Well we're a week into the Tour de France already, doesn't time fly. There's nearly 6,000 teams taking part in the Fantasy game, but who's come out of the first rest day at the head of the field. Here are the numbers:
Stage 1: Porto-Vecchio > Bastia
Winner: cbantilan (208 points)
A day to pick the sprinters, but not the ones that fell off in the big crash. cbantilan had Kittel, Kristoff, Dumoulin, Cousin and Van Poppel, plus Lars Boom who went off in the break. Very prescient.
Stage 2: Bastia > Ajaccio
Winner: Stevesmyth100 (132 points)
A harder day to score big, but it helped if you had Jan Bakelants and the charging Peter Sagan. Which Stevesmyth100 did, as well as Boasson Hagen and Gerrans.
Stage 3: Ajaccio > Calvi
Winner: IP2W (164 points)
A day for the puncheurs and the one sprinter who can climb a bit. Gerrans and Sagan were top scorers with Kwiatkowski bagging a hatful too. IP2W had those three, plus Simon and Boasson Hagen, for a big score.
Stage 4: Nice > Nice
Winner: jayna (148 points)
A draw at the top but jayna comes out the winner by virtue of having the higher-scoring Kwiatkowski in their team. Bad luck to Spritzen-Ulle who also managed 148 points on the new higher-scoring team time trial.
Stage 5: Cagnes-sur-Mer > Marseille
Winner: TheFlyingPirate (159 points)
Cav's day, this was. TheFlyingPirate also had Boasson Hagen, Greipel, Kristoff and surprise package Lobato for a very decent total.
Stage 6: Aix-en-Provence > Montpellier
Winner: sykkelerbest(212 points)
Some big scores on a nailed-on sprint kind of a day, but sykkelerbest edges it by one point with seven scoring riders, including winner Greipel who picked up combativity points too in the absence of a break.
Stage 7: Montpellier > Albi
Winner: Il Grillo (176 points)
A day which Cannondale bossed from start to finish, and Peter Sagan rewarded them with his first stage win. Kwiatkowski, Gerrans, Impey, Gavazzi and Kadri all picked up useful points too; Il Grillo had all of them.
Stage 8: Castres > Ax 3 Domaines
Winner: Chossum (212 points)
A day to back Team Sky. Froome and Porte alone netted you 122 points. Chossum wins the stage tie from archieboy on a coin toss; both had the same scoring riders: the two Sky boys plus Quintana, Nieve, Hoogerland and Van Poppel.
Stage 9: Saint-Girons > Bagnères-de-Bigorre
Winner: stevebull-01 (151 points)
Dan Martin and Jakob Fuglsang contested the win, so obviously having them both was the basis for a good score; stevebull-01 added Rolland's KOM points and Froome and Schleck who finished in the front group.
Overall league
None of those stage winners have been consistent enough to make it into the overall lead, however. That accolade goes to guinunes whose team, Radio Bank, have amassed 1,170 points over the first week of racing. Second, 30 points behind, is Dux89 with Guitariff a further 31 adrift. With plenty of racing left it's a long way from being cut and dried at the top; a good run from anyone in the top 20 or so could see them onto the podium yet.
Purist league
The purist league is headed up by BQ89, on 810 points. They chose a sprint-heavy squad – Sagan, Schleck, Kristoff, Kittel, Bennati, Impey, Hoogerland, Dupont, Danny Van Poppel – but it's done them proud so far and there's plenty of flat stuff to come this week too.
For all of you out of the running for a top placing, don't worry: there's still every stage to play for and we'll be throwing some spot prizes out there too!
eradicating Hamas is a laudibale goal. Achieving this goal by killing or driving out every palestinian in Gaza, is either genocide or doomed to...
Fake news. It's only cyclists who ignore no entry.
Man flees after crashing into grade II listed Dorset home https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/24263845.man-flees-crashing-grade...
I did some extracts from a twitter thread and put it somewhere in drivers and their problems. Basically as you put but ended up with a star...
If plod can't get through their in their cars, then criminals will use it to evade them because heaven forbid the police should patrol on foot or...
The questions would be "who / what do the rules serve? What are we willing to pay / accept to maintain or enforce them?"...
I once had an Explosif in Reynolds 853 with their Project 2 fork and it was one of the best mountain bikes I've ever owned. I still think about it...
It sounds very much as if this is an argument about land rights and access, not about bikes or cars. It feels a bit like the Daily Fail whipping up...
Friday's effort
Am I right in thinking that this has been the case in NL for over half a century (or 30 years nationally)? With a brief interruption from 2003 -...