Velominati Super Prestige: Giro d’Italia 2014

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:

First place overall wins a Veloforma Strada iR Velominati Edition frame in addition to the customary VSP winner’s VVorkshop Apron
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.)
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″/]

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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View Comments

Deakus says:

May 15 2014 at 3:04 pm

@wiscot I think he knew Mathews would beat him in a sprint and hoped to ride him off his wheel. Ballsy stuff. Chapeau!
Deakus says:

May 15 2014 at 3:10 pm

@wiscot

@Rhodri

Ah when the rest of the internet is spitting feathers, knew I could read some comments on here that make more sense.

I'm led to believe that waiting for crashes and mechanicals was never a given years back? It's a nice and sporting thing to do in certain circumstances, but what if they eased up every time there was a crash in say, the classics? There'd be no point watching. Giro's already had one go-slow anyway.

The worst thing about it though is I don't have Cuddles in my top 5.

Incidentally I went to watch La Vuelta a while back. That day Cuddles punctured. Valverde pushed on and put minutes into him. I think I was so annoyed just because it was Valverde. (a few years later he had a right hissy-fit when he crashed and teams didn't wait, calling it 'anti-sporting' - non sporting! Valverde! ha ha ha)

Good point my man. That particular incident was Cuddles getting shafted by Valmerde and the race organizers. Kinda like Miller getting fucked in the 80s. In this day and age, not to have someone in your team do very detailed route reconnaisance is professional negligence. As a DS, it's your job to make sure your riders know any potential hazards are in the race and as a rider it's your job to take that knowledge and apply it. BMC did that better than anyone today.

Oh and by the way, watch the last kilo of today's stage. Cuddles on the front virtually the whole way. NEVER looked back, NEVER flicked an elbow. He just looked straight ahead and rode to gain time. Matthews wheel sucked, but hey, he likely knows he's not going to win this thing so what did he have to gain by taking a turn?. Cuddles knew what the score was and did the business.

but more likely...being the old pro that he is, he probably just wanted to put time in to the GC contenders...however there was a shake of the head and he did look a bit pissed of at the line...I guess he will look back on the day and smile sweetly in the end..
wiscot says:

May 15 2014 at 3:27 pm

@Deakus

@wiscot

@Rhodri

Ah when the rest of the internet is spitting feathers, knew I could read some comments on here that make more sense.

I'm led to believe that waiting for crashes and mechanicals was never a given years back? It's a nice and sporting thing to do in certain circumstances, but what if they eased up every time there was a crash in say, the classics? There'd be no point watching. Giro's already had one go-slow anyway.

The worst thing about it though is I don't have Cuddles in my top 5.

Incidentally I went to watch La Vuelta a while back. That day Cuddles punctured. Valverde pushed on and put minutes into him. I think I was so annoyed just because it was Valverde. (a few years later he had a right hissy-fit when he crashed and teams didn't wait, calling it 'anti-sporting' - non sporting! Valverde! ha ha ha)

Good point my man. That particular incident was Cuddles getting shafted by Valmerde and the race organizers. Kinda like Miller getting fucked in the 80s. In this day and age, not to have someone in your team do very detailed route reconnaisance is professional negligence. As a DS, it's your job to make sure your riders know any potential hazards are in the race and as a rider it's your job to take that knowledge and apply it. BMC did that better than anyone today.

Oh and by the way, watch the last kilo of today's stage. Cuddles on the front virtually the whole way. NEVER looked back, NEVER flicked an elbow. He just looked straight ahead and rode to gain time. Matthews wheel sucked, but hey, he likely knows he's not going to win this thing so what did he have to gain by taking a turn?. Cuddles knew what the score was and did the business.

but more likely...being the old pro that he is, he probably just wanted to put time in to the GC contenders...however there was a shake of the head and he did look a bit pissed of at the line...I guess he will look back on the day and smile sweetly in the end..

