Velominati Super Prestige: Giro d’Italia 2012 Stage 20

The famous bends of the Stelvio

See that huge mountain over there? The one with the steep, twisty road going up it? The one that is often covered in snow this time of year? Right, race ya to the top.

I don’t know what more there is to say about this year’s Giro; four days from the end, with two of the biggest mountain stages yet to come and the G.C., Mountains, and Points competitions are all wide open. Basso is looking perhaps the freshest of the favorites, but Hope of a Nation is not looking to be weakening, either. Purito hasn’t shown weakness, though he also hasn’t really been able to show the speed he usually has on the uphill finishes; on his trademark uphill finale attacks, the slower men have (usually) been able to contain him. The Pony, on the other hand, showed his scars as he cracked on the way over the last hill on Wednesday’s stage and seems to be on the down side of his good form as we enter the final stretch.

Friday’s stage may well solidify the looks of things, but Saturday’s stage to the top of the Stelvio will be fireworks for sure. Clear your calendars for Friday and Saturday; this is going to be good.

Since this is a Tour stage, point on offer are 5 for first, 4 four second, 3 for third, 2 for fourth, and 1 for 5th. No bonus points for the right rider in the wrong place. Get your picks in by the time the countdown timer goes to zero. Points count towards your overall VSP total but do not effect your Giro VSP total. Good luck.

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283 Replies to “Velominati Super Prestige: Giro d’Italia 2012 Stage 20”

  1. @RedRanger

    @Adrian

    Anyone seem De Gendts bar tape, very Laura Ashley……

    I have no idea what that means.

    Laura Ashley makes crap pastel colored home decorating products, must be a british thing

  2. @Adrian

    @RedRanger

    @Adrian

    Anyone seem De Gendts bar tape, very Laura Ashley……

    I have no idea what that means.

    Laura Ashley makes crap pastel colored home decorating products, must be a british thing

    Im a velomibachelor. I know nothing about home decorations.

  3. @RedRanger

    @Adrian

    @RedRanger

    @Adrian

    Anyone seem De Gendts bar tape, very Laura Ashley……

    I have no idea what that means.

    Laura Ashley makes crap pastel colored home decorating products, must be a british thing

    Im a velomibachelor. I know nothing about home decorations.

    I hope you can still agree a disgraceful color for bar tape…..

  4. Ryder putting the hammer down and Basoo blows like a two dollar whore!

  5. @Adrian

    @RedRanger

    @Adrian

    Anyone seem De Gendts bar tape, very Laura Ashley……

    I have no idea what that means.

    Laura Ashley makes crap pastel colored home decorating products, must be a british thing

    That is celeste. You don’t diss celeste.

  6. Fuck! J rod might pull off fourth and, ergo, the points jersey. Nothing against him but i hope he gets fifth or worse!

  7. @DerHoggz

    @Adrian

    @RedRanger

    @Adrian

    Anyone seem De Gendts bar tape, very Laura Ashley……

    I have no idea what that means.

    Laura Ashley makes crap pastel colored home decorating products, must be a british thing

    That is celeste. You don’t diss celeste.

    It’s bloody awful. The man is doing a storming ride but is let down by his color scheme. Also a complete clash with the blue of the vacans kit

  8. No!!! Unbelievable, J Rod gets the points jersey with that late attack for fourth place on the stage.

  9. “This is definitely like the greatest victory of his career.” – King Kelly

    Love that he threw the “like” in there! Kelly sounding like a middle school girl.

    And I know there was some talk about Ryder not having much style or class, not being that well liked in Canada. One thing I don’t like: when the dude crosses the line he doesn’t celebrate, grimace, smile…he just plays with his fucking computer. Lame.

  10. @Steampunk

    Wow! Incredibly brave finish by Hesjedal.

    No doubt. I love how Harmon just wouldn’t believe Kelly that the gap would come down 1:30 by the end of the stage, yet it was exactly that.

  11. @Adrian

    @DerHoggz

    @Adrian

    @RedRanger

    @Adrian

    Anyone seem De Gendts bar tape, very Laura Ashley……

    I have no idea what that means.

