LBL - Pip Pounces, Pance Proud

Philipe Gilbert has seemed unstoppable recently, and at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Schleck brothers certainly weren't the men to stop him. Frank and Andy may have had the numbers, but they didn't have to legs to work over Gilbert, and seemed to be resigned giving the Belgian a tow to the line. Gilbert has a mean sprint; while the Schlecks can't sprint for toffee - in fact I think I may be able to take them in a gallop myself - so it was no surprise to see Gilbert first over the line yet again.

For those Fantasy teams, it was another good day for the Gilbert pickers then. And another bad day for the Panterloons - I have to wonder if Warwick lost interest and didn't make any transfers for the final races.

For the overall the Bile Beans consolidated their position at the top and beat Evil Dr. Chan once again.  Love Velo finished in third spot - I notice they are in some other mini-leagues, and due to the compact size of the Tour De Pance League, it's their best result. Finally, back in forth spot are the Panterloons, who unfortunately never really got going. Their manager has won the Fantasy Tour De France before though, so maybe they are just riding themselves into form for later in the year.

I'm now so pleased with myself after winning the Spring Classics series, that I've decided to award myself the World Champions jersey using the "Change Team Jersey" button that has appeared on Velogames.

It's just as well I did, as it seems that being a resident of the USA, the default jersey was Radioshack (or Radioshat, as I like to call them). I'm hoping I won't be afflicted with the "Curse of the Rainbow Jersey" as a result - for there's still plenty of Fantasy racing to be done this year. In fact the 2011 Giro D'Italia will be starting on 7th May, with a 19.3km team time trial from Venaria Reale to Torino. 

Rest assured there will be a Tour De Pance mini-league and the fewer teams there are, the greater my chances of another victory. I'll also do my best to provide daily blog updates of mediocre quality, especially if the Bile Beans are doing well. More Giro news next week, when start lists are finalized, Velogames entries are open and Cyclingnews do their race preview thingy.

Amstel and Fleche Wallonne -Gilbert Does the Double

A few weeks ago, everyone was expecting Fabian Cancellara to cash in on his recent good form and come away with some Classics victories. It wasn't to be however, as Spartacus found himself a marked man and unable to get the wins. With the Classics moving out of the Northern flatlands and into the Ardennes region, it was the turn of Phillipe Gilbert to bear the burden of top favorite. It didn't seem to bother Pip much though, and he kept a cool head to bag two wins in four days.

On Sunday we had the Amstel Gold race.

Which is famous for its narrow, twisty roads and short, sharp climbs. In fact watching the race I decided it looked a bit like the roads near Thixendale.

Although that Andy Schleck had a bit of a go off the front, he was caught on the final climb, thanks to a well coordinated chase behind. Joaquin Rodrigez, (or J-Rod as I like to call him) opened-up the sprint, but Gilbert was super strong and had plenty of time to take in the scenery as he crossed the line.

With the last Velogames transfer window now closed, I was feeling pretty smug about how my team did at Amstel. Getting 6 riders in the top 12 meant I could put some distance between the Bile Beans and Evil Dr Chan.

Next up, on Wednesday, it was La Flèche Wallonne, (or the Walloon Arrow race, as I like to call it). Pip did the business once again,  J-Rod was in second spot again with Sammy Sanchez rounding out the podium.

More good news for the Bile Beans then! A 1-2-3 earned me enough points to open up my lead at the head of the pack slightly. Evil Dr Chan also had a good race with a Gilbert, Sanchez, Vino combo, not such good news for the Panterloons though, with another zero score for the day.

With just one race to go in the Fantasy Classics season, it looks like the Bile Beans may have already done enough to secure the overal mini-league. I'll still be hoping for another strong performance from the squad at Liege-Bastogne-Liege on Sunday, just so I can be extra smug. And we'll get to see if Gilbert can do the triple by wining all three of the Ardennes Classics.

Paris-Roubaix: Garmin finally find the way to win

As you may remember from earlier, Pance HQ has relocated from it's previous Midtown Atlanta location, to the leafy 'burbs of Decatur. The move means that not only do I now have a roomy basement in which to store my bike collection, but I also have to commute to my workplace. I've done my fair share of bike commuting, so I set off on my first trip into town last week in my usual carefree manner, little knowing that a car with my name on it was lurking the streets. As I said on a popular social networking site, and can't be bothered to write out again:

"So there I am waiting at the red light, when some dude comes from the right, cutting the corner big style. So he's heading straight for me and does a bit of swerving and hits my front wheel. Then he goes into the yard of the house across the street, does some more swerving and hits some signs and stuff. I get a buckled wheel and a slight bruise on my hand. He has big bits falling off his car and is pretty sheepish about being such a fuckwit. I'll be sending him an inflated bill for repairs."

