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

Gianni says:

Jun 19 2011 at 11:23 am

@xyxax
I schleckulate that those two better spend less time bouncing around on their twin beds in their bedroom and more time not sucking at time trialing or they won't win many more stage races. Rather, Frank won't as Andy hasn't won any.
Gianni says:

Jun 19 2011 at 11:29 am

@Pedale.Forchetta
Cunego is a real gentleman and he should still be proud of his racing. I hope he wasn't climbing "too" well. He has been such an uneven rider these last few years. I kept discounting him in my VSP picks but I was very impressed with him in this tour.
Pedale.Forchetta says:

Jun 19 2011 at 11:36 am

@Gianni
Me too, me too...
frank says:

Jun 19 2011 at 12:13 pm

@Pedale.Forchetta, @Gianni
I've always liked him, except for when he wore that rub-on tattoo that said, "I'm Doping Free". I mean, if you're making a statement like that, isn't it ironic that it's temporary?

Great riding from him, though, and as I'm no fan of Levi, I was sad to see him lose his spot. That said, the Eggtimer was set to hard-boiled today, that's for sure. Good on 'im.
Blah says:

Jun 19 2011 at 1:12 pm

ramenvelo:
"What can I say? It's a time trial, I gave it 100 percent as I usually do and I won," said Cancellara.
I don't like the man for some reason, I just can't put my finger on it...

He's the most Italian Swiss guy ever. I mean, he's brash and confident. He's so very alpha-male. In person (we were hanging around the cars at finishes of the Tour of Qatar) it's very funny to watch.
The flipside is that he comes across as an arrogant prick quite often. But that's just because he acts like an arrogant prick. Quite often.
Still smarting from an episode in a tour a few years back in which Cadel drove a break for five or so kay up a hill, noone else taking any turns. So he does all of the work establishing a lead, and a bunch of guys bridge, Cancellara among them, and he demands Cadel goes back to the peleton. Stopped others working, which they were by that time. And this was at a time when everyone hit Cadel for never attacking. Showed what happens when he does, and showed a side of Cancellara that's a bit ugly.
Gianni says:

Jun 19 2011 at 1:50 pm

@Blah
At least Fabs has the goods to be an arrogant prick. When his career is done he will be up there with the real Hardmen.

In person (we were hanging around the cars at finishes of the Tour of Qatar) it's very funny to watch.

Tell us more! Who hangs around in Qatar?
xyxax says:

Jun 19 2011 at 1:53 pm

@Marko
Hinault could sort this out for us.
xyxax says:

Jun 19 2011 at 1:55 pm

@Gianni

I schleckulate that those two better spend less time bouncing around on their twin beds in their bedroom ...

I am enjoying this mental image.
Gianni says:

Jun 19 2011 at 2:19 pm

@xyxax
I have to give credit to the little seen Rob for that joke, he made it a long time ago it it always struck me as being a little too close to the truth.
Marko says:

Jun 19 2011 at 2:52 pm

@Gianni

@xyxax

Pillow fights that end in undies-over-the-head wedgies when Jens shows up from the adjoining room are hard to recover from.