ok, so i have been a bit of a slacker since the tour has finished and think i have recovered all of my lost sleep.

there were 4 categories that were running as part of the tour tipping and we have a different winner in each one.

the most hotly contested category was the general classification.  the lead changed a number of times but in the end it all came down to the time trial (just like the real tour).  it was scott littlefair’s team “almost there”  that managed to take out the gc in a time of 3 days, 14 hours and 37 sec.  the last team came in 3 hrs and 46 min behind, so consistency is the key.  for his efforts scott has won the samsung ht-c330 dvd player with home theatre speakers donated by shaw at netplus microcomputers.

the green jersey comp was the accumulation of points across every stage.  this year the tour changed the category and instead of 3 intermediate sprints with points for 1st, 2nd & 3rd, there was a single intermediate sprint with points down to 15th place.  this meant that even if you didn’t tip the breakaways, you had a chance for points.  toby brown’s “global bean” team took the maximum points and led that category from early on.  toby has won a set of Illuminator 1000 Lumen from nitelight.

the mountain points jersey is a hard one to pick at the best of times.  often the most points are accumulated by the person that tips a breakaway as even if they get caught before the end of the stage, they may have crossed a number of big climbs.  this year a couple of good picks by mark hindley’s “le petit chihuahua” team meant that he finished 43 points clear of his closest competitor.  mark has won a front and back gekko light set as well as a pair of goat skin gloves and sticker set from knog.

winning the final category is often quite a bit of luck.  to pick a stage winner out of 198 riders is sometimes easy (the cav) and sometime hard (a breakaway stage).  the trick is to pick a stage winner that no-one else picks.  especially after there has been no winner picked for a couple of stages.  basically the way it works is 10 points are allocated to each stage.  if 10 people pick the winner then they each get 1 point.  if no-one picks the winner, then the points jackpot.  so even though a few people picked 5 or 6 stage winners, they often shared the points around.  mike tan’s team “vinovidivici” took out the category with 4 very well placed stage wins.  mike has won a sports nutrition pack from carboshotz containing bars, gels, electrolyte tablets and a drink bottle.

winners can contact me to receive their prizes.

well the tour is underway and there have been some exciting finishes already.  as far as the tipping comp goes, team globalbean is topping the leaderboard across all categories after tipping 2 out of 3 stages.

we also have the first of our category prizes donated by shaw at netplus microcomputers.  a samsung ht-c330 dvd player with home theatre speakers.

i am going to try to organise a few more prizes so each category winner will receive a prize.

this is a fund raiser, however, and since we got 24 players, we have raised $480 towards the belgium trip.

a few housekeeping issues for the comp though.  just remember you cannot tip the same rider within the week (between rest days).  this means if you tipped cav for stage 3 you cannot tip him till stage 10.

also, there has been an issue with the comments not closing out at 6pm.  it seemed to work for the first few stages, but not now (am looking into it).  i will accept the tips for stage 04 that came in late, but you notice that they have a date/time stamp on them.  from now on, even if the comments don’t close out, i will not accept a tip after 6pm.  you have had all day, don’t complain that you didn’t have time.

the spr tour tipping comp is up and running again and this year it will be a fund raiser for those heading over to belgium.  it will be run in the same format as previous years where you must choose a different rider every day.  the tour tipping home page can be found through the menu at the top and it should take you here.

entry is via the link on the page and this will take you through to paypal for actual payment.  we will organise some prizes for the category winners in lieu of cash.

basically, this is the outline.  you enter the comp via the online shop. you go to each stage page and add you tip to the comments section.  tips must be in by 6pm the day of the stage to be eligible.  you cannot tip the same rider within the one tour week (i.e. between rest days).  time, sprint and mountain poitns are accumulated for your team.

for those that haven’t done this before, it is a great way to make the tour more interesting as you can chase time, points or stage wins.  and remember this is a fundraiser for our club so get involved.

good luck.

after a very, very bad clerical error at the web-hosting place, we were suddenly left with no website for about 12 hrs.  this meant that quite a few people (including myself) didn’t actually get their tip in for the final stage.

as such i am going to pull a cancellara and neutralise the stage.  therefore all times and points were going to be based on the end of stage 19, the time trial.

the top three positions for each category can be seen below.  the final leaderboard can be found here.

well done to team cougar for staying ahead in the general classification all the way to the end.  team run bmc won every other category and if it wasn’t for a bad tip at about the halfway point, they may have won them all.

thanks for playing and keep an eye out for the vuelta tipping comp in a couple of months.

TOUR DE FRANCE TIPPING

with the tour starting this weekend, we will again be running a tour de france tipping comp.  entry is $10 and there are prizes for gc, points, mountains and stage wins.

you need to nominate a new rider each day and it is great way to closely follow the tour.

the tour tipping page can be found here (or on the tabs at the top) and this will be updated with the stage routes and tips from the experts.  the startlist will also be kept up to date so that can make sure you pick an rider that is still racing.

there are links to each stage and you enter your tip by adding to the comments at the bottom.  the comments section will close at 6pm each night and this will be the only way for you to enter your tips.  you can, however, enter a number of tips by just commenting on each stage page.

to join, you will need to purchase a tipping entry from the link below, or on the tour tipping page.  this will register your name, your team name and send you details of where to deposit the money.

the first stage is on saturday night so teams and tips need to be in by then.  teams can be registered later, but will miss out on points etc for those stages missed.

i just checked the sbs broadcast schedule for perth and it seems that every night the tour coverage starts at 8:00 or 8:30 each night.  goodbye sleep and hello cranky mornings.

good luck.

[wpsc_products category_url_name=’tipping-comp-entry’]

well the giro has been run and won by birillo with a couple of other italians rounding out the podium.  the aussies scored well taking all the minor jerseys as well as three stage wins.

as for the tipping comp, the lead in the general classification yo-yo’ed every couple of stages as the giro threw up a number of surprises.  the mountains points went down to the very last day as there was a tie heading into the time trial and the sprinters points was pretty close too.  there were a few lucky tipsters that grabbed a stage win after it had jackpotted for a couple of stages, so had that category pretty much sewn up.

the final leaderboard can be found here.

so that is the winnings.  unfortunatley i have been pretty slack in collecting the entry fees so i will need that now so i can pay out the winners.  after deducting any winnings (also from the last tipping comp) the following people still owe money.

this is to pay the following people their winnings minus entry

thanks for playing and keep an eye out for the tour de france tipping comp.  it will be run under the same format and as always, the more players the more you are playing for.

the comp is up and running as of yesterday and we have 31 teams entered.  any updates for this comp will be made via the giro tipping home page rather than this main blog.  there is a forum page set up as well where tipsters can ask questions etc during the comp by adding to the comments section.  the leaderboard page shows where your team sits, and the stage pages are updated after the finish so you can see how well you went.

remember, tips must be in by 18:00 the day of the race.  the comments will close off after this time.  i will not be accepting any tips via sms.  the whole point of having tips via the comments is that it makes it totally transparent so you know that no-one is cheating.

we will be running a tipping comp for the giro this year.

it starts this saturday 8th so if you want to join in, place your team name in the comments of the giro tipping home page here.

i am running a bit behind in setting it up as my computer died last week and i am time-sharing with the wife’s laptop.  will get the pages all set up this week before the race starts.

basically, for those that haven’t been involved in one of our tipping comps before, you have to choose a rider every stage but cannot pick the same rider in between rest days.  usually these split the giro into the three weeks.  this is to stop you from picking the same sprinter for every day of the first week.

cost will be $10 and this goes towards the prize pool.  it also looks like there is a highlights package on sbs 2 each night at 8:30pm so you can keep up to date.