The inaugural Velominati Super Prestige continues the with Tour de France edition, on Saturday July 3rd in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, just kilometers from the start of the Giro d’Italia in Amsterdam (Dutchland is a small country). This will be the second Grand Tour of the series, and at this stage the Grand Tour rules and regulations are fairly well-defined, so take a moment to review them on the VSP Page.
The Tour is, of course, a major event. My personal preference lies with the Giro, but there is no denying the magnitude of the Tour and the appeal it holds. For three weeks, the world pays attention to our sport, and – provided the Tour doesn’t coincide with the World Cup football matches – this is the biggest sporting event during this time of the year. (An interesting observation: the last time these events coincided, the winner was eventually stripped of his title.)
Having run the VSP Giro edition where we tested the ruleset for Grand Tours, we’ve managed to set up a scoring system that seems fair and helps to close down the competition to afford newcomers the ability to catch up with some good picks; the Giro proved that lineup switches and the associated penalties kept the point gains pretty small while allowing strategy to play an interesting role. There is a full overview of the rules and standing at the VSP Schedule, Rules, & Results page, but here is the ten-second overview:
Every contestant is to choose their top five General Classification picks of the race. The final podium of le Grande Boucle is worth 15 points to the winner, 10 points for second, 5 points for third, 3 points for fourth, and 2 point for fifth. Given the effect crashes can have on a tour, we’ve set up some guidelines around making changes to your lineup during the race: you’re allowed to change your lineup if any rider in your pick list drops out for any reason without any penalty; rest days will allow contestants to make changes to their lineup, however those changes will come at a point penalty. (Visit the VSP Schedule, Rules, & Results page for a complete breakdown of these points.)
Every day, the leader in the points standings will have the honor of wearing the Yellow Jersey when posting on the site; the overall winner will wear the Yellow Jersey for the remainder of the season and will also earn an “Obey the Rules” bumper sticker. All reader’s points qualify towards the final prize of the free Velominati Shop Apron. As always, if you are inclined to enter, simply post your predictions for the top five placings.
New to the Tour de France edition is the addition of naming the winner of the Green and Polka-dot jerseys for the Tour. There will be no points awarded towards these two jerseys, but the leader of the competition of these jerseys will have the honor of commenting with a Green or Polka-dot jersey badge throughout the competition and the winner will earn the right to comment with that badge until next year’s Tour. The contestant who picks both the final Green and Polka jersey winners correctly will win a Velominati Logo bumper sticker. Tie-breakers will go to the first contestant who posts their entire lineup (all 5 GC picks plus Green and Polka-dot jersey winners). Given that this sub-competition has no points, pick substitutions will only be granted under the DNF regulations of the VSP; no rest-day substitutions are allowed.
Sub-competitions will be conducted while the Tour is underway for specific stages. These stages will be chosen a few days prior to the stage being held and will be selected based on the current race conditions with the aim of choosing the most decisive and exciting stages of the race, so check back often to make sure you don’t miss out. Sub-competitions will be held in separate editions.
Good luck!
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
View Comments
Motorcus-drivel:
"There's other things to think about than the yellow jersey," said Cancellara. "You are also responsible for also trying to look at... There was a whole bunch on the ground ....and try to get everybody back get to the finish. When the whole bunch is on the ground it's better to stay together and go all the way to the finish together."
Wtf?
"Cycling is not an individual sport, it's a team sport and the Schlecks were behind so I was waiting for them (to come back). The other reason was also to let everyone come together. I look at it positively."
Wtf? No doubt you look at it positively!!!!
"It was the right thing to do to wait, so everybody comes together to the finish line," he added. "When you have everybody on the ground and people [The fucking Schlecks!!] five minutes behind because they can't find their bike then it's only normal. I think fairness comes before being selfish."
Jesus Christ. They can't find their bikes!! ^&$%^$!!!
My only hope is that Radio Shack is right now sitting back and saying, "We just got freakin' duped." We're going to destroy the Schlecks tomorrow on the cobles.
@Geof
Really elloquent and that's what's great about this sport, it's never black and white. Except when the effeminate guy with a camera photographs his aftershave.
@david
I totally see your point, but there's some armchair quarterbacking going on here, too - I mean, Chris Horner (God help us) was saying guys behind him were crashing and their bikes were flying by him sans pilot. With that context, guys not finding their bikes after also pile-driving the road at 50kph (we've all done it, we all know it takes a bit of the edge off your cognitive capacity) doesn't sound as crazy.
I've also implied before, if this had been a day without race radio, we'd have had a completely different scenario. I say get rid of those goddamned things and you're a long ways towards getting rid of these issues. The "Safety" issue is clearly proved moot by this; in a real safety situation, you don't have time to warn people of the issue; hand signals remain the fastest way to communicate, and radios just make people stop thinking.
