FTDF Stage 2 - Cav Doesn't Miss The Train

In the run up to this year’s Tour, there was a shedload of speculation as to what Mark Cavendish would get up to. Will he finish the race, or quit early to save himself for a shot at a shiny gold medal at the Olympics? Has his weight loss hurt his top-end speed? How will he do without a dedicated lead-out?

Well, after today’s stage it looks like at least some of those questions have been answered. He came past Andre Greipel and took the first real bunch sprint of the race.

 

Yesterday I tipped Marcel Kittel for a result, but I hear he's got "intestinal issues", which is a shame, especially as the Argos-Shimano kit has so much white in it. 

Rounding out the top three was Bile Beans fastman Matt Goss, who may not have got the win, but is still doing quite well in my points/cost ratio calculations. In fact, it looks that Hutarovich is the best investment so far...... but early days, etc.

Rider	Team	Cost	Score		Score/Cost
Yauheni HUTAROVICH	FDJ	6	60		10
Mark CAVENDISH	SKY	18	171		9.5
Andre GREIPEL	LTB	14	121		8.64
Matthew GOSS	GEC	12	103		8.58
Juan Jose HAEDO	SAX	6	50		8.33
Dries DEVENYNS	OPQ	4	32		8
Alessandro PETACCHI	LAM	12	80		6.67
Mark RENSHAW	RAB	6	40		6.67
Tyler FARRAR	GRM	12	30		2.5
Jose Joaquin ROJAS	MOV	12	25		2.08

Best score of the day went to Hell of the North, as the Flamin’ Nadgers sprinter, Petacchi could only manage 5^th, but the Nadgers seem to be hanging at the top of the table for the moment. 

MINI LEAGUE SCORES

Tour De Pance

Rank		Team	Directeur	Score
1		Flamin` nadgers	Andrew Windrum	1361
2		Hell of the North	Vincent Lavallee	1221
3		The Charmers	Craigatron	1092
4		Crazy Uncle Vince	Baby Lavallee	1026
5		Return of Reflex	Karl	1014
6		TEAM ITV4	Andrew Danson	976
7		Drews Riders Using Genuine Supplements	Drew Stephenson	943
8		Evil Chanbots	Danny Chan	932
9		Velo raptors	Warwick Anderson	922
10		Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	872
11		Team Awesomeness	William MacKenzie	856
12		temple of FROOME	Tom	783
13		Cejay`s Vanguard	Cejay	782
14		TheFastMenOnBikes Part II:THE SEQWHEEL!	Teagan	759
15		10 minute team	dspeck	753
16		ENRICO 666	Erik Mortier	732
17		Its Sky Time	Mark	697
18		Rouleurs	tdm911	676
19		To Infinity and Beyond	Nick Cuthbert	667
20		15	Joe Danson	635
21		RaboBrad	Brad	635
22		Dexter`s Midnight Wheelers	noj	604
23		Looking Good in Lycra	Catherine Windrum	547
24		Ned`s Boys	Elizabeth MacKenzie	521
25		Smugblokes	Mark Philo	489
26		Marmite Men	Alasdair MacKenzie	485
27		Ph.Dizzles	Ben	466
28		Haxby Group Pharmacy	Richard Harrison	433
29		Mungo Cycling	Mungo	419

It should be an interesting stage tomorrow, as there’s some definite lumps to spoil things for the pure sprinters. Could it be another one for new points leader Peter Sagan? Or maybe Sylvain Chavanel might have a go? He’s been looking good in the race so far, and I want him to earn me lots of points.

FTDF Stage 1 - Sagan Scores, Nadgers Nudge Ahead

For those of you that didn't know, young Peter Sagan is really rather good at riding a bicycle. The lad is only 22 years old, but he's already won a ton of races, and today he got his biggest win yet, when he took Stage 1 of this year's Tour. I wouldn't be surprised if he went on to win a few more. Although next time he wins, I hope he doesn't bring quite so much attention to his crotch.

Not far behind him was yellow jersey Fabian Cancellara, who did most of the work in the final few km, only to have Sagan come steaming past him. Oh well, that's cycling for you. On the plus side, he gets to keep his yellow jersey for a while longer. And his yellow everything else for that matter.

And Sagan will be wearing the green jersey tomorrow, as Fabian can't wear both, although it is his really.

While early breakaway chancer Micheal Morkov gets his torso in the mountains jersey.

I noticed that there were a few spots of rain on today's stage, but nothing too serious. And most riders managed to stay upright, (not L.L. Sanchez and Tony Martin though). I've also noticed that it's been a bit wet back in my old country. While here in Atlanta, the heat index has been somewhere between OMFG! and WTF!  Yes, it hit 105F here yesterday, although, as a European at heart, I don't really understand Fahrenheit, and so prefer to think of it as 313.7K. All I can tell you is, its been pretty hot here.



Anyway, all of today's antics were good news for the Flamin' Nadgers, who got the best score for the day, and took over the lead of the minileague. Why don't you check out the spreadsheet?

