Fantasy Vuelta - now with spot prizes!

Don't say we never give you anything here at road.cc. Fantasy Vuelta is at the halfway point now and the overall contenders are lining up for the big prize, a Giant Defy worth over £500. Some familiar names are in there from the Fantasy Tour de France along with some new faces too, and it's tight at the top with just 40 points covering the top five.

Chances are you're in the same position as us though: sitting in mid table, ruing missed transfer deadlines and bad team choices. Don't despair, though: with a bit of luck and a concerted effort from your domestiques you could still win a stage, and there's going to be sport prizes on offer from now till the end of the Vuelta.

Spot prizes of a road.cc tee will be awarded on every odd-numbered stage from here to Madrid. You can head to our Vuelta preview for the skinny on the stages in question, but here's a quick rundown:

Stage 13: This has got breakaway written all over it, the kind of lumpy transitional stage where the GC boys will let a group go away.

Stage 15: One for the climbers, this: flat as a pancake for 174km with a big hill at the end to sort everyone out.

Stage 17: The individual time trial, 46km of pain. Who's got the legs to take the podium?

Stage 19: Another possible breakaway stage with some climbing early on where an attack might gain a decent wedge of time.

Stage 21: It's all about the sprint: eight laps of Madrid then a dash for the line.

If you're not troubling the top ten then maybe it's time to start thinking about some tactical transfers to maximise your chances of a tee! In the event of a tie we'll use the following other criteria to decide who's come out on top:

• The highest scoring rider
• The number of scoring riders
• The combined total scores of all the riders on your team
• The office random number generator

We'll announce the winners as they come, but for the record here are the top stage scores to date, with FTDF winner alexlnumber1 racking up two stage wins so far... maybe there is some skill in it, eh.

Stage 1: top score 172 by JRB_RC (LabMonkey), team viper (viper), fdringo (antomeno), Team Murray (boraboca)
Stage 2: top score 82 by keanus bike (hellokitty)
Stage 3: top score 115 by Farsan Bortolo (marxtrom)
Stage 4: top score 160 by Robabank (alexlnumber1)
Stage 5: top score 118 by Saeco Par Cafe (Brian Lynch)
Stage 6: top score 105 by elektra (elektra)
Stage 7: top score 101 by Robabank (alexlnumber1)
Stage 8: top score 173 by jaccojansen (jaccojansen)
Stage 9: top score 94 by equipo del Cielo (JAndrewHill)
Stage 10: top score 96 by eaju (eaju)
Stage 11: top score 141 by Maximum Pasty (ourdave)