Velominati Super Prestige: Critérium du Dauphiné
The Tour de France looms on the horizon, and those riders planning to race are putting the final touches on their form – or going into last-minute panic mode, final exam cram-style. The Critérium Dauphiné has long been a favorite preparation race serving both purposes rather well.
It’s a favorite of the Tour’s GC contenders as it usually features stages that, if not identical to key stages from the Tour, will at least feature many of the same climbs; habitual Tour winners like Indurain, Armstrong, and Clentador have traditionally used this race as their preferred method of final preparation; riders seeking additional form will take the beating taken from a week of suffering and have just enough time to recover prior to the Tour. And, of course, riders who have aspirations in July may also find they are a few kilos heavy yet and may indulge in some ultra-lean Spanish beef in order to get to fighting weight.
It’s also a dangerous gamble: ride too hard at the Critérium and you could fire off the Guns of Navarone and enter the Tour in a state of fatigue, as Pharmy did in 2003. A delicate balance, this.
The challenge in predicting the results of a preparation race such as this is that the favorites for the Tour are (hopefully) peaking in one month, not during this event. But they’ll be good – maybe good enough to win. But probably not. Combine that with that the notion that a rider with little hope in July may be looking for glory and will be in peak form, leading to an unexpected result – a review of last year’s race with Jani Brajkovic is a great example of this case.
With that we kick off into the first minor-stage VSP for the Critérium Dauphiné. Being a week-long stage race, the points on offer are 7 for first, 5 for second, 4 for third, 3 for fourth, 2 for fifth, with the usual allotment of bonus points for getting the rider right but the place wrong. Also, there are no rest days, so no rest day swaps, but we will have our usual approach for riders who drop out. Piti Principle applies as always. Also review the guide, being careful to note that the rules have changes a bit this year, and we may not have completely updated the guide yet, so if there’s a question, ask.
Best of luck to all.
I have no idea who is even racing having not seen a start list.
VSP PICKS:
1. Basso
2. Cuddles
3. J VDB
4. Sammy San
5. Vino
No thought, pure guesswork.
VSP PICKS:
1. Cadel
2. Sammy Sanchez
3. Vino
4. J VDB
5. Gessink
You know who you sound like when you tell a youngster his hair looks ridiculous?
VSP PICKS:
1. Bad Cadel
2. Good Vino
3. Bad Basso
4. Ego Martinez
5. Gerry Thomas
This field is wide open. I’d like Busche to do a good ride but can he sustain his form for this long? Me thinks no.
VSP PICKS:
1. Evans
2. Gesink
3. Brajkovic
4. Basso
5. T. Martin
VSP PICKS:
1. Evans
2. Vino
3. Basso
4. Gesink
5. Wegman
@il ciclista medio
You had me when you mentioned the Dropbears recently, and now The Jam… you got some taste there fella.
@heath
Indeed, Sound Affects is just timeless…
This race? Holy toledo, who the hell knows? I just don’t think Cuddles will show to much, nor Basso, and it’s Taylor made for a monumental upset. (Yeah right…)
VSP PICKS:
1. Davis Phinney II
2. Dirty Sammy
3. Erin Brakes a bit
4. JVDB
5. Got Cooties, eh?
VSP PICKS:
1. Good Cadel
2. Vino
3. Wiggo
4. Basso
5. Martin
@heath
Sound Afeects remains one of my favorite albums. Chapeau.
VSP PICKS:
1. Very Good Cuddles
2. Vee Dee Bee
3. Vino
4. J-Rawd
5. Janny Brakky
Yet another adjustment…
VSP PICKS:
1. Cuddles
2. Gesink
3. Brajkovic
4. Vino
5. Martin
PS – Keep your eye on Lieuwe Westra. TT monster and rising star…
VSP PICKS:
1. Cuddles
2. Don’t Rein on my TAARAMÄE
3. Janez!
4. Gesink
5. Coppel
VSP PICKS:
1. C Evans
2. Wiggins
3. Van De Broeck
4. Gesink
5. Sanchez
@Brett
@heath
Well it does contain “That’s Entertainment” amongst others. Still have all of the vinyl and a couple of their cassette’s as well as the 7″ of Fun Lovin’.
@ben
Not sure if Westra is good enough in the mountains.
@Steampunk
He’s thinking it’s cool he can roll across the line without zipping up for a sponsor. As usual, he is wrong.
