Velominati Super Prestige: Le Tour de France 2013
The early eighties saw the tide change in the European Peloton. Components were taking on a new, curvy shape as they left their boxy forms behind. The glint of toe clips in the sun would become a rarer sight as the move towards clipless pedals would take hold in 1985. English speakers were winning the big races classically won by continental Pros.
The 1984 Tour could be my favorite edition of the race. In 1983, the rookie Laurent Fignon had won in the absence of Le Patron, Bernard Hinault. The 1984 race saw the two go head-to-head, with Fignon becoming the one and only person in history to have laughed at Hinault and lived. He did more than live, he won. The new guard was here, and they were making their presence known.
This photo is from the stage to l’Alpe d’Huez. LeMond was riding in support of Fignon, and Robert Millar, in his second Tour, was leading the King of the Mountains competition, which he would eventually win. Millar wrote an account of this stage in Issue 13 of Rouleur, which everyone should make an effort to find a copy of. He describes the attacks that come fast and furious on the penultimate climb in such vivid detail, it makes my guns ache. But worse than that is his and LeMonds effort to hold on to Fignon and Hinault’s wheels in the ride through the valley to Le Bourg d’Oisans and the base of the final climb. It is the perfect description of the suffering of the Cyclist. LeMond, in service to his leader, is on the front one moment as he reels Hinault in after an attack, before being cast into the gutter and the back wheel a moment later when the next attack comes.
Just as 1984 was a watershed moment in the Pro peloton, 2013 is a watershed year for the VSP. This year we are offering five amazing prizes from five amazing partners.
Prizes
First prize is a Veloforma Strada iR road frame, painted in an exclusive Velominati color scheme with the newly-designed Velominati Super Prestige logo. Please note that this is a brand-spankin’ new frame for Veloforma. The geometry can be reviewed here.
Second prize is a pair of Café Roubaix carbon tubular wheels. The winner of this prize will be given the choice between the sub-1000g Haleakala wheels or a road version of my beloved Arenberg wheelset. As an additional incentive, anyone who enters their picks in the Tour VSP will get a $200 discount on any wheelset at Café Roubaix.
Third prize is a pair of Bont cycling shoes. The winner of this prize will be assisted in selecting the size, color, and model of shoe.
Fourth prize is a Flandrian Best kit from DeFeet consisting of a wool U-D-Shirt, Arm Skins, Kneekers, Slipstreams, and a pair of V-Socks.
Fifth prize is a wool jersey from our Keepers Tour tour partners, Pavé Cycling Classics.
Many thanks to each of our sponsors for providing such exciting prizes.
Rules
Enter your picks for the top five riders on G.C. by the time the countdown clock goes to zero; Grand Tour scoring rules apply. Check the mapping of your picks by the end of Stage 1 and use the dispute system should it be mapped incorrectly.
We will be enforcing Piti Principle rules much more closely. We will be accepting pick disputes through the start of Stage 2. After that, it will be at The Keepers’ discretion as to whether or not we allow the dispute. If your pick is ambiguous and we map them to the wrong rider, make sure you check your disputes before the deadline; we may reject the dispute after that time. For example, should both Tony and Dan Martin take the start and you enter “Martin” as your pick, we will pick one for you and you will have to live with it if you forget to dispute it before the deadline.
Good luck, and Merckxspeed.
Update: This is the same paint scheme that the winner will have, except the VSP Winner’s Badge will be replacing the V-Lion.
[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/[email protected]/Veloforma/”/]
[vsp_results id=”24179″/]
@brett
Ok, I think this is pretty cool and impressive, but yet another example of people hijacking the Tour to seek self-publicity. What’s next, some douche coming out of nowhere to ride in the bunch? Don’t tell me it couldn’t happen. Sorry to be such a negative nelly, but one day soon, this shit is gonna end badly.
@wiscot
Gee, no possibilty of anything going wrong there. If you are going to involve other people in your stunts, they should be informed and have the opportunity to opt out.
@wiscot I see where you’re coming from Wiscot although I will speak up for the drunken dickheads and suggest they are the symptom not the cause.
