Velominati Super Prestige

Velominati Super Prestige: Tour de Suisse 2012

Andy Hampsten becomes the first North American to win a National Tour at the Tour de Suisse.

This is an exciting time of year. The Giro is in the books, the Tour is firmly in everyone’s sights, and those of us with the vaguest idea of how the big race will unfold are prognosticating the loudest as we use races that are proven to reveal fuck-all about what will happen at the Tour to predict what will happen at the Tour.

With the Dauphiné underway we look to the start of the Tour de Suisse to peer deeper into the murk to see who is riding well. As far as I’m concerned, I might as well lay out all the rider’s names in a random pattern and blow snot-rockets at the floor to make my picks this year because I honestly haven’t the foggiest idea who will take it; the biggest race of the year is spinning up to be the biggest enigma of the year.

All this babbling serves to demonstrate another important point, and the reason why the Dauphiné wasn’t in the VSP: these stage races are little more than preparation races for the big names, and a chance for the smaller one’s to take center stage. So why did the Tour de Suisse get a VSP while the Dauphiné didn’t? For starters, the latter feels less like a dress rehearsal for the Tour, but mostly its because there is a mountain pass that has cobbles all the way up it in Switzerland (though I’m not sure if they’re riding it this year). How cool is that? I can get on board with any country who values labor costs little enough to pave an entire mountain road one cobble at a time. Yes, we’re that scientific here in the Velominati Boardroom.

When this race is over, we’ll have even less of a clue as to who will win in July (well, everyone except @Marcus, who needs neither evidence nor results in order to be sure Cuddles will win) and we’ll be able to distract ourselves with the various National Championships which will take place in the week leading up the Tour’s start and guessing wether Bruyneel has the nerve to cut either or both Schlecks from his Tour team.

So, dust off your monkey’s bones and 12-sided die, time to make your predictions for the 2012 Tour de Suisse. Check the Tour de Suisse site for the latest route and roster info and remember that since this is a stage race, (not a Grand Tour), points on offer are 10 for first place, 8 for second, 7 for third, 5 for fourth, and 3 for fifth – all based on the final General Classification; plus two bonus points per rider in the top five regardless of the rider’s placing. Get your picks in by the time the countdown clock goes to zero, and pray for an intervention. Make sure you check the mappings of your picks before the race ends so you get the points you deserve, and use the dispute mechanism to alert us of any issues. Note that the dispute mechanism is the official means by which to raise concerns about your picks; questions about your mappings or disputes raised in the posts will be largely ignored.

Good luck.

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286 Replies to “Velominati Super Prestige: Tour de Suisse 2012”

  1. Just double checked the start list and made a change

    VSP PICKS:

    1. levi leipheimer
    2. Robert Gesink
    3. Roman Kreuziger
    4. Igor Anton
    5. Johnny Hoogerland

  2. VSP PICKS:

    1. Alejandro Valverde
    2. Robert Gesink
    3. Fabian Cancellera
    4. Peter Sagan
    5. Levi Leipheimer

  3. Throwing names against the wall, seeing which ones stick.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Roman KREUZIGER
    2. Fabian CANCELLARA
    3. Robert GESINK
    4. Levi LEIPHEIMER
    5. Tom DANIELSON

  4. Ok, changing Sagen for Valverde…I am sure this will bite me later on.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Cunego
    2. Danielson
    3. Valverde
    4. Leipheimer
    5. Gesink

  5. Had to sub CUNEGO for DANIELSON.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Roman KREUZIGER
    2. Fabian CANCELLARA
    3. Robert GESINK
    4. Levi LEIPHEIMER
    5. Damiano CUNEGO

  6. @brett

    @Denti At least I used the start list

    hehe, that must be what Bretto feels like in NZ.

    “I’m from Aus – tra- lia and everybody thinks I’m slow, mate”.

  7. Picks

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Leipheimer
    2. Gesink
    3. Kreuziger
    4. Danielson
    5. Cunego

  8. This is what my dartboard came up with.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. gesink
    2. cunego
    3. kreuzinger
    4. albasini
    5. valverde

  10. Who the hell knows?

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Gesink
    2. Kreuziger
    3. Cunego
    4. Levi leipheimer
    5. Frank schleck

  14. I’d like to pick Levi but is he healthy? He obviously wasn’t feeling great during the Tour of Cali. Other than a stage win, Kreuziger was a disappointment in the Giro. Fuglsang has a chance to put on a show while brothers Schleck do whatever it is they are doing. Cunego looked like he should have been the one running the Lampre show at the Giro and I think he’ll run the show here.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Cunego
    2. Fuglsang
    3. Gesink
    4. Danielson
    5. Valverde

  15. Sagan Gadret Cancellara Cunego Terpstra Spilak Swift Kreuziger Merckx help me

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Igor Ant on
    2. Wout Poels
    3. Tom Danielson
    4. Cameron Meyer
    5. Chris Anker Sorenson

  16. Gonna be a lot of toothpicks going uphill. The big question is which of ’em is the better TTer.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Valverde
    2. Gadret
    3. Sørensen
    4. Anton
    5. Eggtimer

