Categories: Velominati Super Prestige

Velominati Super Prestige: Le Tour de France, Stage 14

Plateau de Beille has a reputation. It’s long. It’s hard. It’s steep. It’s high. And, because it’s in the Pyrenees, it’s either really hot or really wet.

Although it has only been featured in the Tour four times (1998, 2002, 2004, 2007), it has quickly been placed high on the list of fabled Tour mountaintop finishes for the simple fact that every time the Tour has had a stage finish at the Plateau, the winner of the stage has gone on to win the Tour: Pantani, Amstrong, and Contador have all won here and gone on to win le Grand Boucle. (Of the past winners, Pantani is the only rider whose photo I’m willing to post on a VSP event.)

For those of us who are superstitious, we will, because of this track record, choose the rider whom we hopes will go on to win the Tour. Those of us who are more reasonable might engage in some prognosticating, while others still will inexplicably pick Mark Cavendish or Philbert.

While we traditionally kick off the first intermediate VSP for a Grand Tour on the first mountaintop finish, this time around we waited for this decisive day. The riders have played their cards close to their chest, but surely they will be laid out on the table tomorrow. Get your picks in by 5am Pacific tomorrow morning for the chance to win 3, 2, or 1 points for the podium spots, and 1 point for 4th and 5th places. Good luck.

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

tony macaroni says:

Jul 15 2011 at 2:37 pm

VSP PICKS:

1. contador
2. schleck jr
3. cuddles
4. basso
5. cunego
drsoul says:

Jul 15 2011 at 2:51 pm

@Mikael Liddy
Really? Wow...
drsoul says:

Jul 15 2011 at 3:07 pm

I, like Steampunk, believe it's a bit too early to know who's going to go for it and who is going to continue to watch the race unfold. I do know this: Frank S. has way better form right now than Andy S. and Contador is absolutely toast from the Giro. But he will not go down without fighting. As much as everyone here seems to love Evans, I'm simply not feeling him. True, he's acting more like a leader and a winner, but I'm not convinced. It's more than just legs that win's this tour.

Though my overall picks say otherwise, I really like F. Schleck to win Le Tour right now unless Contador destroys the field over the next couple of days. I'd say the likelihood of that happening is about as high as seeing Oli's picks come in as he has predicted here.

VSP PICKS:

1. A. Contador
2. F. Schleck
3. C. Evans
4. I. Basso
5. A. Schleck
snoov says:

Jul 15 2011 at 3:12 pm

VSP PICKS:

1. F Schlek
2. Evans
3. Basso
4. Thomas
5. A Schleck
earnest says:

Jul 15 2011 at 3:38 pm

Contador's going to try to light something up with an impressive attak, but he's going to remember his legs are still on the tarmac in Italy.

Meanwhile, Basso's got a little taste of glory on his lips filling his guns with some extra V powder, and Evans is going to ride an inspired shotgun as he's probably having a great Skype session with his dog tonight. They will ride past, grimaces showing, as AC peters out.

VSP PICKS:

1. I. Basso
2. C. Evans
3. A. Contador
4. A. Schleck
5. F. Schleck
Rose City Rolleur says:

Jul 15 2011 at 3:49 pm

I think it is too early in the tour for this stage to be really predictive of who will ride to glory in Paris

VSP PICKS:

1. Sammy Sanchez
2. C. Evans
3. Ivan Basso
4. F. Schleck
5. J. Hoogerland
pakrat says:

Jul 15 2011 at 3:55 pm

VSP PICKS:

1. Simple Jack
2. Basso
Steampunk says:

Jul 15 2011 at 3:56 pm

@wiscot
Couldn't agree more. Disgraceful stuff"”and a disaster of a Tour for Radioshack.

Word is Poulidor's not racing"”I still think he'll finish second. But I'll slot in A. Schleck. I'll spot Contador more than a minute and the rest will come in together"”not looking blasted, but scared shitless that the Spaniard dropped them so easily. This is the point, mind, where I think we'll be sorry not to have Wiggins and VDB in the race. The latter, especially, seemed to show some nice acceleration on the climbs at the DauphinÃ©, and it would have been fun to see what he could manage here.

I'd also dearly love to see another defiant version of this.

VSP PICKS:

1. Contador
2. A. Schleck
3. Cuddles
4. Sammy Sandwich
5. Basso
pakrat says:

Jul 15 2011 at 3:57 pm

VSP PICKS:

1. Simple Jack
2. Basso
3. Andy
4. Frank
5. Evans
frank says:

Jul 15 2011 at 4:06 pm

@drsoul

As much as everyone here seems to love Evans, I'm simply not feeling him

I'm with you, man. I'm not feeling him neither. Not his dog, either. Like the guy and wish him a good result, but it's all those hardened criminals from Oz that talk him up like he's the Third Coming.