Velominati Super Prestige: Giro d’Italia

Ivan Basso leads the 2006 Giro before illness forced him out of the lead.

The inaugural Velominati Super Prestige continues the with Giro d’Italia, on Saturday May 8 in Amsterdam. This will be the first Grand Tour of the series, and while we have a set of rules established for the competition, we’ll be modifying them as we go if we notice any problems with them.

Personally, I feel the Giro is the Cyclist’s Grand Tour; it’s not as main-stream or commercial as the Tour de France, but the race generally makes for a  more exciting three weeks. There is something about the topography and geography of Italy that seems to lend itself to unpredictable and aggressive racing  where several riders typically stay in contention until the final stages of the race.

With this being the first Grand Tour of the series, we’ve set up a scoring system that we think will be fair but will also help to close down the competition and afford newcomers the ability to catch up with some good picks.  Jump over to the VSP Schedule, Rules, & Results page for a full explanation of the rules and the standings, but here is the ten-second overview:

Every contestant is to choose their top five General Classification picks of the race.  The final podium of the Giro is worth 15 points to the winner, 10 points for second, 5 points for third, 3 points for fourth, and 2 point for fifth.  Given the effect crashes can have on a tour, we’ve set up some guidelines around making changes to your lineup during the race: you’re allowed to change your lineup if any rider in your pick list drops out for any reason without any penalty; rest days will allow contestants to make changes to their lineup, however those changes will come at a point penalty.  (Visit the VSP Schedule, Rules, & Results page for a complete breakdown of these points.)

Every day, the leader in the points standings will have the honor of wearing the Pink Jersey when commenting on the site; the overall winner will wear the Pink Jersey for the remainder of the season, and will also earn an “Obey the Rules” bumper sticker.  All reader’s points qualify towards the final prize of the free Velominati Shop Apron.  As always, if you are inclined to enter, simply post your predictions for the top five placings in the comment section.

Sub-competitions will be conducted while the Giro is underway for specific stages.  These stages will be chosen a few days prior to the stage being held and will be selected based on the current race conditions with the aim of choosing the most decisive and exciting stages of the race, so check back often to make sure you don’t miss out.

Good luck!

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

  1. 1. Veino – Seriously, he’s gonna tear shit up
    2. Almost there Cadel – If it only weren’t for Veino
    3. Can-he-go (Cunego)- There’s got to be an Italian on the podium. It’s the Giro
    4. Basso – He might still be pretty good
    5. Christian Vande Velde (CVdV). He’s good enough, he’s strong enough, and I like him. Injury replacement: Carlos Sastre-fier. (read Pacifier)

  2. 1. Cadel, knows he can’t win the TdF so he is all in for the Giro
    2. Cunego, was going well in the Spring Classics, Italian and has paid people off
    3. f’ing Vino
    4. Scarponi, sure he is doper, it’s working for him
    5. Vincenzo “da Shark” Nibali, why not, Basso is smoking like a hippie’s motorbike

    Why is Denis Menchov not racing? Biological passport issues? Twiggo, saving himself to be beaten in the Tour.

    @Marko I see no Grimpeurs in the Giro start list on Cyclingnews. I’d love to see VDV kick some ass and win a stage.

  3. @wvcycling
    That’s right, it’s off to Amsterdam everybody. Get comfortable at the Hashish Cafe’ of your choice. The fun starts Saturday. Place your bets.

  4. OK, so maybe it’s just that I’m a lawyer and my life consists of looking for loopholes, but I think the DNF and Crashes rules are susceptible to manipulation. Both permit a contestant to “make full changes to their picks” in the event of a crash or DNF affecting one of their riders, and neither requires the adjustment to be made within a particular time after the withdrawal or crash. I think this means that, if you deliberately pick five sprinters (and/or Gesink-like serial crashers), then when one of them inevitably crashes or abandons you can wait until just before the end of the race and submit a full fresh crop of five. Of course, you would clearly be a prick if you did that, but technically you could try. I wondered about proposing some modest emendations to the rules to ensure such outcomes aren’t possible (e.g. only changing the rider who’s out, and having to do so within two days of the withdrawal / crash). But there’d still be a risk that some other lawyer would come along and study the rules and assert s/he’d found another loophole, and then before we knew it the site would be more about careful parsing of Frank’s sentences than about the racing. So I think I’d favour, instead, an additional rule – similar to what tax lawyers call an “anti avoidance” rule, what insurance lawyers refer to as the doctrine of “uberimae fides”, and what courts of equity refer to as the “doctrine of clean hands” – to the effect that anyone obviously taking the piss be liable to forfeit whatever number of points seems reasonable in the circumstances. We could call it the “Don’t Be A Douchebag” Rule. Or, better yet, the Piti Principle.

