FGDI Overall: Ryder Rules, Rouleurs Rue

Hello. As you may have noticed, I’m a bit late with the all-important final update for this year’s fantasy Giro. Those of you who were reading around this time last year may recall that I was riding Burn24 on the final weekend of the Giro. This year I’ve no such excuse, for I was actually relaxing on the beach in Florida, and too lazy to get it done. I’m glad to see that the boys had a good time at Burn, and it seems they did just fine without me.

I thought that things were pretty much sewn up after Friday, with the top 3 looking pretty comfortable and no dark horses on the horizon. Well, not for the first time. I was wrong. Thomas De Gendt was that dark horse, and a long day out in the mountains put him in contention for the podium, while J-Rod took back a little time on Hesjedal.

Come the time trial on Sunday, no one should have been too surprised to see J-rod lose his slim lead to Hesjedal. And De Gendt can’t have been too tired from Saturday’s efforts, as he did another fine ride, and kicked Scarponi off the podium.

So the first Grand Tour win for Ryder Hesjedal, Canada, and Jonny V’s Garmin team. Congratulations boys! If Hesjedal keeps riding so consistently, I may even learn how to spell his name without having to look it up.

Enough of the real race though. Let’s get onto the important stuff. The mini-league! Early contenders Rouleurs might have gotten away with it, if it wasn’t for that pesky De Gendt. But in the end, it was LPL, who got a ‘shitload’ of points to take a fairly comfortable win from Warwick’s Velo Raptors. A disappointing outing from the Bile Beans, who finished up in tenth, but at least I beat Team ChanBots. A slightly better outing from Craigatron, who finished the race in sixth. And commiserations to Threepenny_Pierrot, who sucked pretty badly – better luck next time boys.

That’s it for the Giro then. The next race on the Fantasy Cycling calendar is usually the Tour De Suisse, so maybe I’ll see you there? And there’s also the Dauphine Libere to keep an eye on. Then. before you know it, it will be time for the Big One, the Tour De France.