Paris-Nice Stage 5 - Go Westra

It was tough going on the way up the Montee Laurent Jalabert today. It's a steep one, and the big guns were taking no prisoners. Richie Porte was hammering away on the front for much of the climb. And while he made sure his Team Leader, Bradley Wiggins was comfy, he didn't care much for those he was putting the hurt on. Out the back were the likes of Frank Schleck, Ivan Basso, Denis Menchov, Jani Brajkovic, and Tony Martin. Still hanging in there were Leipheimer, Valverde, Teej Van Geej, and Tony Martin. Still hanging in there were Leipheimer, Valverde, and the man who would sneak off to win the stage, Leiuwe Westra.

Westra came within six seconds of the Yellow Jersey, but thanks to his showboating antics before the finish, it's Bradley's for at least another day.

In the Velogames world, I'm happy to say that the Bile Beans are at the top of the table.

Tomorrow should be a sprint, I think I might transfer a few more fastmen onto my squad.

Tirreno Adriatico Stage 1 - Green Edge have the Edge

Just a quick one for those of us doing the Fantasy Tirreno-Adriatico. Which seems to be the Bile Beans, Chanbots and Roulers - correct me if I'm wrong.

Stage 1 was a team time trial, which was won by the new Australian outfit GreenEdge. They did seem to be suffering from "the curse of the new team", where the newest big-money team on the Pro-Tour get crappy results in year one - see Sky in 2010, and Lay-O-Pard Schleck in 2011. They may have got lucky with the wind, but they won by 17 seconds, which is pretty impressive over km.

There's no scores yet. So again, it's anyone's guess who's winning. But my guess is that those Roulers are off to an early lead, thanks to picking new race leader Matt Goss of GreenEdge.

Paris-Nice Stage 4: Meersman Fastman

I must admit, I've never heard of Gianni Meersman. He must be pretty good though, as he won a stage of the Paris-Nice race today.

And who's that still wearing the yellow jersey? Why it's that Bradley Wiggins.

It doesn't look like anyone else has heard of Gianni Meersman either, as no one seems to have him in their team. And as there's no scores yet, it's anyone's guess who's leading the minileague. But my guess is that it's still those Chanbots.

Don't forget to use those transfers to get rid of any donkeys on your team. Or get rid of anyone who's called in sick. It seems there's some kind of "gastrointestinal issues" floating around the bunch, so along with Andy Schleck, these guys have pooped out of the race.

DNS	Joost Posthuma (Ned) RadioShack-Nissan
DNS	Adam Hansen (Aus) Lotto-Belisol Team
DNS	Jan Bakelants (Bel) RadioShack-Nissan
DNS	Taylor Phinney (USA) BMC Racing Team
DNS	Olivier Kaisen (Bel) Lotto-Belisol Team

Onto tomorrow then, and it's a hilly one, with a finish up the Montee Laurent Jalabert. The likes of Valverde, Leipheimer and Van Geej, will be looking to put Wiggins under pressure. But the way he's been riding, I think Bradley will be OK.

Paris-Nice Stage 3: Valverde Victorious; Chanbots Chuffed

He may be a bit of a cheat, but Alejandro Valverde is a classy bike rider. So we'll overlook those bags of blood in Dr. Fuentes' garage that matched his DNA. And then we'll have to overlook the fact that he still doesn't think he did anything wrong. So let's just sit back and admire the way he just beat Simon Gerrans on the uphill sprint today.

And Bradley Wiggins held onto the yellow jersey.

Today's antics were mostly good news for the Bile Beans. But first and second places, made it a very good day for the Chanbots.

Tomorrow looks like another lumpy one, we could see a few of today's top ten finishers in action again.

Paris-Nice - Boonen Blasts Through on Stage 2

Stage 2 of the Paris-Nice is now over and done with..... It seems like just this morning that I was telling you about Stage 1, but here we go again....... So a look a today's profile would have suggested a bunch sprint might be on the cards.

And a sprint we had, with a tidy win from Tom Boonen.

