Ciolek Wins Milan-San Raino

The traditional image of the Spring Classics is one of a select group of hard-men, toughing it out against each other and battling the harsh early season weather.  They say cycling has changed in recent times, and maybe they are right.  As now when the going gets tough, the tough take a bus. 

The forecast for Milan-San Remo was for cold and rain.  The rain got so cold, it turned into some kind of white solid.  This took the organisers by surprise

Due to the snow on the climbs, they rapidly came up with a plan to keep nobody happy.  So after plugging away in the snow for a bit, the peloton stopped, took a bus ride for a while, and then carried on again. Well most people started again, Tom Boonen was amongst those who didn’t fancy getting off a nice toasty bus to ride bikes in the rain.  For those that soldiered on, there was only a mere 135 km or so left to cover, and the toughest climbs had been skipped.  Good news for those pure sprinters.  It was still a bit grim though and the treacherous conditions saw my Classics dark horse hope Geriant Thomas hit the deck on a descent.  I still had some men left though, and things were looking good when Ian Stannard and Sylvain Chavanel were away over the top of the Poggio.

 

Pre-race favourite Peter Sagan went after them on the descent, and brought Cancellara, Paolini and Ciolek with him. Somehow they managed to stay upright, and caught the leading pair. There were now four Bile Beans in a six-man move, things were looking good, but the win was not to be mine.  Gerald Ciolek showed that he may be riding for the “Who the fuck are MTN-Qhubeka?” team, but he’s a pretty good sprinter, as he beat Sagan to the line to take his first Classics win.

 

A pretty good day for the Bile Beans then, and I’m off with one of my trademark early leads. 

Rank		Team	Directeur	Score
1		Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	136
2		KLOEFEKAPPERS	Jan Van Belleghem	121
3		Rouleurs	tdm911	113
4		synergy	Adrian Leggett	110
5		Evil Chanbots	Danny Chan	106
6		Fulgas	Vincent Lavallee	92
7		ENRICO 666	Erik Mortier	89
8		vicarious victors	eddy wu	88
9		Caffe Americano	Sherwood	68
10		Mungo Cycling	Mungo	54
11		Bodged blaggards!	Warwick Anderson	20

We don’t have long to wait for the next set of scores though, with the Dwars dor Vlaanderen coming up on Wednesday.  It’s a Cat 2 race in the Velogames world, so not as many points on offer, but still not to be sniffed at.  Is it time for some transfers?  Or should you save them for later?  Don’t ask me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Classical

I was getting a bit nervous, as things have been a bit quiet at Velogames Towers, but the waiting is over and the Fantasy Classics are open for business!  I’m pretty sure you can read, so get on over to Velogames to sign up and check out the rules, which are a bit different than for the Grand Tours.  The Bile Beans are already in, and hoping for some early season success to justify at poor showing at the Tour de France.  The mini-league code from last year still seems to work (2152107), so you best get picking those teams before the action starts on Sunday at Milan-San Remo.

It is traditional that the off-season gives us a chance to take a break from the Pro-Cycling circus, and enjoy some down-time in the winter with a beer and a few cakes.  Just like Jan Ullrich used to do.  

Things were a little different this winter though.  I almost choked on my beer and cakes, as there was much coverage of the shocking and amazing news that Lance Armstrong was pumped full of drugs while he was winning those Tours de France.  Did I mention how I was shocked and amazed?  The stories keep on coming, and I’m sure there’s plenty more juicy stuff to come out about “the bad old days”, luckily “things are totally different now, with a new generation of riders”.  So let’s take a leaf out of the UCI’s book, just pretend none of this is happening and get on with the racing. 

As a responsible Blogger though, I feel it is my duty to try and address some of the problems in the sport, so I will be introducing "Vestan’s Traffic Light System�" on the blog.

 

I will be using an advanced combination of: stuff I read on the internet, unsubstantiated rumors, and my prejudices against certain riders and nations, to put cyclists into one of three arbitrary categories.

·         Green (actually white, I can’t be arsed to change colours too often, and I’m red/green colour blind, so I’ll just get confused) – Guys who I’ve no real reason to suspect, although there’s not real reason not to (Wiggins, Evans, Hushovd, Gilbert)

·         Yellow – There’s something a bit fishy about them, but I can’t really put my finger on it.  They might just be a bit too good, on the wrong team at the wrong time, or be a bit foreign. (Sagan, Cancellara, Samuel Sanchez)

·         Red – Been caught up to no good, or should have been. (Armstrong, Menchov and I guess David Millar qualifies too)

 

The season gets longer every year, and we’ve already had races in Australia, Oman and Qatar, not to mention Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico.  If you’ve been paying attention, you may have some idea who’s going well (Cavendish, Sagan, Nibali), who isn’t (Boonen, Ballan, Evans), and who sucks so bad it’s a major event if he manages to finish a race (Andy Schleck).  

