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.

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View Comments

Fausto says:

Jul 3 2015 at 1:36 pm
As has been said many times already, this has the makings of a classic. 4 top riders all in with a shout, one trying to go out with a bang (preferably of firing pistols, not the sound of hitting the floor), one trying to prove he can ride on cobbles, another skipping his Giro defence to aim for the big time and a defending champ who is trying to avoid peaking too early. Chances of them all making it to Paris? Slim? Chances of me picking the right order? Practically non existent. Get the popcorn in; this is going to be good.

VSP PICKS:
1. Two-in-a-row Bertie
2. Stemwatcher
3. Not quite Nairo
4. KOM Pinot
5. Spirited defence Nibali
John Irvine says:

Jul 3 2015 at 1:41 pm
VSP PICKS:
1. Contador
2. Quintana
3. Bardet
4. Froome
5. Nibali
simonsaunders says:

Jul 3 2015 at 1:53 pm
Got to try and make some alternate choices, the only chance is one of the big 4 crashing out

VSP PICKS:
1. Contador
2. Froome
3. Nibali
4. Van Garderen
5. Pinot
GogglesPizano says:

Jul 3 2015 at 2:03 pm
VSP PICKS:
1. Froome
2. Contador
3. Hesjedal
4. Nibali
5. Quintana
fly says:

Jul 3 2015 at 2:43 pm
VSP PICKS:
1. Froome
2. Qintana
3. Contador
4. Tjvg
5. Nibali
Pot Belj says:

Jul 3 2015 at 3:01 pm
6. This Dude

VSP PICKS:
1. Qintana
2. Contador
3. Froome
4. Tee Jay
5. Pinot
BaltoSteve says:

Jul 3 2015 at 3:14 pm
Not sure why, my browser shows only 1 box in the "picks" section.

Here are my top 5:

1 Quintana

2 Froome

3 Contador

4 Mollema

5 Gesink

I'd like to see Bertie win the double but he won't be able to match those guys who are focused solely on the Tour.

VSP PICKS:
1. Quintana
Dan_R says:

Jul 3 2015 at 3:23 pm
VSP PICKS:
1. Froome
2. Contador
3. Quintana
4. TJ VG
5. Hesjedal
Chrille says:

Jul 3 2015 at 3:24 pm
Not many ways you could go this year. It's the small matter of placing them in the right order.

I just hope there wont be any crashes that will affect the outcome.

VSP PICKS:
1. Nairo Quintana
2. Alberto Contador
3. Chris Froome
4. Vincenzo Nibali
5. Thibaut Pinot
David Booth Beers says:

Jul 3 2015 at 3:37 pm
Easiest Prediction: Lance will make a nuisance of himself in the first day or two

Two non-contenders booted for drugs within the first 2 weeks

Froome will crash out

Whoever is most insane and lucky on the descents will take the yellow to Paris

VSP PICKS:
1. Nibali
2. Contador
3. Quintana
4. Hesjedal
5. van Garderen