    Laura Ashley makes crap pastel colored home decorating products, must be a british thing

    That is celeste. You don’t diss celeste.

    It’s bloody awful. The man is doing a storming ride but is let down by his color scheme. Also a complete clash with the blue of the vacans kit

    I will give you the clash with Vacansoleil kit, but that is Vacansolaeil’s fault. If you are riding Bianchi there will be celeste. http://www.bianchiusa.com/

  12. @earnest!

    @Steampunk

    Wow! Incredibly brave finish by Hesjedal.

    No doubt. I love how Harmon just wouldn’t believe Kelly that the gap would come down 1:30 by the end of the stage, yet it was exactly that.

    How is the gap calculated, based on when they pass the same point, or does it take into account speeds and distances?

  13. @Ron
    The man put in one hell of a ride. He can do whatever he wants in my books. I kind of like the idea that he wanted his time. It’s exactly what we would do.

  14. @Adrian

    @DerHoggz

    @Adrian

    @RedRanger

    @Adrian

    Anyone seem De Gendts bar tape, very Laura Ashley……

    I have no idea what that means.

    Laura Ashley makes crap pastel colored home decorating products, must be a british thing

    That is celeste. You don’t diss celeste.

    It’s bloody awful. The man is doing a storming ride but is let down by his color scheme. Also a complete clash with the blue of the vacans kit

    Celeste is classic. You dont want to match to much anyway.

  15. Great ride by De Gendt… the rest can fuck off.

    @Ron

    I know there was some talk about Ryder not having much style or class, not being that well liked in Canada. One thing I don’t like: when the dude crosses the line he doesn’t celebrate, grimace, smile…he just plays with his fucking computer. Lame.

    And Ryder’s interview style? Shit. Disinterested, arrogant, rude. Don’t like him at all.

    Maybe because it’s 3.30am I’m a bit grumpy…

  16. Holy shit…more Diamond Dave squeals and Van Halen for the podium! Gotta love the choice of music. ZZ Top and Van Halen have been rockin’ the podium racers all week.

  17. Tommy De Gendt? WOW, what an effort!

    Nice ride by JRod. And my boy Ryder has 30 seconds to make it happen.

  18. @Steampunk

    @Ron
    The man put in one hell of a ride. He can do whatever he wants in my books. I kind of like the idea that he wanted his time. It’s exactly what we would do.

    Fair enough & good counterpoint.

    However, shouldn’t we ask of PROs to only read their V-meters?

  19. What a race. Basso really shit the bed, eh?

    Too bad De Gendt’s career will now be marked with Belgium saying he’s the next Merckx. What a ride!

    [vsp_results id=”20058″]
    [/vsp_results]

  20. @brett

    Great ride by De Gent… the rest can fuck off.

    @Ron

    I know there was some talk about Ryder not having much style or class, not being that well liked in Canada. One thing I don’t like: when the dude crosses the line he doesn’t celebrate, grimace, smile…he just plays with his fucking computer. Lame.

    And Ryder’s interview style? Shit. Disinterested, arrogant, rude. Don’t like him at all.

    Maybe because it’s 3.30am I’m a bit grumpy…

  21. Hopefully Ryder has got enough left in the tank for a good TT. Don’t see scarponi or De Gendt being able to make that much time up on him if he is riding well tomorrow

  22. @ChrisO

    My theory… Kreuziger hasn’t taken part in the ‘Preparation’ program of Astana and so they have no sympathy when he has an off day, and probably he can’t train the same way and they get on his case even more. He’ll leave and hopefully find a team that suits him, where he will develop.

    Funny you mention this, have you read Breaking the Chain? It seemed to me much more likely in that context that The Angry Cross mixed drugs he shouldn’t have and that caused his off day. His blowup was almost identical to Zulle’s in the 98 Giro, and it’s well known now that the cocktail caused it.

  23. @Marko

    V-ride of the year so far in my estimation. De Ghent – Dun Went.

    Shaping up for a good argument come December; The Robot and this ride are already great candidates. If he winds up on the podium, it will fuck up everyone’s VSP.

  24. Anyone think there was more than a little bit of a resemblance between Ryder’s effort today & Cadel’s last year up the Galibier?