There’s a guide to the Classics over at Cycling News that might help you out, and if you want to know who’s riding in what race, you can check out startlists here.  Remember to be careful with those team selections. You only get so many transfers to use through the series, and you don't want to have pissed them all away after the first few races.  So good luck everyone.  I hope the Bile Beans crush you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fantasy Vuelta Overall - Bertie Best, Rouleurs Rule

Well that was the Tour of Spain then.  And quite an entertaining little race it was - If you’re willing to overlook the fact that two-thirds of the podium have been banned for doping, and I have to admit that I am.  So the win went to likeable steak-munching-cheater, Alberto Contador. 

How did it all finish up then? Well, stage 20 was yet another steep uphill finish, and the win went to old timer ‘Dirty Dennis’ Menchov, who got the better of Sky’s Richie Porte.

 

The “big three” came in behind the remains of the break, and although there were a few seconds traded here and there, it wasn’t enough to change the overall.

 

And then we had the final stage into Madrid, and seeing as I didn’t say he’d win, John Degenkolb won.

 

Sneaking in shortly after him was crafty cheater Alejandro Valverde, who managed to steal the points jersey away from poor J-Rod at the last minute.

 

But who really cares about the real race?  The Fantasy Vuelta is the one everyone really wants to win.  And now that the final scores are in, it should come as no surprise to anyone, to see that Rouleurs have won, which may go some way towards making up for a dismal Tour De France.  Not far behind was Mungo, and rounding out the podium, we're the Bile Beans.

MINI LEAGUE SCORES

Tour De Pance

Rank		Team	Directeur	Score
1		tdm911	Rouleurs	9289
2		Mungo Cycling	Mungo	8441
3		Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	8193
4		TEAM ITV4	Andrew Danson	7695
5		Flying Hutchmen	Hutch	7238
6		GB expects	Warwick Anderson	7049
7		Dangerous Rogues Under Grey Skies	Blinddrew	6793
8		ENRICO 666	Eric Mortier	6462
9		Charmers	Craigatron	6226
10		Cofeedis	Tom Fee	5335
11		Bertie Frooms all Flavour Beans	Mark	5318
12		Evil Penguinbots	Evil King Penguin	5294
13		Haxby Group Pharmacy	Richard Harrison	5122
14		Hell of the North	Vincent Lavallee	4322
15		Ph.Dizzles	Ben	4027
16		Team MacDream	Elizabeth MacKenzie	3117

 

I hope you all had fun, even if your team totally sucked.  That might well be it for the Fantasy road calendar this year, but it looks like there’ll be some Fantasy Cyclocross action still to come from Velogames.  I did it last year, was mostly rubbish, and didn’t know who anyone was, but I did learn that it’s good to have Kevin Pauwels in your team.  If only it was Fantasy Georgia Cyclocross, all you’d have to do was pick Thomas Turner, and watch the points roll in.

Fantasy Vuelta Stage 19: Gilbert Winning Races Again

It looked for a little while that Degenkolb might get himself another stage today. He sneaked away in the closing kms with some other guys, only to have everyone fly past him just before the line. Timing it all quite nicely was Phillipe Gilbert, who seems to have remembered how to win races just in time for the Worlds in a few weeks. 

Not much impact on the scores then, unless you had Gilbert in your team. In which case, well done you.

MINI LEAGUE SCORES

Tour De Pance

Rank		Team	Directeur	Score
1		tdm911	Rouleurs	6379
2		Mungo Cycling	Mungo	5866
3		Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	5525
4		TEAM ITV4	Andrew Danson	5308
5		Flying Hutchmen	Hutch	4909
6		GB expects	Warwick Anderson	4588
7		ENRICO 666	Eric Mortier	4472
8		Dangerous Rogues Under Grey Skies	Blinddrew	4460
9		Charmers	Craigatron	4215
10		Evil Penguinbots	Evil King Penguin	3588
11		Bertie Frooms all Flavour Beans	Mark	3568
12		Cofeedis	Tom Fee	3525
13		Haxby Group Pharmacy	Richard Harrison	3393
14		Hell of the North	Vincent Lavallee	2962
15		Ph.Dizzles	Ben	2896
16		Team MacDream	Elizabeth MacKenzie	2216

 

The race is nearly over, but there’s still one more day of climbing tomorrow. If Bertie can make it through this one, then he should have it in the bag.