ASO and the French TV cameras are the ones who encourage people to do things by the roadside to appear on camera – it’s an official activity. Even Didi is no longer a guerilla devil but is dressed up and sponsored. It’s not exactly unpredictable that people think “Well if a bunch of French tractor drivers or a German dressed up as Satan can get on TV, why shouldn’t I.”
In most sports coverage they ignore or cut away from that sort of activity precisely so that it is not encouraged.
On the other hand I also think there is a tendency to see it as worse than it really is. In decades past riders have been attacked, spat at, pushed etc and it all makes no difference in the end. Well, Merckx may have lost a Tour because of it but he didn’t need another one.
@ChrisO
I hear you, but I don’t think you can blame the French TV cameras. They cover the action, the dickheads know where to go to get publicity. I’m getting tired of Didi but at least he doesn’t run beside the riders or do anything that puts them at jeopardy. I know that fans have been running beside riders for decades, I just think it’s getting worse. Look at certain sections of Paris-Roubaix. I’m amazed that a rider hasn’t hit a spectator crossing the road yet. I don’t think a lot of spectators comprehend how fast there guys are going. I’m truly amazed there hasn’t been another Guiseppe Guerini incident: See 4:55 in this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dBvJkqv0DM
Wow, I can’t believe I’ve won! I had to miss some of the stages and only watched the highlights so decided to keep the original Picks. Congrats to the other prize winners and thanks to the Keepers and the sponsors! Roll on the Vuelta!
@spoderman Kudos! Perfecto!
Something tells me Froome and Wiggins will never ride a GT on the same team ever again. No matter how they were ranked in the team, if they had both ridden for Sky this year it would have been really ugly. Wonder when Richie Porte’s contract comes up for renewal? Or Quintana’s for that matter?
@wiscot
Speaking of Richie…Sky number 1 for La Vuelta? I can’t remember if he rode the Giro? Froome and Twiglet have confirmed they are not racing so who’s next….Boss Hogg…Richie…can’t see who else…Knees (unlikely)..
@Deakus
Richie will be the leader for Giro 2014 and Sergio Henao for the Vuelta because Uran has signed with OPQS.
@spoderman How cool is that maillot jaune?
@spoderman
Congrats on the Veloforma! I hate you. (smily face emoticon here).
@spoderman
Our pleasure spodey, we hope you hang around and show off your maillot jaune and your new Veloforma when you get her built up…
@scaler911
Sad I won’t be able to shove you off of it and take it as my own, now…
@mcsqueak
You’d have to catch me first.
@wiscot
It has already happened, can’t remember what year it was, possibly the 90s, near the top of a mountaintop finish some dude in Kelme kit popped out behind the leaders and rode for 100m or so before the gendarmes nabbed him… it confused the fuck out of Phil who was bleating about the Kelme rider coming back to the leaders! Can’t find a video right now.
@wiscot
Much to the dismay of many (a high percentage of the dismayed being overly zealous Australians) in May, Porte signed a further 2 year deal with Sky. He is there for 2014 and 15 (when he will be 31). Given his relatively late start in cycling (he was a rule breaking triathlete), it might be nice to see him separate from Froom then.
Something tells me Wiggins will never ride another GT.
@brett a rider joining the Tour who didnt belong. Was it Nick Gates?
See ya Stuey! Thanks for all your years on the road & track.
Stuart O’Grady retires after completing 17th Tour de France
Should we have a VSP on which will Jens’ last race?
@sthilzy hear hear! He just retweeted a photo of himself from 1990. The equipment gives some idea as to how long he has been around!
@Marcus Brakes look like Dia-Compe’s! That was a long time ago!
Note the dude behind SO’G that there’s still brake cables exiting the hood tops, or he was last person on this planet to go aero. Also the foam helmets with the lycra cover era.
@Marcus
Hey, c’mon. He’s riding the Tour of Britan.
@Marcus
That is the shortest stem. Ever.
In other news, Masters CX racing in Australia is about to get a fuckton harder if Robbie McEwan convinces the freckle to come along…
@sthilzy
Jensies last race is currently due to be the Tour of the Federation of Planets, Stardate 23:42:31 but who knows, he may carry of for a year or two after that!
@brett
I don’t reckon that is cool at all! First they wilfully vandalise the forest by cutting down trees, digging a path etc and then they endanger the lives/livelyhoods/health of riders and spectators! It might have been unlikely something went wrong but it’s still possible! needs a good smack around the side of his head with zone of the small trees he cut down!
