Giro 2014 Stage 4 - Nacer Shuts Up Nay-Sayers

Just a few days ago, Marcel Kittel was dominating the sprints at the Giro, leaving his rivals scratching their heads about how to beat him.  Well, I suspect that there may be a Marcel Kittel shapped voodoo doll stashed in the back of a team car somewhere, because the big German didn't start today due to a fever.  I know you may think my voodoo theory far fetched, but it worked on Dan Martin.

With no Kittel to spoil the fun, the race was on for the other sprinters.  Only it wasn't as on as it could have been.  The race may have left Ireland behind, but the rain followed them.  And apparently Italian roads are made of a mixture of grease and Teflon.  So after a cautious few laps around the streets of Bari, the Peloton decided to take it easy for most of the stage.  Even with the go-slow agreement, there were still spills aplenty on the final lap, but in the end it was Nacer Bouhanni who took the win and showed he's up there with the top sprinters in the sport.

For some reason that escapes me, Fanatsy Cycling Fuckwit Vestan Pance earned the most points for the day.

League Standings - Stage 4

	Team	Directeur	Rank	Score
	Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	1	169
	Flying Hutchmen	Hutch	2	143
	KLOEFEKAPPERS FC	Jan Van Belleghem	3	130
	Evil Chanbots	Evil Dr Chan	4	126
	Pretty in Pink	Vincent Paul Lavallee	5	113
	Sean Kelly All-Stars	Patrick Hough	6	110
	ENRICO 666	Erik Mortier	7	110
	Rouleurs	tdm911	8	102
	Mungo Cycling	Mungo	9	69
	Wilko	Oliver Wilkens	10	67
	MADFORITS	Warwick Anderson	11	65
	Smugblokes	Mark Philo	12	48
	Charmers	Craigatron	13	48
	Ollysaurus	OJ	14	31
	Dead Rubbers Usually Give Surprises	drew stephenson	15	0

Which means that the much reviled Bile Beans take over the top spot overall.

League Standings - Overall

	Team	Directeur	Rank	Score
	Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	1	753
	Pretty in Pink	Vincent Paul Lavallee	2	718
	Mungo Cycling	Mungo	3	645
	Charmers	Craigatron	4	516
	Flying Hutchmen	Hutch	5	449
	Dead Rubbers Usually Give Surprises	drew stephenson	6	432
	Evil Chanbots	Evil Dr Chan	7	421
	ENRICO 666	Erik Mortier	8	369
	Wilko	Oliver Wilkens	9	328
	Rouleurs	tdm911	10	312
	MADFORITS	Warwick Anderson	11	300
	KLOEFEKAPPERS FC	Jan Van Belleghem	12	291
	Sean Kelly All-Stars	Patrick Hough	13	233
	Smugblokes	Mark Philo	14	195
	Ollysaurus	OJ	15	191

Tomorrow sees the welcome return of hills to the Giro.  And hopefully an end to flat sprints for a little while.  Will we see the GC contenders trying to gain some time on each other?  Or not? I don't know, but I look forward to finding out.