Velominati Super Prestige: Giro d’Italia 2012
After a winter of long training rides that offered more in the way of numb extremities than it did in acute enjoyment, I have to say that the warming of the air and brightening of the skies have served to remind me that while I love riding in bad weather, I certainly don’t have anything against riding when its nice out.
But dont think for a minute that this quells my desire to watch the Pros battle the elements as well as each other and, quite frankly, after a Spring Classics campaign that gave us only fleeting tastes of Rule #9 Glory, I welcome the arrival of the 2012 Giro d’Italia which holds the distinction of being held in the worst weather and over the worst roads. Come July, I’ll get just as wound up as anyone about the biggest racing spectacle of the year, but in my heart, the Giro d’Italia is the best Grand Tour of the three.
All that said, I’m a little disappointed to see that the Giro starts in Denmark. Not that I have anything against Denmark – lovely place – it’s just that this choice takes us away from the classical Giro opening week involving a mountaintop finish or two and gives us a Tour de France-style opening week of flat stages and crosswinds. We’ll have to wait almost two weeks before we start seeing the riders cross the highest passes and hitting the uphill finishes, though the final week does appear to set us up for considerable fireworks as the second-last stage will see the riders cross the Mortirolo and finish atop the Stelvio.
What does this mean for the VSP? Quite a bit, actually. Bearing in mind the changes we’ve made to the Rest-Day picks from the years past, it means that as the race settles out, those who have made changes to their lineup on the first rest day will not have the opportunity to do so again on the second rest day. And, those who wait for the second day will see steep penalties tallying up against their totals. But on the line is a Symbol Pack, the chance to post for the rest of year with the Maglia Rosa VSP Badge and, of course, the grand prize of the personalized Shop Apron. Check the start list and with any divine beings that you might be able to influence, and then get your picks in by the time the countdown timer goes to zero at 5am Pacific on the 5th May.
For reference, please review the new Grand Tour scoring and penalty guidelines. Also note that since these new rules required new coding and this represents the first Grand Tour, there is always the chance that there are defects in the code. Watch your picks and your points as we move through the event and alert us of any anomalies. If your points seem wrong, use the dispute function to alert us of the matter; complaints in the posts feed to this effect will be ignored. Finally, don’t leave anything to the last minute so we have time to fix any problems before its too late. Good luck.
Scoring:
Readers who wish to enter shall enter their predictions for the top five placings on General Classification of each Grand Tour by 5am on the day of the first stage or prologue.
Points
Points will be scored as follows: 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 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 per swap. 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. The only exception to this is riders who are booted from a race for a positive test; if your rider is on the juice and gets chucked off the race, you get a free swap of that rider within 24 hours of the disqualification.
[vsp_results id=”15814″]
[/vsp_results]
@Dr C
I love the kit. I wish the bibs were black, but if you’re going to go with neon, leave it up to Cipo to just wipe a big fuck you over everyone’s ocular nerves and do it up full bore. Love it.
I love that the moto drivers got into the race just like the rest of us yesterday. Check the fist pumps from both the cameraman and the guy on the moped.
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. Rodriguez
2. Kreuziger
3. Cunego
4. Scarponi
5. Basso
@Marcus
Yeah, just read that about the wheel swap. If only it had been Roche there … ohhhh sweet revenge served cold would have been had!
@frank
NICE! I read about that but had not seen the pic. Who could not get into that finish? It was like the 1980 Olympic Hockey Game!
@Buck Rogers
The what now?
@frank
The cameraman fist pumps. Or are you referring to my analogy to the “Mircle on Ice”? I’m a little slow on these things sometimes.
@Dr C
Not loving the kit. Looks too much like the YJA to me.
Sorry to add to the question on swaps. Can you go into the negative with the swaps? and does it count only against this race and not against your overalll totatl?
I feel Ryder is looking good. First place? He’s climbing ok, is better than other gc men @ tt and has a decent margin, so he can lose a little in the hills. But 10 is steep point penalty. I’ll stick with my picks, as I reckon I have at least 3 gc men and feel ordering them is impossibe.
@Buck Rogers
The Miracle on what? 34th Street?
@seemunkee
Can’t go negative, the minimum points is zero. And your overall Giro score counts towards your VSP total, so while the penalties don’t count against your overall VSP score, in effect they reduce your Giro total, so they do indirectly impact your overall score.
Make sense?
