All in the Family

For the past number of vicarious races, the Royal Family has not been the beacon of tranquility their handlers would have us think it is. What else can explain King Andy's inexplicable fall from grace over the last couple of years? Ever since Queen Val started playing around in the pool, his performance in the vicarious races has not been the same. And Prince Dan has been floundering as well. It was pretty obvious, for anyone who dared to consider it, that some sort of discord had infected the royal palace. That may have been good for the rest of us, as it gave some of the lesser lights in the pool a chance to shine. But they have apparently gotten everything sorted out. The Royal Family is firing on all cylinders once again. Dan won stage 4 and Val claimed the victory on stage 5. King Andy has not won a stage since the second day of the Vuelta. But he sits in third overall, behind Dan and Greg the Lunchbucket Kid.

The theme of today's stage was revenge of the bottom feeders. Chris O and KK have been in lanterne rouge territory for the last several stages. But they found themselves atop the podium today. Chris won it with 230 points, just 5 more than KK. This was not good enough to remove KK from last place. But Chris has moved up to mid-pack respectability. Bill finished a bit further back. But his 195 points were still good enough for third place on the day.

In the overall race, we have seen no changes in the top three spots for four days in a row now. The way things have been going, it doesn't look like it will be different any time soon.

Full results and standings here.