well the final race has been run and won by the latest comeback kid, vino.  as usual there are shadows of doubt over his victory, but as far as the tipping comp goes, the result on the day is the result for the comp.  basically, if you know someone is doping, then make sure you tip them before they get busted.

anyway, with the top two teams tipping different riders, but only gaining 10 points difference, team bigchainring stayed clear at the end to claim victory.  team globalbean finished strong, but was a good 70 points adrift at the end of the day.  team solwest tipped well in the final 2 races to overtake team rob.a.bank for third place.

on the stage win leaderboard, team bigchainring was the clear leader tipping three winners.  the way this works is that there is prize money for each race and this is split between the winners of the race.  in other words, the more people that tip the winner, the less money you get.

in about 2 weeks the giro starts and we will run another tipping comp for this.  the main difference is that you have to put a new tip in for every stage which is pretty much every day for three weeks.  again, the more people involved, the more money for the winners. 

the final leaderboards are here, but the pay-outs are as follows.  if you are not worried about collecting your prize (due to the small amount) you can let me know and i can roll it into the entry for the next comp.

overall points

stage wins

cadel.

full of awesomeness.

for those that missed it last night, here  is a link to the final few kilometres.  the commentary isn’t in english, but all you have to hear is the names.

so, in the end after a lot of last minute tip changes, only 2 people had confidence in cadel and got the 80 points.  team bigchainring is clearly in the lead, but globalbean is just close enough to steal the win.  to remain fair, those two teams will email me their tips and i will post them to the comments after the closing time.  this will stop them from deliberately tipping the same rider and causing a stalemate.

the last race is on this sunday, and remember there is still dollars to be won for tipping the race winner, so get your tip in.

finally lotto can say that they have had a win this year.  most of the big names were there for the final attack up the last climb to the finishline, but gilbert had their measure and took a convincing win.  there were six tipsters that picked him, but the rest of the tips were a bit hit and miss.  2 races remain with la fleche wallonne on this wednesday and liege on sunday.  get your tips in quickly.

SPARTA AGAIN!!!

racing.  funny how often it is more about tactics rather than how strong you are.  boonen was strong.  really strong, but no-one wanted to work with him to chase down spartacus.  funny, how no-one wanted to help the sprinter pull back a break so that it came down to a sprint finish…anyway, it was a good race and confirms cancellara’s position as one of the best riders in the world.

next race is the amstel gold race this coming weekend.  a race sponsored by a beer company can mean only one thing.  crazy beer fuelled fans lining the course.  this will be a different kind of race so look for riders like the schlecks, sastre or cadel making more of an appearance.

oh, and a big thanks to SBS for giving WA a delayed LIVE telecast of the paris-roubaix.  with the winner actually crossing the line 2 hrs beforehand, it is such a consolation to know that we didn’t get to miss out on a couple of 3 yr old documentaries from the USA and UK.

SPARTA!!!!

for those that stayed up last night to watch it on the net, it can be summed up in one word – awesome.  i was so tired after the hills ride, but as soon as spartacus and tommeke attacked on the 20% cobbled climb and left everyone else in their wake, there was no way i was going to bed.  then when cancellara just cruised past boonen on the final climb, it was such an awesome display of power that i made me want to get on the time trial bike.  what this really means is now who do you tip for paris-roubaix next weekend.

for the tipping comp, there were 6 winners this race, as cancellara was a popular choice.  this meant that team solwest is now equal 1st with team bigchainring on 180 points.  team globalbean is roasting nicely in 3rd spot but only because team captain poser & tha canine shepards failed to get any point even though they tipped boonen.  a check of the records found that they used that rider for the sanremo race and therefore recieved no points this race.

paris-roubaix is the next race on this coming sunday so make sure you get your tip in.  there are still 4 races left and there is money for getting a race winner correct, so don’t worry if you are behind, you can still get prizes.  just remember if you have already picked a rider then don’t pick them again…i am checking.

after race 2 – gent-wevelgem

only 1 team got any points in this race and it propelled team captain stinkypants and the nappies of doom into equal first place with team bigchainring.

unlike the three week tours, these classics are harder to pick than a broken nose.  no-one picked the winner so the stage winnings will jackpot until someone picks it.  and remember, you cannot pick the same rider twice.

to those that didn’t get their tip in, don’t worry as there is still time to make up ground.  first place is only one tip away.  next race is the tour of flanders this sunday.  i will update the startlist as soon as it comes to hand.

well the milano-sanremo has been done and won and oscar freire came through with the goods.  there were a few people that didn’t get their tip in time, but don’t worry about that as there are another 6 races to go in this comp.  if you still want to enter, you can do that also as only 11 out of the 28 entries have gained points so far, you won’t be that far behind.

the next race is the gent-wevelgem on sunday so to get your tip in, add to the comments section of the race page here.  i will update the startlist as it comes to hand.  remember, you can’t tip the same rider that you have already used.  so i am guessing that the 4 teams that tipped boonen for the sanremo, don’t think he has a chance of winning roubaix this year.

the current leaderboard is as follows.

as the european season enters spring, there are a number of one day races that make up what are called “the classics”.  there are seven races around europe and starts this weekend with milano-sanremo.  similar to how we ran the tour de france tipping comp over the past few years, we will be running a spring classics tipping comp which can be found here.

the seven races are –

• Milano-Sanremo
• Gent – Wevelgem
• Ronde van Vlaanderen / Tour des Flandres
• Paris – Roubaix
• Amstel Gold Race
• La Flèche Wallonne
• Liège – Bastogne – Liège

all you have to do to register is send an email with your team name and cough up $10 cash only.  the money goes towards the the prize pool so the more people that enter, the more money there is to win.  the rules are also on the tipping home page, but you basically choose one rider per race and cannot choose the same guy twice.  tips must be in by 6pm on the day of the race.  as these races are spread over a number of weeks, you have lots of time to get your tip right.

we had quite a few people enter the tour tipping last year and it made it more exiting to find out where your guy finished even if they didn’t win.  after this, we will be running a tipping comp for the three major tours as the year progresses.

so, have a look at the tipping pages and get your team name into me before 6pm saturday 20th.

hot on the heels of the vuelta comes the world championships this week in switzerland.  again we will be running a tipping comp and entry will be free.  to be fair to both the guys and the girls competing in this event, you have to put a tip in for both the men’s and women’s road race as well as the men’s and women’s time trial.  the person with the lowest cumulative time will be the winner.

the women’s time trial is to be held on wednesday so you need to have that tip in before the race starts (evening our time).  thursday has the men’s time trial with the women’s road race saturday and men’s on sunday.  you can put in one tip at a time or all 4 events at once.

the long lists are attached and the final starters will be made from within these lists.  i will update the final lists as they come to hand.

mens longlist         womens longlist

womens tt startlist    mens tt startlist

to enter your tip, use the comments section below.  the main prize will be some tray of baked goods and the glory of guessing right and beating your peers.

results

final standings

the course

time trial

Start / Finish: Mendrisio
Length of course: km 16,6
Height difference: 120 m

road race

well it is time for another grand tour as the pros line up for the vuelta this coming weekend.

we will be running another tipping comp and have set up a new tipping home page.  same rules apply as the tour tipping comp and there is a page outlining them.

you can now access all the pages easily using the page menu above, so register your team name by adding your comments to the vuelta home page.  cost will be $10 and there will be prizes for each category.

good luck.