Duester Juice

It tastes like victory. Chris D has been showing up at the local races over the last few weeks. He's been gradually riding himself into shape, getting better results with each race. And now he's made a name for himself on the vicarious racing scene as well. Chris takes the win in Stage 11 thanks to the efforts of Cavendish, Hutarovich, and Pozzato. It all adds up to 260 points for the Riccardo Ricco lookalike. After winning yesterday's stage, Charlene was right back on the podium today. Her 245 points were good enough for second place on the day. But today she had to share that spot with Dallas and Prince Dan.

In the overall race, Melissa has extended her lead a bit. She's now 80 points ahead of King Andy. And now Greg is proving to be a worry for the king as well. He's now only 72 points behind the man against whom all other vicarious racers are measured. At the other end of the GC, Mark is still bringing up the rear. The Fraggle has a 120 point on the lanterne rouge. Good thing I denied her request to withdraw from the competition. It's not nearly as bad as she thought. 54th place is way better than 55th.

Chris's win is bad news for the FGBC as far as the FGBC - RRR FGD Challenge goes. RRR now number 4 teams among the top 11 spots. The only good news is that both Brad and Mike have slid down the standings a bit. Brad is down to 5th and Mike has dropped to 8th place. The FGBC, meanwhile, finds itself looking up at the top 20 from the below. Were the race to end today, we would score a grand total of zero points. But Craig, Paddy, Penner and I are knocking at the door. All of us sitting comfortably between 21st and 25th places. We are just waiting for the right moment to launch our coordinated and vicious attack. Watch your backs, RRR.

As for the real race: guess what? Mark Cavendish won again. That's four wins for him now, and we're only about half-way to Paris. Expect more for the Manx Mouth. Tyler Farrar continues to play the bridesmaid. He's been very good in his TdF debut. But unfortunately, not good enough to beat the fastest man in the world. At least not yet. If he keeps going like this, he may yet get his chance. Yauheni Hutarovich, the Belarussian Rocket, finished third. Finally. He was supposed to be my secret weapon. Until today he'd been firing nothing but blanks. But after today, he's got more points than Tom Boonen. Speaking of whom, Tornado Tom finally cracked the top 20 today. But 16th place is hardly enough to make up for his disastrous showing so far. Pez it for more.

Results and standings here.