Velominati Super Prestige: Tour de France
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!
@david
OK, let me get this straight:
On Cavendouche:
On the other riders behind him:
So, Cavendish is the only rider smart enough to crash while paying attention, and the other riders are idiots. Got it.
Rad new nickname for Cantkeeptherubbersidedowndish, by the way.
Seriously though, an ex-pro told me that when people start going down the best thing to do is hold your line and try to ride straight through it. This is a principle that benefited Flecha beautifully in the Tour de Suisse crash. See Cosmo Catalano’s analysis of Flecha’s skillful riding at cyclocosm.com in a piece titled, “The Luckiest Man in the Peloton.” Although, Cosmo calls it luck. Well, in a way it is, but in a way it is not. Flecha is following what I understand is a time honored principle for pros.
Yes, precisely frank.
Guys, so sorry about Cav. As a Brit, I feel somewhat embarrassed… I didn’t see the post stage press conference but I imagine it went something like “Well, the stage was going well, HTC were in good position, the lead out train were firing on all cylinders, we were in a great position, then we hit a corner THAT WE KNEW WAS THERE and I forgot to turn. Yes, I forgot to turn. Urmmmm. Balls”… go back three days to description of ‘plonker’… when he talks of ‘fat english’… he is meaning ‘between the ears’. Grrr.
But I do have to digress: out riding this morning. A guy from work who had heard we cycle asked if he could join us. We said yes. He turned up. We rode, and it was a good – if not frisky – ride. He kept there and there abouts… never leading, never lagging, taking his fair turns, but nothing too flash. We stopped for coffee. We’re talking the prologue. Someone says, “did you see Cancellara blow Boonen away at Paris-Roubaix?” (duh?) to which he replies… “Paris-Roubaix can be disconcerting. When I rode it in 2001…” at which point, the ENTIRE CAFE SHUT UP and turned towards us… we didn’t pay for our coffee, and the ride ended there…. I can’t tell you his name (on line, and all that), but today, we rode out with an ex-US National Team cyclist, who rode all the Northern European classics, and who rocks… a real gentleman on the road, and our very own tame racing cyclist: We’re calling him ‘the Stig’. Today was a good day, in all but the TdF.
@roadslave
Wow! Very cool story. Maybe the maillot jaune should tell a story at the end of each stage.
Or, er, sleeping (for those of us DownUnder). It truly sucks being on the opposite side of the world from all of this…
Cool. The sprinters are all riled up and onry. E.g., here’s Farrar busting on AG2R’s Lloyd Mondory in public: “He did a classic Lloyd Mondory move,” Farrar told Cyclingnews as he dragged his own damaged bike to the team bus. “He decided to try and commit suicide into my back wheel with 300 meters to go when I was with Petacchi and Renshaw.”
Angst, anger, passion, amongst the sprinters as well as amongst the GC contenders. Damn, this Tour might top this year’s Giro.
“War is the king of all.”
Heraclitus
Too Cool. Now Friere is casting aspersions at the GC riders. Freire said, “Then, some people don’t know where they belong. A lot of these crashes happen because of that.” The Spaniard added that the riders not leading out a sprint, and even those going for general classification, should distance themselves from the top of the field in order to make it less crowded.
“Maybe some of the leaders, once they’ve inside the two last kilometres, should maybe fall back a bit more than they do,” he said. “It’s still better to lose one or two seconds than all the Tour.”
Er, damn. The Heraclitus fragment is, “War is the father and king of all.” Sorry.
Reminded me of a younger (and doped?) Petacchi the way he gapped what was left of the bunch. Gee he looks good when he nails his gear. He made that uphill sprint his bitch.
Would love to see Cantkeeptherubbersidedowndish earn the name Cantwinastagethisyearstourdish. Won’t see him again until Wed-Fri presuming he is cantridethecobblesdish. By then he will be miles back from the green – presuming Thor stays with the bunch tomorrow and Wed…
errr make that today and Tuesday euro time – time differences make it tough sometimes…
@Marcus
Wow, we just discovered a new game, didn’t we? You really had me laughing here with the Can-anysentenceyoufeellikeadding-dish line you rolled with. Excellent work.