  5. @wvcycling Your so right – Hey Frank can we have a procrastinators deadline for picks on the Giro I’m just not ready for the pressure and tension. I know I am in complete denial of R#5 but have pity man.

    @Geof Love the DBAD Rule and even though comparing me to a lawyer is like Tiny Tim (yukalaly and all) to Jimi Hendrix, I had the same thoughts… and your solutions are elegant.

  6. Lampre seems to have a strong team so I am heading in that direction with the full knowledge that since it is mostly Italians they will be sniping and grousing and therefore weaken the whole but it is an Italian race so…

    Vino because if you can’t beat them join them..

    If Evans was a little thinner in his face I put him at the top but that extra weight is going to slay him on the Gavia…

    The last 2 because I don’t know what else to do – Pellizotti out, Freire not starting maybe? Wiggo is English and Voekler is French…
    Good luck all – it should be a great Giro!

    1.) Cunego
    2.) Vino
    3.) Evans
    4.) Sastre
    5.) Petacchi

  7. Frank, Wow LOVE my new jersey – that is AWESOME!!! (and I can’t remember why I have the honor being in second and all but I do not care) the Campionissimo Maglia! Yea Baaaby!!!

  8. @Rob

    We had the Cadel looks fat conversation in an earlier VSP as well and it certainly is a concern. If the Gavia doesn’t slay him, the Zoncolan certainly will. You look nice in your new jersey. Hopefully there’s no rainbow curse.

  9. I think this lineup is going to be more based on hopes than any reality…

    1. Cadel
    2. Wiggo
    3. VDV
    4. Sastre
    5. Cunego

    I just can’t bring myself to put Veino or Basso down…

  10. @john
    Menchov was never in the mix for the Giro, methinks. He thinks he can ice it up at the Tour, but it’s never going to happen. He’ll fall off on the stones in the first week.

  11. @Rob
    Thanks! We have a pink, yellow, and gold badge ready to roll for the leaders/winners of the various Grand Tours. Have a look.

    And, mate, your picks always kill me!! Petacchi in fifth! Love it!

  12. Sastre – because of the climbs
    Evans – something will go wrong
    Basso – been saving himself for the Giro and there has to be an Italian on the podium
    Vino – the team doesn’t stack up as it did at LBL
    Wiggins – he’s using it for training

  13. @frank

    Spot on, mate. Piti Principle is elegant, clever, and will likely piss Brett off

    Ssshhhhhh! Brett is still asleep. But he will be pissed when he wakes as reads Geof’s law review. Beauty.

    @Rob
    Petacchi has a better chance at 5th than Voekler, good on you for keeping the French off the list. I put one of the B-Box Boyz in for Fleche Wallone and got, comment vous dit, merde.

  14. @john
    Already read it before I went to bed! You see, Geof and I live in the same city…

    1: This should only end one way, one way only should this end. CADEL. But as Jarvis points out, something could, and likely will, go wrong. A crash, a bad soy latte, fleas… but it’s a different Cadel this year, and a win in the rainbow is his destiny.
    2: Who the fuck knows? Sastre is an unknown quantity as far as form goes, but if class counts, then he can probably win. We’ll risk him for 2nd.
    3: Garzelli. He’s old, he’s bald, he gets good drugs. I can relate to him.
    4: Veino. The most talented in the field, but could fade late on in the Monts. I hope he does well for Geof’s sake.
    5: The Russian rug salesman. Work that one out… he can climb, TT, is hardened and has hair that Garzelli can only dream of.

  15. @brett
    Cadel. I remember, not so long ago, your head wasn’t up his ass as far. But, I suppose I can’t blame you for jumping on his wagon. Shit, if he’d just start riding above 60rpm, I might find myself being a fan, too.

  16. OK. It’s lunchtime and it’s time to Harden Up and get this over with.

    1) Sastre. His form is a question mark, but the man has class and is always good in a GT. Add to that the mountains this bastard is rolling over, and I don’t know who can beat him other than people who are not on the start list.

