Velominati Super Prestige

The Velominati Super Prestige is a season-long competition wherein readers will be submitting their predictions for the top five finishers of each qualifying race.  In order to qualify, your picks via the VSP Picks form above the posts section of the VSP Event article pertaining to the race in question by the time the countdown clock goes to zero at midnight on the day of the race start. These articles are clearly marked and are generally posted at least 72 hours in advance of each event. The current leader of the competition has the honor of posting on the site bearing the VSP Leader’s badge; winners of select races (the monuments and Grand Tours) similarly gain the honor of posting with a dedicated badge for the remainder of the year. Prizes may be given for key events; these prizes will be announced on the associated VSP Event. Points will be tallied as the season progresses and the winner will be announced after Paris-Tours. Prizes to be determined.

Scoring (One-Day Races)

Readers who wish to enter shall enter their predictions for the top five placings of each race by the time the countdown clock goes to zero at midnight PDT on the day of the race. Regular Points Points will be scored in reverse order of finishing order: 7 points for first place, 5 points for second, 4 for third, 3 for fourth, and 2 for fifth.  Readers will also earn 1 bonus point for every other rider named in the top five, regardless of the rider’s placing, but riders are not scored twice. Tie Breaking In the event of a tie, the first reader to submit their predictions will be named the winner.

Scoring (Grand Tours)

Readers who wish to enter shall enter their predictions for the top five placings on General Classification of each Grand Tour by the time the countdown clock goes to zero at midnight PDT on the day of the first stage or prologue. Points Points will be scored as follows based on the final G.C of the race: 20 points for first place, 15 for second, 10 for third, 7 for fourth, and 5 for fifth; plus 3 points per rider in the top five regardless of the rider’s placing, but riders are not scored twice. Changing of the Picks* Contestants are allowed to make line up changes on one of the rest days of the Grand Tours but not both. These changes will come with a point penalty.  You will be allotted one (1) rest day to make swaps in grand tours; you may pick either the first or second rest day. The penalties for swapping will be lower for the first rest day than the second. This will allow you to swap out a rider(s) who gets caught in some first week nervousness  with a 5 point penalty for each swap. Or make some go for broke/doomed to fail break-away swap on the second rest day for a 10 point penalty for each swap. That’s it. You make one swap or five on either rest day for the corresponding 5 or 10 point penalty per swap. Additionally, if one of your riders crashes out, DNF’s, or DNS’s, you may swap them out on a rest day with corresponding penalties if you haven’t already used up your one rest day swap. Tie Breaking In the event of a tie, the first reader to submit their predictions will be named the winner. Minor Stages We will be posting VSP’s for minor stages as well. Scoring is similar to one-day racing, except no bonus points are in play for getting the rider in the wrong placing.

Scoring (Minor Stage Races)

Readers who wish to enter shall enter their predictions for the top five placings on General Classification of each Minor Stage Race (less than three weeks) by the time the countdown clock goes to zero at midnight PDT on the day of the first stage or prologue. Regular Points Points will be scored in reverse order of finishing order: 10 points for first place, 8 for second, 7 for third, 5 for fourth, and 3 for fifth; plus two bonus points per rider in the top five regardless of the rider’s placing, but riders are not scored twice. Tie Breaking In the event of a tie, the first reader to submit their predictions will be named the winner.

Posting Badges

The following badges will be worn by current leaders of the competition and sub-competitions:

Overall Super Prestige Leader:
Milano Sanremo:
VVomen’s Ronde van Vlaanderen:
Men’s Ronde van Vlaanderen:
Paris-Roubaix:
Leige-Bastogne-Liege:
Giro d’Italia Leader:
Giro Rosa Leader:
Tour de France Leader:
Vuelta a Espana Leader:
Giro di Lombardia:
Overal Super Prestige Lanterne Rouge:

2016 Velominati Super Prestige Schedule

Les Hommes

Start

End

Event

Race Website

18.03.2017 18.03.2017 Milano-Sanremo www.milanosanremo.it
26.03.2017 26.03.2017 Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields www.gent-wevelgem.be
02.04.2017 02.04.2017 Ronde van Vlaanderen – Tour des Flandres www.flandersclassics.be
09.04.2017 09.04.2017 Paris-Roubaix www.letour.fr
16.04.2017 16.04.2017 Amstel Gold Race www.amstelgoldrace.nl
19.04.2017 19.04.2017 La Flèche Wallonne www.letour.fr
23.04.2017 23.04.2017 Liège-Bastogne-Liège www.letour.fr
05.05.2017 28.05.2017 Giro d’Italia www.giroditalia.it
04.06.2017 11.06.2017 Critérium du Dauphiné www.letour.fr
10.06.2017 18.06.2017 Tour de Suisse www.tds.ch
01.07.2017 23.07.2017 Tour de France www.letour.fr
29.07.2017 29.07.2017 Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian www.klasikoa.net
19.08.2017 10.09.2017 La Vuelta ciclista a España lavuelta.com
08.09.2017 08.09.2017 Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec www.gpcqm.ca
10.09.2017 10.09.2017 Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal www.gpcqm.ca
20.09.2017 20.09.2017 Mens World Championship Time Trial
24.09.2017 24.09.2017 Mens World Championship Road Race
07.10.2017 07.10.2017 Il Lombardia www.illombardia.it

