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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View Comments
@razmaspaz
Does nationality play into this notion? I presume TJVG isn't pereniuminally (see what I did there?) overhyped outside of the English language media. Everyone of course discusses everyone, but you gotta say the Brit media covers Vroome massively, naturally the Eyetalians prop Nibbles, El Spanyerds hype Bertie, Columbians NQ etc... So in American centric media, your man, your favourite, is none other than TJVG. He is looking good though...
Me? I'm picking in order of derision. This time I will pick in the highly scientific order of 'meh'. This list leaves me cold. I mean hey, picking my favourites in the past never helped. Lets see how we do!
We will witness history and Bertie will do the double/grandslam after Froome falls off whilst slipping in his own poo as Bertie and Nibbles attack the decents. Nibbles will fight all the way but not quite have the horsepower. Quintana will lose time in the first week and suffer a string of strange mechanicals as Malmerde tries to get back team leadership.
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Is there not a Giro Rosa VSP too?
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Let me add here that i'd love to see more Rad French Guys but i can't see it happening. Taking Quintana because I love him and oh how he climbs, and Tejay for 'murca reasons.
I hate Froome but he seemed to have some legs in the Dauphine.
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2. Contador
3. Nibali
4. Pinot
5. Hesjedal
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placeholder picks for now
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