Sagan, Trepstra and Thomas top 3 at E3

Hello Pro Pickers.  Is it Monday already?  I best get on with the round-up of Friday's E3-Herelbeke then.  It was the first race when all 3 big money velogames picks lined up together, (Sagan, Cancellara and Boonen) and the first race where the sun came out too.  I hear those roads in Belgium are narrow and twisty, so it should come as no great surprise that a lot of people fell over.  The crashes caught Tom Boonen, who hurt his thumb.

And Fabian Cancellara was caught behind a crash when the lead group went clear.  He chased like the hard bastard that he is, but despite going like a motorbike, he couldn't quite get back to the action.

So, either the luckiest, or maybe the strongest of the lot, was Peter Sagan.  He found himself in a lead group with Gerriant Thomas and 2 OPQS riders.  He didn't let the numbers bother him and took the sprint for the line.  And come the podium he managed to keep his hands to himself.

Best score for the race went to, WACA's Wifters.  Warwick must have taken my team criticism to heart, as he now seems to have assembled a nicely rounded Classics squad, shame he had to use up 10 transfers to do it.

And the overall looked like this, with Mungo overtaking the under-performing Bile Beans.

Gent-Wevelgem was on Sunday.  With any luck I'll get around to writing a post about it before the Tour of Flanders starts this weekend.

Terpsta Lights Dwars on Fire

Round 2 of the Fantasy Classics saw the riders leave behind the cold and rain of Italy, for the cold and not quite rain of Belgium.

Nicki Terpstra is just one of many talented Classics rider on the mighty Quickstep team.  You may see him working for Tom Boonen in the biggest races, but they seem to let him off his leash at Dwars Door Vlanderen.  He won two years ago.  And he won this year too.  He rode up to and then dropped the main break of the day then soloed on for the win.

And leading the bunch home was Tyler Farrar, who hasn't been seen near the front of a race for several years. 

He used to be quite the sprinter and although Cav usually beat him, he was a dependable points earner.  Let's hope he's got some of his mojo back as seems like a nice enough guy, although those Transitions commercials were pretty annoying.



I used up one of my precious transfers to bring in Tom Boonen.  Right team, wrong rider. Still I did better than most, but not as good as King Chicken.

League Standings - Race 2

	Team	Directeur	Rank	Score
	Evil Chicken Bots	King Chicken	1	53
	Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	2	26
	Rouleurs	tdm911	3	24
	ENRICO 666	Erik Mortier	4	11
	Mungo Cycling	Mungo	5	9
	KLOEFEKAPPERS FC	Jan Van Belleghem	6	6
	Only here to have the P taken	Drew	7	0
	Smugblokes	Mark Philo	8	0
	WACA`s wilters	Warwick Anderson	9	0

Anyway, I can't complain, as I'm top 'o the league now.

League Standings - Overall

	Team	Directeur	Rank	Score
	Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	1	136
	Mungo Cycling	Mungo	2	123
	Rouleurs	tdm911	3	101
	ENRICO 666	Erik Mortier	4	83
	Evil Chicken Bots	King Chicken	5	69
	Only here to have the P taken	Drew	6	60
	WACA`s wilters	Warwick Anderson	7	50
	KLOEFEKAPPERS FC	Jan Van Belleghem	8	44
	Smugblokes	Mark Philo	9	17

The Classics come thick and fast.  Tomorrow it's E3 Harelbeke or whatever it's called, so if you were thinking of some team changes, get 'em done.  A quick look down the past winners makes me think that it's one for either Boonen or Cancellara.

Kristoff in Prime Spot at La Primavera

It was another cold and wet edition of Milan-San Remo yesterday.  And although apparently not quite as cold and wet as last year, it was still enough to get those pampered pros complaining and making excuses.   

One man who didn't need any excuses though, was canny Norseman Alexander Kristoff, who showed he's quite good really, by winning the dash for the line from a select group of twenty or so.

As is traditional at this point, let's look at those scores...........