Motorcus has all the big-brother, bullying, whining 'wait for me' traits of Pharmstrong. Before we know it he will start climbing hills and become a GC contender...
Fucking Poncellara of Suxo Bank.
I was bummed coming into today knowing I wouldn't be able to catch today's stage as it unfolded. What a fucking mess and now it's being armchaired to death all over the blogosphere and probably will be for years to come. I suppose our two ends of the spectrum are Thor, on the pissed-he-didn't-get-to-race-end (whick I respect immensely), and Faboo, on the this-is-way-out-of-control-and-not-really-a-race-any more-today end. All I can do, or anyone is capable of doing, is filter all this through your own lense. As accurate or inaccurate as it may be.
My lense is this. In my work, I teach, lead, and coach people to do shit they've mostly never done. Things like sea kayaking, white water paddling, rock climbing, expeditioning, adventure type shit. I couldn't count the number of times I've stood on a beach looking at 6-8 foot waves, a river bank scouting class IV, or a 5.10+ pitch with a group of students who are eager to try whatever the fuck it is out. Often times it's in the context of a mult-week expedition. So not only are there consequences involved for misadventure in the activty itself but ramifications for the days/weeks to come. Some students understand this yet others are clueless and only look at and thirst over the 6-8 footers. Thing is though, none of them are ready for it. But it's always the thirsty ones who get their asses handed to them more often then not when I take them out in the 2-3 footers for the first time. It's a wake-up call, really good learning, and fun as hell for me to give them a reality check. It's called cognitive dissonance.
Now granted, when I'm at work I'm decidedly not racing and niether are my students. The point is to complete the expedition succesfully and safely as a cohesive group. In order to this it's incumbent upon me (at least at first) to make the judgement calls on when and when not to paddle, for example, based on my accumulated experience, knowledge, and skill. It's a basic concept. It's also my job to push students further than they thought they could go. And when I'm at work those judgement calls are on me, I own them, and usually, both in the field and upon reflection, they work out. Colleagues will question me after the fact if something goes awry or if students weren't pushed hard enough but there's always an understanding that the best call was made given the circumstances at the time.
Anyways, maybe that's akin (at least through my lense) to what Faboo, as the race leader, was trying to do today. On all accounts, the Stockeau was virtually unridable. It fucked up most of the peloton. These 200 or so guys are professionals with a shit-ton more knowledge, skill, and experience than I or any of you have or will ever have in the saddle of a bike.
Fact is, unless you were in the peloton today, or even just riding down the Stockeau, it's unfair for you to sit at your keyboard and call them pussies. They are not, well most of them anyway. They bring us the sport we love most to watch and inspire us when we're out on our own rides. Faboo understands, as does the rest of the peloton, that the TdF is a long fucking race that's only just started. What happened today made today's stage uncontested and as a fan that bums me out. But it also kept the group intact and probably saved a few more riders from having to abandon. And as a fan that gives me promise the race will go on. Race or no race, today's stage had enough ripples that will be felt through to Paris. We've got a solid two and a half weeks left peeps. Harden the fuck up and enjoy it because you aint fucking there.
@david
Looks to me like you're reading an awful lot into something that's not there. Riis is always like that"”call it Danish stoicism. A lot of the riders were clearly rattled and Cancellara's comments above don't sound much like a whiner. He gave up the yellow jersey today, after all. Thus spoke le maillot jaune (for a day)
@Marko
Chapeau, sir. Best, most rational dissertation on the situation I've seen on the interwebs today.
@roadslave
Following roadslave's story from yesterday, I have no brush with greatness to share, but I have seen the future. Last Thursday was Canada Day up these parts, a national holiday. It provided an excuse for a family ride up our local rail trail to a train station (now a conservation area centre) some five or six kms away for a picnic. We all set off: me, the missus, son (13), daughter (11), and skinsuit-wearing younger daughter (2). After the picnic, I took the two older kids on a MTB trail nearby. My daughter had a bit of trouble with her gears and fatigue set in quickly on the first hill. I told her I'd catch up with son, who had continued to climb, and we'd wait for her at the top. I dug in and realized that I wasn't gaining, so I dug in even harder, and still wasn't making much progress. Didn't know it, but my kid can climb. Next hill: same again. The one after that, I think I gained a little. A lot of this is physics: he's a lanky 164cm and 50kg (his dad notsomuch), but kid can climb. We got back to the train station, and I was positively beaming. He's never shown much interest in my road bike, but I'll have to bully him into trying that.
@frank Yeah. You might want to look at Todd Gogulski's commentary on Velocenter to the get the perspective of the Radio Shack guys. He seems to explain it well. After hearing him talk about it, their frustration is more intelligible. But, I wonder whether their understandable frustration was the perfect cover for Riis's master stroke.
@brett I feel a real unity with brett, a real comradie. I feel I've connected, bonded, with the last of the Keepers. It's a good day.