VSP PICKS:
1. Cuddles
2. Brake O’Vick
3. Van den Broke
4. T Martin
5. Vino
VSP PICKS:
1. Cuddles
2. Gesink
3. Martin
4. Van Den Broeck
5. Veino
Even though I didn’t pick him for this race (I’m with Brett on this one, he’s holding his cards close to his chest), I’m becoming more a fanboy of Cuddles as time goes on. He works hard, doesn’t dope (I hope), did the stripes justice, rides a sweet bike, has a dog like one of mine, and is one of the only dudes who’s gonna give COTHOdor a run for it in July. Go Good Cadel!
Of course I’m a fanboy of Veino too, always have been, but not for the same reasons. Veino is like the Vladimir Putin of cycling.
VSP PICKS:
1. Cadel
2. Brakjovic
3. Gesink
4. Wiggins
5. Van Den Broek
@Steampunk
A combination of fruit, yogurt, and museli just got spat onto my screen. Thanks for that.
@Marko
After your Erink Brakovik post, you’re on a total roll. I’m with you, though, on both counts. Aside from his year with the stripes, though, Cadelephant is classic “crack when it counts” material. Which only makes it that much more exciting when it goes well.
Too bad he doesn’t look cooler. I really wish he didn’t hate his bike so much and that he’d stop trying to beat it to death in that monster gear.
As for Veino? Vampire tactics aside, he’s got all the makings of a fantastic bike racer: grinta, combative, three of his limbs are made from pure Rule #5. (it’s that pesky fourth one that keeps him from riding more consistently). When he’s en forme, it’s just awesome to watch him race.
I think I might tip him for this one.
whatever happened to Eddy Bugenhagen, he had a blinder last year. Has he made way for Twiggo’s haircut?
VSP PICKS:
1. Jan Braak
2. Dopeador
3. Bad Cuddles
4. Twiggo
5. Gesink
Um. I swear on the Clenbuterol in my sock drawer this is the only time I do this, but fruit, yogurt, and muesli are one, two, three strikes against cutting weight. And your screen wants that stuff even less.
VSP PICKS:
1. Good Cuddles
2. Van den Broke
3. Wiggo’s Last Chance
4. Robert’s Kept Me Gesink
5. Sammy Sandwich
Actually, for all the legitimate maligning about the Leopard-Trek kit, which is pretty bland and hard to distinguish from all the other black, white, and blue kits in a race, I do like the underlined 0. I don’t know what it is or what it means, but I like its simplicity.
VSP PICKS:
1. Good Cuddles
2. Van den Broke
3. Wiggo’s Last Chance
4. Robert’s Kept Me Gesink
5. Sammy Sandwich
Frank! Help. I can’t log in and it says that there is no email with my email. Argh.
When you get a chance. It isn’t that important. I just like being logged in.
Maybe I should put Gesink in Sanchez’s spot.
Nah.
VSP PICKS:
1. Cadel Evans
2. Ivan Basso
3. Sammy Sanchez
4. Janez Brajkovic
5. Vladimir Karpets
@Steampunk
Carbs are the most readily converted into energy. That energy is also readily converted into fat, meaning that if you burn the energy, there’s no problem. Carbs at breakfast pose virtually no risk to bulking up, provided you don’t go to sleep right away. Also, I really like the notion of having the probiotics in the yogurt. I think fruit right after a workout is a horrible idea, though, as you really don’t want to put any sugars in your system that would stop the fat-burning process after a good ride. So sayeth I. What I love about your piece, though, is the Vitamin B. (In Housa, a tribe my VMH lived with in Africa for a few years, the word for “vitamin” is “bitamin”. Which is funny to me.)
@Erik
I don’t see anything in the database that would indicate that you’ve ever registered? Unless you’ve done it under a different email address, or user name? There’s no need to register, though, in order to participate in the VSP. Not sure how to help – go ahead and chuck an email over to our contribute address with some more info (such as possible email addresses or user id’s) and I’ll see if I can track something down for you. Otherwise, you can just go ahead and re-register. Hope that’s not too much of a hassle.
basso: “The result is not important, but how I feel is. I still have a month in order to prepare my legs.”
“…i still have a month…”
and to think i was about to including him in my VSP.
