Velominati Super Prestige: Tour de Suisse

A big man playing where little men frolic. Photo: Sirotti

The Tour de Suisse is the last warm-up race prior to the Tour, and the last chance to test your form. As far as Tour rivalries go, we typically see one rival choose the Dauphiné and one la Suisse; it’s unpleasant to ruffle your feathers too much with a pre-Tour head-to-head, you see.

While the Dauphiné has the benefit of previewing some of the Tour’s stages in a race situation, the Tour de Suisse has the benefit of including the only thing more sinister than cobbled bergs: a cobbled mountain pass. This road also holds the distinction of being the only one where I feel more sympathy for the road layers than I do the riders.

Aside from rivals and masochism, the key factors determining which race to ride have to do with the timing of the peak: this race features a full week later in the calendar than does the Dauphiné, and based on the Tour’s parcours and rhythm of the rider’s season, this race may have better timing. But in any case, as with the Critérium, the effort is a dangerous gamble: ride too hard and you could fire off the Guns enter the Tour with little more than starter pistols. Balance, balance.

So, as the Dauphiné winds down, it’s time to start thinking about Suisse, our last VSP before le Tour. Get your picks in by 5am Pacific on Saturday morning. Same drill as usual: Being a week-long stage race, the points on offer are 7 for first, 5 for second, 4 for third, 3 for fourth, 2 for fifth, with the usual allotment of bonus points for getting the rider right but the place wrong. Also, there are no rest days, so no rest day swaps, but we will have our usual approach for riders who drop out. Piti Principle applies as always. Also review the guide, being careful to note that the rules have changed a bit this year, and we may not have completely updated the guide yet, so if there’s a question, ask.

May Merckx be with you all.

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

frank says:

Jun 12 2011 at 8:46 am

@Buck Rogers
Yeah, it's lookin' good fer 'im, eh? I was so happy for him when he didn't crash going around that tight bend. Who's a big boy, huh? Who's a big boy? *beams proudly*

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Netraam says:

Jun 12 2011 at 9:17 am

Wait, Soler is still on his wheels? That's better than he showed the last 2 years.
Buck Rogers says:

Jun 12 2011 at 10:49 am

Well crap! Klode definitely had an "off day" to put it mildly. Any rest days in this race (as I sure need to swap his worthless ass out of my picks)??? Don't I wish! :)
eightzero says:

Jun 12 2011 at 1:53 pm

@frank
"This isn't the place for this, but it's really starting to annoy me that people can't keep their tense straight anymore. It's "BECAUSE THERE ARE NO FUCKING SPRINTS."

Learned you lesson the The Badger, eh?:

http://lunarpoodle.blogspot.com/2011/03/life-of-velominati.html
CJ says:

Jun 12 2011 at 3:26 pm

Holy smokes!
10 Minutes Klodi?
Looks like that tour GC spot is going to be between Erin and Horner...
heath says:

Jun 12 2011 at 3:49 pm

@CJ
yeah, i'm right there with ya. i'm not so sure about ryder either...and i was so close to putting soler in my VSP picks.

will andy lose MORE time tomorrow? at least schleck the elder is looking good.
CJ says:

Jun 12 2011 at 10:54 pm

@heath
Way better than his brother, for sure.
This and the dauphine sure are proving food for thought in terms of tour picks, especially with how shattered Contador must be at the moment. Perhaps not the two-horse race it threatened to be?
snoov says:

Jun 13 2011 at 12:44 am

It's not easy coming in last but not too far behind in the tour, but in the VSP I attribute it to my near total ignorance of the competitors names and skill. I apologise for this but I have after all only been cycling for 4 months. I feel I have humiliated myself somewhat, although by applying rule 5 I should be ok. Anyway, it's all about the bike and surely choosing the winner of a race isn't even secondary, right?
Oli says:

Jun 13 2011 at 1:41 am

snoov:
It's not easy coming in last but not too far behind in the tour, but in the VSP I attribute it to my near total ignorance of the competitors names and skill. I apologise for this but I have after all only been cycling for 4 months. I feel I have humiliated myself somewhat, although by applying Rule 5 I should be ok. Anyway, it's all about the bike and surely choosing the winner of a race isn't even secondary, right?

Snoov, many of us who know all the names can't get our picks right! Don't sweat it, man, just keep rolling and see where you end up...
Dr C says:

Jun 13 2011 at 2:15 am

snoov :
It's not easy coming in last but not too far behind in the tour, but in the VSP I attribute it to my near total ignorance of the competitors names and skill. I apologise for this but I have after all only been cycling for 4 months. I feel I have humiliated myself somewhat, although by applying Rule 5 I should be ok. Anyway, it's all about the bike and surely choosing the winner of a race isn't even secondary, right?

Top Man Snoov - I was wearing the Lantern last week, probably something to do with not reading the instructions (but then that would have been swimming against the tide of male development through the ages), I would have realised that stage positions aren't relevant in a gig that is about the GC positions on the last day - Doh! Key thing seems to be to make up wierd acronyms and then pretend they were someone else when the scores go on the doors at the end

Anyway, thanks for making me feel like a veteran of 6 months cyclista now - refreshingly unpleasant sensation after years of plugging my way through the sailing fraternity, only to return to the bottom of the pile again - but hey, they're a friendly lot, and if you change your shirt often enough, they won't call you Barnacle, and we can slowly work back through the field - stick with it dude