Luck of the Germans?

For the 2009 FGBC Tour de France Pool, the Secretary went with a Germanic theme. He had Leipheimer, Gerdemann, Haussler, Eisel, Klöden, Dessel, Voeckler, Fröhlinger, and Niermann on his squad. There were some moments--Voeckler and Haussler both won stages. But as a general strategy it didn't pan out so well. He finished 49th overall. He's a quick learner, that Secretary. So he went with a different strategy in picking his team for the Vuelta Pool. Which is too bad, since it would have paid big dividends today if he had once again stacked his team with Germans. He would have had Greipel and Grabsch for sure. Probably Sieberg too. And maybe even Wouter Weylandt as well, since his last name sounds kind of German even though he's Belgian. Those guys were all in a group of seven who happened to be at the front of the pack when a big crash took down basically everyone else. Greipel won it easily over Weylandt. He may very well have won the stage anyway. But Grabsch surely would not have been there to contest the sprint.

The Secretary didn't benefit from any of this, however. He had a crappy day, being one of 17 teams to collect a grand total of zero points on the stage. Instead, it was my team that got lucky today. I didn't so much go with a Germanic team as I did pick some guys I like whom I figured others might overlook. Greipel and Grabsch are on it. So is Rohregger. He is Austrian, not German. But more significantly, he finished 10th. Collectively, the three of them tallied 305 points. Good enough for a stage win and a move out of lanterne rouge territory and into mid-pack respectability. Rachel was second with 220 points. And Cousin Adam was just 5 points behind to take the final podium place. More importantly for Adam, though, he takes over the GC lead. And Rachel has moved into second overall. Johnny S's dream turned out to be short-lived. He slid down to third place, the best placed of a group of five who are all within 15 points of each other.

Full results here.

Dallas's boyfriend, Chris Horner, was the worst casualty of the crash. He broke his wrist and is out of the race. Now that you have Dallas's phone number, why not call him to offer up some condolences? Or maybe to give him crap for goading you into picking Horner in the first place. He was on more than a quarter of the teams. Zeke Mosquera looked pretty banged up too, as he crossed the line. But it sounds like he will continue. Young Saxo stud Jakob Fuglsang went down hard too. He ran into the back of a semi that was parked on the road.

Tomorrow is a rest day. They have to get from Belgium to Spain. Racing resumes on Thursday. Wierd.

And finally, if you want a look at the complete list of rosters, you can find them right here.