road race tipping comp

time - name
6:37:32 - jonny
6:37:56 - chris
6:38:36 - peter
6:38:36 - rob
6:38:36 - paul

so with a double for italy and spain coming in 6th best, no-one really picked well in the road race. so jonny was the only one to pick three countries in the top ten. the rest of us stuffed something up along the way.

so alessandro ballan is the new world champion. after a great classics season, he probably deserves it too.

time trial results

time - name
0:53:12 - chris
0:53:18 - jonny
0:53:22 - peter
0:53:58 - paul
0:53:58 - bec

on a weighted average it looks like chris came out on top of the time trial tipping comp but only barely in front of jonny.

the winner and new world champion (bert grabsch) was not picked by anyone. actually the top three did not get a mention in any one's tips. i think people really didn't know what to do after cancellara pulled out.

world championships - varese, italy

so the world championships start this week at varese in italy. we will be running two tipping contests similar to the olympics comps.

the first will be the men's time trial which takes place on thursday 25th sept over 43.70 kms. in this competition, you must tip in order the riders that you think will take gold, silver and bronze.

the second race will be the men's road race which will be held on sunday 28th sept covering 15 laps of a 17.35km circuit for a total of 260.25 kms. in this competition, you must tip the countries that will take out the gold, silver and bronze. and remember a country can take out two medals.

in each case, the tipping comp winner will be determined by a weighted average of their tip relative to the riders actual finishing position. in the case of the road race, the first rider for that country will determine that tips time. so get your tip into the address listed on the right. entry will be free as we are just playing for glory.

stage 21 - the finale

matti breschel of team csc-saxo bank topped a rough sprint in madrid to close out the 63rd vuelta. breschel finished ahead of alexandre usov of ag2r and davide viganò of quick step.

contador of finished safely in the peloton to put his name on a short list of riders who have won all three grand tours. he topped the classification after three weeks of racing by 46 seconds over teammate leipheimer and 4:12 over sastre to take his third grand tour to win after the tour de france in 2007 and the giro d'italia this may.

in the tipping comp, damnchickens held on to the top spot with team escalon only 35 sec behind and team rapido rounding out the podium.

in the sprinters competitions, the same three teams took the podium.

the mountain comp was taken out by team creditless onthedole, with team escalon only 3 points behind and damnchickens taking the minor placing.

this stage marks the end of the grand tours this year, but this week also contains the world championships so i will run a men's time trial and road race tipping comp, so stay tuned.

stage 20

levi leipheimer stomped his way to a second time trial win in the vuelta and looks set as the favourite to beat for next week's world champs. He bettered his astana teammate and overall race leader, alberto contador, by 31 seconds at the end of a 17.1-kilometre climb up alto de navacerrada, but still trails the spaniard on the overall classification by 46 seconds. valvaerde was the day's biggest winner jumping to fifth overall after a stunning time trial.

on the tipping front, pretty much everyone who put a tip in picked leiphiemer. with still only 20 sec between the top two places, it will come down to who picks the better sprinter. with no more categorised climbs, it looks like team creditless onthedole has wrapped up the mountain points competition.

stage 19

david arroyo gave caisse d'epargne its second stage win in a row, and as has been so often the case, a breakaway succeeded again in the 19th stage. arroyo outsprinted his final break companion, vasili kiryienka of team tinkoff, who had done most of the lead work the last five kilometres. nick nuyens of cofidis finished third as he led the peloton over the line 11 seconds later.

not a big change on the tipping front expect becstars slipped down the leaderboard after not putting in a tip for the stage. only a few sprint and mountain points eventuated from the stage so no real change there. again, no-one picked the stage winner.

stage 18

imanol erviti of caisse d'epargne made his first professional victory a big one in las rozas, crossing the finish line only centimetres ahead of credit agricole's nicolas roche. the two were part of a successful breakaway group, which had gotten away early and held a lead of up to eight minutes. there was no change in the top of the overall rankings.


in the tipping comp, no change to gc, sprints or mountain points.

the next stage will be decisive as it contains two cat 1 climbs before the final time trial. will the contenders let the escape go and save their legs or will they attack each other on the climbs to try to take that podium spot.

