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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View Comments

RobSandy says:

Jul 6 2015 at 5:45 am

Something else I've just remembered -did anyone else think it looked like Cancellara's thighs looked too big to get past his top tube during the prologue?

Beyond Gun Envy. Gun Awe.
RobSandy says:

Jul 6 2015 at 6:39 am

From the live text:

15:36:56 BST

Fabian Cancellara is hoping to defend his yellow jersey today but he has admitted that he has never raced or even ridden the Mur de Huy during his long career.

Surely that can't be true?
LeoTea says:

Jul 6 2015 at 7:16 am

@RobSandy

I would imagine that there's not much crossover between the Cobbled Classics and the Ardennes Classics. And given that Faboo was always tearing it up around Flanders and Roubaix, it's probably not that surprising. I can't remember Phil Gil ever bouncing accross the cobbles.
Erik says:

Jul 6 2015 at 8:30 am

Going to have to pay NBC for better coverage. Just lost my pirate signal from Steephill with 200 meters left and Purito on the front. That sucked.
xyxax says:

Jul 6 2015 at 8:54 am

@Erik

Going to have to pay NBC for better coverage. Just lost my pirate signal from Steephill with 200 meters left and Purito on the front. That sucked.

Hey, get TunnelBear or your favorite VPN (a year's worth is probably no more than the NBC thing), and route yourself through France and use the official Tour coverage stream. It's in French, but it's full coverage and who understands the Pauls anyway?
Minnesota Expat says:

Jul 6 2015 at 9:50 am

@ridley4033

Fabians bike for tomorrows stage under construction

Beautiful. Who would have thought, it even spins nicely end-over-end through the air.
Minnesota Expat says:

Jul 6 2015 at 10:30 am

@xyxax

Hey, get TunnelBear or your favorite VPN (a year’s worth is probably no more than the NBC thing), and route yourself through France and use the official Tour coverage stream. It’s in French, but it’s full coverage and who understands the Pauls anyway?

I would listen to the coverage in Swedish, to save the agony of listening to Bob Roll/Phil Ligget/Van De Velde and now Jens Voight. What a clown car.
paolo says:

Jul 6 2015 at 4:09 pm

I have a question. Anyone who lnows please chime in but I am guessing that Frank or maybe Chris O knows. On the TTT the time is taken when the 5th man crosses the line yes? So what if you are left with only 4 riders by the time you get to start the TTT ? Is the team out? Because technically they wont have completed the stage ? Or am I being a bit dim? And has this ever happened ?
xyxax says:

Jul 6 2015 at 5:06 pm

@Minnesota Expat

@xyxax

Hey, get TunnelBear or your favorite VPN (a year’s worth is probably no more than the NBC thing), and route yourself through France and use the official Tour coverage stream. It’s in French, but it’s full coverage and who understands the Pauls anyway?

I would listen to the coverage in Swedish, to save the agony of listening to Bob Roll/Phil Ligget/Van De Velde and now Jens Voight. What a clown car.

No truer words. I admit to following Jens on Twitter but within a few weeks, "Shut Up Mouth" was all I could think of. Unfollow.
xyxax says:

Jul 6 2015 at 5:07 pm

@paolo

I was wondering that myself. Dim and Dimmer.