Velominati Super Prestige: Tour de France 2012, Stage 16
Which bold rider has this stage circled in their tour bible? Wednesday July 18th, Stage 16, 197 km. The day after a the final rest day. A climbing day with two HC climbs followed by two Category 1 climbs and a serious descent toward the finish. The Aubisque, Tourmalet, Aspin and Peyresourde: you better be a fearless climber and a good descender, but a better climber. This is not a stage for Sagan or Fränkie Schleck (sorry Frank). If Wiggo was going to have a bad day, this would be a special one to have it on. And this follows a rest day? Could the weather finally make a difference? Will the mad tacker return? Will climbers just try to survive this stage to perform on the fearsome Stage 17? More questions than answers in the Velominati Super-Bunker.
All VSP bettors better give an extra shake of the monkey bones before casting them down. Study them well. There is much at stake: Fizik R3s for the winner, 2 pair of DeFeet socks for first loser. The rules are the same as for the first single stage VSP. Points are awarded for correct place only. Delgado might have enjoyed this stage but don’t be like him.
Hoped that sleeping on it would help. All I got was bed-head.
VSP PICKS:
1. Nibali
2. Froome-town Rat
3. JVDB
4. Evans
5. Wiggo
VSP PICKS:
1. Nibali
2. Pinot
3. Froome
4. Wiggins
5. Rolland
Evans tries and dies….
VSP PICKS:
1. L. Sanchez
2. Voekler
3. Casar
4. Nibali
5. Evans
What the fuck do I know.
VSP PICKS:
1. Nibali
2. Froome
3. Evans
4. Sanchez
5. Rolland
VSP PICKS:
1. Nibali
2. Pinot
3. Evans
4. Van Den Broeck
5. Wiggins
Well, my chances of winning a sweet pair of shoes was always slim but with a breakaway group of 38 riders and only Voeckler in my picks I’ve resigned to merely enjoying the spectacle.
Although … the gap has been at 3:30 or so for quite a while now.
‘Looking forward to seeing if Pierre Rolland can launch an attack when everyone is on their bikes without punctures’ – Aussie Matt (the commentator you have when you’re not having Phil and Paul).
VSP PICKS:
1. JVDB
2. Nibbles
3. VJvG
4. If he were mine, I’d slap his fa
5. Rolland
VSP PICKS:
1. Tejay
2. Froom
3. Twiggo
4. Nibbles
5. Cadel
Nearly Delgado’d. Whoops. All picks wishful thinking.
VSP PICKS:
1. Evans
2. Froome
3. Nibali
4. Wiggins
5. Martin
VSP PICKS:
1. Costa
2. Voekler
3. Kessiakoff
4. Sorensen C
5. Martin
Argh!!!!!
“Basso is setting the pace, Nibali on his wheel. And Cadel Evans is in trouble, big trouble.” – CN
@Erik
shattered.
Voeckler being chased by Vino & Voigt…there’s just a little of The V on display today!
Evans already three minutes behind…yikes.
GO NIBBLES!!!!
Nice to see Wiggo doing work. He’s noble yellow jersey wearer.
@Marko
Fixed it for you…
@frank
5 mins over the top, the definition of Un Jour Sans.
I’m really starting to like Tommy V.
Slightly anti-climactic day; marking these results as provisional as we wait for disputed picks and double-check the results.
@Daccordi Rider takes the win over @Bianchi Denti and DerHoggz takes third. Nice work chaps, but stand by as we confirm the results.
