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Beat Mark Cavendish in a virtual race-off and win the chance to race him for real!

Can you beat the Manxman in Oakley's Facebook/video mash-up? ...

You might have seen the ads for this game right here on road.cc, but we thought we'd point you in the direction of Oakley's You Vs site, which is kicking off with Mark Cavendish with other famous sporting faces – Golfer Rory McIlroy, World Rally legend Sebastien Loeb and Cricket's own Kevin Pietersen are lined up – to follow.

The press release is a touch on the dry side – "an innovative new social media campaign designed to build [the] pan-European Facebook community", anyone? – but the site itself is very clever and worth a look and the game is a hoot. The main thrust is that you get to race the Manx Missile on a training ride, and your decisions on the day will determine whether you get to the line first.

You'll need to connect via Facebook* to get the full effect, as the site draws in information from your Facebook account to personalise the video with your name and photos from your feed. And it does it in a clever way, too, snaps of you and your friends appearing in Cav's hand, and your name on the top tube of your bike. There's others to spot along the way too, some quite subtle. If you haven't got your main Facebook pic as you, then Cav might be showing you a picture of your dog when he's picking a race opponent. Which sort of adds to the fun.


Look, it's my bike!

You don't get to make that many decisions to affect the outcome of the video – and we're not sure if choosing the right Oakleys can be the difference between winning and losing – but even so it's a clever and well-put-together site that's fun to visit. Have a go, and let us know if you win! If you do, then you can enter yourself in a competition to win the chance to race Cav for real; unless he's on a Pashley Pickle or you get a 500m head start for a 1km race, we can't see that panning out in anyone's favour but his.

http://youvs.oakley.com/ or click on the You Vs Cavendish ads which are probably at the top of this page… maybe.

*If you're not on Facebook, that's fine with us. You don't need to comment to say 'I'm not on Facebook' although if you want to that's fine with too  3

Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.

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Gkam84 | 12 years ago
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The only problem i found with it, apart from getting screen shots of my new kit and name on bike, i now have freckles all over my legs AND then, after i beat him, he rides off with two guys in team sky kit  19

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dave atkinson | 12 years ago
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I know, i lost *loads*  1

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CotterPin | 12 years ago
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Not only does it put your name on the bike frame, but you lose weight as well  4

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dave atkinson | 12 years ago
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added it in, should really have been there from the start  4

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Gkam84 | 12 years ago
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Gkam84 | 12 years ago
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I'm not seeing a link or am i missing something?

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