Omloop Over

The sun keeps shining down on Atlanta, where I'm still in shorts and where shop regular Angel decided it was time to look out his summer dress.

Meanwhile, back in Europe, the wind and rain were out to play for the Omloop. The men were sorted from the boys, and it came down to a sprint between the breakaway pair of Sebastian Langveld and last year's winner, Juan Antonio Flecha (or John Antony Fletcher as I expect he's know on the Sky Team bus). It was Langveld who crossed the line first, bagging the first big win of his career and showing he's one to watch for future Classics.

So, the weather sorted the wheat from the chaff and Unfortunately the Bile Beans line-up for the race seemed to consist mostly of chaff:

 Rider 1: Philippe GILBERT,OLO 
 Rider 2: Edvald BOASSON HAGEN,SKY 
 Rider 3: Lars BOOM,RAB 
 Rider 4: Greg VAN AVERMAET,BMC 
 Rider 5: David MILLAR,GRM
 Rider 6: Russell DOWNING,SKY 
 Rider 7: Martijn MAASKANT,GRM 
 Rider 8: Adam BLYTHE,OLO 
 Rider 9: Leif HOSTE,KAT 
 Rider 10: Marcus BURGHARDT,BMC 
 Rider 11: Karsten KROON,BMC 
 Rider 12: Koen DE KORT,SKS 

Although I only manged to score a paltry 52 points it does look like I won the minileague. It's only a training race though, so there's still time to get a team together for the real Classics starting off with Milan-San Remo on the 19th of March. And you can still get some training in at the Strade Bianche this Saturday - if you were around for the Giro last year you may remember that those roads can make for some good and grubby racing.

Velogames Classics Open For Business

It seems the Velogames Fantasy Cycling season has caught me by surprise and started early this year. Tomorrow to be precise, with the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. That Velogames man George Chapman promises he's made his website super reliable for this season, so let's hope it all goes well and he remembers to do the Tour of Spain this year. So it looks like my Blogging hiatus has been rudely interrupted and I'll have to think of some things to say over the next while or so.

Although some of the pros have already done a spot of early season racing in sunny places like Qatar and Oman, this will be the first time they'll have the opportunity to ride in some unpleasant Northern European weather. 

Since moving over here to Atlanta, I've noticed that there are places in the world where it isn't always cold and grey like Yorkshire was. We did have that icy week  back in January, but I've been enjoying wearing my shorts recently, so I'm hoping for a cold and rainy sufferfest for the race tomorrow to make me even smugger about the sun we've been getting.

Anyway, I best go and pick a team, stay tuned for more stuff. If you pick a team tell us about it in the comments. I haven't looked to see if we can do a minileague yet, but if we can I'll set one up.