Velominati Super Prestige: Tour de Suisse 2015

St Gotthard Pass- A Cobbled Swiss Dream

Why would the VSP use the Tour de Suisse instead of the Critérium de Dauphiné? The Dauphiné is looking like the pre-Tour de France. Sky and Garmindale are already giving their GC men nightmares by screwing up on the team time trial front. Practice, practice, practice, lads; it’s better to cock it up now than in the real Tour. Every TDF buck has bailed on the Swiss race in favor of anything else.

Where does that leave us and the betting window? Points are points so it’s time to channel your inner DS and copy @xyxax’s picks. Though the main GC riders may be elsewhere, there are many great riders here; enough to make this an interesting stage race. Maybe even a great race with no obvious overall contender. Bertie is racing but hopefully he is hanging in with the gruppetto everyday. The man needs some rest damn it, not 15,000 meters of climbing. Then there is his teammate Rafal Majka, I’m not sure I trust him. And I sure don’t trust Schumacher or Rebellin who are also racing on the orange CCC team, but that’s another issue and I shouldn’t be putting Majka in the same paragraph. But he shouldn’t wink at the camera while he is crushing everyone on a climb; it’s a little like the Italian Cobra Riccò taunting everyone for not keeping up.

I digress. Here is a start list. Consider this one’s warm up VSP for the Tour de France.

Don’t forget, points go toward great end-of-season prizes.

First place– A custom Jaegher frame, handbuilt in Belgium.
Second Place– A Café Roubaix/Velominati wheelset, Chris King hubs, hand built by professional wheelsmith and Velominati Dan Richter.
Third Place– A Velominati kit: jersey, bibs, and cap.

[vsp_results id=”33213″/]

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The Grande Fondue says:

Jun 17 2015 at 4:40 am

@Minnesota Expat

@rfreese888

@JonnyG AND I dropped Sagan for Thomas. Should have put him as the winner instead of Kwia when you look at # of uphill finishes without massive climbing AND two time trials.

Sheeessshhh… Did any of you guys look at the profile for Stage 5 before the race?! Sagan is my favorite rider, hands down, but seriously, he’s (as will Kwiatkowski and Kristoff) going to lose 10-20 minutes on that stage (last 13 km at 10%).

::: insert smiley face here :::

When opened the post to put my tips in the top few people had tipped Kristoff (!) and Sagan. I though I'd opened the wrong race!

After California I can Sagan still being in it.. maybe? I didn't tip him though.

Kwiatkowski is different though - he can climb. A bad climber doesn't get 11th in the TdF and 4th at Tirreno–Adriatico (behind Nibbles, Contador and Froome). Clearly he isn't going to win this, but he's a different rider to Kristoff and Sagan.

(and yeah, I tipped Kwiatkowski to win this race)
stooge says:

Jun 17 2015 at 7:57 am

@The Grande Fondue

... After California I can Sagan still being in it.. maybe? I didn’t tip him though.

Kwiatkowski is different though – he can climb. A bad climber doesn’t get 11th in the TdF and 4th at Tirreno–Adriatico (behind Nibbles, Contador and Froome). Clearly he isn’t going to win this, but he’s a different rider to Kristoff and Sagan.

(and yeah, I tipped Kwiatkowski to win this race)

Sagan might be an okay long shot for 5th. Kwiatkowski is different and a good pick, I think. He can climb enough not to get smashed in the big climbs and, more importantly in this race, he can time trial too. He has a good shot at a fairly high finish I would think.
Minnesota Expat says:

Jun 17 2015 at 8:04 am

@The Grande Fondue

True that. And I tipped him for 5th place (against my better judgement) because of his past performance and I like new young up-and-comers. But my brain wanted Barguil, Arrendondo, or Insausti (glad I didn't pick him) for 5th place.

Not to self: I am really, really, really liking Roman Bardet these days, but MUST resist the temptation to pick him as a top three in the TdF. The brain says he's not there yet.
rfreese888 says:

Jun 17 2015 at 8:37 am

All my top 5 save Kwiat-choke-ski looking good today!
Minnesota Expat says:

Jun 17 2015 at 5:24 pm

@Minnesota Expat

@The Grande Fondue

True that. And I tipped him for 5th place (against my better judgement) because of his past performance and I like new young up-and-comers. But my brain wanted Barguil, Arrendondo, or Insausti (glad I didn’t pick him) for 5th place.

Of course, my heart also said "Pinot" to win it all, but my brain said no. So what do I know?
stooge says:

Jun 17 2015 at 5:36 pm

@stooge

@The Grande Fondue

… After California I can Sagan still being in it.. maybe? I didn’t tip him though.

Kwiatkowski is different though – he can climb. A bad climber doesn’t get 11th in the TdF and 4th at Tirreno–Adriatico (behind Nibbles, Contador and Froome). Clearly he isn’t going to win this, but he’s a different rider to Kristoff and Sagan.

(and yeah, I tipped Kwiatkowski to win this race)

Sagan might be an okay long shot for 5th. Kwiatkowski is different and a good pick, I think. He can climb enough not to get smashed in the big climbs and, more importantly in this race, he can time trial too. He has a good shot at a fairly high finish I would think.

98th at +59'32'' - oops
The Grande Fondue says:

Jun 18 2015 at 8:11 am

@stooge

@stooge

@The Grande Fondue

… After California I can Sagan still being in it.. maybe? I didn’t tip him though.

Kwiatkowski is different though – he can climb. A bad climber doesn’t get 11th in the TdF and 4th at Tirreno–Adriatico (behind Nibbles, Contador and Froome). Clearly he isn’t going to win this, but he’s a different rider to Kristoff and Sagan.

(and yeah, I tipped Kwiatkowski to win this race)

Sagan might be an okay long shot for 5th. Kwiatkowski is different and a good pick, I think. He can climb enough not to get smashed in the big climbs and, more importantly in this race, he can time trial too. He has a good shot at a fairly high finish I would think.

98th at +59’32” – oops

Yeah, I know. I scored a fat zero points, and every one of my tips still makes perfect sense. Oh well.
The Grande Fondue says:

Jun 18 2015 at 8:16 am

Hang on - why are provisional results up? There are another 4 stages to go (including an ITT, and Tom Dumoulin is only 1:34 back. Maybe I can pickup one point there at least).
stooge says:

Jun 18 2015 at 12:47 pm

@The Grande Fondue

Hang on – why are provisional results up? There are another 4 stages to go (including an ITT, and Tom Dumoulin is only 1:34 back. Maybe I can pickup one point there at least).

Think the provisional results were just a half way update.

Bummed out about Kwiatkowski. Had him down for 5th. Really didn't think he'd get smashed in the stage 5 climbing. Not having watched it I don't know if there was more to it. He dropped another place today and is over +1hr. I also took Pozzovivo out of my initial picks. On the upside I've got Pinot for 1st and he might just come in.
gilly says:

Jun 21 2015 at 3:13 am

Come on Thibault. I need a good TT from you for my VSP, even though I'm feeling guilty over G