    2) Evans. He’s the Poulidorof our age and something will happen. Also, his stroke is not as smooth as mine, he is not peaking yet, and he is too fat to climb.

    3) Basso. One of my repented favorites. His form is not good enough to win and he’s not willing to take the real drugs (only the sissy ones) but he’s a monster and the third week is a brutal and by then he’ll be on form.

    4) Veino. Experience in the Giro will be key; this is no ordinary Grand Tour. The tiffosi and geography transform donkeys into thoroughbreds. Or was it the transfusions that do that? I can’t remember.

    5) Nibali. Out of form, but the Giro’s last week will be brutal. Plenty of time to ride into it, and this is one heck of a talent right here.

  17. Time to make my bids. Am tempted to bleat a bit about how difficult this is. But that would breach Rule #5. And a bleating New Zealander would also risk Brett feeling he has licence to ‘entertain’ us with some witty extracts from his “Big Aussie Book of Kiwi Sheep Jokes”. So I’ll just have to man up and do it:

    1. Wee Carlos Sastre. He’ll be boringly cautious and conserve energy for two weeks then just grind all the competition out of competition on those big bad hills in week 3. Then he’ll switch teams.

    2. Good-ish Cadel. He’ll be boringly cautious and conserve energy for two weeks then just grind nearly all the competition out of competition on those big bad hills in week 3. Then he’ll switch teams.

    3. Twiggo. He’ll smoke the TT and TTT, play it safe on the flats, then plug away on those big bad hills until he realises he might be in with a chance, at which point it will be just too difficult for him to pull out in order to focus on coming 12th in the Tour. Then he’ll switch teams. (OK, maybe none of this will happen. Particularly the last bit. But it’s sufficiently credible not to infringe the Piti Principle if he does, in fact, pull out in order to focus on coming 12 in the Tour.)

    4. Bad Vino. He’ll look good, he’ll attack, but he won’t be able to ride to the front and stay there in that last week. Sooner or later he’s going to crack on one of those big bad hills he hasn’t even bothered to recce. (This has happened before.) But he won’t change teams.

    5. Basso. Notwithstanding the doping ban and some possible question marks over the extent of his remorse, for some reason part of me quite likes him. I nearly put Nibali, as there has to be an Italian and Basso isn’t in ideal shape (and I don’t think he’ll ever be as good as he was). But Vincenzo is too young. I think that big bad last week will favour an older chap.

  18. brett :@johnAlready read it before I went to bed!

    Hot damn. Thought I might land me a big angry Brett-fish, but he’s gone and spat the hook straight back out.

  19. @Geof
    Well played. I don’t think Twiggo stands a chance on the Plan de Cajones or the Mortirolo. Christ those look awful and awesome. “Awesome” in this case only applies if you’re not riding it yourself or if you are it will only apply after the ride is over.

    I’m with you on Veino; he’ll show but week three will kill him. Like in the ’03 Tour.

  20. @frank

    @Geof

    I hear what you guys are saying about Veino and week three. But I’m staking my weak reputation on what he looks like right now. Not so much his Leige performance (although that’s a factor) but how fit and skinny he looks. The guy just looks hardman right now, even compared to a couple years ago, there’s something about him that just looks lean and like a slightly different rider. He’s been training more in the mountains as well. Of course I’ll probably be totally wrong and you all can say I told you so but I have a hunch.

  21. @brett, @Marko

    Oh…THAT’s who you meant. Totally didn’t get that. That is a bold move indeed.

    What on Earth would make you do that to your head? I can hear the country music just looking that picture. I bet his DS is annoyed that he insists on having Billy Ray Sirus played through the car’s megaphone during time trials.

    He would actually be a rider worth admiring if it weren’t for that awful hair dangling out his helmet. He actually pedals a bike quite nicely.

    Looking at this picture, I just noticed now that I think Rod Blagojevich may be Vlad’s estranged father:

  22. @frank

    I think it’s Butt-Rock blairing out of the team car, not Achy Breaky Heart. When I consider the ear ring it’s Scorpions, Poison, Quiet Riot, Whitesnake, and The Crue! C’mon Feel The Noise, Vladi.

