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.

[vsp_results id=”33262″/]

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.

Next Velominati Super Prestige: Giro Rosa 2015 »

Previous « Light Reading

View Comments

JCM says:

Jul 9 2015 at 10:13 pm

I reckon Cancellara is harder than Chinese arithmetic. Martin is too but they won't let him ride tomorrow with bits of his skeleton poking through his skin.

I understand that fans are genuinely concerned when riders go down but I could do without the crash porn that has been ratcheted up another level with all of the gopro camera on the bikes and strapped to team staff. I love the on-bike footage of racing and the footage of mechanics changing bikes and wheels is interesting, but I don't need to see close-up video of a rider who just hit the deck. I know use of the cameras is new and I hope they develop the judgment of what is appropriate to show.
Oli says:

Jul 10 2015 at 6:42 am

@Oli

Hendy out now too. Bad times for the Kiwi contingent.
KW says:

Jul 10 2015 at 1:58 pm

Really Luca? Cocaine?!? And that damn beard was growing on me too.
Teocalli says:

Jul 10 2015 at 2:43 pm

@KW

Really Luca? Cocaine?!? And that damn beard was growing on me too.

It beggars belief with something so easily detectable.
piwakawaka says:

Jul 10 2015 at 8:10 pm

Awesome on bike footage from TDF, @ 1.30 you can watch the lead out for the finale, amazing speed from Lotto Soudal working for Andre Griepel.

annnnd quote of the day,

"We're very surprised because cocaine is not a substance that improves performance." That was the view of Team Katusha's spokesman after the news that Gent Wevelgem champion Luca Paolini had been suspended after a positive test.
xyxax says:

Jul 11 2015 at 3:49 am

@KW

Really Luca? Cocaine?!? And that damn beard was growing on me too.

And I'll miss the YSA's (Yellow Shoes of Authority). Luca sleeps with the fishes.
Mikael Liddy says:

Jul 11 2015 at 5:25 am

If you had to pick which rider was most likely to test positive for blow, I'm pretty sure Luca would be pretty high on the list, even if Tommeke was in the race. Dude looks like he'd enjoy a party.

In other news, this could be the best auto-translate in history.
ChrisO says:

Jul 11 2015 at 8:25 am

@Mikael Liddy

Haha, classic choice of words.
tessar says:

Jul 11 2015 at 10:00 am

@xyxax

@KW

Really Luca? Cocaine?!? And that damn beard was growing on me too.

And I’ll miss the YSA’s (Yellow Shoes of Authority). Luca sleeps with the fishes.

And the ridiculous Assos Glasses Of Awesome:

The only rider in the peloton who could rock those bug-eyes.
ped says:

Jul 11 2015 at 10:31 am

@KW

Really Luca? Cocaine?!? And that damn beard was growing on me too.

Remember those boys on the back seat of the school bus?

Always up to no good