I’m going to have to take some time and make some additions to the Lexicon. Between comment 194 and 212 we had a pile of good ones. Nice work.
@david
It’s gotten off to a great start, that’s for sure. Lets keep praying to the Thundergods for rain on Tuesday!
Velonews: How well do you think Tyler can do in the sprints?
David Millar: Higher than ever. He’s getting better all the time. He’s mastering his craft and I think we are as a team as well.
@roadslave
Did he look like this?
@Frank: that is a fantastic hat…. with the joys of the internet, I have since found a photo of this guy winning the US National Crit championship title, under the title “crushing Hincapie”… worth also reading the note he sent to Princeton cycling team… the second paragraph of which looks to be Rule #10 in every other way… (and the note itself a Rule #5 reminder?) what a badass.. I’m getting a tan from basking in all the reflected glory
@roadslave
Who knew? Longfellow was a cyclist!
Jens is earning his money today. What a workhorse!
@Steampunk – yup, magnificent bit of riding. Calamity Grimpeurs owe Spartacus a beer here too for handing up the yellow for the team….
@Steampunk
Seriously! What’s happened to Banged and Felled? Mattie White is making some big claims in the team car about riders being out of the race. The Brothers Grimpeur are back, so he got those guys wrong, but I haven’t seen hide nor hair of Christian.
Poor old Banged and Felled, they really need to fit a 3rd wheel to his bike….
Not seen Syrup of Figgo either.
Didn’t see Wiggins anywhere. VDV seemed to go down, but I think he was with the Armstrong or Schleck group recovering. I didn’t see any sign of Sastre anywhere, either.
Chavenel’s ride was heroic. Cancellara stopping the competition to save the Schlecks was sickening.
ED-DYYYYYY!!!! What must that be like to have to have Eddy compare you to himself?
I think VDV was in the group that finished over 10 minutes back.
VDV waaaaaaaaaay back…yikes.
Not sure I’m understanding the upset about the route. Eggtimer was furious about the roads, but the organizers can’t help that it rained, and these same roads are raced on during the classics, so I’m not sure I get why it’s so terrible to send the Tour over those roads. And didn’t they do that at the Giro as well?
My heart stopped when the Brothers Grimpeur went down though, those were some tense minutes there before they got going again. The way Andy was holding his arm, I feared the worst.
@frank
Andy looked bad immediately after the crash. Chapeau to Breschel who had the presence of mind to put him on his bike. It did seem to take Andy several minutes to get back in stride (he looked okay after that).
Evans went down, too, apparently.
I understand that they’re not counting the sprint points today; I guess that makes CavcantclimbevensmallBelgianhillsdish the big winner (after Chavanel).
So, what are they going to do tomorrow when one or some GC guys go down? Neutralize the race again? If not, what’s the difference between cobbles and slick downhills on narrow roads?
@david I’m not sure I like the precedent that might be established after today.
Cunego in nine minutes off the pace. Bad crash? If he’s okay, maybe he’ll battle VDV for the polka dots.
@david that wasn’t Faboo or Saxo suing for a neutralization – that was the Maillot Jaune. Considering that (more than?) half the race went down today, even Vino would have wanted a neutralization. (Well, OK, maybe not Vino…)
@ben
I haven’t read the reports because I’ve been too busy tallying up the VSP results on my stone tablet and abacus, but I think easing off on the race made sense given the carnage and number of riders who went down, as well as knowing that every team had riders involved, so every team had a reason to wait. The in-race neutralization was just sensible teamwork; Faboo or Radioshack, Astana, etc are not going to ride hard on the front when their GC riders are off the back.
By the time the battered bunch rolled into town, though, I suppose I can understand that they wanted to take it easy and not have another massacre like yesterday. That said, I bet a bunch of the guys are wondering if they don’t need to study Rule #5 again after the finish. Often, what makes sense at the time just feels like a proper dose of sissy after it’s all over and you’re back in the hotel.
