Sagan Pijls on the Competition

In Europe the arrival of Spring can be judged by the Spring Classics. Over here in Atlanta, the arrival of Spring can be judged by the arrival of shit-loads of pollen (or plant gametes as I like to think of it). As you can see it gets pretty thick.

And the season has only just begun, with the pollen count predicted to hit over 10,000 soon.

All that pollen made for some painful eyes for me on the Dirty Mustache ride last night. Even some safety glasses I “borrowed” from work could not protect me. We still shredded gnar though.

Dirty Mustache Ride from Chris Kelly on Vimeo.

And don't even get me started on the Linden trees.



Anyway enough about me. What about the outcome of the snappily titled De Brabantse Pijl - La Flèche Brabançonne? Seeing as Fabian Cancellara is taking it easy for the next few weeks, it probably didn’t surprise anyone much to see the other star of the season so far, Peter Sagan take the win. And not too far behind him was Phillipe Gilbert, who looks to be coming into form just in time for a tilt at the Ardennes races. 

 

On the podium Sagan had another chance to get a hold of that girl he groped after the Tour of Flanders. But apparently he apologized for his behavior and gave her flowers. Let’s hope we never see a repeat of that sort of thing on a podium again. 

 

So, to the scores.  Another strong showing from Mungo. Worst of the day were the bogged blaggards.  And while we’re here, let’s see how many transfers we all have left. 

Rank	Team	Score	Transfers Remaining
1	Mungo Cycling	104	8
2	Bile Beans	86	8
3	Fulgas	85	5
4	Evil Chanbots	84	-9?
5	Rouleurs	80	7
6	vicarious victors	73	24
7	ENRICO 666	49	22
8	KLOEFEKAPPERS	49	22
9	synergy	44	20
10	Caffe Americano	38	13
11	Bodged blaggards!	0	6

Rouleurs still head the table, but I’m getting closer.

 

Rank		Team	Directeur	Score
1		Rouleurs	tdm911	722
2		Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	687
3		Evil Chanbots	Danny Chan	640
4		KLOEFEKAPPERS	Jan Van Belleghem	583
5		Fulgas	Vincent Lavallee	552
6		Mungo Cycling	Mungo	549
7		ENRICO 666	Erik Mortier	509
8		Caffe Americano	Sherwood	493
9		synergy	Adrian Leggett	348
10		vicarious victors	eddy wu	286
11		Bodged blaggards!	Warwick Anderson	248

Amstel gold on Sunday, if you’ve still got transfers left it’s probably time to use some up.

Cancellara Conquers Cobbles

If I was planning an outdoor music festival in Northern France, I think I’d have it on the same day as Paris-Roubaix.  Granted, no-one would be paying much attention to the bands with such an exciting bike race to watch, but at least the weather would be nice.  Europe has had a tough old spring by all accounts, but much to my disappointment, it looked quite pleasant out yesterday.  In fact, I don’t think we’ve had a wet Roubaix since 2002.

Fear not though.  Even though it was dry and dusty we still had a corker of a race. 

All bets were on Fabian Cancellara and even though he won, he certainly had to work for it.

 

Spartacus played it cool.  He didn’t fall off, he didn’t let anyone get too far up the road, and when he decided to make his move he made it count.  He was soon at the head of the race with only the talented but dodgy-kneed Sep Vanmarcke and former World Cross-Champ turned roadie Zdenek Stybar for company.

 

I was pleased to see Stybar up there; he was on my team, and I like a bit of the cyclocross.  I wasn’t so pleased to see him become the second Omega-Pharma rider to be taken out of contention by a roadside fan.  So then there were two.  Vanmarcke reacted well to a little dig by Cancellara on the run-in to the Velodrome at Roubaix and they were still together when they reached the track.  Cancellara has lost the sprint at Roubaix before, but he’s obviously been getting some lessons from Chris Hoy.  After a little track-stand on the banking, he forced Vanmarcke to lead-out the sprint, and then came past him to take his third Paris-Roubaix win.

 

In the scores for the day, there was finally some good news for Mungo  as they took the first 4 places.  Not so good for the Vicarious Victors, who earned 3 points and who still have all their transfers left.  Anyone might think that they have given up, but I’m sure they are just building up for a spectacular showing at Ardennes week.

 

Rank	Team	Score
1	Mungo Cycling	216
2	Bile Beans	152
3	Caffe Americano	151
4	Evil Chanbots	148
5	Rouleurs	142
6	KLOEFEKAPPERS	106
7	Fulgas	73
8	synergy	71
9	ENRICO 666	55
10	Bodged blaggards!	52
11	vicarious victors	3

 

Rouleurs still lead the overall, although the Bile Beans are inching closer.  Down in the lower reaches of the table, the Vicarious Victors’ inaction has allowed the Bodged blaggards! to move out of the Lantern Rouge position.

 

Rank		Team	Directeur	Score
1		Rouleurs	tdm911	642
2		Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	601
3		Evil Chanbots	Danny Chan	556
4		KLOEFEKAPPERS	Jan Van Belleghem	534
5		Fulgas	Vincent Lavallee	467
6		ENRICO 666	Erik Mortier	460
7		Caffe Americano	Sherwood	455
8		Mungo Cycling	Mungo	445
9		synergy	Adrian Leggett	304
10		Bodged blaggards!	Warwick Anderson	248
11		vicarious victors	eddy wu	213

The next race on our Fantasy Calendar is Brabantse Pijl - which you may remember was won last year by Gurning-Gallic-Gargoyle Thomas Voeckler.  It could be time to have a spring clean of your team, as the likes of Fabian Cancellara will be sitting out the remaining races.  So out with the sprinters and hardmen, and in with little fellas who can ride up a hill quick.  Unless you’re Danny, in which case you’re out of transfers and shit out of luck.