What the Halberto?

Let's start with some numbers: 19, 11, 16, 46. Those numbers represent Halberto's placing in all the vicarious races he's participated so far this year--in the CX Pool, the Classics Pool, the Giro Pool, and the Tour de France Pool, respectively. And in last year's edition of the Vuelta Pool, he finished with a firm grip on the lanterne rouge. All of which is to say that Halberto's vicarious racing track record doesn't exactly reek of awesomeness. In fact, it doesn't even reek of mediocrity. It pretty much just smells like crap. But Halberto also likes to paint an image of himself as one whose standards are on the highish end of the spectrum--as anyone who's been fortunate to eat one of his meals or hear him wax eloquently about the importance of a custom built "life bike" can attest. So there was always a sense that it was only a matter of time until he got serious about his vicarious racing pursuits. Apparently the time is now. After three very important stages this weekend, he emerged the big winner. After a decent start to the race, he had been sliding downward, apparently on his way to his customary spot at the bottom half of the pool. Heading into the weekend, he was just 11th overall. Not bad. But certainly nothing that Rachel and Johnny S were terribly concerned about. But a solid three days punctuated by a massive win today, and all of a sudden he has risen to the very top of the overall standings. His 400 point day today was so huge, it more than doubled the point totals of everyone but Paul V. Halberto now holds a 90 point lead over Rachel, and looks pretty comfortable in the drivers seat right now. Johnny S is in third overall, 170 points back.

Jonny G won Saturday's stage, and Craig the Cricket won Sunday's first mountain stage. The FGBC is looking strong so far.

Some guy they call the Green Bullet is winning the real race. But it's far from over at this point.

Full results here.