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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Mikael Liddy says:

Jul 7 2015 at 5:51 pm

Ok, that little Maillot Jaune is pretty cool, but I'll be happy for any of you to play the role of Tony Martin here & take the responsibility off my shoulders this early in the 3 weeks.
VeloJello says:

Jul 8 2015 at 2:23 am

@Teocalli

@VeloJello

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

Peaking too early?

Judging by todays provisional standings, definitely.
VeloJello says:

Jul 8 2015 at 6:48 am

Live tracking...

http://betalivetracking.letour.fr/

Apologies if already posted.
Ron says:

Jul 8 2015 at 7:07 am

Jeez, the Cannondale riders look terrible in those goofy aero helmets and clear safety shades. Definitely NOT pro.
sthilzy says:

Jul 8 2015 at 3:30 pm

Stage 2 / Etape 2 : Utrecht > Zeeland

photo from here
Oli says:

Jul 8 2015 at 5:50 pm

Poor Jack Bauer out with a broken hip.
dyalander says:

Jul 9 2015 at 5:16 am

I'm enjoying the points classification more than in the last couple of editions - not sure how much it has to do with the changes they've made for this year, Kittel's absence, or just that it's been interspersed with other things - wind, Mur, cobbles - but it's still up for grabs, and I'm glad to see Greipel doing well - he rode with ambition, good form but limited luck early in the season so it's nice to see him getting some results.

Also enjoyed Sagan suggesting they rotate turns after the intermediate sprint a couple of stages back. Greipel actually considered it before he realised it was a joke - and before you say it's because he's German, Degenkolb seemed to get a laugh out of it straight away. Cav didn't break his sullen scowl - having not won the sprint a clown farting a rainbow of laughing gas wouldn't have broken Cav's frown. Sometimes a smile is more impressive than a suffer face.
John Irvine says:

Jul 9 2015 at 10:50 am

Ouch. 50% of yellow jersey wearers crash out the next day. Froome and Dennis should count their lucky stars.
Mikael Liddy says:

Jul 9 2015 at 3:38 pm

@John Irvine

Ouch. 50% of yellow jersey wearers crash out the next day. Froome and Dennis should count their lucky stars.

Mmmm, I'm hoping the same curse doesn't extend to the virtual version!
erik says:

Jul 9 2015 at 9:04 pm

@xyxax

@xyxax

@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.

I may never leave my screen again .