stage 17

a quickstep rider won the stage today but it was not boonen. he was taking it easy at the back of the group as he is leaving tonight to prepare for the world champs. instead it was wouter weylandt who took the win ahead of matti breschel of csc-saxo bank and alexandre usov of ag2r. in other words none of the big sprinters contested the sprint.

on the tipping front, boonen lost the two top teams a few seconds, but no real change to anything. looks like it may come down to the time trial in a few days time, but before that we have another flat-ish day ahead.

stage 16

tornado tom won ahead of italian pozzato and german/australian heinrich haussler in stage 16 to zamora, a stage marked by low speeds as the riders took a rolling rest day. contador, easily kept the leader's maillot oro. he leads the race by 1:17 over team astana teammate leipheimer with five days remaining.

on the tipping front, no big changes but team escalon moved within 10 sec of overhauling gc leader damnchickens. those two teams are clearly ahead but the next four teams are close enough to fight it out for that final podium spot. however, it only takes one bad tip and it is all down the drain. a stage win by team fuerte y suerte vaulted them up the sprint point standings.

stage 15

another long break proved to be successful, and david garcia of xacobeo galicia took advantage of the situation. the original large group had disintegrated near the end, and he broke off from the remains of the group with three kilometres to go, to take the solo win by 17 seconds ahead of nick nuyens and juan manual garate. behind them - way behind them - the astana-led peloton took its time, having an easy ride on a sunny day, and came in 14 minutes later with contador still in the overall lead.

on the tipping front this translated to no change to gc, sprint or mountain points. these stages will always provide a good opportunity for a breakaway. if you are down on gc, go for the outsider that may make it. if you tipped right today you could have made up 14 mins. if you tipped wrong, you would have ended up in the pack with the leaders anyway.

stage 14

spaniard alberto contador put a golden mark on this vuelta with a counter-attack of ezequiel mosquera's strong effort to arrive solo and win stage 14 atop the puerto de san isidro. he added further time into his overall classification lead with both sastre and valverde dropped in the final four kilometres. leipheimer climbed well to stick in second spot and help further solidify his second on gc position.

in the tipping stakes, team rapido came away with the stage win after most of the tipsters used up their contador in the previous stage. team becstars lost the most today dropping 15 min and falling down the leaderboard. a few mountain and sprint points were gained, but not enough to affect the overall.

stage 13

well the hardest climb of the vuelta today with a 12.6 km run up an average of 10% containing pitches of 23%. contador again showed that he is one of the best climbers in the business with a scorching effort that left everyone behind in the last 3.5 kms. valverde didn't have such a bad run coming in second but sastre lost over a minute to contador. on the overall, this put contador into first place with leipheimer second ans sastre third.

on the tipping comp front, four tipsters picked contador so no real changes on gc. becstars slipped down a bit on sprinters points but overall the leaders started to pull well away.

stage 12

although it looked like a fairly standard stage on paper, the weather played a major part and split the field dramatically. the biggest winner of the day was bettini who jumped clear for the win on a difficult finish. the biggest loser of the day was valverde who freaked out on the descent and lost over 3 min to the leaders so effectively is out of the running. when the astana and euskaltel teams saw him drop back they smashed him on the 50km run into town.

on the tipping front, no real changes to the order, but a few people picked up some extra time. the biggest winner was team creditless onthedole who tipped well enough to pick up a swag of mountain points and jumped clearly into the lead.

rest day tomorrow before heading back to the hills.

stage 11

oscar freire??? is he still in this race. obviously as he took boonan for the stage win today. no change on the overall, but a few more stages for the sprinters before we hit the hills again.

on the tipping front, damnchickens has jumped away on both gc and sprint points thanks to mr boonan. no real change anywhere else, but some good opportunities to get some more points with some sprinters.

stage 10

a win by sébastien hinault took a lot of people by surprise. especially since most of the big sprinters were still in the mix at the end. the other big surprise was yesterday's winner van avermaet coming in third and looks to be a sprinter to watch as robbie leaves silence-lotto. no change to the overall.

