Dallas Does It

Apologies to those who were not at the Spring Ride. But sometimes vicarious racing must take a back seat to the more tangible variety of bike riding.

We will keep this short and sweet, so as not to take away from the post Spring Ride euphoria that is currently being played out below.

Everything you need to know is here.

Good Times

We should do that again some time.

Thursday Anticipation: The Big One

It is all but here. Only one more sleep and less than 24 hours to go.

Here, again, are the relevant details:

1) We will meet at my place at 9am or Deacons Corner at 10am for the North End crew.

2) It looks like we are well on our way to getting the ride situation sorted out. See the discussion here. Bill has plenty of room for gear, bikes, etc. He's leaving at 1pm. If you can drop off your stuff at his place, he says he can bring it out. Some of us are bringing cx bikes. It's never inappropriate to ride a little cx.

3) Friday's ride will be at Falcon. Hopefully this will make it relatively easy to hook up with the folks who will be trickling in throughout the day.

The weather forecast is looking slightly better. High of 27 and no rain in the Whiteshell on Friday. It looks like we might have to contend with some rain on Saturday and Sunday though. That is hardly the end of the world.

The Secretary only arrives back in town later this evening some time. No word on the projector. Should he be able to come through, perhaps Colin would be so kind as to loan us his copy of the Big Lebowski. It would be even better, of course, if he were there to watch it with us.

Greipel, Finally

Andre Greipel has not enjoyed the Giro so far. And yet while all the rest of the big sprinters have long since abandoned, he is still hanging around. If he did not manage to win today, we'd have no doubt heard Mark Cavendish's laughter from Winnipeg. But the big German did win. And so the 10 teams who have him on their squads each picked up 150 points for his effort. Some picked up points elsewhere too. The best of those was Chris O. He had 125 points thanks to Julian Dean's second place finish and another 40 from Arashiro. He finished with 315 points and kept the streak alive, becoming the 18th different winner in 18 stages. This does put a wrinkle in his plan to go for the lanterne rouge. But a stage win is a stage win. You get vicarious podium kisses, after all. There was a three-way tie for second place between Queen Val, Matt, and me.

In the overall race, Val is showing that she's not going to let Dallas take this thing without a fight. We would expect nothing less. Dallas's lead is now at 79 points. The big casualty of the day was Jonah. Not only has he lost his podium spot again. He plummeted all the way down to 7th place. Ouch. Greg the Lunchbucket Kid replaces him on the podium. But Olli, Matt, Dan and Jonah are all within 105 points. Meanwhile, at the other end of the pool, Chris O may be out of contention for the lanterne rouge but Bill and Rachel are locked in a heated battle. Rachel currently holds it, as she has since taking it over from Vic on stage 12. But Bill's goose egg today brings him to within 22 points of the dubious honour.

Full results and overall standings here.

They're back to the mountains tomorrow. And Basso and Evans are sure to give it everything to steal the pink jersey from David Arroyo. It promises to be a very exciting weekend. Sadly, however, there will be no further updates until Sunday evening, due to the Spring Ride.

TNR Report

Some people love to ride their bikes. Others, apparently, just love their bikes. They aren't so keen on getting them dirty. Perhaps they do not have access to water. Last night's ride along some muddy riverbank trails gave us an opportunity to determine who among us belongs to which crowd. We will be charitable, though, and refrain from naming names. We will not, however, refrain from declaring this turn of events more than a little disconcerting.

After the mud, we hit some alleys, tunnels, and parking garages, before racing back to the kulbhaus. The President showed up to take care of some presidential business. He has officially closed the book on The Book for this year. And Tom K showed up for the first time in 4 months. Yes, we keep track.

To say we got everything figured out for the Spring Ride would be an overstatement. But a few things are clear:

1) We will meet at my place at 9am or Deacons Corner at 10am for the North End crew. Breakfast at A & W will be as tasty as ever.

2) It appears there are enough vehicles. If you still need a ride, see the comment button below.

3) Friday's ride will be at Falcon. Hopefully this will make it relatively easy to hook up with the folks who will be trickling in throughout the day.

4) Sadly, the weather forecast looks less than ideal. Happily, we have shelter. Everything will be just fine.

5) Anything else? Again, see the comments button.

