepers…

0

You could just not worry about it. Rest Day Swaps wont win you the TDF or the VSP.

0

Don't know what gave you the impression that I am worried. Mainly I was answering a question. My point about alerting the powers that be is that this is a trend, and it is worth halting. Somebody that could otherwise podium might not because if it. You don't change the rules halfway into a game.

You could just stop worrying about what other people might be worried about.
BacklashJack says:

Jul 11 2017 at 5:56 am

So...no rest day swaps for VSP?
RobSandy says:

Jul 11 2017 at 6:04 am

@stooge

@RobSandy

@stooge

Picks won’t be recorded anywhere whilst modification is closed, and nobody is going to do it manually. It looks like the best we can hope for is for 2nd rest day swaps to be open when the time comes.

Maybe someone could get the word the Keepers…

0

You could just not worry about it. Rest Day Swaps wont win you the TDF or the VSP.

0

Don’t know what gave you the impression that I am worried. Mainly I was answering a question. My point about alerting the powers that be is that this is a trend, and it is worth halting. Somebody that could otherwise podium might not because if it. You don’t change the rules halfway into a game.

You could just stop worrying about what other people might be worried about.

0

Frank is aware, he posted higher up on the thread. Whenever I think the VSP should be better run I remind myself that the whole site is maintained by guys who have lots of other demands on their time and do it more or less from the love of it.

I do worry. I worry about your worries. I worry your worries will worry other worriers.

Don't worry, be happy.
BacklashJack says:

Jul 11 2017 at 6:13 am

@RobSandy

@stooge

@RobSandy

@stooge

Picks won’t be recorded anywhere whilst modification is closed, and nobody is going to do it manually. It looks like the best we can hope for is for 2nd rest day swaps to be open when the time comes.

Maybe someone could get the word the Keepers…

0

You could just not worry about it. Rest Day Swaps wont win you the TDF or the VSP.

0

Don’t know what gave you the impression that I am worried. Mainly I was answering a question. My point about alerting the powers that be is that this is a trend, and it is worth halting. Somebody that could otherwise podium might not because if it. You don’t change the rules halfway into a game.

You could just stop worrying about what other people might be worried about.

0

Frank is aware, he posted higher up on the thread. Whenever I think the VSP should be better run I remind myself that the whole site is maintained by guys who have lots of other demands on their time and do it more or less from the love of it.

I do worry. I worry about your worries. I worry your worries will worry other worriers.

Don’t worry, be happy.

0

Wait...so what you're saying is that Frank's life does not involve constant service to us and our pursuit of eternal glory via the VSP? :)

In all seriousness, it isn't a big deal- I just worried I Delgadoed it (again) or missed the window. Scanning the thread, I must have missed Frank's post.

Not worried. Happy. (Except for the whole Sagan thing- still unhappy about that.)
stooge says:

Jul 11 2017 at 6:13 am

@RobSandy

@stooge

@RobSandy

@stooge

Picks won’t be recorded anywhere whilst modification is closed, and nobody is going to do it manually. It looks like the best we can hope for is for 2nd rest day swaps to be open when the time comes.

Maybe someone could get the word the Keepers…

0

You could just not worry about it. Rest Day Swaps wont win you the TDF or the VSP.

0

Don’t know what gave you the impression that I am worried. Mainly I was answering a question. My point about alerting the powers that be is that this is a trend, and it is worth halting. Somebody that could otherwise podium might not because if it. You don’t change the rules halfway into a game.

You could just stop worrying about what other people might be worried about.

0

Frank is aware, he posted higher up on the thread. Whenever I think the VSP should be better run I remind myself that the whole site is maintained by guys who have lots of other demands on their time and do it more or less from the love of it.

I do worry. I worry about your worries. I worry your worries will worry other worriers.

Don’t worry, be happy.

0

I get that the site is run by (awesome) guys that do it for the love of it. In fact, I said pretty much the same things when a bunch of folks were in tears about it during the Giro. Alert doesn't mean reprimand. You could have just said Frank has already posted on it..

Lol. Again, I'm not worried. But, you go ahead and worry your little head. It's okay, some of my friends are SJWs - I know it can be tough on those guys to not stick their noses in, so I don't worry about it.
BacklashJack says:

Jul 11 2017 at 6:15 am

Greg LeMan chimes in on the Aru attack:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cycling-france-lemond-idUSKBN19U0XK
stooge says:

Jul 11 2017 at 6:28 am

@BacklashJack

Greg LeMan chimes in on the Aru attack:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cycling-france-lemond-idUSKBN19U0XK

0

Good point about "just putting his hand up".

".. What I didn't understand is that everyone else followed and then stopped," . That's the most obvious part, isn't it? They couldn't just let him ride away.
RobSandy says:

Jul 11 2017 at 6:42 am

@stooge

@BacklashJack

Greg LeMan chimes in on the Aru attack:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cycling-france-lemond-idUSKBN19U0XK

0

Good point about “just putting his hand up”.

“.. What I didn’t understand is that everyone else followed and then stopped,” . That’s the most obvious part, isn’t it? They couldn’t just let him ride away.

0

I don't 100% disagree. I certainly think if the attack was already on and anyone had a mechanical at the back of the group, tough shit.

However, Aru attacked when Froome was asking for a bike change, deliberately. I still think that's bad form.

The GC favourites should have just let Aru ride away a bit then chased him down as a group once Froome was back with them.
Mikael Liddy says:

Jul 11 2017 at 7:01 am

@RobSandy

@stooge

@BacklashJack

Greg LeMan chimes in on the Aru attack:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cycling-france-lemond-idUSKBN19U0XK

0

Good point about “just putting his hand up”.

“.. What I didn’t understand is that everyone else followed and then stopped,” . That’s the most obvious part, isn’t it? They couldn’t just let him ride away.

0

I don’t 100% disagree. I certainly think if the attack was already on and anyone had a mechanical at the back of the group, tough shit.

However, Aru attacked when Froome was asking for a bike change, deliberately. I still think that’s bad form.

The GC favourites should have just let Aru ride away a bit then chased him down as a group once Froome was back with them.

0

How are they to know that's what the hand is about? Could just be that he's going hunger flat/thirsty & needs topping up from the car, in which case it's the perfect time to attack. Not like Richie was going to take an illegal feed for him this year...
stooge says:

Jul 11 2017 at 7:04 am

@RobSandy

@stooge

@BacklashJack

Greg LeMan chimes in on the Aru attack:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cycling-france-lemond-idUSKBN19U0XK

0

Good point about “just putting his hand up”.

“.. What I didn’t understand is that everyone else followed and then stopped,” . That’s the most obvious part, isn’t it? They couldn’t just let him ride away.

0

I don’t 100% disagree. I certainly think if the attack was already on and anyone had a mechanical at the back of the group, tough shit.

However, Aru attacked when Froome was asking for a bike change, deliberately. I still think that’s bad form.

The GC favourites should have just let Aru ride away a bit then chased him down as a group once Froome was back with them.

0

I don't know what Aru was thinking. LeMond thinks he didn't mean to attack on a mechanical. Aru says he didn't (but what Aru and Froome say can be taken with a grain of salt - they're going to be diplomatic. It looked bad.

The GC favourites had no way of knowing how long it would be. They couldn't risk Aru summiting long before them. Going after and catching him, but refusing to keep the pace, seemed pretty sensible. Anyway, same result, more or less.