Too Much Vicarious Racing?

No, never. But with four races in the last two days, it has been a little hard to keep up. Let's start with the Vuelta, where the real race saw the abandonment of its leader when Igor Anton went down in a nasty crash. This did not affect the FGBC Vuelta Pool, however, since nobody picked him. Nobody picked Joachin Rodriguez either. He won yesterday's stage and moved up into second overall. Wierd. There could have been some big changes. But instead Prince Dan and King Andy continue to cruise along, distancing themselves even further from the rest of the pack. Dan had a mediocre day on stage 13, finishing in the middle of the pack with just 150 points. Chris D won that one with 235 points and Bill had 220 points for second place. Andy was just 5 points back to finish in third. Stage 14 saw Dan bounce back. He had 270 points and won his second stage in the last three days. I was second, with 250 points. Once again Andy had 215 points. And again he finished on the third step of the podium. Only this time he had to share it with El Presidente.

In the overall race, Dan's lead looks pretty safe for the next little while. He's over 100 points ahead of Andy. Greg the Lunchbucket kid is still in third. But he's fading and now finds himself over 400 points off the pace. El Presidente is only 42 points from the final podium spot and looking to make life difficult for Hamilton's top vicarious racer. It looks like he has finally found a good strategy--picking riders from former fascist states.

Vuelta Pool results and standings here.

Over in the Fall Classics Pool, good thing we added the two races in Quebec. Friday's Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec was exciting, both in its real and vicarious versions. Home boy Ryder Hesjedal just missed the podium. He was outwitted by Thomas Voeckler, who won the stage ahead of Boss Hogg and Robert Gesink. This was good news for El Presidente. You will recall that he started out with a huge lead before laying goose eggs in his next two efforts. He was back on the scoreboard yesterday, finishing with 750 points and taking his second win of the Fall Classics Pool. Josh was 40 points back to finish in second. And Cousin Thomas found the podium after shooting blanks in his previous three efforts. His 525 points were good enough for third on the day.

In Paris-Brussels, Cousin Thomas was back for more. He and Val tied for the win. They both had 250 points thanks to Paul Martens' forth place finish. LeAnn rounded out the podium with 85 points. Josh and Jonny G were the only others to score any points. They both had 30. This is most significant for Jonny. Those 30 points are the first he has scored so far. He's on the scoreboard now, just 1800 points behind race leader El Presidente. This leaves Darryl as the only person who has yet to score a point. Maybe he will get lucky today in Montreal. Back to the top end of the standings, Gianni sits in second place, just 60 points off the pace. Third place currently belongs to Ali.

Fall Classics results and standings here.

Two more races today. Another mountain top finish in Spain. And in Montreal, they'll be racing up and down Mount Royal. I rode it in November on one of those Bixi rental bikes. That was fun. They should make the prose race on those things. I'd fly to Montreal for that.