League Standings - Overall

	Team	Directeur	Rank	Score
	Mungo Cycling	Mungo	1	114
	Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	2	110
	Rouleurs	tdm911	3	77
	ENRICO 666	Erik Mortier	4	72
	Only here to have the P taken	Drew	5	60
	WACA`s wilters	Warwick Anderson	6	50
	KLOEFEKAPPERS FC	Jan Van Belleghem	7	38
	Smugblokes	Mark Philo	8	17
	Evil Chicken Bots	King Chicken	9	16

So a strong start from Mungo and the Bile Beans, a very average showing from Drew, and I've no idea what the Smugblokes and the Chicken Bots think they are doing.

To those of you underwhelmed by your team's performance so far, remember that there's still plenty more races still to come (10 more to be precise), so maybe you should use some of those 24 transfers?  You should certainly think about making some transfers if most of your riders are inactive for the coming races, or if you seem to have chosen a Grand Tour team instead of a Classics squad (WACA and Smugblokes, I'm looking at you).  If you're having trouble deciding on how to use those transfers, I've made this handy spreadsheet of who's on the startlist of the next few races, which I will try to keep updated - although I'm not making any promises.

Next up on the Velogames calendar is Dwars door Vlaanderen, which will be going down on Wednesday.  Here's how the top ten looked last year.

1 Oscar Gatto (Ita) Vini Fantini-Selle Italia 4:43:40  
2 Borut Bozic (Slo) Astana Pro Team  
3 Mathew Hayman (Aus) Sky Procycling  
4 Mirko Selvaggi (Ita) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team  
5 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Team Europcar  
6 Nikolas Maes (Bel) Omega Pharma-Quick-Step Cycling Team  
7 Jens Keukeleire (Bel) Orica-GreenEdge  
8 Maxim Iglinsky (Kaz) Astana Pro Team  
9 Ian Stannard (GBr) Sky Procycling 0:00:04  
10 Stijn Vandenbergh (Bel) Omega Pharma-Quick-Step Cycling Team 0:00:24

And here's what CN say about the course:

The first few hours of the race take in flat country roads from the start in Roeselare before the first climb, the Nieuw Kwaremont at 87 kilometres. By then a break will have likely formed but the first climb, with the Kattenberg and Leberg coming in quick succession, will see the pace ramp up as the strongmen and their teams battle for position at the front of the peloton. The two cobbled sections – Holleweg and Haaghoek – between the Kattenberg and the Leberg may also prove decisive.

However, the most challenging sections are yet to come, with the Eikenberg at 140 kilometres, starting a run of six bergs in 40 kilometres of racing, with the Paterberg at 179 kilometres, sure to see fireworks. But another key point could arrive just after the Paterberg, with a two-kilometre stretch of cobbles leading into the final set of climbs.

There are three more climbs before the finish: the Vossenhol, Hostraat and Nokereberg, with the climb summit seven kilometres from the finish in Waregem. 

A Touch of Classics

The Spring Classics are nearly upon us! 

I just noticed that Milan-San Remo starts on Sunday, so I thought I'd head on over to Velogames to see what was up.  Well, it looks like George has done some work over the winter and the site now looks all smart and is open for entries.  

Which I guess means that I'd better get my shit together for another season of Tour De Pancing.  Rest assured though, I will not be tarting-up the blog in any way.  It'll just be the same-old format of second-hand race reports, weak puns and taking the piss out of Drew.  Anyway, here's what you probably came here for, the code for the Spring Classics Minileague:

League Owner: Vestan Pance

League Name: Tour De Pance

League Code: 18161117

So go pick some riders and get stuck in.  Boonen and Cancellara always do well in the spring races, but Sagan keeps getting stronger and is looking to win a big one this year.  We should expect some fireworks from the "Big 3", but there's still plenty of other guys who can shake things up and some canny picks will earn you plenty of points.

I recommend you read the rules for the Classics, as the format is a bit different to the Grand Tours.  The best advice I can give you is to use those transfers wisely.  Every year some bell-end is off to a great start, only to piss away all their transfers and find that they only have 3 guys riding in the last few races.  Or alternatively, someone is doing nicely, then realises that my blog is crap and loses interest.  They fail to use all their transfers and piss away a good chance of the win.