this comp will be free to enter and i will organise some type of gold, silver & bronze prize for the top three finishers.
basically all you have to pick is the order of the countries that will take out the medal positions. i.e. spain (gold), australia (silver), spain (bronze). you don't need to pick the rider and as the example points out, one country can win more than one medal. the top places in the comp will be based on a weighted average of the top finishing positions of the countries you picked.
so send an e-mail to the address listed on the right and entries must be in before the race starts (11:00am saturday 9th).
the race
the race will be contested over 245.19 kms and is relatively flat for the first 80 km. it then rises 230 m over the next 10 km as the course approaches the circuit at 90 km. the circuit is a 24 km loop which is ridden seven times and is basically up one side of a mountain and down the other with no real flat sections.
the circuit initially rises nearly 520 metres over 9.9 kms for an average grade of 5.2%. the circuit ascent is followed by a short roller then an 13.1 kms descent to the valley bottom. the descent supposedly heads straight into the prevailing wind in that area, providing little relief to the riders. the finish follows the last circuit descent and appears to have a slight rise to the line.
the riders
below is the provisional start list in order of country
Hichem Chabane (Algeria)
Alejandro Borrajo (Argentina)
Juan José Haedo (Argentina)
Matias Medici (Argentina)
Cadel Evans (Australia)
Simon Gerrans (Australia)
Matthew Lloyd (Australia)
Stuart O'Grady (Australia)
Michael Rogers (Australia)
Christian Pfannberger (Austria)
Thomas Rohregger (Austria)
Kanstantsin Siutsou (Belarus)
Alexandre Usov (Belarus)
Andrei Kunitski (Belarus)
Vasil Kiryienka (Belarus)
Mario Aerts (Belgium)
Christophe Brandt (Belgium)
Maxime Monfort (Belgium)
Jurgen Van den Broeck (Belgium)
Johan Van Summeren (Belgium)
Murilo Fischer (Brazil)
Luciano Pagliarini (Brazil)
Michael Barry (Canada)
Ryder Hesjedal (Canada)
Svein Tuft (Canada)
Patricio Almonacid (Chile)
Gonzalo Garrido (Chile)
Liang Zhang (China)
Santiago Botero (Colombia)
José Serpa (Colombia)
Rigoberto Uran (Colombia)
Henri Raabe (Costa Rica)
Matej Kvasina (Croatia)
Vladimir Miholjevic (Croatia)
Radislav Rogina (Croatia)
Petr Bencik (Czech Republic)
Roman Kreuziger (Czech Republic)
Chris Anker Sørensen (Denmark)
Nicki Sørensen (Denmark)
Brian Vandborg (Denmark)
Tanel Kangert (Estonia)
Rein Taaramae (Estonia)
Cyril Dessel (France)
Pierrick Fédrigo (France)
Rémi Pauriol (France)
Jérôme Pineau (France)
Pierre Rolland (France)
Gerald Ciolek (Germany)
Bert Grabsch (Germany)
Stefan Schumacher (Germany)
Jens Voigt (Germany)
Fabian Wegmann (Germany)
Jonathan Bellis (Great Britain)
Steve Cummings (Great Britain)
Ben Swift (Great Britain)
Geraint Thomas (Great Britain)
Laszlo Bodrogi (Hungary)
Peter Kusztor (Hungary)
Hossein Askari (Iran)
Ghader Mizbani (Iran)
Mehdi Sohrabai (Iran)
Philip Deignan (Ireland)
Nicolas Roche (Ireland)
Paolo Bettini (Italy)
Marzio Bruseghin (Italy)
Vincenzo Nibali (Italy)
Franco Pellizotti (Italy)
Davide Rebellin (Italy)
Sung Baek Park (Korea)
Ignatas Konovalovas (Lithuania)
Dainius Kairelis (Lithuania)
Kim Kirchen (Luxembourg)
Andy Schleck (Luxembourg)
Fränk Schleck (Luxembourg)
Moisés Aldape Chavez (Mexico)
Erik Hoffmann (Namibia)
Stef Clement (Netherlands)
Robert Gesink (Netherlands)
Karsten Kroon (Netherlands)
Laurens Ten Dam (Netherlands)
Niki Terpstra (Netherlands)
Julian Dean (New Zealand)
Timothy Gudsell (New Zealand)
Glen Chadwick (New Zealand)
Kurt-Asle Arvesen (Norway)
Edvald Boasson Hagen (Norway)
Gabriel Rasch (Norway)
Tomasz Marczynski (Poland)
Janez Morajko (Poland)
Przemyslaw Niemec (Poland)
Andre Cardoso (Portugal)
Nuno Ribeiro (Portugal)
Vladimir Efimkin (Russian Federation)
Serguei Ivanov (Russian Federation)
Vladimir Karpets (Russian Federation)
Denis Menchov (Russian Federation)
Nebojsa Jovanovic (Serbia)
Ivan Stevic (Serbia)
Roman Bronis (Slovakia)
Matej Jurco (Slovakia)
Jan Valach (Slovakia)
Borut Bozic (Slovenia)
Jure Golcer (Slovenia)
Simon Spilak (Slovenia)
Tadej Valjavec (Slovenia)
John-Lee Augustyn (South Africa)
David George (South Africa)
Robert Hunter (South Africa)
Alberto Contador (Spain)
Oscar Freire (Spain)
Samuel Sánchez (Spain)
Carlos Sastre (Spain)
Alejandro Valverde (Spain)
Gustav Erik Larsson (Sweden)
Marcus Ljungqvist (Sweden)
Thomas Lövkvist (Sweden)
Michael Albasini (Switzerland)
Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland)
George Hincapie (United States Of America)
Levi Leipheimer (United States Of America)
Jason McCartney (United States Of America)
Christian Vande Velde (United States Of America)
David Zabriskie (United States Of America)
Sergey Lagutin (Uzbekistan)
Jackson Rodriguez (Venezuela)
José Rujano (Venezuela)
2 comments:
Hmmm, now that Davina is racing 'for' USA, she has chosen USA for Gold.. Who can really win from the USA??
Pffftt.. She has forgotten where she started already.. Perhaps she has been caught up in the hype over there.. Them yanks can talk themselves up a fair bit..
maybe, but christian vandevelde did finish pretty well in the tour and was generally up there with the leaders on the climbs. i think this will be more of a race of attrition and the strongest will win, not the best climber. anyway, you are one to talk, you picked czech republic for a medal.
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