Provisional Race Results
1. VOECKLER Thomas
2. SORENSEN Chris
3. IZAGIRRE INSAUSTI Gorka
4. VINOKOUROV Alexandre
5. FEILLU Brice
Provisional VSP Results
1. Daccordi Rider (5 points)
2. Bianchi Denti (1 points)
3. DerHoggz (0 points)
4. Mikael Liddy (0 points)
5. Chappy McPappystackings (0 points)
6. mxlmax (0 points)
7. ifurley (0 points)
8. G’phant (0 points)
9. Buck Rogers (0 points)
10. Marcus (0 points)
11. stickyjumper (0 points)
12. RedRanger (0 points)
13. versio (0 points)
14. sprider (0 points)
15. Duende (0 points)
16. Austin (0 points)
17. TOM.NELS2120 (0 points)
18. mouse (0 points)
19. eightzero (0 points)
20. napolinige (0 points)
21. harminator (0 points)
22. Jeff in PetroMetro (0 points)
23. moondance (0 points)
24. mcsqueak (0 points)
25. ten B (0 points)
26. huwge (0 points)
27. meursault (0 points)
28. hendriku (0 points)
29. snoov (0 points)
30. SimonH (0 points)
31. Ankush (0 points)
32. Aidas (0 points)
33. motor city (0 points)
34. R00tdown (0 points)
35. Kah (0 points)
36. Sauterelle (0 points)
37. Blah (0 points)
38. Two Ball Billy (0 points)
39. marko (0 points)
40. taon24 (0 points)
41. Dr C (0 points)
42. Oli Cartlidge (0 points)
43. Oli Cartlidge (0 points)
44. Fat Mexican (0 points)
45. graham d.m. (0 points)
46. Anais Ninja (0 points)
47. Gal (0 points)
48. Cyclops (0 points)
49. Noel (0 points)
50. Steampunk (0 points)
51. VeloVita (0 points)
52. ralph (0 points)
53. blue (0 points)
54. Matt (0 points)
55. niksch (0 points)
56. gaswepass (0 points)
57. al (0 points)
58. Trobs (0 points)
59. Kyle (0 points)
60. El Mateo (0 points)
61. drewPjohnson (0 points)
62. sean (0 points)
63. Souleur (0 points)
64. Bill (0 points)
65. itburns (0 points)
66. roadslave525 (0 points)
67. The Oracle (0 points)
68. wiscot (0 points)
69. LA Dave (0 points)
70. Adrian (0 points)
71. Fausto (0 points)
72. Ed O (0 points)
73. Kermit Pannell (0 points)
74. Tobin (0 points)
75. Chuckolade (0 points)
76. ben (0 points)
77. tony macaroni (0 points)
78. scaler911 (0 points)
79. TomC (0 points)
80. godsight (0 points)
81. Skip (0 points)
82. minion (0 points)
83. Mikel Pearce (0 points)
84. Jay (0 points)
85. Nate (0 points)
86. dancollins (0 points)
87. MJ Moquin (0 points)
88. brett (0 points)
89. CanuckChuck (0 points)
90. seemunkee (0 points)
91. King Clydesdale (0 points)
92. brianc (0 points)
93. Ron (0 points)
94. Jason (0 points)
95. pakrat (0 points)
96. San Tonio (0 points)
97. Benny (0 points)
98. Markp (0 points)
99. ramenvelo (0 points)
100. The Fish (0 points)
101. Lukas (0 points)
102. Mason (0 points)
103. Gianni (0 points)
104. Dan_R (0 points)
105. 936adl (0 points)
106. razmaspaz (0 points)
107. Emile (0 points)
108. Giles (0 points)
109. sar02 (0 points)
110. Chris (0 points)
111. sthilzy (0 points)
112. xyxax (0 points)
113. magiscla (0 points)
114. Islandbike (0 points)
115. DR5150 (0 points)
116. anotherdownunder (0 points)
117. Blake (0 points)
118. Erik (0 points)
I love Auntie Phil – complaining about Nibali’s bus blocking his car in. GOLD!
Tbh I’m kinda glad I didn’t end up on the podium whilst recording a donut…
Nice gesture from Evans to HIncapie, thanking him for the pull. Rough day for cuddles.
Cannot believe how idiot clowns are knocking Wiggins for following wheels. He has ridden the perfect race. Anyone complaining about his racing style, you need to find a new sport. This one is about using as little effort as possible at all times.
