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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Bonne chance, lads! Ride like hell for leather and earn me some much-needed points!
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Continuing my "no Astana" bent, even though I think the Nibbles got skillz
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Really hoping my finishing order is wrong but picking with my head this time. Maybe we will see Astana and Sky wear each other out. Couldn't believe how much time Saxo-Tinkoff spent at the front during the early parts of each stage in the Giro. I hope they learned because it almost cost them dearly.
I doubt he he has the goods to finish on the podium again but very little talk of Purito so far...
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Others who I'd love to see on the list include TJay the DJ, Pinot, and either of the Yates brothers. It'll be a great three weeks!
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Bertie is going to run out of gas somewhere and end up beyond the top five. TJ, not on podium, Froome in the ditch.
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froome is flying
quintana will always go up fast
bardet, van garderen and pinot will be swapping places alot
nibbles will be thrown out with rest of astana
cuntador will crack in last week and lose ten minutes.
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