  17. One of the Schlecks has to do something this year….

    VSP PICKS:

    1. VALVERDE Alejandro
    2. CUNEGO Damiano
    3. KREUZIGER Roman
    4. SAGAN Peter
    5. SCHLECK Fränk

  18. VSP PICKS:

    1. Gesink, Robert
    2. Danielson, Tom
    3. Spilak, Simon
    4. Horner, Chris
    5. Gadret, John

  20. VSP PICKS:

    1. kreuziger
    2. valverde
    3. sagan
    4. gesink
    5. leipheimer

  22. VSP PICKS:

    1. Gesink
    2. Cunego
    3. Fuglsang
    4. Kreuziger
    5. Danielson

  23. @wiscot

    I’m not a big Andy fan, but give the skinny one credit today – he rode most of the TT with his ass hanging out what was left of his shorts: http://www.sporza.be/cm/sporza/videozone/MG_sportnieuws/MG_wielrennen/1.1324316

    I really really don’t want to give him any credit. He had how much road to himself and still managed to fall off it? Between his descending and his time trialing he makes for a really disappointing GC contender. Even his brother is multitudes more like-able.

  24. Staying away from any major contenders that rode the Giro. Figure they still be too tired.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. LEIPHEIMER
    2. FREIRE
    3. CANCELLARA
    4. SAGAN
    5. GESINK

  25. VSP PICKS:

    1. gesink
    2. valverde
    3. horner
    4. cancellara
    5. kreuziger

  26. Three weeks until the Grand Depart!

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Cunego
    2. Gesink
    3. Leipheimer
    4. Fuglsang
    5. Danielson

  27. A few minor switches, mainly Levi out Wouter in.

    A few interesting notes:
    1. Liquigas sent Sagan, Oss, Viviani, Duggan, King, and Moser. They know this race has climbs, right?
    2. Interested to see what Albasini can do here.
    3. Is Horner’s age catching up to him? He’s a scratch as per the final startlist.
    4. This is an optimal race for Euskaltel – Euskadi, yet they have no-one in form…
    5. With the lack of a true favorite, I expect some of the rouleurs to win from breakaways. FDJ and AG2R coming to mind immediately. This is especially true if the first stage contains a bunch of the GC hopefuls holding back and marking each other.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Gesink
    2. Valverde
    3. Cunego
    4. Danielson
    5. Poels

  29. Taking a different approach this time around–no thought whatsoever being put into these picks.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Eggtimer
    2. Canhego
    3. Billions and Billions
    4. Spartacus
    5. Valverde

  32. VSP PICKS:

    1. Damiano Cunego
    2. Fabian Cancellara
    3. Peter Sagan
    4. Jakob Fuglsang
    5. Robert Gesink

  33. VSP PICKS:

    1. the kitchen gesink
    2. valverde
    3. cunego
    4. john jacob leipheimer schmidt
    5. igor anton

  35. VSP PICKS:

    1. Valverde
    2. Leipheimer
    3. Gesink
    4. Sagan
    5. Kreuzinger

  38. Horner out.

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Leipheimer
    2. Gesink
    3. Valverde
    4. Danielson
    5. Kreuziger

  39. VSP PICKS:

    1. Valverde
    2. Kreuziger
    3. Leipheimer
    4. Danielson
    5. Gesink

  40. VSP PICKS:

    1. Kreuziger
    2. Gesink
    3. Valverde
    4. Cunego
    5. Leipheimer

  41. VSP PICKS:

    1. Keepme Gesink
    2. Canhego?
    3. Kreuziger
    4. Eggtimer
    5. Valverde

  42. VSP PICKS:

    1. Gesink
    2. cunego
    3. Valverde
    4. Kreuziger
    5. Scarponi

  43. VSP PICKS:

    1. Fuglsang
    2. Gesink
    3. Cunego
    4. Hoogerland
    5. Kreuziger

  44. VSP PICKS:

    1. gesink
    2. fulsang
    3. kreuziger
    4. cancellara
    5. albasini

  45. VSP PICKS:

    1. Robert Gesink
    2. Damiano Cunego
    3. Micheal Albasini
    4. Johann Tschopp
    5. Levi Leipheimer

  47. VSP PICKS:

    1. Gesink
    2. Valverde
    3. Cunego
    4. Kreuziger
    5. Leipheimer

  48. VSP PICKS:

    1. Gesink
    2. Kreuziger
    3. Valverde
    4. Albasini
    5. Frank, Mathias

  49. Yes, a total cap-shoot. Waiting and ruminating and spying others’ picks and reading media and hacking Frank’s computer and consulting astrologers and playing with the ouija board and doing repulsive things with a warty old gypsy hag in return for some dubious prognosticationary favors have all left me none the wiser. But I am in good company (now that I have got rid of the warty old gypsy hag).

    VSP PICKS:

    1. guess-ink-erator
    2. he can go
    3. craw-slinger
    4. pity
    5. bugler

  50. I missed the Giro. Let’s see if I can get some points here…

    VSP PICKS:

    1. Tom Danielson
    2. Robert Gesink
    3. Levi Leipheimer
    4. Alejandro Valverde
    5. Frank Schleck

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