La Femmes

Start

End

Event

Race Website

26.03.2017 26.03.2017 Gent-Wevelgem In Flanders Fields www.gent-wevelgem.be
02.04.2017 02.04.2017 Ronde van Vlaanderen / Tour des Flandres www.flandersclassics.be
16.04.2017 16.04.2017 Amstel Gold Race info@amstelgoldrace.nl
19.04.2017 19.04.2017 La Flèche Wallonne Féminine www.letour.fr
23.04.2017 23.04.2017 Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes www.letour.fr  et www.pesantliege.be
11.05.2017 14.05.2017 Amgen Breakaway from Heart Disease Women’s Race empowered with SRAM amgentourofcalifornia.com
30.06.2017 09.07.2017 Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile
20.07.2017 20.07.2017 La Course by Le Tour de France www.letour.fr
29.07.2017 29.07.2017 Prudential RideLondon Classique www.ridelondon.co.uk/events/classique
17.08.2017 20.08.2017 Ladies Tour of Norway www.ladiestour.no
26.08.2017 26.08.2017 GP de Plouay – Lorient Agglomération www.grandprix-plouay.com
29.08.2017 03.09.2017 Boels Rental Ladies Tour www.hollandladiestour.nl
10.09.2017 10.09.2017 Madrid Challenge by la Vuelta lavuelta.com/Madridchallenge
19.09.2017 19.09.2017 Womens World Championship Time Trial
23.09.2017 23.09.2017 Womens World Championship Road Race

Standings

[vsp_gc year=”2017″/]

Past Results

[vsp_gc year=”2016″/]

 

[vsp_gc year=”2015″/]

 

[vsp_gc year=”2014″/]

 

[vsp_gc year=”2013″/]

 

[vsp_gc year=”2012″/]

 

[vsp_gc year=”2011″/]

2010 VSP G.C.

1. Andy 56 points
2. Geoff 53 points
3. Steampunk: 51 points
4. Frank 48 points
5. Gianni 47 points
6. Marcus: 43 points
7. Jarvis 42 points
8. Hawkeye 40 points
9. Rob 38 points
10. Brett 37 point
11. Robert Marques: 36 point
12. Joe 35 point
13. Marko 32 points
14. Scott 26 points
15. Roadslave 25 points
16. Ben 21 points
17. Ken 17 points
18. Pont 15 points
19. Nathan Edwards: 11 points
20. Souleur: 10 points
21. Crossy: 10 points
22. KitCarson 10 points
23. Mr Haven 7 points
24. Cyclops 6 points
25. Daniel 5 points
26. Sgt 3 points
27. David: 2 points
29. Dan O 2 points
30. Joshua 2 points
31. David 1 points
32. James 0 points
33. Jim 0 points
34. Ben: 0 points
35. Dale: 0 points
36. Houdini 0 points

*The Changing of the Picks rules are designed to promote fair play and keep the competition fun and open throughout the three-week race.  Abuse of these rules will be managed through the “Piti Principle”: if we we feel you are attempting to exploit loopholes or otherwise take advantage of the Changing of the Picks rules, we will penalize you by deducting points from your total score. Much like the UCI doping suspensions, the amount of points deducted will be based on how egregious the abuse was.

View Comments

  • Thanks, guys. Lorra lorra fun. And well done Andy. I'm off to order some of that Spanish steak to give me marginal gains for next year's comp...

  • So much thought for so little effect.

    Nice work Andy and nice work Frank for the mega-spreadsheet that kept all that bullshit straight. Look at the big brain on Frank.

    Whatever happend to Guy? The photo who went off to ride in the Pyrenees. Did he die there and I missed it?

  • Nice work Andy, Geoff, and Steampunk! That's the closest finish in VSP history. And to echo Gianni, thank you Frank for your hard work keeping up the stats. Fun season of great racing. From Fabian to Phillipe, it's been a blast all.

  • Indeed! Congrats to Andy and thanks, Keepers, for running this. That was a lot of fun. I don't know so much about a late-season surge, but I'm pretty sure I'll be peaking in two months.

  • You know: it only dawned on me yesterday afternoon on a ride"”beautiful sunshine along winding, up-and-down roads lined with the yellows, reds, and oranges of the season (hard to kick it into V-territory, because it was such a lovely day and the temptation to keep my head up and look around was great)"”that there were some interesting patterns in the season. I've not heard much made of the fact that Liquigas won two of the three GTs, which is pretty impressive, even if they were non-factors at the TdF. Nibali has arrived and is no longer a "young rider"; did anyone else have two such successful Grand Tour performances? And in spite of health trouble at the Tour, Basso has returned, which makes for a good story. But also this: I read somewhere after Lombardy that this marks the second year in a row that no Italian won a Classic, which is an interesting stat, especially in lieu of the success above.

    Highlights? Good lord: you'd be hard-pressed to beat Spartacus's incredible week in the Spring (I could do a season of Spartacus, Thor, and Gilbert victories and I'd be soiling myself! Throw a recovered Boonen into the mix and this Spring is going to rock!). L'Aquila was one of the most exciting and chaotic stages I've ever seen. I loved the confusion on the road and from David Harmon and Sean Kelly, who couldn't for the life of them work out what was going on and their commentary was all the better for it. Good hard racing the whole year through! Roule on, 2011!

  • @andy
    Andy, I was about to drop your apron in the mail and have decided I'm going to offer personalized aprons to each of the VSP Winners, indicating their name, and the year they won the VSP. Unfortunately that means it will be a week or two before it gets dropped in the mail, but I promise it will be worth it.

    For the rest of you, that should just offer additional motivation for subsequent years.

    Cheers.