@frank
Here we go again!
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/sport/cycling/stuart-ogrady-admits-to-tour-de-france-doping-20130725-2qk04.html#ixzz2a0cgn3FT
@sthilzy
everyone doped back then and until recent years and likely even current. i’m done with the past. the uci should be concerned about the future and put the past behind them. use what they’ve learned and change things for the future stars of the sport.
@Puffy get your hand off it. They are pine trees – they grow like weeds.
@sthilzy
I just cant believe the bad luck Stuey had. The only time he ever used EPO the only time a positive (sorry, “suspicious”) result has been found. I love you Stuey, but spare us the “I only used it once” line. Even if true, it sounds wrong from a bloke who said in December 12, “Doping was never an option”.
Just like the lament of Henri, the famous Frenchman.
“I shot down 12 German fighter planes in WWI. Do they call me Henri the French Fighter pilot? Non.
“I kill 25 Germans in the trenches. Do they call me Henri the Hero of the Somme? Non.
“I paint 10 beautiful paintings all of which hang in Le Louvre. Do the call me Henri the Famous French Artiste? Non.
“I suck one cock. And what do they call me?
“Henri the Cocksucker”
Dammit, I just replied to @Marcus on Twitter and put an emoticon in it before I realized it was him.
Never let your guard down. Never.
@G’rilla
Forever, now: G’rilla the Emoticoner.
@sthilzy
What a fuck. Have a shred of self respect and just admit it. Although after the earlier denials, he is just another fucking lier who doesn’t have the balls to own up.
@Buck Rogers
I love the way the press talks about someone “admitting” doping just after they get found out.
“well, what happened is that I had never doped before. I heard about this stuff called EPO. So I drove my car over the border on my own, bought some of it and shot it up. I never doped again.”
About as likely as shooting up heroin without ever having smoked a joint.
nb. that is a made up quote – but it is what O’Grady is asking us to believe.
oh yeah, and i never doped again. But i used to be a sprinter and then in 2008 I was the guy pulling Sastre and the Schlecks through the lower passes, then i would hand over to my mate Jensy and then the guys would go on after that…
and one more thing, doping was never a part of any of the teams I was on, not even Cofidis in 2004, despite any suggestions by my mate Dave Millar that the team was involved.
@sthilzy
and thus we know what prompted the decision to change his mind just a month after signing a contract extension to finish at next year’s tour…he’s an indecisive one is our Stuey.
@Marcus
How about keeping quiet all through the Green Edge purge last year? He played Mr Clean, and happily collected another year’s salary. What a prick! Shows how effective “thorough internal investigations” really are, not to mention the Nicki Vance review that cleared everyone else in the team once Whitey stood down.
And if it turns out that Whitey knew about SOG all along and still said nothing, then he might be fired for a 2nd time.
I don’t buy the press release bullshit from Shayne Bannan expressing the team’s support for SOG either. He and Gerry Ryan must be seething behind closed doors.
I know this next part is pure conjecture and hearsay, so shoot me down if you like. Maybe this is why SOG allegedly has the aggro drunkard reputation in the peloton. And why he and Schleckette allegedly used to go on regular benders, even during GTs – because they can’t handle their own terrible truths.
@Bianchi Denti not sure about your conjecture, but O’Grady definitely has the pisshead reputation (which i like, not so much the aggro).
Here is the interview he did last December with cyclingnews. Couple of choice quotes:
“At the end of the day, I’ve been available whenever they want to talk and I’m happy to tell them everything that I know – most of the time I’m not going to have any of the answers that they’re hoping for or want – but hopefully I can give an insight into my life and my world and the teams and the people that I was around.”
“I was never a mountain climber and I just thought that losing half an hour a day was stock-standard,” he said. “I was more of a sprinter so I did more sprint training. I never did mountain training. To be getting my arse kicked every Tour I just figured that was kind of normal. Obviously things weren’t normal…”
His problem is back in Australia – no one in Europe will bat an eye, and most cycling fans in Australia will be unsurprised – but he has a decent non-cycling profile. Massive in South Australia (not that that means anything), on the AOC (not for much longer), etc etc.