It was a nice win, but there was plenty happening behind Tornado Tom today. Some stiff winds and some wet weather split the race up into a number of small groups, with the leading group putting around 2 minutes into the rest. Up front with Boonen were some of the GC hopefuls, but not others. It was a canny move for the likes of Levi Leipheimer, Alejandro Valverde and Tejay Van Garderen, (or Teej Van Geej as I like to call him). And it was a crappy move for those left behind, like Tony Martin, Ivan Basso and the Schlecks. The biggest winner though was our boy Bradley Wiggins, he was looking relaxed and strong, and earned himself the race lead.

And in the lead in the minileague are the Marras. They had a fair few riders in today's break and that win from Tom Boonen helped them out nicely.

Remember to use those transfers. I just noticed that Denis Galimzanov isn't actually riding, so I've made a few changes to my line-up. You might want to check all your boys started, or are still in the race - guys like David Millar and Nick Nuyens, for example. It looks a bit lumpier at the finish for tomorrow, maybe my new sprinter John Degenkolb can do something.

Paris Nice Stage1 - Larsson Leads

The opening time trial of Paris-Nice has been and gone. The fastest man of the day was Gustav Erik Larsson, 

I've already covered Larsson's sideline in surreal cartoons. So today's Larsson fact, is that he's quite the audiophile. Apparently he's made his own valve amp and speakers. Looks pretty nice, I might have to pop round one day and see how my TFT vinyl sounds on his system.

Mr Larsson was lucky enough to set off when the weather was still good. Not so Bradley Wiggins, who set off when there was all kinds of water about. He was taking it easy on the corners, but still did enough to take second.

Also off in the rain was last year's winner, Tony Martin. Maybe it was the combination of the rain and his white World Champ's skinsuit, but he failed to impress, and lost 25 seconds to Larsson. Also failing to impress were those Shlecks. With time trial kms aplenty in the Tour De France this year they'll have to do better, as they both lost about a minute in less than 10km. Or maybe, now that Andy Schleck won the 2010 Tour, he's realized that he's already achieved that Grand Tour win he's been after.

It's early days in the minileague, and things are looking pretty evenly matched so far. Looking at the teams it seems that Wiggins is a popular pick, so I think we can all agree that we hope he does well. Also I think you can make transfers to your teams, so if someone's looking a bit crap you can replace them.

Don't forget that the Fantasy Tirreno-Adriatico is now open, so you might as well pick a team for that too.

I've set up a minileague, but there seems to be some funny stuff going on with it. Try entering and see what happens.

League Name: Tour De Pance

League Code: 03150444

Cross Over - Nice time on the way

The Velogames Cross season is now well and truly over. And the Bile Beans performance was less than stellar, but not the worst out there either. In fact the Bile Beans Cross season went much like my own, which I wrapped up last weekend at Southern Cross. So although I wasn't raking in the wins like Kevin Pauwels, I did, at least for the most part, have fun.

Although, due to the typically short nature of a Cross race, it's had to get enough beer handups to keep up with the hardcore spectators.

Anyway, we all know that Cross is mostly a distraction for the winter, before the serious business of the road season starts again in the spring. The pros have already been in action in places like Oman and Qatar, but there's something about the podium presentations over there that make me long for the circus to get back to Europe. Compare this.

To this.

And I think you can see why I'm looking forward to the Giro. So the road season is here, and that means it's time for Fantasy Cycling. It looks like George has spent the off-season applying a lick of paint to the Velogames site, and I'm sure you'll agree it looks very nice. First up is Paris-Nice, with Tirreno-Adriatico and the Classics to follow soon. As usual, I've wasted no time in picking a Bile Beans squad, and opening a minileague.

League Name: Tour De Pance

League Code: 02152107

In other news, I've got myself a new job. So I'll be swapping one of these.

For one of these.

So, my bikeshop days are now over. Which sadly, means I'll  no longer be able to bring you news of the latest technical innovations in cycling. Such as the Aeroguard.

The Wordlock.

And the lesbian/dog-Police-chase-fantasy-wheel-guard, or whatever the fuck this is....

Anyhooze, you better get a team picked for Paris-Nice, as it starts on Sunday with a 9.6km uphill time trial.