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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View Comments
@ben
Hasn't he always done that? Seems to me I remember him always picking at his ass just in that spot. Odd. Maybe a recurring saddle sore? Or is it more akin to the perpetual office nose-picker?
@frank
You'd think, what with him "getting" off the bike so much in this race, that he'd have plenty of opportunity to get the scratching out of the way off the bike...
(Actually I do feel for him. And I was glad to see him fighting back next stage.)
Pharmstrong's 7 TdF wins deserve to be bracketed with the Barry Bonds' record of MLB home runs. That is, they should serve as a reminder of just how fucked up things really got and not as some indication of greatness. Anyway, every single one of those Pharmstrong Tour wins - except perhaps the one where Ulrich got the mix right while wearing celeste and doing cartwheels off the road - were boring.
Having appeared like he had actually engaged his brain before opening his mouth during pretty much every interview so far this Tour, The Hapsburg seems to have lost it a bit. From CN: "on the rest day, I couldn't go training because we were staying up in the mountains and we could only ride downhill." Two words. Team. Car.
Hey Frank, is it too late to change my picks from Eddy, Eddy, Eddy, Eddy, Eddy to Jens, Jens, Jens, Jens, Jens?
Fuck me. Renshaw is a fucking menace. Headbutting Dean. Yeah well, that's leadouts. Dean looked like he was on the same line (on the road) - maybe leant. I'm not sure. But whatever. Not cool, not what you want to see, but whatever.
Riding Farrar into the wall (looked over shoulder, changed line by a few metres) was fucking dangerous, and a fucking underhanded way to ensure your sprinter won. Should Garmin just ride Cav off the road 5km out and be done with it? Are all tactics considered fair? What a bullshit performance. The worst thing is, Cav is the best sprinter in the race. He more than likely would have won anyway. Why lower themselves to that shit when he can (and does) win fair and square?
@Nof Landrien
Not that I'm a huge Pharmstrong fan, but remember this from 2003?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtZhG2kWVLY
Not boring.
Also, the comparison with Bonds is both questionable and telling. You forget that Bonds was on his way to a hall of fame career well before he started juicing. Tougher to tell with Lance, but even if he won 1 tour clean after cancer (and who am I to say that he didn't do that 7 times), he'd be a Rule 5 legend. Either way, you don't hit that many home runs or win that many TdFs on drugs alone. It's easy to jump straight to the counterfactual: without doping, they wouldn't have done anything. Hate them for doping and I'm okay with it. But acknowledge the spectacle for what it was. If you ever got the chance to see Bonds hit live or you can remember "the look," you know what I'm talking about.
renshaw kicked off the tour. good reaction from the commissaires. He's just had his fucking idiot moment.
This means cavencanhesprintwithoutaleadoutmandish will have to prove himself as an opportunist. I'm not yet convinced he can do it
@Joshua
Yep. Put rocket fuel in a Mini Minor and it's still a Mini Minor. You have to have the talent to take full advantage of what they may or may not have taken. And Lance DID win the worlds at a ludicrously young age. Oozed class on the bike.
Regarding Lance:
I remember watching a documentary about him many many years ago and something was mentioned about his body being perfectly built for cycling. From what I remember, the documentary said something about his femurs being marginally longer than average allowing and his heart being a bit larger than average as well, not to mention speculation about how his body buffers lactic acid better than anyone else, contributing to his extremely high cadence, and benefiting his outrageous attacks in the mountains. Could all be bullshit, who knows.
I would be disappointed if Lance did dope. But if the spread of doping is as bad as is rumored to be, then it's logical to assume that his rivals were doping as well, and that he won on a level playing field. Until something definitive comes out, all we can do is speculate, and let our personal feelings towards him dictate our opinions, regardless of any pseudo-facts we may have.
My theory: Lance having two testicles was too much for the world to handle because of the consequent overproduction of Rule 5 concentrate. So in an effort to give his rivals a fighting chance, he got cancer and lost one of them, resulting in a weight loss of about 100 pounds (contributing to climbing ability), and 50% less Rule 5 concentrate production. Still, though, his Uni-Testicle Production Factory produces between 25 to 45% more Rule 5 Concentrate than any other human being alive and the absence of the other testicle makes him 8% more aero.
The weight savings of losing one nut (100 pounds) and the aerodynamic advantage made him unstoppable during his 7 years of Tour Dominance.
@andy
Balls. Billy Goat Renshaw was a hero earlier in the tour. Probably deserves his punishment, but that's really a big F you to HTC and the Manx Misfire. Who leads him out now?
Also, has anyone here ever been in a chippy lead-out like that? I'm really curious as to what gets said when a hardman is losing his marble and headbutting you in the side of the neck at 60kph.