on the tipping front, the biggest slip of the day was when team escalon tipped daniel bennati. usually a good pick in these situations, but he apparently pulled out overnight and therefore his tip goes down as a default rider (as per the rules). overall it wasn't a very big slip and only lost 27 sec to damnchickens. the only major move was on the mountain points as creditless onthedole was the only tipster to get points and jumped to take an equal lead.

stage 09

these stages are harder to pick than a broken nose as they contain enough hills to shake it up, but without the mountain top finish, the gc leaders are not always going to go hard. as such a breakaway stayed away and line honours went to greg van avermaet of silence-lotto. however, the leaders jersey now falls to egoi martinez as he gained enough time to squeeze in front of levi.

on the tipping front, there was no change. everyone got the same time and a lot of tipsters wasted their valverde pick. it was such a relaxed peleton that even if you didn't pick and got the default rider, you still got the same time as everyone else. no sprint points or mountain points for anyone.

a much flatter stage tomorrow with only one climb early on. so can you pick the breakaway, or will the sprinters teams pull them back and go for glory?

stage 08

france's david moncoutié of team cofidis pulled the early break and stayed away before the main contenders caught him. a bit of a shake up in the pack and it is now clear that contador, leiphiemer, valverde and sastre are the only guys that can really win this tour. levi jumps back into the leaders jersey but not by much.

on the tipping front, no-one picked moncoutie (obviously) and the seconds gained/lost by the leaders made a difference. damnchickens managed to stay in front on both gc and sprint points, but only by a slim margin. team escalon jumped ahead in the mountians points.

stage 07

alessandro ballan joined a breakaway early on and stayed till the end to claim a stage and the overall leaders jersey. the big boys all came out to play a bit late on the stage and lost a few minutes to ballan, but more importantly a few seconds to each other to show who is really in charge. the smart money is on contador.

in the tipping, no stage winners as ballan is usually a classics champ so not really used to seeing him smash it on the high mountians. damnchickens has increased the overall lead, but the next couple are well within striking distance especially as we are still in the mountains.

in the sprinters comp, damnchickens added a few more to the lead while the mountains had a shake up with becstars taking a joint lead with damnchickens.

stage 06

so bettini sprints through to take a stage win. unfortunately no one picked him and those that picked pure sprinters like boonen and zabel suffered on gc. chavanel had a good race to take early points and bonuses to leap into first overall, but didn't go that well in the tipping comp as he did not finish in the top 15 and therefore didn't gather that many sprint points.

overall, damnchickens now leaps into the lead over team escalon in both gc and sprinters points, but it is early days and you can lose buckets of time with a bad tip in the mountains.

team creditless onthedole is obviously aiming for the mountains jersey so picked a pure climber who gained one point in today's stage. this now puts him one point ahead of the competition and into the lead.

a rest day tomorrow then three days in the mountains.

stage 05

so levi comes away with a win in the time trial and takes over the overall lead in the vuelta. the surprise of the time trial was chavanel who came in second and now sits second overall. a biggers surprise was how much time schumacher lost in his pet event.


on the tipping front, three of us tipped levi to grab the stage win. team escalon picked his third stage winner and as such jumped ahead on gc and sprinters points. i am coming a close second with team irlande rounding out the top three in both categories. still no change to the mountains competition.

i have also added a "withdrawals" section on the right so you know who has left the vuelta and don't tip them.

stage 04

so bennati, inspired by the golden jersey, pulls out a stage win ahead of boonen. with the time trial tomorrow, even he admits that he won't be wearing the leaders jersey afterwards.

four tipsters picked mr bennati for the stage win, and the win pushed team escalon back into the lead on gc and sprint points. also, with two stage wins, team escalon is also leading that competition. no change to mountain points, but that will change on saturday as we hit the real hills.

stage 03

well tornado tom took a big snort and sprinted to victory over the field. i read the profile and it said that there was a hill at the end that would sort out the sprinters, but i guess you can't deny them the win when they have the chance.

on the tipping front, team irlande came away with the stage win and with it picked up the lead in the gc and sprint points. we now have a mountain points joint leaders with three teams picking bettini who grabbed a couple on the early climb.

stage 02

valverde for a stage win on the flat??? similar to the tour de france, alejandro has come away with the first real stage.

team escalon picked him so comes away with the first stage win as well as the lead in both the gc and sprint title.