    As long as he’s got enough in the tank tomorrow it should really be his…interestingly there was only 3 seconds difference between Ryder & de Gendt in the initial prologue so that time they made up towards the end of the Stelvio could end up being golden for Weight of a Nation.

  25. @Ron
    Maybe, but it’s a bit like Michael Barry filming his Girona rides. It’s awesome because they’re PROS and they still care about this stuff and love what they’re doing. Hesjedal has the best recorded time up Haleakala; I bet the kid in him just wanted an accurate time for a new PB up the Stelvio…

  26. @frank
    Have you seen de Gendt? Monstrous escapes in Paris Nice from last year, good on the Alpe and in Grenoble… That guy has talent. I once said a friend “he’s a good breakaway rider, but he can’t do it alone.” He did it alone. He told me “No worries, he’s still not a climber.” Alpe d’Huez. I said he could actually be some kind of stage racer: he dissapoints in Paris Nice. After we both decided he was a great stage hunter, he is now taking a GC without proper preparation. Can you imagine what he could do if he focussed on a good GC? He might actually be the next Belgian tour winner.

  27. De Gendt is a fucking madman: Who the f*ck attacks on a 200+ km ride with the Mortirolo and Stelvio on the second to last day of the Giro and gets away with it? Too bad I couldn’t see the last 30 km, but I heard he attacked and dropped his breakaway comrades at the foot of the Stelvio and already had 3 minutes. At that point I was speculating over how awesome it would be if De Gendt took the Giro GC.

  28. I have both Scarponi and Rodriquez, and they are correctly mapped, but I have 0 points for them in my VSP. Are they wrongly mapped on the result side or is there a bug?

  29. @RedRanger
    I think it is still our duty to tell it to him as often as we can.

    But this is something most of my classmates (economy, nothing with computers) can do in Excel. Where would someone who actually knows his coding go wrong?

  30. @frank

    @ChrisO

    My theory… Kreuziger hasn’t taken part in the ‘Preparation’ program of Astana and so they have no sympathy when he has an off day, and probably he can’t train the same way and they get on his case even more. He’ll leave and hopefully find a team that suits him, where he will develop.

    Funny you mention this, have you read Breaking the Chain? It seemed to me much more likely in that context that The Angry Cross mixed drugs he shouldn’t have and that caused his off day. His blowup was almost identical to Zulle’s in the 98 Giro, and it’s well known now that the cocktail caused it.

    Is that the WIlly Voight book – no I haven’t read it.

    You might be right but I was also thinking of his lack of results and the fact there appears to have been tension for a while, with him talking about wanting to go to another team. He’s clearly not happy there and if what we suspect is going on at Astana IS going on at Astana then that would be an obvious – but unmentionable – source of acrimony.

  31. @RedRanger

    @Netraam
    I hear you. We have seen this happen before, so I’m guessing he might know about it.

    Yeah, unless you have Phil Anderson’s head stuck in your pick slots, take it to the dispute button! (just kidding around. Still kills me that i had Phils head in my slots for a few days. Man i do NOT understand computers).

  32. @Buck Rogers

    No!!! Unbelievable, J Rod gets the points jersey with that late attack for fourth place on the stage.

    Yup, official stage results and overall has J Rod in first on the points jersey by one point! He is a worthy winner but Cav MUST be kicking himself for his second place a few days ago, not to mention the earlier crashes. Misses the jersey by ONE point!

  33. @DerHoggz
    I think I could spend the rest of the day looking at the Bianchi website and store.
    Might have to get some Celeste grip tape for one of my bikes.

  34. @Netraam

    But this is something most of my classmates (economy, nothing with computers) can do in Excel. Where would someone who actually knows his coding go wrong?

    I didn’t realize I should be dropping my Saturday afternoon plans to snap to your needs.

    To dispute is one thing, to point out a possible error is another and appreciated. However, to arrogantly suggest you and your friends can better run this process with an Excel (wtf) spreadsheet is on a completely different order.

    Incredibly insulting and not appreciated in the slightest.

    You’re welcome to quit the VSP and go play dungeons and dragons with your mates; spreadsheets are probably a very useful tool for that.

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