Categories: Velominati Super Prestige

Velominati Super Prestige: Tour de France Stage 19

Looking back on this year’s Tour, it occurs to me it’s been one of the best Tours I’ve seen. The 2003 Tour will forever go down as my favorite, but mostly because we were there that year, my boy Jan Ullrich nearly won, and I got to sit on Ullrich’s TT bike right before he stomped all over Armstrong. I never said I wasn’t biased.

This year has seen a battle between two riders so closely matched that neither has been able to decisively take the upper hand, although the scales appear to be tipped in the favor of the defending Champion as we enter final time trial. As I look to tomorrow’s stage, I take inspiration in the closest-ever Tour: 1989. I take inspiration for three reasons. The first and most obvious is that in that year we saw a similarly close pairing between Greg LeMond and Laurent Fignon. The second is that the underdog was behind and had little chance of stepping onto the top step of the podium in Paris – but there was a chance. The third reason is that the final winning margin by LeMan over Le Professeur was 8 seconds – the same amount of time that separates Bertie and the Grimp as we enter the stage. Coincidence? No, it is more likely to be a prophesy, methinks.

In all likelihood, however, the stage win will not be fought out between the top two men overall; tomorrow will be the domain of the TT specialists who managed to drag themselves over the bumps, hills, and mountains to get this far. Spartacus, Millar, Syrup, Martin; these are the men who will fight for stage glory.

So, without further ado, we continue with the inaugural Velominati Super Prestige’s final Tour de France VSP Sub-Competition for Stage 19. Usual game; contestants have the opportunity to win bonus points in the VSP Tour de France by choosing the top three finishers of the final time trial for a chance to win 3 points for first place, 2 for second, and 1 for third.

New for this competition: An additional bonus point goes to anyone who identifies the most egregious Rule Violation of the day.

Make your picks by the time the stage starts, regular VSP Rules apply. Good luck!

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

Marko says:

Jul 23 2010 at 1:41 pm

1. Sparty
2. Menchy
3. Bertie

My prediction for rule violation: Grimpy rolls into the start house with a basket on his handlebars to accomodate his huge balls which he'll need for going all out in and effort to make 9 seconds on Bertie. But alas, they can't TT for shit in Luxemburg because the country is too small and by the time they get up to speed they have to turn around and ride back to the other side.
andy says:

Jul 23 2010 at 1:41 pm

Getting in early again.
1. Twiggo - the guy has let me down all tour, so I'm gonna give him one last chance.
2. Tony Martin - still got legs, did well in the prologue (and yes I know that's about 6 months and several thousand kms ago, but it's all we got to use as a judgement). Reckon he's smarting that he's not had the tour he could have had and will be aiming for a win
3. Bertie - Kinda only needs to cruise his way round this course, but wants some winning action (but is not going to have the guns to do it)
Nathan says:

Jul 23 2010 at 1:45 pm

1. Twiggo
2. Millartime (I do love that guy)
3. Spartacus

Ale-jet with his green jersey and shorts that don't quite match has to be the most egregious rule violation.
frank says:

Jul 23 2010 at 2:28 pm

1. Spartacus will straight carve dudes up
2. Bertie will narrowly loose, reversing last year's upset
3. Millar will be the brides maid.

What I hope happens is
1. Millar
2. Spartacus
3. Schleck, beating Bertie by 8 minutes
Kermitpunk says:

Jul 23 2010 at 2:58 pm

1. Spartacus, because he straight carves dudes up. Always.
2. The love child of Tony Curtis and Dean Martin (maybe we should just call him RatPack).
3. Lance (last hurrah and this is flat, flat, flat).

Millar's broken, Syrup's a lost soul, and Bertie will make this closer and more exciting than it ought to be (but will beat Schleck). Am hoping that Grimplet borrows Cancellara's special bike and pulls out a win for the ages.
Geof says:

Jul 23 2010 at 3:15 pm

1. RatPack. (The lad is STRONG.)
2. Bertie. (He's got the MJ, but he hasn't got a stage and he'll go all out for one.)
3. Spartacus. (The man has looked increasingly buggered, and so will have to endure a brief period of being human - but not too human.)

What I hope happens: Spartacus re-stamps his authority on the uppity youngsters, RatPack confirms himself as heir apparent but not yet ready to foot it with the master, and Grimplet smacks it out of the park coming in exactly eight seconds ahead of fourth placed Bertie, so that when they both finish in the bunch the next day (behind a flying AleJet who knows he's about to be banned and so takes the opportunity to cream the Manxgina one last time) they are tied on time and the Schlecklet takes the MJ on a stage-win countback.

And yes, Frank, I agree entirely - this has been one helluva Tour. (I am almost as buggered as the riders, seeing as how I have to stay up until 4am to watch the stages live.)
Kermitpunk says:

Jul 23 2010 at 3:39 pm

Sigh. Will be on the road tomorrow morning, driving down to Ithaca, NY. I'll likely miss the entire day. And to make matters even worse: this aesthete thing is starting to get to me. I re-taped my handlebars with black tape and now my silver saddle (which went with the silver tape) needs to be changed out. So now I need a black saddle. Curse you, Velominati! The world was good, simple, and right when the rule of the Cognoscenti dictated my everyday.
Geof says:

Jul 23 2010 at 4:24 pm

@Kermitpunk
You'll also need to swap your silver comb for a black one...
Kermitpunk says:

Jul 23 2010 at 5:00 pm

@Geof
Got that covered: last week I took off the long-ass, shaggy hair; down to a tight, combless cut. Went from mountain-man-hippy-douche to fast-as-fuck (kept the Thor-esque beard"”without that, I look 19 again and nobody wants that) and lost about a kg of hair. All this in preparation for the receipt of one pretty swank Velominati kit (it was one of the requirements of my order).
frank says:

Jul 23 2010 at 5:00 pm

@Kermitpunk
Ah...headed over to Cornell? My big brother rowed for those guys. I stole his crew cap, and now when I wear it people ask me questions I don't understand, but answer confidently.