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. Rodriguez
2. Scarponi
3. Hesjedal
4. Basso
5. Rujano
@taon24
I’m in the same boat with “I miss Andy” Schlecks (because there’s no point in talking about them in the singular, is there?). But unless Ryder finishes third (which might be the right place to slot him actually), I’m taking a big hit by inserting him. I think I’ll pass. To your other point, though, I can’t see Ryder winning the Giro. The hills have suited him thus far, but he won’t enjoy the steeper climbs to come, and I don’t think his TT is good enough to put more than a minute or two into Rodriguez and the others.
Basso is looking a lot better than I had anticipated, and that Liquigas team is looking very strong around him. I can see a 2010 vintage Zoncolan day being enough to win the Giro. He’s hardly been exciting so far, and he seems to be getting some criticism for the team’s defensive tactics, but he’s also exactly where he wants to be and if his power is as great as it used to be, he could just motor away from the other GC contenders in the next few days.
@Steampunk
Good thoughts. Speaking of the Giro, did you ever finish Pedalare, Pedalare? Personally, I think it needed a damn good edit and that the author spent way too little time on the “modern” era. The early stuff was good an informative but then he got fixated on Coppi/Bartali. The Moser/Saronni years were given very short shrift. All in all, a passing grade but revisions required. Thoughts?
@frank
Yeah, can you imagine being that close to the action? These guys see it all up close, but to be right there in such a thriller must be incredible. Goosebumps all the way.
Schleck was a terrible pick, don’t know what I was thinking. I’ll sub J-Rod and hope that Hesjedal and/or Scarponi comes through (though I’m not holding my breath for Scarponi, as I don’t think he’s looked that strong at key moments).
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. Scarponi
2. Hesjedal
3. J. Rodriguez
4. Uran
5. Basso
Looking alright. I’m sitting tight.
velonews has some pretty awesome photos of the tifosi from the first two weeks of the Giro.
Wade in carefully…there is a speedo pic!
http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/05/gallery/best-of-the-tifosi_220220
And it might be worse than the streaker one…
Frank – Just a note. Don’t think I’ll be swapping today but I didn’t swap on 1st day and I’m seeing “You are not eligible for a rest day swap because you already used your swaps on the first rest day.”
Not sure if it would let me if I tried, but yup, I didn’t do any swapping yet.
@Steampunk
Cadel demonstrated last tour how much a good TT is worth. He kept losing time, but never to all his rivals, then took it all back on TT. All Ryder has to do is be within 1 minute of the attacker on gc each day and I reckon he’ll be only a minute behind basso and scarponi come Milan.
@wiscot
Absolutely. I posted some remarks here, but I think you nailed it. Repetitive and schizophrenic. And, for a professional historian, a rather disturbing fondness for the “golden era.” Part of it were rather good, but some editing and a tighter focus would have been nice. Yes: he had very little to say after about 1960. But that’s kind of interesting in itself and would have merited some reflection. There’s a lot of talk about the decline of Italian cycling, and it would have been interesting for him to expand on that notion. Fotheringham was better on Merckx, too.
@taon24
You could be right: that would be very nice. But I don’t think we’ve seen the best from either of the Italians yet (Scarponi and Basso). And Rodriguez will be more comfortable on the steeper pitches, too. Hesjedal could be stretched for more than a minute per stage on a couple of these. He looks a much better bet to finish in the top five than I gave him credit, which is terrific to see. Hopefully he can hang in there. A few men to watch this week: Nieve, Sky’s two Colombians, and Gadret could all force their way into the picture, too.
Latest report is that F. Schlecks withdrew from Il Giro not because of his crash but because of some very painful neck stiffness. It turns out that the constant swivelling to which we’ve become accustomed from him and his brother is a form of dynamic stretching. In the absence of Andy Schlecks, Fränk was moving his neck enough and it stiffened up. Poor fellow…
@Steampunk
…was not moving his neck enough…
Hmmm…I think I will make some changes…
NOPE!
Gotta get Frankie out of that pick list….
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. Hesjedal
2. Basso
3. Kruzzinggeerr
4. Scarponi
5. Rujano
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. Scarponi
2. Basso
3. Uran
4. Visconti
5. Pozzato
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. Scarponi
2. Basso
3. Krueziger
4. Hesjedal
5. Rodriguez
Sticking with my hand thanks – maybe I’m not quite as shit at this as I thought I was two weeks ago.