The Nadgers look to have a pretty strong team. At least until the mountains start. But I'm wondering if Petacchi is the best choice for a sprinter. I'm hoping the best way to spend 12 points is on one of those Matt Gosses, but time will tell. Tomorrow should be an old school bunch sprint, and we'll get to see who's hot and who's not.


Has the new slimline Cav still got it? And what about Marcel Kittel - I think he might be in with a chance. And then you've got your Greipels, Farras, Rojases, and of course, Peter Sagan.

TDF Prologue - Fabianannanannana

And they're off! And as tradition has it, Fabian Cancellara won the prologue. I like Spartacus as much as the next man - in a heterosexual way of course. But I thought he might still be a bit short of form after that broken collarbone he got at the Tour of Flanders.

Well, not for the first time, it seems I was wrong, and he flew around the streets of Liege, much faster than everyone else.

Another time trial star and spring-time casualty is Tony Martin, who also had a bit of a face/tarmac incident earlier on this year. He was the fastest man through the first time-check, but his hopes were dashed by a flat tire (I think he rides Specialized tires, in case you were wondering what brand to avoid). Oh well, he wasn't in my team, so what do I care? The fastest man who was in my team, was that Bradley Wiggins, who took it easy for the first bit, and then flew around the second bit.

It's only the prologue though folks, and chances are it will make chuff all difference in three weeks time, but lets see how the minileague looks (which you can now enjoy as a Google document, as you've got to have pretty good eyes to make sense of this).

It should be a good stage tomorrow, there's like some kind of hill or something at the end. Not one for Cav then. Even if he is a bit slimmer these days, he's not going to make it up the last climb. If this was 2011, it would be a stage that has Philippe Gilbert written all over it. Pip's form has been lacking so far this year, he did a good ride today, but I'm hoping that Peter Sagan can start to repay all those points I spent on him by getting the win.

Pance's Prologue Preview & Potential Picks

We missed out on having a prologue time trial in 2011, as the Tour went right into the action with a tough road stage (won by Philippe Gilbert). Things are back to normal this year though, and the riders will be starting three weeks of racing with a 6.4km circuit around Liège, in that there Belgium.

It’s pretty short, and pretty flat then. And unless the weather comes up with some nasty surprises, we can expect to see the usual time trial specialists doing well. While it makes for a nice little introduction to the race, I can’t help thinking they could spice the stage up a bit if they just altered the design of the start ramp a little.

As all good Fantasy Tour managers know, the Prologue is a place where you can pick up some easy points. So, if you’re after some early glory, and if you still haven’t picked your team, here’s one that I think should do pretty well on Saturday.

Unfortunately, there’s still a tiny bit more racing to be done after the prologue.  And as I found out last year, an early lead can soon disappear in the mountains, so it might be better to take a longer view of the race.

Anyway, I see that the minileague is filling-up nicely, and there may be a few more teams still to come. It should be a good race.  I can hardly wait!

Fantasy Tour 2012 Now Open!

The wait is finally over! The rider prices are up and Velogames is now open for Fantasy Tour De France entries! So head on over there and get picking that team. And then get joining the Tour De Pance minileague.

If you’re anything like me, then you probably find that picking a team is a daunting and confusing task. Especially if like me, you were briefly “King Of The World” at the Fantasy Tour last year and feel you now have a reputation to maintain. So, in order to make picking a bit easier, I present you with this handy spreadsheet.

So, let the fun begin - in about a week’s time. Good luck everyone!

Fantasy Tour de France 2012 Nearly Here!

There’s a few things that you can count on with cycling: It’s always a headwind. It will always rain the day after you clean your bike. You’ll get a flat the one day you forget your pump. And of course, in the weeks leading up to the Tour De France, there will be a big story about drugs.

This time it seems some guy called Lance Armstrong is in a spot of bother with the USDA. In fact he’s in 15 pages worth of bother, which if you have the time, makes for some interesting, if not particularly surprising reading. So it appears that Lance may have been doing a load of cheating, at a time when pro cycling was full of cheaters. 

But remember, he’s never failed a drug test. (unless you count that one he paid to get hushed-up - allegedly)

Anyway, enough with the bad news. The good news is that it’s nearly time for the 2012 Tour De France. This year we don’t even have to wait till July, as the race begins on June 30th. First there’ll be a prologue in the Belgian town of Liege, (of Liege-Bastogne-Liege fame). Then they’ll ride around France for a bit, doing sprints, going up mountains, time trialing and falling off. And at the end of it all, the surviving riders will find themselves in Paris for a bunch sprint and some prizes for the good boys.

Looks pretty easy to me. We can expect the teams to start announcing their Tour squads soon, and if you've been paying attention to the goings on at the Dauphine and Tour de Suisse, you might have a few ideas about who you’d like for your Fantasy Tour team. I know I've got a few riders penciled-in for the Bile Beans already, but we’ll have to wait till George gets the rider list up over at the Velogames site before we’ll know if the price is right.