The inaugural Velominati Super Prestige makes an unscheduled stop this week at the Tour de Suisse. Originally left off the VSP roster, it was decided among the Keepers that the ‘fourth Grand Tour’ is indeed worthy of inclusion in our humble tipping competition. As one of the final hit-outs for many Tour de France contenders, the Swiss race shows who might be ready to step up in July, who’s needing to pull their finger out, and who might be targeting this race as a worthy addition to their palmares. With a couple of TT’s, stages that could go to the sprinters or a daring breakaway, and some of the most picturesque mountain passes in Europe, it has something for everyone, and anyone could win.
Can Motorcus find an ‘extra gear’ and back up his 09 victory? Will the EgoTesticle show signs of his old self on the bike, or just behave like his old self off it? And are the Brothers Grimpeur finally going to do something, anything?
Let us know your thoughts, and make your picks to pick up a sweet Obey The Rules bumper sticker, in the posts section on this page. For a full rundown on the competition scoring etc, visit our VSP Schedule, Rules and Results page.
Good luck!
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good point david
velonews reports: Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) is being penalized and fined for causing a crash near the finish of the fourth stage of the Tour of Switzerland on Tuesday.
Cavendish is being sanctioned 25 points in the sprinter competition and 30 seconds on the general classification. He also is being fined 200 Swiss francs.
Cavendish appeared to change his line in the sprint, veering into Cervelo's Heinrich Haussler, causing a crash that brought down a dozen riders. Heinrich's team announced later that he was leaving the race due to a deep cut on his arm.
"I didn't see Cavendish coming," Haussler said in a team statement. "He drove into my wheel and before I knew it, I went down and was lying on the ground. I could have won the stage today."
*note* Souleur would have asked, 'piss no you didn't see him, you had your head down'....but then I am no reporter either
I would just keep my mouth shut, it was an accident and either one coulda been blamed
@Jarvis
Geez: and don't let the door hit you on the way out. I'd missed Oscarito"”thanks. Boonen, too, deserves some credit. He had no chance to avoid the pileup, but he did an impressive job of slowing the bike down fast before he hit Cav.
Haussler to hospital as a precaution and has abandoned. Arnaud Coyot likely broken hip. Boonen fell on his bad knee, but say he'll be okay.
Cav penalized 30 seconds for "irregular sprinting." It's all academic, but I can't help feeling that Ciolek forced MC-Douche (as the kids would call him"”or just C-Douche, or C-Diddy) to jump earlier than he would have liked. Not sure he would have been able to sustain that pace to the line.
She was ugly from the front
She was ugly from the front
She was ugly from the front
And I said ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly
- Lyle Lovett
'nuff said.
Hey, Level 1! Excellent.
@Souleur
Yours came in after I basically parroted your intel. Second time that Cav is penalized for cutting off a Cervelo rider in under a year.
@Geof
Lyle will do that...
@Jarvis
Makes me lonely for the 1994 Champs sprint when Abdujackingoff went into the barriers.
Fuck me the anti-Cavendish feeling is strong here and in the race jury. Not the tidiest sprint ever but full-of-shit Haussler is going to have to do some back-tracking once he sees the video. He had a great year in '09 and this year has turned into a complete twat.
Oh and Cav didn't veer off his line, he went perfectly straight, just diagonally compared to the others...
@Geof
Now are getting somewhere, thank you, well played. Some Toshiro Mifune, some Lyle Lovett, this place is starting to get some real class.
I'm not blaming anyone in this sprint but I'm glad HH is taking on C Douche. I like HH. Where is my man Thor in all this?
@frank
Abdujackingoff! He f'ed that up. I think he rode himself into that barrier then had to crawl across the line...Hardman(spoken in a Jon Stewart falsetto)
@john @frank
don't see his wheel bending though, probably a good job as well. If Abdu's wheel had folded like Cav's did today he would have probably have been catapaulted striaght down into the ground and ripped the lower part of his face off.