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!
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Tour de France, 1999, Stage 3, Challans to Saint Nazzare. On the passage du Gois, Zulle goes down, and Armstrong and his remaining riders immediatly punch the pace hard, hard, hard. Arguably, if not for that, Zulle would have won in 1999. Let's not forget Iban Mayo on the cobbles in 04. Surely, no one in the Discovery crew was talking about waiting for the GC riders that went down. This whole lark that Cancellara and Saxo are brewing is pure BS.
@david
I dunno. Didn't Ullrich slow it down and wait for Armstrong when he got tagged by a spectator's scarf on that climb in 2000 (?) - a kindness Armstrong repaid by creaming Ullrich and everyone else once he'd rejoined. But didn't Armstrong return the favour a year later when Ullrich flew off the road and down a bank (a short distance) on a descent? Or am I hallucinating? (It wouldn't be surprising after all this talk of Pedro-lubricated cleansacks.)
If two GC champions are battling head to toe in the mountains for the GC win, and one of them inadvertently gets a flat, well, then pull off, and wait for your competitor. You don't want to win because of a flat. After that, well, fuck, anything goes. Exploit your competitors misfortunes.
@Geof
I'm pretty sure Ullrich's crash was before the Testicles crash... yep, 2001.
Difference there was that Ullrich when he crashed, was way behind on GC, they were a long way from the finish, and COTHO had no-one to ride with, so he played the "I'm compassionate" card and waited.
When Asstrong crashed, Jan was in a position to attack and win the Tour, but decided to wait (not because Shamilton said so either, but that's been done to death). Ullrich should've nailed Egoteste's ass to the wall right there, just as Cuntstrong did to Zulle and Mayo when he had the chance.
Forget all this whingeing about the riders - there are more pressing issues at hand.
I would like to register my absolute dismay at this year's podium girls. There is one in particular - think she is one of the two handing out stage winner's trophy - who must be related to somebody very high up in the ASO.
A few minutes of internet searching couldn't find me a photo of her, but rest assured - today's stage will be forgotten (relatively) a few days from now, a bad podium girl lasts the whole Tour.
@Marcus Fuck. Magnificent, Marcus. I just haven't been able to glimpse the girls this year. I can say this. There was some year, I don't know, 03 or 04, in which the brunette girl was seared into my mind, and I envied LA for getting kisses. I still remember her face. Damn, right. Podium girls for the TdF need to be spectacular.
This beauty was my favourite...
@david
Complaining about their quality is a little like calling riders pussies, ie. it is all relative, however comment we must.
Laura Antoine from 2009 was a standout. No problems obeying rule no. 5 for any riders who know her.
And snagging a podium girl (when it is prohibited for riders) is about the only cool thing Hincrappie has ever done.
Heeyah. More and more I'm a fan of Marcus.
@Marko
Indeed, a strong case. As a former alpine ski racer and coach, I can't help but sympathize with the necessity--and difficulty--of making these decisions in the moment. You call a race for weather, everybody packs it in, and two hours later its bluebird and perfect and everyone is in the van on the way home thinking you're a huge douche. But on the same day, maybe they hold the race for an hour and then run it and you watch your athlete disappear into freezing mist headed for a snow fence and his season is over. There are key differences between the two sports and the two types of situations, for sure, but I think Marko's point about circumstances holds true.
Another ski racing comparison maybe gets at what I see as the meat of the matter more directly. You expect people to fall tomorrow on the cobbles, just like you expect for people to fuck themselves up at the downhill in Kitzbuhel. Nature of the beast. But when half the field goes out on the flats in Lillehammer, something is not right. The Stockeau should not be too difficult a descent for these guys. Between them we're talking about hundreds of thousands of hours in the saddle on much gnarlier shit. People should not be falling on the Stockeau. And yet they are. Neutralize the cobbles because people go down? No fucking way. But today it wasn't "couldn't hack it" or "made a mistake" or "bike handling" or even rule 5. Dudes with double digit TdFs under their belts are going down like shot rhinos, (granted, some get up faster than others) seemingly at random. It's more than just bad luck; it's like firing a shotgun into the tour on stage 2 and letting that dictate the story of a 3 week race.
Sure, there is some shady business afoot, and Faboo may have flashed a bit too much douchewaffle for my liking in his theatrics and self-righteousness. But as a fan, I'm psyched that I get to watch manboys like the brothers grimpeur rise or fall on the cobbles, in the mountains, and in the time trials than see them eight minutes back because a wetted oil slick turned a moderately hairy descent into an asphalt slip-n-slide of death.