Velominati Super Prestige

Velominati Super Prestige: Giro d’Italia 2014

Johan Vandevelde wears a snow helmet on the Gavia during the '88 Giro.
Johan Vandevelde wears a snow helmet on the Gavia during the ’88 Giro.

For the simple reason that the Cobbled and Ardennes Classics are behind us, I have not alternative but to get back on my soap box about the Giro being the best of the three Grand Tours. Well, usually, at least. Last year’s race sucked the big one (even if it was supremely Rule #9), but for the most part it is the race that is the most closely contested of the three. There are mountains everywhere Italy meaning there are less bunch sprints, the weather is completely unreliable, and the slightly lower calibre of rider seems hungrier. Or maybe the reduced pressure means riders aren’t quite as stressed out and are able to funnel that extra energy into the race.

My favorite Giro is a hard one to pick out, but its either the 1988 Giro when Andy Hampsten took the win after freezing himself stiff with Erik Breukink on the Gavia or when Pantani took his in 1998. I’ve been watching the ’98 Giro during my morning turbo sessions and Merckx-oh-me, that was an All-Drugs Olympics nail-biter. ’98 is also an interesting contrast to ’88; in just a decade, the technology had changed so much but more than that, the doping atmosphere in the sport transformed completely. From Hampsten’s Giro, EPO went from just being dabbled with on the fringes to being abused by leaders and domestiques alike by the time Pantani won. Hampsten wrote a nice piece about racing against dopers in Tyler Hamilton’s book, The Secret Race. He described the various side-effects that the popular drugs of his era had, such as bloating and a tendency to make the user over-estimate their abilities. Amphetamine made the riders do stupid things, cortisone made them retain water, and steroids made them heavy; a clean rider could use those factors to their advantage. A far cry from the rocket fuel that allowed humble domestiques to big ring up major alpine passes.

Why am I talking about drugs? There’s a race starting in a few days, people! This is our first Grand Tour, and the picks are worth more points, not to mention that strategy starts to play into things with the chance to swap your picks out on either of the rest days – at a certain point penalty. Remember that points are not accumulated; the standings on the last day of the race are what kinds, so keep the long game in mind.

Any points you win count towards the overall prizes plus the winner of this event also gets to post for the rest of the year in the pink jersey badge. So check the start list, review the VSP Grand Tour Scoring Guidelines and get your picks in by the time the countdown clock goes to zero at midnight PDT on Friday, May 9th. If you think we mapped one of your picks wrong, use the dispute system and we’ll review it. Also remember to be precise enough in your description so we know which rider you mean; in other words, if you enter “Martin”, we will use our discretion (read: wild guess) to decide if you mean Tony or Dan – and that choice will not be negotiable once the the countdown clock goes to zero. There has also been a recent scourge of people putting a rider in more than one place. Two words: Piti Principle, people! Don’t make me do a bunch of extra programming to keep you from being allowed to submit such an obviously unsportsmanlike set of picks. We will mercilessly clear out all your entries should we find you have attempted this.

Also don’t forget we’ve got three major prizes for the season-long VSP:

  1. First place overall wins a Veloforma Strada iR Velominati Edition frame in addition to the customary VSP winner’s VVorkshop Apron
  2. Second place overall wins a set of hand built CR Wheelworks Arenberg wheelset in a custom Velominati paint scheme laced to orange Chris King hubs. (CR Wheelworks is Café Roubaix’s new wheel goods brand.)
  3. Third place overall wins a full Velominati V-Kit with accompanying custom orange Bont Vaypor+ road shoes.

Good luck, have fun with it, and don’t lose your Rule #43 spirit.

[vsp_results id=”29781″/]

 

Related Posts

Velominati Super Prestige: Men’s World Championship Road Race 2017

Sep 21 2017

Velominati Super Prestige: Women’s World Championship Road Race 2017

Sep 21 2017

874 Replies to “Velominati Super Prestige: Giro d’Italia 2014”

  1. So looking forward to Ireland this weekend. Belfast and Dublin here we go.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Nairo Quintana
    2. Joaquim Rodriguez
    3. Dan Martin
    4. Rigoberto Uran
    5. Cadel Evans

  2. VSP PICKS:

    1. Joaquim Rodriguez
    2. Nairo Quintana
    3. Rafal Majka
    4. Cadel Evans
    5. Domenico Pozzovivo

  3. Alrighty, let’s see how close I get to the oracle of results (aka seemunkee)

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Rigoberto Uran
    2. Nairo Quintana
    3. Cadel Evans
    4. Marcel Kittel
    5. Ryder Hesjedal

  5. VSP PICKS:

    1. Nairo Quintana
    2. Joaquim Rodriguez
    3. Rigoberto Uran
    4. Cadel Evans
    5. Dan Martin

  7. That’s a lot of Quintana in the early picks.  I’m not taking the bait.  I’d rather fail spectacularly.  I actually can’t believe Movistar are putting Quintana out there when he could be the 2 in their 1-2 punch in the TDF.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Cunego
    2. Scarponi
    3. Quintana
    4. Evans
    5. Joaquím Rodríguez

  8. VSP PICKS:

    1. Nairo Qunitana
    2. Joaquim Rodriguez
    3. Cadel Evans
    4. Rigoberto Uran
    5. Michele Scarponi

  9. VSP PICKS:

    1. Nairo Quintana
    2. Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver
    3. Cadel Evans
    4. Rigoberto Uran
    5. Dan Martin

  11. Based on last year’s TdF and his form thus far I can see why Quintana’s well fancied – got to be a podium pick for a parcours like this year’s.