Yeah, I agree. But that's how races are won - a few seconds here, a few seconds there. It adds up. I have to say Cuddles opened the door for Matthews to take the win: if he had stuck to the inside of the last curve, Matthews would have to have come around him on his right - as it was, Cuddles moved right and Matthews came through on his left - the shorter route to the line.
ped says:

May 15 2014 at 3:28 pm

Christ , 3 Katusha riders out

Vicioso - leg fracture

Caruso - bruising

Purito - rib and thumb fractures
JohnB says:

May 15 2014 at 3:40 pm

Jeez, VSP knackered. No gain in rest day swaps, I'll need to reshuffle everything!
Deakus says:

May 15 2014 at 3:46 pm

@wiscot I saw that and wondered....but he knows his stuff...I think he was cooked and the shake of the head was one of resigned capitulation not pissed off that he lost, he would have loved to have won the stage but the GC prize is greater than a stage win and he played it bang on. I suspect he knew he could not win the stage (still pissed him off). He dragged them to the line and then got stuffed. As you know, that is cycling, it is a tough world but he will be happy in his bed tonight
Xponti says:

May 15 2014 at 4:54 pm

OMG I have podiumed in the VSP....Won't last long with 2 of my 5 out....[shakes fist at weather god] damn you rain....
Xponti says:

May 15 2014 at 4:56 pm

@wiscot That's what I thought, almost like he gifted it to Matthews on the line by swinging out on the last corner. It was like Cuddles led Bling out for the win...
erik says:

May 15 2014 at 5:35 pm

2 out of 5 picks are DNF. This is going well.
Buck Rogers says:

May 15 2014 at 5:40 pm

@therealpeel

@wiscot

@Rhodri

Ah when the rest of the internet is spitting feathers, knew I could read some comments on here that make more sense.

I'm led to believe that waiting for crashes and mechanicals was never a given years back? It's a nice and sporting thing to do in certain circumstances, but what if they eased up every time there was a crash in say, the classics? There'd be no point watching. Giro's already had one go-slow anyway.

The worst thing about it though is I don't have Cuddles in my top 5.

Incidentally I went to watch La Vuelta a while back. That day Cuddles punctured. Valverde pushed on and put minutes into him. I think I was so annoyed just because it was Valverde. (a few years later he had a right hissy-fit when he crashed and teams didn't wait, calling it 'anti-sporting' - non sporting! Valverde! ha ha ha)

Good point my man. That particular incident was Cuddles getting shafted by Valmerde and the race organizers. Kinda like Miller getting fucked in the 80s. In this day and age, not to have someone in your team do very detailed route reconnaisance is professional negligence. As a DS, it's your job to make sure your riders know any potential hazards are in the race and as a rider it's your job to take that knowledge and apply it. BMC did that better than anyone today.

Oh and by the way, watch the last kilo of today's stage. Cuddles on the front virtually the whole way. NEVER looked back, NEVER flicked an elbow. He just looked straight ahead and rode to gain time. Matthews wheel sucked, but hey, he likely knows he's not going to win this thing so what did he have to gain by taking a turn?. Cuddles knew what the score was and did the business.

For my own picks this sucks. For the sake of the race it still ducks for Rodriguez, but it's not so bad overall. In the relatively short amount of time I have followed the Pros, a very short time compared to many of you, I have been bothered by this idea of waiting for a rival to finish a wheel change our get back on after a crash. I think its nice, but when are races ever nice? There is only one winner.

Actually, ever since I have followed pro racing and from what know of cycling protocol, it does dictate that one should wait out a mechanical in a race leader or top contender but not a crash. This was why there was such outrage when Cuntador attacked with A Schleck's mechanical and causing the ever-so-small belly full of anger and also why Cuddles and so many others were so upset when Malmerde attacked after he punctured and the wheel change took so long in the Vuelta. Those were classless and base acts in attacking a misfortune outside of the riders control. Crashes, on the other hand, almost always only catch out those who are poorly positioned.

Just my two cents (and probably worth about half of that!).