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

ErikdR says:

Jul 2 2015 at 4:51 am
VSP PICKS:
1. Nairo Quintana
2. Joaquim Rodriguez
3. Bauke Mollema
4. Chris Froome
5. Vincenzo Nibali
Lunge says:

Jul 2 2015 at 4:51 am
Froome and Bertie are both all or nothing picks, either they'll be 1 and 2 (likely in the opposite order to what I have picked...) or they'll DNF, I can't see either scrapping for 3rd or 4th.

Nibbles will grab a stage or 2 but will loose time in the hills.

Nairo will win the polka dot jersey but only because he'll have lot time before we get to the hills so won't be in contention for GC.

Geraint Thomas will hopefully give Froome a scare (like Froome did to Wiggo) and will push him all the way. If the race was the opposite way round (cobbles at the end) I'd have put him in 3rd as if Froome drops out he'll make time.

Cav for Green, Kwiak for white, Nibbles for dots.

VSP PICKS:
1. Froome
2. Contador
3. Nibali
4. Quintana
5. Thomas
ten B says:

Jul 2 2015 at 4:58 am
VSP PICKS:
1. Froome
2. Quintana
3. Nibali
4. Pinot
5. Contador
WindDrifter says:

Jul 2 2015 at 5:01 am
VSP PICKS:
1. Nibali
2. Quintana
3. Contador
4. Valverde
5. Froome
Steampunk says:

Jul 2 2015 at 5:05 am
VSP PICKS:
1. C. Froome
2. N. Quintana
3. V. Nibali
4. A. Contador
5. T. Pinot
CanuckChuck says:

Jul 2 2015 at 5:23 am
VSP PICKS:
1. Froom
2. Contador
3. Quintana
4. Nibbles
5. Pinot
dyalander says:

Jul 2 2015 at 5:31 am
Got a feeling Quintana will crash out and Valverde will ride high. We'll get the Froome v Contador battle we missed last year - Contador will crack, may even drop behind Nibbles.

VSP PICKS:
1. Froome
2. Contador
3. Nibali
4. Valverde
5. Fuglsang
Barracuda says:

Jul 2 2015 at 5:39 am
Don't want to pick Nibali, Froome or Contador, but me needs some new Café Roubaix wheels.

VSP PICKS:
1. Quintana
2. Nibali
3. Froome
4. Contador
5. Uran
Roobar says:

Jul 2 2015 at 5:48 am
Froome (and Sky) don't intimidate the peloton the way they did 2 years ago. Hate to say it but Porte isn't a good enough domestique to take Froome all the way. He'll overreach and then the other teams will attack.

After the Giro Contador looks shakey, and he'll be smashed by smarter teams if he bonks at the end of three weeks. But he's experienced and wiley enough to hold in to the end.

Or we could all be stuffed by most of the favourites falling off in the first week again

VSP PICKS:
1. Quintana
2. Contador
3. Van Garderen
4. Nibali
5. Rodruguiz
Teocalli says:

Jul 2 2015 at 5:55 am

Thinking of removing Contador from my picks in protest re the new Tinkoff kit. That is truly horrendous.