Velominati Super Prestige: Tour de France

Two douchebags and A. Grimpeur rocket up the Ventoux in 2009

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!

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

david says:

Jul 6 2010 at 9:24 am

@Kermitpunk Sure, but it was beautifully timed because (i) it easily split the peloton. The Radio Shack guys were all over the place, hurting, and Cervelo had just got done with their second round of pulls. And, (ii) it was close enough to the finish line that A. Schleck could hang on. On his own, he probably could have gone earlier and won.
frank says:

Jul 6 2010 at 9:26 am

How to make Good Cadel: Find dirt roads or Cobblestones and add chaos. I expected him to sit at the end of the line and complain about his dog, but what a stud he turned out to be, again!

Poor Frankie, but it looks like the poor guy took himself down and Contodor with him. Good racing today!
Joe says:

Jul 6 2010 at 9:34 am

Grimp Jr had the rocking chair ride today....none of the other GC riders had it so easy. Alas, he's lost his cheif captain in the mountains and he'll suffer for that. Add in a weak ITT and I think he still could finish out of the top 5. Liking my Menchov / Wiggins axis of evil more and more, both showed some cojones today.

Basso's got a lot to do, he'll be strong later though. Evans surely will wilt in the mountains though he was awesome today. Pharmstrong still looks hard, he'll just slog away. But for a bit of bad luck with that pucture and dropping Kloden and a few other tough boys earlier on he could have put some hurt into Bertie and the others today.

Liking my 5 still. My biggest ? is Bertie - if he carries on looking human, Count Drac might get a sniff of blood and start 'badgering' him for the lead....
Kermitpunk says:

Jul 6 2010 at 9:40 am

@Marko
My point exactly. Very classy guy, who provided a real service to his team today. Also impressed (as always) by Jens punishing the peloton as they approached the first patch of cobbles. He had Saxo Bank comfortably out in front. Their team was well-built for these early stages, and it seems to have paid off for Andy.

It will be interesting to see if Frank's absence is help or hindrance. Great climber, who could certainly help Andy, but I wonder if Andy's independence might actually work to his advantage when the Tour hits the steep hills.
frank says:

Jul 6 2010 at 9:41 am

@all

Updated results. Andy takes the lead with Cadel slipping into third on the GC. Hawkeye and Andy are tied, but Andy takes it due to having the earlier post.

1 Andy 5 points
2 Hawkeye 5 points
3 Marko 1 point
4 Brett 1 point
5 Houdini 1 point
6 Crossy 1 point
7 David 0 points
8 Roadslave 0 points
9 Steampunk 0 points
10 Cyclops 0 points
11 Roberto Marques 0 points
12 Souleur 0 points
13 John 0 points
14 Rob 0 points
15 Dan O 0 points
16 Geof 0 points
17 Marcus 0 points
18 Joe 0 points
19 Ben 0 points
20 Frank 0 points
21 Pont 0 points
22 Scott 0 points
23 Daniel 0 points
24 Joshua 0 points
25 Jarvis 0 points
26 David Edwards 0 points

The race for Green has swung considerably into Steampunk's favor with Hushovd taking a big lead with his win today. Well done, there.

Polkadots is unchanged with Geof in the lead there as well.
frank says:

Jul 6 2010 at 9:42 am

@all

Substitution Update:

~~Andy~~John and Hawkeye: Please make your substitutions for Christian by the start of Stage 4, the poor guy.

Houdini, Jarvis, David, Pont and yours truly also have until the start of Stage 4 to make our subs (and justify any additional swaps) for the fallen Brother Grimpeur the Elder.
ben says:

Jul 6 2010 at 9:42 am

T is for THOR:
Marko says:

Jul 6 2010 at 9:45 am

Joe :

Bertie - if he carries on looking human, Count Drac might get a sniff of blood and start 'badgering' him for the lead....

Boy I dunno man. Bertie may well have won himself the race today. Nobody expected him to do this well today. Christ he put a minute on Pharmy is a minute at most behind Good Cadel and A. Grimp. I think he proved himself a smart rider who learns fast and gets the job done. If I were any of the other GC guys I'd be hitting the drawing board and Rule 5 cantine often and early.
Kermitpunk says:

Jul 6 2010 at 10:04 am

@Marko
Agreed. Last week we were talking about GC contenders needing to put four or five minutes into Contador by today if they hoped to have any chance. Not only did he not crash, but he looked pretty good under the circumstances, and has put them all in a hole (with the exception of Schleck and Cadel, who don't have nearly enough time for both mountains and TT). If anything, this year's margin of victory will be even big than last's...
Kermitpunk says:

Jul 6 2010 at 10:06 am

@Marko
Have to say, I'm starting to feel a bit like Jim wheel-sucking his way down the Tour de Blast; over the past few days, I keep posting: "Yeah, what Marko said."