Stage 6 - Ventoso Vanquishes Pausing Petacchi

There are few things in the world more important to me than this blog, and I know that both my readers feel the same way. So imagine my dismay when I came to do yesterday's update and was greeted with this message.

It seems Blogger is up and running again now though, so off to business – yesterday's business that is. Stage 6 was won by none other than Francisco Ventoso, ahead of Petacchi, who seemed to be on for the win, till he decided to stop pedalling for some reason or other.

My boy Cav was nowhere to be seen, having been left behind on the hilly run-in to the finish. Even though he was only second, Petacchi got the points in for the Chanbots and Drunk Riders, pushing the Bile Beans back into third again. It could be worse, the Geezers are struggling to keep up, and after the loss of Weylandt are down two riders, as Feillu of Leopard Trek and Tylar Farrar both quit the race. Luckily David Millar is still keeping the Geezers in contention.

Onto Stage 7 then, which has already been and gone at the time of writing. Damn You Bolgger!

Stage 5 - Weening Weeds Out Weaklings

After all the turmoil of the last couple of days, things were sort of back to normal on the Giro today. Normal, except the race took another trip over the Strade Bianche, the white gravel roads, which you may remember from last year. Last time the weather was wet, and the roads were a muddy mess. This time around, the weather was nice and things were a dusty mess.

The early action came from a brave solo move from Martin Kohler, who was out front for most of the day. It looked like he might just hold on, but was caught with 14km to go by Pieter Weening and John Gadret. Weening didn't hang about though, and attacked with 9 km to go and held everyone at bay till the finish.

As well as the stage win, Weening now has the race lead, after the previous Pink Jersey David Millar had a bad day at the office. Most of the other big names kept out of trouble and finished in the chasing group. So, on to those scores.

So, while I'm not quite up there with the Chanbots, at least I'm beating Drew now. Stage 6 will look like this:

I'm hoping it will be one for the Cav.

Stage 4 - Race Remembers Weylandt

Today's stage was more of a sombre procession than a race. The bunch payed its respects to Wouter Weylandt, with his team Leopard-Trek leading off the race and crossing the line first.

Leopard Trek have now left the race, along with Tyler Farrar. No points were awarded for the stage today. But there were Velogames points for GC positions, which means the Bile Beans have continued their downward progression.

The racing should start again tomorrow on Stage 5, the profile of which suggests it might be one for a breakaway.

Stage 3 - RIP Wouter Weylandt

First off, just in case you didn't know. Leopard Trek rider Wouter Weylandt (and former Bile Bean rider) crashed in today's stage and died of his injuries at the side of the road. So you'll forgive me if I don't carry on in my usual carefree way, and cut down on the sarcasm. RIP Wouter.

Angel Vicioso won his first Giro stage, but few are likely to remember. Second out of the winning break was David Millar, who thanks to Garmin-Cervelo's Team Time Trial, will be wearing pink tomorrow.

Stage 2 scores looked like this.

And after today's stage, things are not looking quite so good for the Bile Beans, but I'm not going to get too upset. After all, it's only a game

After today's events, it's still unclear what will happen on Stage 4 tomorrow. I think we can expect some kind of tribute to Weylandt. Whatever happens I doubt it will have any effect on the overall outcome of the race.

Stage 2 - Ale-Jet Beats Manx Missile

There were few surprises on today's stage. Long and flat, it was always likely to end in a bunch sprint. And there was always likely to be a breakaway that got caught. First man to make an impression off the front was Sebastian Lang. He went for a Lang one, although it seems he was after the mountains jersey rather than the win. And who can blame him? He looks pretty pleased with himself and I would be too.

We then had another break. With not much to distinguish it, apart from this cool-looking crash from Eduard Vorganov, who seemed to fall off for no particular reason.

Then it was time for the finish. Teams chased, breaks were caught and the sprinters did their thing. Alessandro Petacchi, (Ale-Jet) was first across the line, followed closely by Mark Cavendish, (the Manx Missile) who wasn't best pleased, and expressed himself verbally.

Cav felt that Petacchi didn't hold his line in the closing meters, and it did look like Ale-Jet was less than straight. Still, that's sprinting, and the result was allowed to stand after a protest from Cav's team. You do have to wonder what the race jury would've done if it was the Italian protesting about a wayward Manxman, but I guess we'll never know. I think the problem was that Ale-Jet wasn't wearing his balance band. As we all know these plastic trinkets are totally effective in helping you balance. And one would assume, ride your bike in a straight line. He used to be a user as we can see in this photo from 2010.

He still got the win though. I hear his new secret weapon is Real Water.

So what of the Velogames scores? Well, it looks like we'll have to wait, but I'm still feeling good about those Beans.

What does tomorrow have in store? I hear you ask. Stage 2 might well be another sprint, but a lumpy profile at the end of the race could weed-out a few of the fast-men.

Team Time Trial - Pance on Fire

The 2011 Giro D'Italia is now on. And to start it all off there was a 19.3km team time trial through the streets of Vineria Reale. HTC-Highroad were the fastest team by a full 10 seconds, and Bile Beans star Marco Pinotti was the first rider across the line, meaning he gets to wear the first Pink Jersey of the race.

Flailing in HTC's wake were Radioshat and Liquigas to round out the top three teams, and back in 9th spot were Sky. Sky have a big budget and have been eying the team time trial opener at the Tour De France, but they'll have to do better if they want to mix it with the big boys.

After slightly over a year of not-very-hard work, I've finally received the recognition I deserve. The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that there's a new community page on Velogames, and my humble blog now gets a mention.

There's also mention of the Official Velogames Facebook league. I've signed the Bile Beans up, as at the moment it has about ten times the number of entries as the Tour De Pance league, (although I'm thinking there's still a few teams to come). And thanks to some sneaky picking of guys I thought would do well in the team time trial, I'm doing OK. So off to the scores.

Obviously it's still early days, but I think I can confidently predict that this is the best Bile Beans squad yet, and they will crush every other team come the finish in three weeks time.

Tomorrow the bunch will be off on a 244km jaunt from Alba to Parma (the Parma of ham fame I believe). Looks pretty flat to me, so probably one for a bunch sprint. Time for Cav to get some points in before he  decides to go home after the first week.

Giro Countdown - 3 days to go

Only a few days to go now till the start of the Giro D'Italia and time is running out to pick those Velogames teams. I see a few of you have already done some picking, but make sure to keep an eye on the news. There's usually some last-minute injuries and scandals, which can mean some of your team don't even make it to the start-line. One guy who won't be starting this year is Marzio Bruseghin, who seems to have been a bad lad. It's a bit of a shame though, as I'm sure we remember that he featured in one of the most enduring images from last year's race. He must be bummed to be left behind.

Another non-starter I've noticed is Christian Vandevelde of Garmin-Cervelo, so this year we won't be treated to his traditional nasty crash on Stage 3. Fear not though, this years race is going to be as hard as nails, and I'm sure there will be plenty of thrills and spills. Even Alberto Contador is scared.

Speaking of Contador, you may have noticed that he got into a spot of bother after the Tour De France. He's cleared to ride for the moment though, and it seems he's following the Valverde method of winning as many races as he can, while he can - in case he's forced to hang up his wheels for a year of two in the near future. So I've now picked the Bile Beans for this year's race. The full line-up will remain secret till after the start, lest anyone steal all my riders.

And here are those all important mini-league details.

League Owner: Vestan Pance

League Name: Tour De Pance

League Code: 04144415

It seems that it's also the first anniversary of the Tour De Pance blog, with my first post a year ago today.

Let's hope that all the cake doesn't slow down my riders in the weeks to come.