Velominati Super Prestige: Tour de France 2015

Sep Vanmarcke rides the cobbles Kelly-Style in the 2014 stage to Port du Hinault. Photo: Cycling Tips

Cobblestones make the race, I’m not ruining any fantasies telling you that. Wet cobblestones, well, those make a legend. Nibbles rose in my esteem considerably when he rode the wet cobbles as well as he rides any mountain descent or climb; that is a boy with some nerves and some mad bike handling skills.

Wet cobbles are scarier to ride that dry ones, but they aren’t really that much more difficult to ride; you’re still playing the lottery that your wheels keep pointing where your bike is trying to go. But wet stones are definitely more draining; the mud and silt you ride through make it like riding through molasses. Awesome molasses, but molasses nonetheless.

The cobbles are back this year, and hopefully so will the rain. Let us pray for rain, because last year’s stage made the race.

The Tour de France needs no introduction but the VSP prizes deserve a gentle reminder. This is a Grand Tour, people, lots of points at stake. And those points are going towards amazing prizes including a Jaegher frame and a Café Roubaix wheelset. There is plenty of time for you to Delgado this thing, too, if you wait around until the last minute. So my advice is that you avoid doing that.

Give yourself enough time to enter your picks so if something has gone amuck, you have time to hit “reload” or come back V minutes later to try again before the event closes. Remember, your procrastination in this matter will not result in our emergency to enter your picks for you. All that said, if you do encounter a problem, please be so kind as to take a screenshot and upload it because the descriptor “it didn’t work” or “hm, not working” doesn’t help us debug the problem. Also, Internet Explorer is not supported and apparently only shows one Pick Entry box, so use Chrome, Firefox, or Safari instead.

The scoring for the Grand Tours is a tad more involved than the one-day races and one-week Tours, so look the guidelines over before making your prognostications.

So get your picks in before the countdown clock goes to zero, hit the go button, and good luck.

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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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Erik says:

Jul 6 2015 at 7:20 pm

@xyxax

@Erik

Going to have to pay NBC for better coverage. Just lost my pirate signal from Steephill with 200 meters left and Purito on the front. That sucked.

Hey, get TunnelBear or your favorite VPN (a year’s worth is probably no more than the NBC thing), and route yourself through France and use the official Tour coverage stream. It’s in French, but it’s full coverage and who understands the Pauls anyway

I will likely do that. I hadn't yet researched VPNs so you've saved me time with TunnelBear. I don't want to listen to Paul or Phil. But I do enjoy hearing King Kelly.
Minnesota Expat says:

Jul 6 2015 at 8:12 pm

@RobSandy

Something else I’ve just remembered -did anyone else think it looked like Cancellara’s thighs looked too big to get past his top tube during the prologue? Beyond Gun Envy. Gun Awe.

Anyone else impressed that Fabian finished the stage with two fractured vertebrae? Dude. Really? How'd it feel pulling yourself up the Mur de Huy?
ChrisO says:

Jul 6 2015 at 8:58 pm

@paolo

I have a question. Anyone who lnows please chime in but I am guessing that Frank or maybe Chris O knows. On the TTT the time is taken when the 5th man crosses the line yes? So what if you are left with only 4 riders by the time you get to start the TTT ? Is the team out? Because technically they wont have completed the stage ? Or am I being a bit dim? And has this ever happened ?

Very good question and I'm afraid I don't know - I was wondering exactly the same thing yesterday and haven't found an answer.

I guess that's why TTTs are often in the early stages of a race.
ChrisO says:

Jul 7 2015 at 3:33 am

@ChrisO

@paolo

I have a question. Anyone who lnows please chime in but I am guessing that Frank or maybe Chris O knows. On the TTT the time is taken when the 5th man crosses the line yes? So what if you are left with only 4 riders by the time you get to start the TTT ? Is the team out? Because technically they wont have completed the stage ? Or am I being a bit dim? And has this ever happened ?

Very good question and I’m afraid I don’t know – I was wondering exactly the same thing yesterday and haven’t found an answer.

I guess that’s why TTTs are often in the early stages of a race.

So apparently they ride it anyway, with whatever number of team members are still left in the race.

The time is taken on the last rider to cross the line.
VeloJello says:

Jul 7 2015 at 5:16 am

Fuck me, I'm in the Top 10... I'm obviously doing something very very wrong...
Teocalli says:

Jul 7 2015 at 7:34 am

@VeloJello

Fuck me, I’m in the Top 10… I’m obviously doing something very very wrong…

Peaking too early?
Mikael Liddy says:

Jul 7 2015 at 8:50 am

That was fucking awesome!
Matt says:

Jul 7 2015 at 9:47 am

@Minnesota Expat

@RobSandy

Something else I’ve just remembered -did anyone else think it looked like Cancellara’s thighs looked too big to get past his top tube during the prologue? Beyond Gun Envy. Gun Awe.

Anyone else impressed that Fabian finished the stage with two fractured vertebrae? Dude. Really? How’d it feel pulling yourself up the Mur de Huy?

They don't call him Spartacus for nothin'. I was gutted to hear he had to withdraw after that stage. Likely his last Tour eh?

And this morning was FUCKING AWESOME.
Drew says:

Jul 7 2015 at 12:49 pm

Is there anyone in the current peloton that does as much work for his team as Tony Martin does? In glad he finally found himself in yellow.
xyxax says:

Jul 7 2015 at 2:00 pm

@Erik

Oh, I forgot to mention they have a way of seeing 4 feeds simultaneously. So you can have the main feed and then 3 different feeds from the 5 moto cameras. It cuts off the commentary, mais qui gives a fuque?

It's listed in Steephill as the official streaming site.