    Other than that Purito will be up there and Cuddles will be top five as a career last hurrah.

    Pozzovivo is Italian, can climb a hill and AG2R need some good news.

    Likewise I wouldn’t want to bring bad news to Oleg Tinkoff so they’ll propell someone up there to avoid sleeping with the fishes in the Moskva.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Quintana
    2. J-Rod
    3. Cuddles
    4. Rafal Majka
    5. Dr Pozzovivo

  12. VSP PICKS:

    1. Nairo Quintana
    2. Joaquim Rodriguez
    3. Dan Martin
    4. Rigoberto Uran Uran
    5. Cadel Evans

  14. VSP PICKS:

    1. Rigoberto Uran
    2. Nairo Quintana
    3. Joaquim Rodriquez
    4. Cadel Evans
    5. Dan Martin

  16. VSP PICKS:

    1. Quintana, Nairo
    2. Evans, Cadel
    3. Uran, Rigoberto
    4. Scarponi, Michele
    5. Rodriguez, Joaquim

  17. Reasonably happy with this lot, although I have a nagging doubt about NQ’s TTing ability…

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Nairo Quintana
    2. Almost good enough Cadel
    3. J-Rod
    4. Oh Danny Boy
    5. Hungry Like The Wolf

  18. VSP PICKS:

    1. Rigoberto Uran
    2. Vincenza Nibali
    3. Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas
    4. Michele Scarponi
    5. Joaquím Rodríguez Oliver

  19. VSP PICKS:

    1. Rigoberto Uran
    2. Michele Scarponi
    3. Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas
    4. Franco Pellizotti
    5. Joaquím Rodríguez Oliver

  20. VSP PICKS:

    1. Dan Martin
    2. Quintana
    3. Yell 4 Cadel
    4. J Rodriguez
    5. Scarponi

  21. VSP PICKS:

    1. Rigoberto Uran
    2. Joaquím Rodríguez Oliver
    3. Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas
    4. Franco Pellizotti
    5. Scarponi

  22. VSP PICKS:

    1. Rigoberto Uran
    2. Joaquím Rodríguez Oliver
    3. Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas
    4. Franco Pellizotti
    5. Damiano Cunego

  25. Oh boy…and here we go! Grand Tour time and National Bike Month in the U.S. Not a bad time of year to be a lover of cycling.

  26. Movistar look much stronger than Katusha in TTs and in the hills, so Nairo will win.

    Cadel won’t be able to climb with the youngsters, which will also cause Sanchez to lose time.

    Pierre Rolland’s presence without a strong team is confusing. So he will probably drop out at the 3rd rest day after proving to the team that he can still climb (or not).

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Nairo Quintana
    2. Purito
    3. Pozzovivo
    4. Uran
    5. Niemiec

  29. VSP PICKS:

    1. Purito
    2. V-tana
    3. The Medellin Mullet
    4. Cadel
    5. Roche

  31. VSP PICKS:

    1. Uran
    2. Quintana, N
    3. Evans
    4. Niemiec
    5. Rolland, P

  33. VSP PICKS:

    1. Nairo Quintana
    2. Michele Scarponi
    3. Joachim Rodriguez
    4. Rigoberto Uran
    5. Cadel Evans

  34. VSP PICKS:

    1. Nairo Quintana
    2. Rigoberto Uran
    3. Joachim Rodriguez
    4. Michele Scarponi
    5. Cadel Evans

  35. ?

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Nairo Quintana
    2. Joaquim Rodriguez
    3. Damiano Cunego
    4. Cadel Evans
    5. Ivan Basso

  37. My favorite Giro is a hard one to pick out, but its either the 1988 Giro when Andy Hampsten took the win after freezing himself stiff with Erik Breukink on the Gavia

    Winners are grinners! Hasn’t stopped since his win!

    photo Enrico Caracciolo

  38. I think Im getting a little wild with these picks.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Cadel Evans
    2. Nairo Quintana
    3. Pierre Rolland
    4. J Rod
    5. Julian Arredondo

  39. Redemption for Ryder?

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Ryder Hesjedal
    2. Ivan Basso
    3. Juaquim Rodriguez
    4. Cadel Evans
    5. Thomas De Gendt

  40. I have a feeling I’m going to regret this..

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Nairo Quintana
    2. Cuddles
    3. Uran Uran
    4. Ya Jokin Rodriguez
    5. Pozzovivo

  41. So, I will let my conscience get the better of me, pretty much instantly.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Nairo Quintana
    2. Ya Jokin Rodriguez
    3. Uran Uran
    4. Cuddles
    5. Pozzovivo

  43. The old man and his team to diesel to the win. An unfortunate J Rod to just miss again.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Cadel
    2. J Rod
    3. Quintana
    4. Majikka
    5. Sammy Sanchez

  44. After backing Aussies in earlier races I’ll give em another go

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Cuddles
    2. Quintana
    3. Uran Duran
    4. Hesjedal the rider
    5. Dan the man Martin

  46. VSP PICKS:

    1. Nairo Quintana
    2. Cadel Evans
    3. Uran Uran
    4. JRod
    5. Michele Scarponi

  47. VSP PICKS:

    1. Quintana
    2. Uran
    3. Rodriguez
    4. Evans
    5. Roche

  48. VSP PICKS:

    1. Quintana
    2. J. Rodriguez
    3. Dan Martin
    4. Pozzivivo
    5. Uran

  50. I’m definitely expecting some changes with this.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Nairo Quintana
    2. Joaquim Rodriguez
    3. Cadel Evans
    4. Domenico Pozzovivo
    5. Rigoberto Uran

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.