Now that the anti-doping labs have had the time to do their work, we can breathe easy and assume the Tour de France results are cast in stone.
Well, you never know, but for the sake of the Tour Pool let’s assume just that and allocate our prizes. If some shenanigans are uncovered later, that’s life.
So who are our big winners? Read the rest of this entry »
Here it is, the moment of truth.
The traditional procession-to-Paris-capped-by-a-sprint is behind us, and our small army of hamsters have calculated the Tour Pool rankings.
Let’s start with the stage result. Read the rest of this entry »
The British have plenty to cheer about in the final stage of the Tour de France, which was won in predictable fashion for the fourth time in a row by Mark Cavendish.
Part of Cavendish’s leadout train was yellow jersey Bradley Wiggins, and of course Christopher Froome finished second overall. Three Brits on the podium at the end of the Tour … the French must think the end times are upon us.
The stage to Paris ended as it traditionally does, with a lot of photo ops in the early kilometres and then full-on racing for the last 50 km with several futile breakaway attempts capped by a bunch sprint. Read the rest of this entry »
OK, as we wait for the processional final stage to Paris to heat up for the sprint, it’s time to reveal the brains behind our Tour Pool entrants.
Yes — now you can learn the true identity of the entrant who has been tormenting you these past three weeks, or the actual name of the sad individual you left for dust … Read the rest of this entry »
There may have been a distinct lack of suspense in today’s Tour de France time trial, but the Tour Pool was a nail-biter.
In the end, DAMDOM powered to victory by a single point over Orica-GreenEDGE professional Christian Meier, who has finished second two days running and three times in this year’s Tour Pool. The difference today? Both entrants have Wiggins and Sagan, but DAMDOM has Froome, Taaramae and Sky, while Christian has Sanchez and Porte. Read the rest of this entry »
Smashing.
To a Brit, it just means “great,” but it also aptly describes what Bradley Wiggins and Christopher Froome did to the opposition in Saturday’s time trial at the Tour de France.
It was the last chance for the opposition to make up any ground on the pair, though nobody held out much hope for that to happen. In the end, Luis Leon Sanchez was the closest, nearly two minutes behind Wiggins and 35 seconds down on Froome, and the various GC contenders covered were all further down the rankings in the 53.5-km test — in some cases, much, much further. Read the rest of this entry »
With the sprinters back to the fore today it wasn’t quite the mix of lowly riders we were hoping for in today’s stage, but it did produce a couple of interesting results in the Tour Pool.
Groose Grinders picked up his second stage win of the year with a strong 61 points, three points ahead of the Tour Pool’s own WorldTour entrant, Christian Meier. The only difference between them today was their team choice, with Groose Grinders getting the extra three points for Sky topping the team standings on the stage. Read the rest of this entry »
The accepted script for today’s 18th stage of the Tour de France was that a medium-to-small break of lowly riders would roll away and the stage win would go to one of the teams that’s gone empty handed so far.
It didn’t turn out that way.
A break did indeed roll away, but it never gained more than 3:30 and, as the peloton picked up speed on the wide roads and the small climbs failed to produce any splits, the sprinter teams sensed their chance of a stage win. Read the rest of this entry »
While the gaps are opening up between the top riders in the Tour de France, the opposite is happening in the Tour Pool.
As Phil Lanthier grabs a Valverde-esque stage win over dartboard and BringBackJan, Da Boss continues to ride Thomas Voeckler’s coattails to eat away at MoparMellow’s overall lead. Read the rest of this entry »
For someone who went into this year’s Tour de France tipped as an overall contender, it’s been a pretty ho-hum race for Alejandro Valverde.
And for the former Vuelta a Espana winner’s Movistar team, packed as it is with guys like Tour de Suisse winner Rui Costa, perennial performer Vladimir Karpets and past Tour stage winner Juan Jose Cobo, it’s been a bit of a disaster.
But that all changed today as Valverde eked out victory on the final climbing day of the Tour Thursday, pedaling squares in the final 3 km but holding off yellow jersey Bradley Wiggins and his right hand man, Christopher Froome, by just 19 seconds at the summit finish in Peyragudes. Read the rest of this entry »