If you're having trouble picturing the scene, here's a picture. Just imagine I'm the 12 foot tall Fabian Cancellara, (as I often like to do while I'm out riding) and the black line is where the car went.

And here's my entirely reasonable and under-inflated repair bill.

I also revisited the scene the other day. Most of the debris had been removed, but some wheel marks remain.

So, now the dust has settled at the corner of North Decatur and Oxford Road, and it's also settled on the roads from Paris to Roubaix.

Fabian Cancellara was, once again, the rider everyone was watching. He looked strong, but his every move was shadowed by his opponents, especially that Thor Hushovd, who seemed stuck to his wheel like glue. While Spartacus did eventually manage to get away from the pack, and flew past nearly everyone ahead of him like they were stood still, by the time he made his move it was already too late; Johan Van-Summeren of Garmin-Cervelo, was already up the road after attacking the day's break, and even the mighty Spartacus couldn't catch him. 

It was a timely win for the Garmin, who looked so strong on paper but had failed to deliver a Classics win this season. Some pundits were even saying they were shite. Although not one of the big stars of the team, Van Summeren rode a very canny race, and showed that when the big names are watching each other, there's always a rider to take advantage.

So in the Velogames world, what does it all mean?

It means the Bile Beans are back on top that's what! There's only 5 points between the Beans and Evil Chan though, and still 3 races to go. The final transfer window, (for those of us too cheap to do the Velogames Premium Team thing) is now open. So it's time to select your riders for Amstel Gold, Fleche Wallone and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. The "Ardennes Week" races are a bit hillier and tend to favor the sort of rider you might expect to see in the top-ten of a grand tour, so maybe it's time to drop some of those burly hard-men from your team.

Nuyens wrestles win from favorites

Sunday saw the running a thrilling editions of a classic sporting event with a long history. At the start there were many possible contenders, but come the finish there could only be one winner. Yes, it was Wrestlemania XXVI here in Atlanta at the weekend. Although I didn't actually watch any of it, I did see that excellent film "The Wrestler", so I think I can say with some confidence that the "good" oiled-up 'roid-head, beat the "bad" oiled-up 'roid-head after a lot of poncing about.

While cycling may have its fair share of oil and 'roids, it's not always quite so easy to predict who will win. Such was the case with the Ronde Van Vlaanderen. Or if you prefer, the Tour of Flanders.

Prior to the race, everyone (including me), thought Fabian Cancellara would ride away with the win. But it was not to be for Spartacus. I managed to catch a bit of the race thanks to a stream of questionable legality over at CyclingFans, but I had to leave when they were still 30km from the finish. I thought I'd seen the race-winning move when Cancellara went with 45km to go, but it seems the chasers reeled-in him and breakaway companion Sylvain Chavanel. More attacks came and went, but come the finish it was Nic Nuyens who proved to be maybe not the strongest, but definitely the smartest rider of the day, when he out-sprinted Chavanel and Cancellara for a well-deserved win.

All of the action has led to a shake-up in the mini-league. Much to my annoyance, Evil Dr Chan is now heading up the table, while the Bile Beans are down to second spot.

There's not much in it though, and we've only had 3 of the 7 Classics races so far, so it's still wide-open. It's everyone's favorite one-day race on Sunday, Paris-Roubaix, or the Hell of the North. Just in case you didn't know it's a flat one, but the fun comes from all the sections of cobbled road. It's a proper hard-man's race, especially if it rains, (fingers crossed it will). Check out the race back in 1985, when men were men.



After missing out at Flanders, Cancellara should be super-motivated to repeat his win of last year. I hope so as he cost me plenty of Velocredits.

I'm also hoping that my Garmin boys might actually do something for once. With the demise of the Cervelo Test Team and the creation of Garmin-Cervelo, word on the street was they'd be the team to beat in the Classics - but they've been shite so far this season - it's high time they got a result. I won't be getting a result with Taylor Phinney though, as the talented youngster won't be riding.