The big looser, I’m afraid, was Matt White telling his team Banged and Felled was too banged and felled far back to wait for him. That a DS wouldn’t tell his team to wait for their GC rider no matter how far back they were is something I simply can’t understand. Poor Christian, another GT gone.
@all
Well, no stage neutralization here at the VSP, folks. We had a bit of a reshuffling, with Steampunk (aka Kermitpunk) taking both the Yellow and Green jerseys. Since he can’t wear both, Green falls to Rob, who trades his VSP Leader badge for the borrowed Maillot Verde. The Dotted Jumper goes to Geof.
It doesn’t look like any of the GC riders fell more than 10 minutes behind, so everyone stays in place with the picks until tomorrow when we see if we have any DNS’s.
Well done, gents.
Some photos of the stage 2 carnage over at universal sports. Not flattering for Tyler Ferrar. Banged and felled has a bit of Rule #5 dripping down the side of his face. Too bad for him today.
http://www.universalsports.com/photos/galleryid=481226.html#stage+carnage
If riders de facto neutralize the cobbles, I’m protesting the tour. Doing this on a stage like today’s when it’s raining and there are snipers in the woods is one thing; doing it on what will be a marquee ride of the 2010 tour that you’ve known is coming for so long would make a mockery of the race, The Rules, and the sport.
@ben I don’t know. Who am I to tell them how to ride the Tour. And, it will be interesting to see what they all have to say. I suspect the decision to neutralize the race was not just Cancellara’s. It is though a very convenient coincidence for the Schlecks that the yellow jersey was also a teammate with a great deal of power in peloton. Cervelo, and others, who targeted the stage should have started chasing Chavanel at about the time the Schlecks were around 1:00 to 2:00 minutes behind the Armstrong/Contador group. It seems pretty clear Cancellara on his own shut that chase down, but I’ll wait for more info.
I think Frank may be right. The teams that targeted the stage may have been saying to themselves, “And, why did we stop racing exactly? Can you explain that to me again?” “We gave up a stage win so the Schlecks wouldn’t lose time on the GC?? Did we really just do that?”
@Joshua
Absolutely agree. Tomorrow, we need to see these guys take the race by the horns and wrestle it down. If we get a race-radio protest douchey stage, I will be hellapissed.
I’m with Joshua. I’ll be pissed if they neutralize the cobbles, whether it’s raining or not. Why, I’ll do my ride tomorrow at half speed!!
@david
That’s not the point I was trying to make. The in-race neutralization wasn’t for the Schlecks alone. There were a lot of favorites down and behind. That’s the point; even Cervelo had reason to wait (Sastre is their GC guy and was behind) and were waiting before Cancellara, who had been dropped just prior, he only rejoined the front group because all the teams were already waiting for their fallen leaders. Once he got there, he certainly went with it and played a pretty big role for the waiting. The racers glass pedaling to the finish was just common sense in terms of team tactics.
I was really only talking about the sprint into Spa; that neutralization of the sprint was a little on the soft side. I think Hushovd and company may regret not going for those points later. But, like you say, who are we to judge.
I feel awful for Vande Velde. His luck just stays bad, and the fact that his team left him behind just breaks my heart, especially in light of those pictures Joshua just sent.
If I remember rightly I have till the first rest day to put in my picks… Sorry, I’ve been in the dark places of this world where TV and Internet don’t exist (ie. moved into new student digs).
1. Grimpeur the Younger
2. Cuntador
3. Roman K (Maybe we should call him the centurion or legionnaire or something)
4. Pharmstrong
5. Twiggo
Farrar with broken elbow? Gesink with fractured ulna?
Fucking bunch of pussies… what ever happened to ‘racing’? All this waiting bullshit, I thought it was first to the line in the shortest time. If you can’t stay upright, you shouldn’t be riding a bike. Motorcus just dropped further in my estimations, hanging out with Mr 60 has certainly rubbed off on that cheating, whining softcock. Hardman my arse.
If they neutralise the cobbles tonight, then bike racing is officially dead.