This is a tough one. I’m figuring Gesink is just a little too green to do well at the Tour yet, aside from a possible Spotty Jumper. A week is just short enough to stay upright, and not long enough to guarantee the eventual cracking. Veino will come on strong, but he’s going to try an upset at the Tour. Brajkovik will try to prove he’s more than the cycling equivalent of Everclear. He will fail. Cuddles is prone to the same vexes that the Gesinkster is, except he’s experienced enough to make sure he cracks at the Tour, not the Dauphine. Basso is the old sage, he’s been there before, he knows what to do.
I’m also thinking Lars Boom is going to cut them down like a Big Oak Tree in the prologue, to quote Johnny Cash. (The word Boom in Dutch means “Tree”.)
VSP PICKS:
1. Gesink
2. Veino
3. Break the bank
4. Basso
5. Cadelephant
clentador will win, if he wants to. I’m not a fan. But he wins stage races at will.
Total crap-shoot, big names looking to get the legs ready, but someone’s gotta bring it to win this thing….
VSP PICKS:
1. Cuddles
2. Basso
3. Vino
4. Sammy Sanchez
5. Thomas
Wow, an Everclear reference.
Well, I guess these things aren’t going to pick themselves and currently visiting l’Hexagone is not helping a damn bit, so cut and paste like a ransom note:
VSP PICKS:
1. Cuddles
2. Left Me Gesink
3. Van den Broeck
4. Vino
5. Janez Addiction
VSP PICKS:
1. Cuddles
2. Gesink
3. Vino
4. J-Rod
5. Karpets
Marko :
Ah, the happy, rose colored naïveté of youth. He just hasn’t been caught. But keep on believin’, little dreamer, enjoy it while you can.
Vino FTW! Even if he doesn’t!
Since 2005 TdF, couldn’t help but totally fall for this scrapper. Shat on by his own team he kept his mouth shut (pretty much) and pounded on. Maybe he hasn’t been consistently consistent, but as far as I can tell he loves what he does and gives it his all.
VSP PICKS:
1. Wonder if he misses mtb days
2. Basso
3. Vino
4. Sanchez
5. Brajkovic
@xyxax
References shitty Everclear reference and then throws out Janez Addiction. Way to turn (at least the band references) around. +1
@Karolinka
Believing and hoping are two different things. Besides, I’m not entirely sure Cadel is savvy enough to try, let alone get away with it.
it is a crapshoot, cuddles won’t crack but it may be more intense than some want right now ahead of le Tour and they may “settle”. that’s why i didn’t go with basso, he’s just rolling through this race.
VSP PICKS:
1. Cadel
2. Gesink
3. Wiggo
4. Martin
5. Sanchez
Sorry Matt, didn’t see Katusha’s line-up til today.
VSP PICKS:
1. Evans
2. Flecha
3. Le Mevel
4. Wiggens
5. Purito Rodriguez
@Marko
Calling Brakesabit the Everclear of cycling was a bit of Frank genius.
My friend was a music label rep in the mid-90’s and through her I met the lead singer a few times. A nice guy, if wound a little tight. I have not had the pleasure of possessing any of their music.
Perry Farrell and co., on the other hand, have permanent slots on the playlist.
VSP PICKS:
1. Gesnick
2. Basso
3. J VDB
4. Sammy San
5. Cuddles
VSP PICKS:
1. Brakjovic
2. Gesink
3. Cadel
4. Vino
5. Le Mevel
I know nothing except Basso is smoking like a hippies motorbike and Twiggo has disappointed me too many times for me to pick him for anything. I picked a non-doper dance card for the Giro and it got me nothin’. So I’m all in here with Vieno. He is crazy enough to win this.
VSP PICKS:
1. Vieno
2. Tony Martin
3. Evans
4. Voeckler
5. Kolobnev
i lol’d at Clentador.
@Marko
@Karolinka
I have got to jump on Marko’s ship when it comes to Cadel. I think Evans and Grimpito are cut from the same bolt and neither of them actually have the ballz to dope. I am trying to recall and example of either of them absolutely laying waste to to the field and dropping everyone. Has there been a stage when one of them put in a performance like Alberto did on Etna and the rest of the peloton knew they were only racing for second? If there has been let me know… I want to find it on you tube. IMO those two are clean.
VSP PICKS:
1. Evans
2. Gesink
3. Brajkovic
4. Sanchez
5. J Rod
Marko :
True. Let hope spring eternal.