I just KNEW I was asking for problems picking a Schleck, but I could not stop myself.
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. Ivan Basso
2. Damiano Cunego
3. Michele Scarponi
4. Roman Kreuziger
5. Ryder Hesjedal
This is how you win the VSP – enter on the second rest day, clean up the remaining stages when its done like a dogs dinner. Suckers.
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. Basso
2. Purito
3. Kreutziger
4. Scarponi
5. Canhego?
Are we going to have any stage-specific VSPs this week?
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. Scarponi
2. Basso
3. J-Rod
4. Kreuziger
5. Hesjedal
VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps):
1. J Rod
2. Basso
3. Kreuziger
4. Hesjedal
5. Cunego
@Nate
I was thinking about Saturday for sure. But Friday’s looks like a real cracker too.
I’m going to stick with my original picks too. The only one out of the top 10 right now is Pozzovivo. I gotta be honest, I picked him because I like his name.
@Steampunk
So I thought that having a Schleck race the Giro would leave one of them a clear leader for the Tour. Frank has certainly fixed that. I look forward to some awkward and uncertain racing from the two of them in July.
@frank
Nice new avatar.
hmmm, it’s tempting to make a switch with the Schleckchute being deployed but I’m happy with Basso & Kreuziger where they are as well as having Scarponi in the top 5. I’ll back it to get me some solid points anyway.
In case no one mentioned it, yesterday was Cavendish’s birthday.
I think there should be a Rule about changing your avatar. Like you need to accomplish something big on the bike, have something monumental happen to necessitate a change. It always takes me a few weeks to get adjusted to the new one. But, maybe we’d bend the Rule for the Leader!
Like @Ron
Monumental like being thrown into the street? Consecrating something big on the bike is going to need an awfully big honor system to boot.
@Ron
Like hitting 350km to 400km each week? With some intensity.
AHHHH! Just saw a dude at the roadside in full Radio Shack kit circa 2010 or so. That ugly red, grey, yellow stuff. “Hmmm, let me see, today I’ll be cycling and watching the Giro go right past me, what should I wear? Ugly former PRO team kit worn by COTHO and his team? YES! I think so.”
Was that COTHO himself out there wishing he’d ridden more Giro’s?
Shit! woke up in time to watch the winner of today’s stage pass the red kite. lets see what the main contenders can do.
@niksch
Yeah, I wonder if he will not still come out of the woodwork and do something on the final two mountain stages. Pozzovivo is not out of it yet!!!
@Ron
What-ever! I do what I want!
@Buck Rogers
and @marcus
If I may, and this is in the spirit of keeping it real on this site and having some poorly informed debate fueled by Belgian beer… Roche sucks.
Stephen Roche = awesome.
His son sucks. Every year he is the great hope. Every year he has full support and barely manages anything interesting.
From his own press, here are the highlights:
Career Highlights
5 pro wins
3rd Stage 3 – Paris Nice Stage 2010
2nd Stage 14 Tour de France 2009; 23rd in GC
2nd Stage 18 Vuleta a Espana 2008, 13th in GC
1st Irish National Road Race Championships 2009
1st Irish National Time Trial Championships 2007
Woo freakin’ woo.
Amazing cyclist. Every right to be PRO as pro can be. Should not be a team leader. Boring boring boring boring boring.
Gadret, I can’t explain why I like him so much. Maybe it is his cyclocross career. Maybe it is ’cause he is pretty badass and has more, if not better results than Roche. I think it is cause aside from his “non” on the wheel change for Roche, he has never pretended to be some kind of badass. Roche, on the other had, acts like he has already won. He hasn’t.
Maybe I just like him because Bobke Strut does.
So yeah, I like him for telling Roche to pound sand.
“Non,” to Roche I say. Non.
Gadret, “oui.”
Maybe I’ll change my mind if he tanks in the next few days. But I don’t think that he will.
@Ron
I wish I could ADD an image for an avatar. I can’t log in to Gravatar, and I get no love from their customer service. It wouldn’t be that awesome, but at least it would be me.
@Erik
Best quote from Gadret’s wikipedia page: “He has won a race against a horse.” That is one paragraph in the intro, I laughed for a good minute.
@Ron
Why would you do this?
@DerHoggz
I saw that photo when I read that article two days ago.
Can.
Not.
Unsee!