Velogames no-show forces Vuelta Variation

Like a bicycle with two flat tyres and a rusty chain, the blog has suffered from some neglect since the end of July. It's been a while since all the excitement of the Tour De France. I'd like to pretend that I was busy on the lucrative post-tour criterium circuit, and making this scale model of a mountain stage from this year's TDF.... but it wouldn't be true.

As the Vuelta a España starts in Sevilla with a short Team Time Trial on Saturday, it's time to get things up and running again. So consider this the blog equivalent of a top-up of air and a drop of oil.

Like Carlos Sastre, I might be ready for my third Grand Tour of the year, but I'm not sure that George 'Velogames' Chapman is quite so willing. If you pop over to the Velogames site now, you'll see that there's no rider list and you can't pick a team yet. George let us down last year with a Vuelta no-show, so I've decided to go with a plan-B and find a Fantasy Veulta game elsewhere.

Yes, I present to you the Road CC Fantasy Vuelta game. Like Velogames, it's free to play once you've registered, and there's even some prizes to be won, (not that I'm expecting to win anything). Unlike Velogames there's the opportunity to make transfers in and out of your team as the race goes on - it sounds a bit like hard work to me, but we'll see how we get on.

Anyway, I've got the Bile Beans picked - or at least the initial Bile Beans line-up. And I've set up a Tour De Pance minleague. So let the fun begin.

Your league was created and its ID number is 16357. Give your friends this ID to allow them to join your league. You have automatically been added to your own league.