Graeme Brown better hope they dont press Stuey too hard and he fesses up to more doping – Brown might lose an Olympic gold…
@Marcus
Or the even earlier thought process of “I doped for two weeks, came second in the Green jersey comp, won a stage in the Tour, but hell I don’t want to do that again.”
What’s not to believe.
I’m only just catching up on this as I have been travelling, but I hope the general response is not that this was all a long time ago so lets forget it. While changing the results may be pointless, these people should not be working in the sport, in any capacity. Not as advisers, coaches, directors, commentators or representatives.
I see the Australian Olympic Committee has asked O’Grady to resign as the athlete’s representative and that’s a start but I don’t want to see them re-appearing and perpetuating the culture of lies and forced admissions.
@sthilzy
Very easy to admit it when you are pretty much on the verge of retirement. Really not worth much more comment, we have seen it before, we will see it again, let’s not fan the flames of publicity….
@Deakus
In terms of cycling identities generally and Australian sport as a whole, whilst it isnt too surprising it is a pretty fucking massive story. This guy is the member of the Australian Olympic Committee’s Athlete’s commission (seen as a very big role here), his Olympic Gold is seen by non-cycling sports fans as a massive thing and he holds a pretty revered role in cycling worldwide.
Being the first Australian Olympic Gold medallist to be exposed as a cheat (albeit at a different time in his career) makes it a big story.
And he only admitted when he was caught. An important difference.
@Marcus wot he said.
As far as fanning the flames of publicity goes, this is a positive conversation, fuck these cheats we need people to know, we need to tell others, we should express how fucked we think it is, I know some of you are bored by this but I hope they can ” hear” our disgust, I reckon you can see the burden these cheats carry to their hollow victories in their eyes.
@Bianchi Denti
I understand that Stuey ‘EP’ O’Grady (I’m here all week, folks. Try the veal, and don’t forget to tip your waiter.) would be a friend of Gerry, Shane and co., but until they’re happy to seethe publicly (particularly about lying to Vance), they’ll be suffering a severe credibility deficiency. Kittel is a f’n legend in this regard.
@Deakus I hear you, I’m just gutted. I suppose it’s all part of the cleansing process.
The real tragedy is;
“What people will find hardest to accept is not the act of cheating itself, but the years of lying and denial for O’Grady had plenty of chances to come clean before this.” Quoted from here
As everyone else has the chance to come clean, they don’t. Bring on the amnesty! If you’re busted after the amnesty, you’re out for life!
I’ve always had the (macabre) thought of having a drug free event – Olympics, TdF, Swimmimg, Tri any sport where you free to take anything you damn well like. Just have a asterix next to your name with what you took and see how long you survive as a living person as well as your status in the sporting world. This would ruin National sports institutes/academies as well as ruin it for the naturally talented athlete who’d like to compete with other natural athletes. It’s just a thought.
@sthilzy
And another possible drawback:
all drugs olympics from llcoolR on Vimeo.
Let’s try that again:
Dang.
With reference to SOG, how the fuck can so many gimps just decide to go find this shit themselves, pump themselves up without any knowledge or involvement of team or teammates? This is the things that shits me, there is clearly thinly veiled coverups going on. The raison desire seems to be, don’t say jack until you’re practically in the crosshairs….
systematic testing of past samples in future years seems a retarded, but only, way of catching people. If they know that they will be busted as cheats, not now, but maybe in 10 years time, that will smear their career, some might not be likely to start. I mean, the French investigation is based on results for the 1998 tour, that were retested in 2004. 9 years ago FFS! Which isn’t fast enough, but the point is who cares that the UCI statute of limitations is past, guys got busted and their ‘glittering’ careers turned into the worthless turds that they should have been…
Or if not worthless turds, at least taken within the context of doping, and asterixed….
@Beers it’s not the statute of limitations that stops the prosecution, it’s the fact that there aren’t B samples to be tested (given they got a pass at the time I assume the B’s weren’t kept).
@Mikael Liddy
Yes, no B sample because nothing was found at the time (clean at the time) so none needed be provided. Was more talking in general, it doesn’t matter if they get retested in 20 years time and the guys are gone from the peleton, the idea is that they will get found out eventually, and sullied. The fact the A sample later retested positive is enough to cloud their careers, correctly, in our eyes.