Scheldeprijs: Cav's Kick Can't Contain Kittel

While the strongmen of the peloton look to the Ronde and Roubaix to prove themselves, the sprinters have the Scheldeprijs to aim for.  For the Fantasy Cycling managers among us, the race presents a bit of a dilemma;  to field a full squad you have to use up a lot of transfers, only to have to change your team again in time for Paris-Roubaix.  And it’s only a Cat 2 race, so not as many points on offer.

 

Cat 1			Cat 2
Position	Points		Position	Points
1st	40		1st	25
2nd	34		2nd	20
3rd	30		3rd	18
4th	26		4th	16
5th	24		5th	14
6th	22		6th	12
7th	20		7th	10
8th	18		8th	9
9th	16		9th	8
10th	14		10th	7
11th	12		11th	6
12th	10		12th	5
13th	8		13th	4
14th	7		14th	3
15th	6		15th	2
16th	5		16th	1
17th	4
18th	3
19th	2
20th	1

 

I’d thought I’d just go with the one transfer and try my luck with Cav  today.  He’s been going well lately and Omega Pharma-Quickstep could do with a win after Tom Boonen’s poor season so far.  Not to mention the fact that Cav would have won some kind of diamond encrusted trophy for taking a fourth win in the race, which is good motivation I am sure.  Cav and his team were looking good, but it all went  pear-shaped in the lead-out.  He was too far back and even though he managed to overtake just about everyone, he didn’t overtake last year’s winner Marcel Kittel.  

He may have been happy with the win - especially as his form so far this year has been underwhelming -  but on the podium, poor Marcel was assaulted by two girls.  They attacked his face like he was made of bacon.

 

Cav was a popular pick today by those in the know. But Fulgas did best with a Kittel-Cav combo.

 

Rank	Team	Score
1	Fulgas	45
2	Rouleurs	39
3	Bodged blaggards!	35
4	Bile Beans	21
5	Caffe Americano	2
6	Evil Chanbots	2
7	ENRICO 666	1
8	Mungo Cycling	1
9	KLOEFEKAPPERS	0
10	synergy	0
11	vicarious victors	0

 

In the overall the Rouleurs opening up a handy gap, but at least I’ve managed to just pull away from the Kloefekappers a little.

 

Rank		Team	Directeur	Score
1		Rouleurs	tdm911	500
2		Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	449
3		KLOEFEKAPPERS	Jan Van Belleghem	428
4		Evil Chanbots	Danny Chan	408
5		ENRICO 666	Erik Mortier	405
6		Fulgas	Vincent Lavallee	394
7		Caffe Americano	Sherwood	304
8		synergy	Adrian Leggett	233
9		Mungo Cycling	Mungo	229
10		vicarious victors	eddy wu	210
11		Bodged blaggards!	Warwick Anderson	196

 

 

Paris-Roubaix on Sunday.  Spartacus is the hot favorite, but he did crash today and looked to have lost some arse skin.  

 

At the moment it looks like the chance of rain in Roubaix on Sunday is 0%. Bugger.

 

 

Spartacus Wins Game of Stones

It seemed like the build-up lasted for ever, but we finally got to see an epic battle played-out over long distances, as a large cast of protagonists fought to claim a coveted title.  Yes folks, season 3 of Game Of Thrones started last night.

 

And in other news, it was the Tour of Flanders.  Or the Ronde as us snobby types like to call it.

 

Last year Fabian Cancellara took a tumble at Flanders and Tom Boonen went on to win the race.  This year Tom Boonen took a tumble at Flanders and Fabian Cancellara went on to win the race.  I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, (probably after Paris-Roubaix) but giving Fabian Cancellara any kind of a gap in a bike race is a bad idea.  Peter Sagan had the right plan by trying to sit on Fabian’s wheel for a while, but even the Slovak Sensation couldn’t hold on to him for long.

And so the podium looked like this.

Although most of the attention now seems to have focused on Sagan’s wandering hands while he was up there.  Unacceptable behavior or boys will be boys? 

 

On the plus side, at least she was wearing underware.

Anyway, the results were all very good news for those crafty Rouleurs.  They were off to a slow start, but underestimate them at your peril.  Their score for the day was bigger than  Bodged blaggards! score for the entire series so far.

 

Rank	Team	Score
1	Rouleurs	200
2	Fulgas	154
3	Evil Chanbots	153
4	ENRICO 666	149
5	KLOEFEKAPPERS	149
6	Caffe Americano	134
7	Bile Beans	122
8	synergy	70
9	Mungo Cycling	60
10	Bodged blaggards!	50
11	vicarious victors	49

 

In the overall league then, it’s now Rouleurs on top, and a tie between Bile Beans and Kloefekappers for second.

 

Rank		Team	Directeur	Score
1		Rouleurs	tdm911	461
2		Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	428
3		KLOEFEKAPPERS	Jan Van Belleghem	428
4		Evil Chanbots	Danny Chan	406
5		ENRICO 666	Erik Mortier	404
6		Fulgas	Vincent Lavallee	349
7		Caffe Americano	Sherwood	302
8		synergy	Adrian Leggett	233
9		Mungo Cycling	Mungo	228
10		vicarious victors	eddy wu	210
11		Bodged blaggards!	Warwick Anderson	161

The Daddy of the Spring Classics, Paris-Roubaix, is now less than a week away.  As usual, I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for some rain to make it a truly epic race. 

 

Before that though, we’ve got the Scheldeprijs  on Wednesday.  It’s a tricky little one to figure out, the past winners reads like a who’s-who of bunch sprinting, but most of the likely riders and winners won’t be doing Paris-Roubaix.  Time to waste some transfers, or sit tight till the big points on Sunday?  If you’re Danny it’s a pretty easy call, as he’s only got one transfer left.