Cuddles goes down. Bugger, but I get a pair of new shoes. Tommy the tongue was brilliant.
@Cyclops
Agreed. His merit is taking a hold on me.
Good stage and good effort by Velominati and willing sponsors. Thanx Frank for the extra adrenalin today.
At least we had Tommy V to make it an exciting race. I didn’t get to see the end which wasn’t a loss. On the upside me and a class mate figured out what was wrong with the schools 727 that wouldn’t start up. The miracles of a multi meter. Repairs are under way.
@versio
starting? He has been kicking ass for a while.
@Cyclops
Just cannot warm up to the guy. He’s such a bitch for the camera, playing it up all the time. Not knocking his results, but he just exudes melodrama to me.
Donut-tastic! Looks like the only prediction I got right was Nibbles blowing up in spectacular fashion.
@Buck Rogers
I’m with you. He’s the new Virenque with the showboating. But you gotta like the san-radio, v-meter approach today.
@Fausto
Donut you mean Cuddles?
Which, by the way, makes me quite sad. And my VSP is blown to itsy bitsy teeny weeny little bits.
@RedRanger
You are addressing Cyclops.
Would have loved for Bobke to play Judas Priest “You Got Another Thing Coming” during today’s stage — “Oh so hot, no time to take a rest, yea.”
@Buck Rogers
Watching him decompensate last yr losing the yellow jersey, he was not the image of a leader and a true winner. I have similar but perhaps slightly different reasons that I just don’t dig him. A shame too, since he seems to be quite capable.
@frank
curious what the stage vsp results woulda been if place wasn’t required to get some points. I only had one dog in the fight of five ultimately.
Tommy V was wicked fast on the last descent. Magnificent, knee out form into one of the little villes towards the bottom. Grands couilles indeedy.
@gaswepass
Perhaps he prefers to struggle and claw his way up?
@versio
He just lost his composure and was yelling and and freakin as I recall (the decompensation was a mid-stage live action event that just was not pretty- terribly unfortunate and very public). Wasn’t pretty or very PRO looking. Now, easy to cast stones when being so far removed from such a dramatic incident (can’t recall the last time I was in the lead of one of the most difficult competitions in the world), but leadership, class and composure are what they are and matter at those times more, not less.
Congrats for winning yourself a sweet pair of R3’s, Daccordi Rider. The only peep to pick The Tongue. Just like the great breakaway rider he is, it’s a big risk but the payoff is huge. Send me your sizing and shipping information and I’ll contact our boy at fizik to get you hooked up. I highly recommend, and request, that you are sure of your size as making any exchanges is going to be difficult, time consuming, and costly at best as these babies will be coming from some old Italian cobbler’s shop to your feet. Not that we couldn’t exchange but it’ll get you riding in their sweetness sooner if you dial your size in. Most people agree that they do run a half size large.
Same goes for you Bianchi Denti although I’m guessing your sock size is already hammered out so just email me your shipping info.
I hate to speak for frank, but DerHoggz, you’ll need to contact the big guy yerself.
[email protected]
Thanks everyone for playing and big congrats to our winners.
@Mikael Liddy
Shut up you stupid wanker, go toss a table.
Wait, who am I supposed to contact? Why?
Chapeau to Tommy V. Sure he may mug it up a bit but he’s French and there’s little likihood of them winning the GC anytime soon. At least he wins with panache, and for me that counts for a lot.
@frank
Loved it!
OK, I don’t see anything obvious that makes me question the results. Marking these as final. Congrats to the podium!
[vsp_results id=”20326″]
[/vsp_results]
@DerHoggz
About a V-Shirt size, which you won by taking third.
Congratulations to the winners. Daccordi Rider, those are definitely some sweet shoes.
Voeckler rode a very strong race. But, I have to say, I found the stage to be quite a let down. As I’m sure many others agree, I would really have liked to see some action in the GC standings produced by an attack from the likes of Nibali or Van den Broeck, as opposed to by Cadel falling off the pace as he did.