Token photos:

Grinta

It means grit. Or determination. And it's always displayed on Stage 17. That's what happened in 2006 with the Honorary Captain at the Tour. And that's what Gianni demonstrated today, albeit in a more vicarious fashion. With 255 points from Hondo, Efimkin, and Konovalovas on today's not-so-easy "transitional" stage, he becomes the 17th different winner of the 2010 FGBC Giro d'Italia Pool. Queen Val demonstrated some grinta of her own. She had 195 points to finish second, inching ever closer to Dallas. And the divisive one rounded out the podium, with 185 points. He isn't really inching towards any destination worthy of note. But a top 20 placing seems a little more likely after today. We can always hope. There are, after all, Challenge points at stake here. So one mustn't scoff at those of us who scrap for the minor placings.

Dallas continues to lead the overall race. But Val and Jonah have switched places once again. Val is back in second. And Jonah, despite a goose egg on the day, managed to hold onto the final podium spot. There is a pretty fierce four-way battle for third place shaping up. Jonah, Greg, Dan, and Adam are all within 67 points.

Full results and overall standings here.

Those lucky few who have sprinters left in the race have a chance to make up some ground tomorrow. After that, it's back to the mountains before the ITT on the final day.

Prince Dan keeps the streak alive

16 stages, 16 different stage winners. I'm guessing that Corones probably has something to do with crown or coronation. How fitting is it, then, that the winner atop the vicarious Plan de Corones should be a member of the FGBC Giro d'Italia Pool's royal family? Today's winning combination was Evans, Uran, Samoilau, and Arroyo. Together, they managed 270 points and a stage win for the heir apparent. Mike had 255 points to finish second. And Dallas and Jonny B once again found themselves tied. This time they shared the final step of the podium, with 250 points apiece.

Dallas's lead in the overall race continues to grow. It is up to 259 points now. Jonah has moved back into second. But Val is just 25 points back. And the Lunchbucket kid is only another 15 points back of her.

Full results and overall standings here.

That the riders are thinking they finally get to see a slightly more humane stage tomorrow is confirmation that Angelo Zomegnan, the Giro's race director, has an insatiable desire to make riders hurt. They are still in the mountains and it still ends with an uphill finish. Is there any wonder that most of the sprinters have long gone home.

TNR

Last one before the spring ride. If you have any questions, best to show up and ask them tonight.

9:30 pm at my place.

This one's for Dallas

Regular visitors to this site will know how much Dallas loves the Giro. They will also know that he always finds a way to include a cx rider on his pool team. How fitting is it, then, that Dallas cemented his grasp on the overall lead, in part thanks to John Gadret's top 10 ride up the Zoncolan? Evans's second place finish helped too, as did Arroyo's 11th place showing. Dallas wound up with 230 points on the day. Good enough to win the stage. But he had to share it with Jonny B, who has the same combination of riders on his team. So Dallas becomes the first repeat stage winner of the 2010 FGBC Giro d'Italia Pool. And yet Jonny B keeps the streak of different winners alive. Jay had 205 points to round out the podium.

No change to the overall podium. But the gaps have gotten a bit bigger. Dallas's lead is over 100 points now. Val leads Jonah by just 20. But Olli has fallen back a bit. He's 75 points from the podium now. Greg is 45 points behind Olli. And Cousin Adam has entered into the mix. He is just 7 points behind Greg.

Full results and standings here.

Rest day today. Tomorrow is an uphill ITT. It just keeps getting better at the Giro.

That is more like it

It only made sense that Nibali, Evans, and co. were going to try and get back into this thing. Nibali won it on the downhill run-in to the finish. Scarponi was right there too. He ended up finishing second. With Nibali and Scarponi as her two main GC guys, this was good news for Miriam. She finished with 275 points, and picked up her first stage win of the race. 14 stages, 14 different winners. Prince Dan was second. He had 235 points. And Cousin Adam managed 215 points, good enough for third on the stage.

Dallas continues to lead the overall race. But Olli has fallen back to 4th place. Val and Jonah are 2nd and 3rd. The gap between 1st and 3rd is still just 29 points. And now Adam has managed to make it a five person race. He is in 5th place, just 111 points of the pace. Another fine showing by the VP Road. We expect nothing less.

Full results and overall standings here.

Another big stage tomorrow, this time with the mountain top serving as the finish line. And then after Monday's rest day, an uphill ITT. Good times on the menu.

Where did all the studs go?

