TOB Stage 4 - Kwiatkowski Kwickest

Meanwhile, in David Cameron's Britain, Michal Kwiatkowski won stage 4 of the Tour of Britain and took the race lead.

I should have kept my mouth shut, because I totally had the Tour De Pance league sewn-up until I told you guys about it.  Now I'm last.  The Kloefekappers are first, so good luck to them I guess.

TEAM	DIRECTEUR	RANK	SCORE
KLOEFEKAPPERS FC	Jan Van Belleghem	1	1298
Haxby Pharma	Richard Harrison	2	1212
ENRICO 666	Erik Mortier	3	1042
Mungo Cycling	Mungo	4	984
Wiggo away!	Warwick Anderson	5	930
Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	6	765

Vuelta Stage 17 - Degenkolb Again

There's no stopping John Degenkolb and his stage winning ways, especially when most of the other sprinters have gone home to 'prepare' for the Worlds.

I've long been a fan of the young German, but for some reason I didn't pick him this year. I went with that quitting loser Peter Sagan and that doing OK, but not really getting many points, Michael Matthews.  I have to admit, that the sprinting talent in the Bile Beans this year isn't quite up to the standard of 2011, when I managed to squeeze-in Degenkolb, Sagan and Kittel.  And that wasn't even counting my official sprinter, who was erm.... Chris Sutton.  If only my GC picks hadn't sucked so much, I might have beaten Happiness Stan (anyone remember him? No? Me neither).

Anyhooze, this year, the Chanbots are the team to beat.  They may still be atop the table, but they've lost Quintanna, Uran and now Gesink, so there's still hope for the rest of us - well not me, I'm shit.

TEAM	DIRECTEUR	RANK	SCORE
Chanbots	Evil Dr Chan	1	4374
Rouleurs	tdm911	2	3690
dudes riding using good substances	drew	3	3522
ENRICO 666	Erik Mortier	4	3309
Sunburn-Roadrash	Trey	5	3243
Flying Hutchmen	Hutch	6	3075
Mungo Cycling	Mungo	7	2984
Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	8	2969
Froosers	Warwick Anderson	9	2868
Pincko Pro Cycling	Richard Pinckney	10	2773
KLOEFEKAPPERS FC	Jan Van Belleghem	11	2762
Smugblokes	Mr Smug	12	2186

Fantasy Tour of Britain

It's no Yorkshire and the country may not be around for much longer, but the Tour of Britain is now on the Velogames race calendar.  It looks like this guy is winning for now.

In case you were wondering, the Bile Beans are riding and there is a mini-league. And here's what I think is the code.

7132228

For the moment though, I will just bask in the glory of being top of the league until someone else joins.

TEAM	DIRECTEUR	RANK	SCORE
Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	1	664

Vuelta Stages 12-16 - Lots happened, I missed most of it

Although Stage 11 seems like just yesterday, it was in fact the best part of a week ago and I can't be arsed to bring you all up to speed.  Let's just say that there were wins for Degenkolb, Navarro, Hesjedal, Niemiec and Contador since the last time I posted.  And Bertie is still in the race lead and looking strong.

While Contador, Froome, J-Rod and Valverde were fighting it out in the mountains, Ivan Rovny and Gianluca Brambilla just plain fought it out.

As I'm not doing very well, I haven't been checking out the scores so often, but it seems the Evil Dr Chan is still crushing us all.

TEAM	DIRECTEUR	RANK	SCORE
Chanbots	Evil Dr Chan	1	4045
Rouleurs	tdm911	2	3480
dudes riding using good substances	drew	3	3274
ENRICO 666	Erik Mortier	4	3196
Sunburn-Roadrash	Trey	5	3159
Flying Hutchmen	Hutch	6	3023
Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	7	2748
Pincko Pro Cycling	Richard Pinckney	8	2731
Froosers	Warwick Anderson	9	2709
KLOEFEKAPPERS FC	Jan Van Belleghem	10	2682
Mungo Cycling	Mungo	11	2677
Smugblokes	Mr Smug	12	2111

Vuelta Stage 11 - Fabio Fabulous, Quintanna Quits

Poor old Plucky Colombian climber Nairo Quintanna.  He went down hard in the time trial yesterday and today he hit the deck again, with what Dr. Pance has diagnosed as a broken collarbone. 

So he somewhat uderstandably abandoned the race.  It's been a funny old year for GC favorites to be crashing out of races.  The Froome-Dog and Bertie in the Tour and now Quintanna at the Vuelta.  It's a shame for sure, but at least at the Vuelta we still have plenty of potential winners left and we should be spared a the one-horse race that the Tour turned into.  Plus Quintanna wasn't on my team, so I'm not going to get too upset about it.

Still in with a (slim, I will admit) chance of the overall win is Fabio Aru, who timed it right today to take the stage and move on up a little in the GC to seventh.

Not far behind him were the three Spanish amigos, Valverde, J-Rod and Contador.  And just about hanging in there was the Froome-Hound.

In the scores for the day Enrico 666 just nudged-out the Chanbots for the honours.

TEAM	DIRECTEUR	RANK	SCORE
ENRICO 666	Erik Mortier	1	430
Chanbots	Evil Dr Chan	2	403
Rouleurs	tdm911	3	349
Sunburn-Roadrash	Trey	4	312
Flying Hutchmen	Hutch	5	241
KLOEFEKAPPERS FC	Jan Van Belleghem	6	232
dudes riding using good substances	drew	7	218
Pincko Pro Cycling	Richard Pinckney	8	179
Froosers	Warwick Anderson	9	165
Smugblokes	Mr Smug	10	148
Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	11	144
Mungo Cycling	Mungo	12	43

And it's about time we had a look at the overall, if only to see that the Chanbots are still very much in charge, but are now a man down with the departure of Quintanna.

TEAM	DIRECTEUR	RANK	SCORE
Chanbots	Evil Dr Chan	1	2940
Rouleurs	tdm911	2	2412
Mungo Cycling	Mungo	3	2261
ENRICO 666	Erik Mortier	4	2092
dudes riding using good substances	drew	5	2069
Flying Hutchmen	Hutch	6	2048
Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	7	1970
Froosers	Warwick Anderson	8	1955
Pincko Pro Cycling	Richard Pinckney	9	1861
Sunburn-Roadrash	Trey	10	1790
KLOEFEKAPPERS FC	Jan Van Belleghem	11	1766
Smugblokes	Mr Smug	12	1434