OF COURSE he’s not savvy enough — I doubt there are many riders who, on their own, ARE savvy enough, especially these days (though I grant you, Mr. Evans may be a little on the extra un-savvy side).
This is one of the primo bugs up my butt about the whole doping circus. The riders are at the bottom of the hill that the s**t rolls down. Yeah, they have to acquiesce. But they hardly decide on their own, out of the blue, no suggestions much less requirements, that they’re going to “enhance;” procure banned substances on their own; keep up with the latest and greatest methods and substances to avoid detection on their own; secretly carry all the paraphenalia around on their own; sneak away into a closet and shoot up on a regular racing AND training regime all by themslves without detection by their teamates… there’s a whole helluva lot of other people acquiescing.
By all means, enforce. But do it equitably (punish ALL involved, not just riders), accurately, and in a way that actually accomplishes something other than media feeding frenzies.
How? The gods only know. But at least try; I’d like to at least imagine an end to the rider-only witch hunts, hangings, and post-mortem “confessionals.”
VSP PICKS:
1. Vino
2. Cuddles
3. Jurgen
4. Basso
5. Voeckler
@pakrat
I was typing while you were posting; see my comment (#95) in response to Marko.
I have no way of knowing, who does. But I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum – I’m pretty convinced almost everybody at this level of cycling does some sort of performance enhancing. Simply to keep up, not to be superman or a big contender.
The various methods and substances used aren’t quite the magic bullet a lot of us may think they are. They can’t make a water carrier with the inherent talent of a water carrier become fill-in-your-fave-hardman. If a water carrier has the as yet undiscovered talent of fill-in-your-fave-hardman it may be a different story, and we see the kind of rocket launches to higher levels of hardmanness you mention that conventional wisdom says, nay screams, “DOPER!.”
However, they CAN help that water carrier make it through the entire Tdf, along with the other water carriers who are also doping – probably not in the same way the contenders are – just to be able to ride at this level.
You gotta remember, even the lowliest domestique employed regularly in the European peloton is a monster compared to you, me, and the fastest guy in your city/state/province/region. That monster arrives for his first day of work, and the lowest ranked employee there is a monster compared to HIM.
Once doping starts, and I think we CAN say it’s pretty widespread, it’s almost impossible not to engage and stay competitive as a team… just to keep up.
I’m not sure if I ever got around to posting something I was writing to comment on the Tyler article; this may be a repeat if so. Some of this opinion comes from personal expeience, although an admittedly small sample size that would probably be totally insignificant statistically… but, 100% of my cycling friends who were offered or considered for spots on European teams (that would be two. Two friends, US Semi-Pro and Pro) said they essentially were told the outlines of the doping regime, they were going to follow it, or they weren’t getting the job.
That’s from their mouths. Not strangers. Totally unrelated incidents. And they weren’t stars, not European stars, anyway; they were looking at the lowest level of employment. But they did ride where I live, either visiting or having lived here, and absolutely crushed the regular local fast guy training rides, which both IMHO and experience, as well as hearing from other non-local visiting (fast, or USA fast) riders, are nothing to snort at. Our local fast guy rides, that is.
So. I don’t think doping is the exception. I think unfortunately the human body, speaking generally, can’t do what as a whole the European peloton is doing, without help. If your team can’t keep up, no sponsors, no $$$, no team. So, everybody who wants to stay in business… etc. etc. etc.
@frank
Gesink wasn’t primarily riding for a GC last year.
VSP PICKS:
1. Evans
2. T Martin
3. Brajkovic
4. S Sanchez
5. Voeckler
Oh what the hell I’ll chuck Wiggins in – just because I think he might do well enough in the TT to motivate him to cling on like he did in the Tour before last.
VSP PICKS:
1. Evans
2. T Martin
3. S Sanchez
4. Wiggins
5. Voeckler
@Karolinka
Shhh
VSP PICKS:
1. Basso
2. Evans
3. Brakesabit
4. S sanchez
5. Van den brought
Occasional light rain and wet surface with all the white painted lines in town is making for an understandably cautious prologue at the moment.
@pakrat
Why give Grimpito a free pass? After all, his brother paid for “expert advice” and was recently ripped by Gerard Vroomen (sorry: don’t mean to turn this thread into a doping debate)…