Every once in a while in a grand tour, there is a stage in which the top 20 is populated by relatively unknown riders. That is what happened today. That this often seems to happen on the day before a big mountain stage should not be terribly surprising. Nor should it be surprising that the implications of this phenomenon for vicarious racing are quite substantial. Since most of us really know nothing about this little game, we routinely pass over the lesser known riders. And so this can result in some low numbers in the pool. This has happened before. But not to the degree that it did today. We will get to that. But first, let's find out who won the stage. Jonny G won, that's who. He's the 13th winner in 13 stages, keeping the streak alive. He got lucky and picked Iban Mayoz as one of his wildcard riders. It is likely that he confused Mayoz with Iban Mayo. They are not the same person. But that didn't matter to Jonny today, as this felicitous confusion netted him 100 points and a stage win. Perhaps we are on to something with this mistaken identity strategy. It worked earlier with Gabriela Sabatini. And now Iban Mayo. Is there a Gretzky in the peloton? You may want to consider it next time you're staring at a long list of unfamiliar names. 100 points for a stage win is low. That is noteworthy in its own right. But even more noteworthy is that Jonny could have had 60 less points and still won the stage! That is right. 40 points would have taken the victory today. That's because Mike, who finished second, could muster only 35 points. And Olli's 30 points for third place were almost double the next highest point totals. As if that wasn't enough, there were nine goose eggs laid today. Too many to name them all. Wierd.

One would think that the implications of such small numbers for the overall standings would be negligible. One would be wrong. There was actually a fairly significant shakeup of the top 4 spots today. Dallas still leads. But Olli has moved up from 4th to 2nd. Val is down from 2nd to 3rd. And Jonah gets bumped from the podium altogether. He now sits in 4th place. And there is a good chance this could all change again tomorrow, as the distance between the top four spots is still under 50 points. We are on a good run with this Giro. Indeed, one could be forgiven for thinking that this is vicarious racing at its finest. Enjoy it.

Don't expect this same thing to happen again tomorrow. We have the first of two big days in the mountains. And so the big players will come out to strut their stuff. With the GC carnage that took place earlier in the week, this could be very interesting.

Full results and overall standings here.

Thursday Anticipation

Another late edition.

There are really only two events worth thinking about at the moment. Both of them take place at Falcon Lake.

1) The sweetest weekend of the year.


Only one more week to go.

2) The sweetest weekend of the summer.


Think of it as the summer version of the Spring Ride. Registration is now open. What are you waiting for? Here.

3) If you are still looking for more, Halberto has invited the FGBC to a Morden/Tinker ride on Monday. More info here.

Welcome Back Mike

Everyone's attention may be focused squarely on the Honorary Captain right now. But there is a thrilling little bike race that is also taking place at the moment. We call it the FGBC Giro d'Italia Pool. And there's not a bad race going on in Italy too. Theoretically, they are linked. But the latter is merely a vehicle for the former, which we know to be far more exciting.

Today it was Mike's turn to play the resurrection card. Remember when he was able to say he hadn't ever lost a vicarious race? That feels like a long time ago by now. And so far his vicarious Giro was shaping up to be just another one of his unremarkable performances. But today he managed to give us all a glimpse of his former dominant self. It's not like he's made his way back to the top or anything. He's still mired in 16th place, below even the lowly duo of Chris's D & H. But he did pull off a stage win today, just barely pipping Olli at the line. It was 305 to 300 for Mike. Matt finished third, with 285 points. In case you haven't noticed, Mike is the twelfth different winner in the twelve stages we've had so far. How we like it when that happens. The FGBC is into spreading around the joy. As long as we get to take home the final prize.

In the overall race, Jonah's run in the pink jersey has come to an end. It was Dallas who finally managed to pin him down and rip it off his shoulders. Maybe Dallas would like to come over and explain this development to Jonah. There may well be tears when he finds out about this. But he's a tough little kid and will no doubt bounce back. Besides, it is all still very close. Dallas is just 29 points ahead of Queen Val. And Val is only 5 points ahead of Jonah. As if that wasn't good enough, Olli is only another 5 points back of Jonah. Which means the top four are separated by just 39 points. Woo-hoo!

Full results and standings here.

Go Big or Go Home

We have always admired the Honorary Captain's desire to bring it. That is what makes him one of us. If you're going to throw stones, our mothers always told us, make sure you aim at big targets.

Vicarious TNR at the Giro?

