Done

No fireworks from Cadel on the Champs Elyses today, so everything remains pretty much as it was yesterday. But we did get a nice bunch sprint that finally unfolded the way I'd been hoping for before we got started--a Bennati win with Hunter up there as well. Throw in an 8th place finish for David Millar (!) and it's 264 points for the dr. over against 257 for the bookworm. I was beginning to think it wasn't possible to beat Matt on a straight up sprint.

All the math is done, revisionist and otherwise.

Clean Pool:

1) Chris - 3307
2) Matt - 2929
3) Rachel - 2699
4) Jonny B - 2215
5) David L - 2070
6) Charlene - 1977
7) Jonny G - 1720
8) Hal - 1583
9) James - 1526
10) Vic - 1468
11) Cheryl - 1379
12) Johnny S - 1233
13) David S - 426

Dirty Pool:

1) Matt - 3573
2) Chris - 3205
3) Jonny B - 2611
4) Rachel - 2582
5) David L - 2461
6) Jonny G - 2193
7) Charlene - 1869
8) Johnny S - 1682
9) Hal - 1579
10) James - 1414
11) Vic - 1398
12) Cheryl - 1331
13) David S - 742

Two pools. Two different winners. Which one goes into the official archives? Discuss.

All those points awarded for the final standings, as expected, made a big difference. The big winners here were Rachel, with two of her guys on the podium, and Jonny B, who had three riders in the top 10 and shot way up in the standings as a result. Full results are as follows:

1) Jonny B - 1225
2) Rachel - 1125
3) Chris - 980
4) Charlene - 680
5) Dave L - 680
6) Matt - 575
7) Jonny S - 460
8) Vic - 415
9) Hal - 320
10) Jonny G - 265
11) Cheryl - 250
12) James - 215
13) David S - 0

Finally, once the points for the final classifications were awarded, it is interesting to note how things played out. On first glance, it seems that the most deserving riders rose to the top of the heap, points-wise. I was worried that this wouldn't happen when the sprinters were piling up all those points early on. It still seems to be weighted pretty heavily in favour of the sprinters, if you look at the top-10. This might need some attention for next year. But not bad for a first kick at the can. Best bargain of the bunch: Robbie Hunter, 898 pts for 1.50. I had a good feeling about him. Then again, I had a good feeling about Moreau and Valjavec too.

Alberto Contador - 1258
Cadel Evans - 1209
Tom Boonen - 1033
Levi Leipheimer - 958
Robert Hunter - 898
Erik Zabel - 864
Thor Hushovd - 711
Daniele Bennati - 673
Carlos Sastre Candil - 642
Alejandro Valverde - 641
Yaroslav Popovych - 594
Haimar Zubeldia - 592
Sébastien Chavanel - 519
Oscar Freire - 394
Robert Förster - 373
Andreas Klöden - 355
Filippo Pozzato - 320
Iban Mayo - 306
Sandy Casar - 281
Oscar Pereiro - 273
Gert Steegmans - 366
Robbie McEwen - 363
Michael Boogerd - 221
Andrey Kashechkin - 218
George Hincapie - 210
David Arroyo - 178
Jens Voigt - 160
Markus Fothen - 158
David Millar - 145
Christophe Moreau - 144
Murilo Antonio Fisher - 131
Íñigo Landaluze Intxaurraga - 126
Axel Merckx - 115
Manuel Quinziato - 110
Philippe Gilbert - 82
Christopher Horner - 74
Antonio Colom - 58
Heinrich Haussler - 58
Xavier Florencio Cabré - 56
Christian Vandevelde - 49
Mark Cavendish - 45
Juan A.Flecha Giannoni - 44
Denis Menchov - 40
Leif Hoste - 40
Ludovic Turpin - 35
Benoît Vaugrenard - 32
Tadej Valjavec - 31
David Zabriskie - 20
Pierrick Fedrigo - 20
Iñaki Isasi Flores - 19
Sebastien Hinault - 19
Kantstantsin Siutsou - 15
Thomas Voeckler - 9
Cristian Moreni - 8
Frederik Willems - 8
Nick Nuyens - 8
Stéphane Goubert - 6
Dmitry Fofanov - 5
Stuart O'Grady - 4
David Canada - 3
Sebastien Rosseler- 3
John Gadret - 2
Alexandre Vinokourov - 0
Björn Leukemans - 0
Christopher Horner - 0
Felix Rafael Cardenas - 0
Francisco Vila - 0
Igor Anton Hernandez - 0
Ivan Parra - 0
Jean-Patrick Nazon - 0
Johan Van Summeren - 0
Juan Miguel Mercado Martin - 0
Lilian Jegou - 0
Maxime Iglinski - 0
Michael Rasmussen - 0
Paolo Savoldelli - 0
Pietro Caucchioli - 0
Thomas Lövkvist - 0

Thanks for playing, boys and girls. Hope you had fun. I know I did.

OTT: Minus Story, To the Ones You Haunted