And fuck Horner too…
Frank: “I bet a bunch of the guys are wondering if they don’t need to study Rule #5 again after the finish. Often, what makes sense at the time just feels like a proper dose of sissy after it’s all over and you’re back in the hotel.”
That’s what I was agreeing with you on in your post. Not the other points.
The new Velonews story, “Not all riders happy with the neutral finish”, largely verifies my view of the matter. Hushovd is unhappy. And he should be. Cervelo was ready to put the hammer down in the chase of Chavanel, and Faboo stopped them. Now Faboo is talking sheeit about respect for other riders. I don’t buy it. You don’t think Riis was in his ear telling him to do what he could to stop Cervelo?? If Cervelo got rolling, then other teams vying for the stage win would have started sending their riders flying out of the Armstrong/Contador group. They would have dragged both of them along with them and left the Schlecks 5 to 10 minutes down on LA and AC if not more. It also would have given Radio Shack the excuse it needed to bury the Schlecks. And, if you don’t think they would have taken it if they could have, I’ll just mention the name of Alex Zulle.
Freakin’ Riis got away with murder today and did so with Cancellara’s complicity.
And, I hate to say this, knowing how much you like the Schlecks, but I think there’s a good chance they were so far back because they were just big pussies. A. Schleck, on the side of the road, looked like he had thrown in the towel. The CN writer, I believe, said he looked dazed and confused. You know damn well that wouldn’t have happened to LA, AC, or Vieno. Those guys would have been running down the road looking to rip someone’s bike away.
Not a good day for Saxo Bank, Cancellara, or the Schlecks.
Of course Jens was awesome, but that’s his middle-name.
Horner too, as much as I love him, comes off as a big pussy.
@david
Yeah, you make some great points. And, the longer I have to reflect on the stage, the more I agree that it was pretty lame. Another great example of how the racing would be different without radios.
The only good bit of the Andy footage was the way he took (was it Fulsangs?) bike from him; just pointed at it and took it. That’s leadership, not nice guy there. I think Andy was waiting for equipment because Saxo’s riding Specialized and those bikes just seem to fall apart too easily.
But back to your point, some riders – like Armstrong, as much as I hate to say it – just never seem to have to wait for anything, they just get back up and get moving. And there’s something to be said for that, that’s for sure. Then there’s the oposite side – the Hamiltons and Vande Velde’s – that seem to fall off and stay off.
I think what happened during the race is one thing, the finish another, but in any case, today is in the past; they better fucking Rule #5 it tomorrow.
@Nathan Edwards
The deadline was the start of the race, but we’ve made exceptions before, so we’ll do it again. Assuming you would’ve picked Wiggo over Vandevelde anyway, I don’t think there’s anything in the race so far that’s decisive at this point, so with the Piti Principle in mind, we’ll just go ahead and add you in. Glad to have you back.
@brett, @david
To your points, Hushovd on what happened:
I chalk most of that up to post-race frustration. Even at my lowly Cat-4/5 level, it’s a time-honored ritual to bitch and moan about the course after there are crashes on a course.
Meanwhile, does no one use the months between the route announcement and the Tour to recon these stages? I haven’t seen anyone complaining about this route before the race.
– Wise Old Sage Armstrong via VeloNews
Stockeu “like ice”, “why didn’t Chavanel crash?” Well..
via http://twitter.com/TrueBS/statuses/17817998734
Boardman on ITV was pretty scathing tonight about the possibility of them neutralising tomorrow’s stage; I got the impression he just wanted to shout man the fuck up and then grind the whole peloton into the dust with his massive guns…
@frank
Breschel’s bike, not Fuglsang’s, I believe. What do you want to wager that Hushovd will put himself in Chavanel territory tomorrow before the cobbles so as to avoid having to slow down?
…and Banged and Felled makes good on his moniker. Shame, that. I wonder if they’ve booked a flight home for Farrar, too.
@ben
An earlier report seemed to indicate that Farrar had done a pretty good job of imitating VDV, but a more recent one just said bruises and he’d be okay. Go figure…