It was almost like a Tuesday Night Ride at the Giro today. At least in the sense that the stage was animated by a bunch of riders clad in darnkness. Cervelo, Sky, Caisse d'Epargne, and Saxo Bank led the charge. All of their jerseys, like the sweetest jersey in the world, are predominantly black. There was, however, quite a bit more drama in Italy than what we've seen at the TNR in the last little while. We typically experience drama only when the President shows up. But he has been busy saving lives. And so, not coincidently, our drama levels have plunged. KK had a couple of flats last night. But that little bit of misfortune hardly compares to the obscure calamities that the President is capable of coming up with. There was plenty of drama on hand today in Italy though. Before today, it looked like Vino, Evans, and Nibali were the men to beat. Sastre and Wiggins, by contrast, were victims of bad luck and basically written off. And yet somehow they found themselves in a group that got a massive 17 minute advantage at one point, and ended with a 13 minute lead on the main contenders. Sastre and Wiggins are all of a sudden back in it. But so too are Arroyo, Tondo, and a surprisng Richie Porte who now wears the leader's pink jersey. This sets things up for a pretty exciting second half of the race.

Just as in the real Giro, today's stage in the vicarious version offered a chance for redemption. Rachel hasn't had a very good run lately. She was stuck in last place heading into today's stage and pretty much just sucking her way through the first 10 stages. Ian has fared a bit better. But 17th out of 30 is nothing to write home about. And while Greg the Lunchbucket Kid did manage to eke his way inside the top 10, he was still well off the pace of last year's impressive debut performance. And yet it was this unlikely trio that found itself on the podium today. Greg won the stage with a 215 point day. Ian had 180 points to finish second. And Rachel's 165 points were good enough to find the third podium step.

In the overall race, Jonah and Dallas continue to occupy the top two spots. But the revolving door that is third place continues to change. This time it's Cousin Adam's turn to reside there. Let's see how long he can survive.

Full results and standings here.

Final Tabulation

Vendor Credit
$437.03

Dogfest Report

Good times. Very good times.





But not as good as the kids at Omand's Creek, apparently. When we rode through around 2am, they were just getting started. Crazy kids.

Wildcard Bingo

In order to taste success in a vicarious grand tour, it is necessary to have significant contributions from one's wildcard picks. Often they toil away in thankless anonymity. Working for the team and all that. But every once in a while, one of them is given a chance to shine. And when they do, it usually spells Success. With a capital S. Let's spell it together, shall we? S-U-C-C-E-S-S. Good work boys and girls. Today it was the wildcard Fabio Sabatini who came though. He finished second, beaten only by the Wenatchee Wunderkind, Tyler Farrar. And well ahead many more well-known sprinters. In doing so, he spelled Success for Paul and Charlie. They were the only two to pick him out of that long list of obscure names. And even though they were probably thinking of the late 80's tennis sensation, Gabriela Sabatini, they hit the jackpot on today's stage. Charlie's jackpot was quite a bit bigger, thanks to solid rides from Dean and McEwen, and another top 20 from Pozzato. He ended up with 330 points and the stage win. Paul was second, with 275 points. Once again Brad and Josh were forced to share a podium step. This time it was the third step. And this time Dallas was not there with them.

Jonah is getting pretty confident, having worn the vicarious pink jersey for the better part of a week now. The longer he holds onto it, the more it's going to hurt if Dallas or Olli manage to take it off his shoulders. Queen Val is right there as well. And everybody knows how hard royalty is willing to scrap to hold onto the reigns of power. We're just about half way there. This could get interesting yet.

Full results and standings here.

Dogfest

The annual spring rite is upon us. That is good news, as it means the Spring Ride is just around the corner.

Be at my place at 9:30 pm to ride over. Or you can just head straight to Juan's.

Three's a Crowd

Pozzato, Farrar, and Evans. That was the day's winning combination in the FGBC Giro d'Italia Pool. Brad, Dallas, and Josh all came up lucky and so had to squeeze themselves onto the top podium step with 270 points apiece. It was quite an entertaining scene. Especially when Brad pushed the other two off the podium and did that little victory dance he does.

In the overall race, Jonah continues to cruise along as his challengers beat themselves up in the race for second place. He's been watching old videos of Armstrong at the Tour. Dallas has moved up to second overall, bumping Olli down to third. Queen Val's time in the top three was short lived. But something tells me she'll be back.

Full results and standings here.