  23. I’m so excited about this Giro, Douche-strong and Cunt-odor should be ashamed that they’re not showing up to contest it. This is a hardman Giro par excellence. That said, I’m massively late to the party with my picks…soo…
    1. Sastre – remember the little fella dieseling off up Vesuvius last year? More of that on Zoncolan and the mortirolo.
    2. Basso – because he’s not Veino and I need an Italian in there, think he could come strong in the 3rd week.
    3. Veino(count drac) – regardless of being something I’d want the cycling equivalent of antibiotics prescribed for, he’s on awesome form.
    4. Evans – great form too but is going to fall apart like a cheap watch in the mountains and he’s too fat.
    5. Wiggo – probably won’t turn up but will put in a big TT and if’s he’s anywhere near in the last week may go for it. I think mullet-chops could win this if he really tried but Sky are probably too focused on the tour.

  24. @Nathan Edwards
    Yeah, I just saw that. Finally got the ticker to work on my phone. You had me worried for a second. The race is in the embryonic stage though, he’ll be mixing it up.

  25. @Geof

    And a bleating New Zealander would also risk Brett feeling he has licence to ‘entertain’ us with some witty extracts from his “Big Aussie Book of Kiwi Sheep Jokes


    I wonder if I can buy this on Amazon…used. New Zealand, where men are men and sheep are nervous.

    @Marko

    Young rider: Bookwalter

    Genius!

    And Vincenzo Nibali in at 11th place, Basso 37th(??) it’s on!

  26. john :@Geof
    New Zealand, where men are men and sheep are nervous.

    Indeed. A source of great national pride for all of us. Someone obviously told Greg Henderson that Little Bo Peep and friend were waiting at the finish line. Who needs drugs when you’ve gopt that kind of motivation?!

  27. @john
    Not genius. Some other guy got it. Is Bookwalter not young enough at 26? I know it’s his first GT. Oh well.

  28. 1. Cadel Evans. As john said, as he knows he is not going to win the TdF…
    2. Vino. The doper is back, and he will be 2nd or 1st…not below that
    3. Nibali. He began his season down here in South America (Argentina to be more specific) so he deserves my brazilian credits…

    Let`s not forget Murilo Fisher at Garmin…the only Brazilian in a ProTour team. He will be there giving the last push on Farrar.

  29. @Roberto Marques

    Hey man, welcome. Nice picks, it’s nice to have someone representing Argentina in the SuperPrestige and contributing to the blog. Slide on over to the VSP page for details, then, pick your 4th and 5th (we do top five here to keep things more interesting). Nice tip on Fisher, I’ll look for him.

  30. OK! So add:
    4th Van de Velde
    5th Karpets

    By the way, I am Brazilian not Argentinian, but I have to admit that Argentina has the best race (Tour de San Luis) of South America…

  31. Uh oh, looks like I may have to reshuffle the deck. One of my picks, and I’m not the only one who picked him, may be out. Damn weak collarbones.

  32. Marko :

    1. Veino – Seriously, he’s gonna tear shit up
    2. Almost there Cadel – If it only weren’t for Veino
    3. Can-he-go (Cunego)- There’s got to be an Italian on the podium. It’s the Giro
    4. Basso – He might still be pretty good
    5. Christian Vande Velde (CVdV). He’s good enough, he’s strong enough, and I like him. Injury replacement: Carlos Sastre-fier. (read Pacifier)

    Bump for the change.

  33. @Marko

    Few minutes after I wrote my final list Vande Velde broke his collarbone (must be a signal of God!), so I will replace him with Garzelli.

    1. Evans
    2. Veino
    3. Nibali
    4. Vande Velde Garzelli
    5. Karpets

  34. @Roberto Marques
    Welcome aboard, mate! We have amended the GT entry criteria to allow you to enter after the start of the competition. Within the constraints of the Piti Prinicple, contestants can now enter the competition without point penalties any time before the first rest day. Cheers, and thanks for joining – it’s great to representation from South America!

  35. @all

    Standing after Stage 3 have been updated:

    1. Marko: 15 points
    2. Frank: 2 points
    3. John: 2 points
    4. Robert Marques: 2 points
    5. Brett: 1 points
    6. Rob: 1 points
    7. Nathan Edwards: 0 points
    8. Jarvis: 0 points
    9. Geof: 0 points
    10. Joe: 0 points

    Congratulations to newcomer Robert Marques for taking the early Pink Jersey comment badge!

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