What does a panda, a chicken, Forrest Gump and the Hulk all have in common?

They’re all inspiration for victory salutes by young 22 year-old Slovakian, Peter Sagan, who has taken this Tour by storm. He is an excitement machine, has more tricks and gadgets in his arsenal than most riders and already at a young age he is a monster on the bike, his potential huge, he is already delivering with three stage victories, and he could win the Malliot Vert in his first Tour. Impressive. As the Tour finally hits the mountains and the all important Overall battle starts read on for the report of the first week of racing and fantasy results.
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[span style="text-decoration: underline">Tour De France Summary

Prologue

First day of Le Tour and it was a short 6.4km time trial that got le Grande Boucle underway. A super fast time from Aussie Brett “Burt” Lancaster saw him post the early best time from Andrey Grivko. He eventually finished 6th on the stage as Edvald Boasson Hagen (hereafter referred to as EBH) and home-tour favourite Sylvain Chavanel bettered the time.

A few of the predicted favourites faltered, as Peter Sagan stuffed up a corner, only saving it with his superb bike-handling skills and Tony Martin had a mechanical but still managed to only finish 20 seconds down on the winner. That winner was Fabian Cancellara, an absolute force in prologues over the last few years and did it by “smashing” Tour favourite Bradley Wiggins time by  7 seconds to finish the course in 7’13” (massive average speed of 53km/h+). Cadel Evans managed a respectable 13th, 17 seconds off the winner and 10 behind rival Wiggins.

Stage 1

A quiet start to the first road stage as they did a long loop around Liège and the Walloon countryside. The most notable thing from the break of the day was the fairly anonymous Danish track-rider, Michael Morkov winning enough KOM points to be the first holder of that jersey. Today was always going to be a lumpy, classics-style finish and the bunch duly wound in the break. First days nerves were apparent as at 25km to go there was a major crash involving Aussie Mick Rogers from Sky as well as a good puncheur from Rabobank, Luis Leon Sanchez. Almost immediately after there was another crash, thanks to an over-eager fan standing out on the road, wanting to get that perfect picture. This time the World Time Trial Champ, Tony Martin was involved and fractured his scaphoid (bone in hand) which has marred the rest of his tour.

As the quickening peloton reached the foot climb, it was Orica-GreenEdge who took the front and looked strong. On the steep part, Sylvain Chavanel attacked, with Albasini chasing but the gradient was too steep for a sustained attack and the leaders of the peloton pulled them back. Out of that pack came Spartacus (Cancellara) himself, resplendent in yellow, and the only person able to follow his attack was the young Liquigas rider Peter Sagan. As they got a gap the only other person from the pack who tried to stay with them was EBH but by the time he arrived to the front duo (which slowed slightly as Fabian tried to get Sagan to work on the front) he was out of gas and in the sprint finish the fast Slovakian easily sprinted past the Swiss rider to record his first win at the tour in the very first open stage. Much fancied, local Belgian rider and team-mate to Cadel, Phillipe Gilbert brought the pack home in 4th.

Stage 2

First of the sprint stages and Morkov again went on the attack to get into the break to grab the solitary KOM point on offer. The team of race leader Fabian Cancellara’s Radioshack was on the front for most of the day but as the racing got closer to the finish it was the sprint teams of Orica-GreenEdge and Lotto-Belisol who took over and the pace quickened as everyone in the peloton competed for position at the front. A top sprint talent from Germany, Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano), was unfortunately suffering from a bad gastro bug and was dropped along with the casualties from yesterdays crashes, Martin and LLS.

As they came towards the finish it was a left deviating straight and being in the top places was vital and Lotta had their man Greipel perfectly positioned. Seemingly out of nowhere though, World Champion Mark Cavendish sprang out from behind the leaders and beat Greipel to the line, with Aussie and GreenEdge sprinter the only rider close to these two coming third. Despite the problems of his leader, Tom Veelers from Argos managed to get a good fourth, with old stalwarat Petacchi (Lampre) behind him and the ever-present Sagan in sixth.

Stage 3  

After 3 days in Belgium this was the first stage of the Tour on French soil. Third time’s a charm with Morkov going again on attack to try and defend his lead in the Climbers jersey. The racing for most of the day was uneventful in racing terms but several crashes kept the peloton on edge, the major of these causing two riders to abandon, sprint hope JJ Rojas and climbing domestique (helper) for Wiggins, Siutsou. Liquigas was in charge for most of the run into the finish as the parcours was rather bumpy, not dissimilar to some of the big one-day races that are held in the area.

As the break was caught Sylvain Chavanel again went on the attack, this time from 5km and held off the peloton until the final small, sharp ascent. He lost a lot of time miscalculating a bend and they caught him with 500m to go as the steep stuff really started. Wout Poels from Vacansoleil managed to jump into the lead from the group with Albasini on his wheel but right around him it was the seemingly invincible Peter Sagan who came around to sprint for the win. Albasini could not keep up and whilst Sagan “ran” across the line in a victory salute in reference to Forrest Gump, it was EBH who fnished 2nd with yellow jersey Cancellara showing he’s still very strong finishing 4th.

Stage 4

Another quiet day for most of the race, the breakaway trio got out to a 7 minute lead but this was pulled back steadily by team Lotto with help from a few others. Once the break was caught and the peloton was really moving then again the riders became nervous. Just within the 3km to go banner, Mark Cavendish’s sprint helper Bernie Eisel clipped the wheel of Robbie Hunter in front of him and that sent down a lot of riders, including Cavendish himself and Farrar.

A reduced peloton as a result of that crash sprinted for the win and it was to be a day for the Lotto sprint-train and Kiwi Greg Henderson did a perfect lead out for the “Gorilla”, Greg Henderson, whilst Petacchi managed a commendable second and Veelers again showed he ‘s a strong sprinter to round out the podium. Goss managed 4th and Sagan kept his lead in the Green jersey by finishing fifth. Also of note was Aussie Jonathan Cantwell, a banana-bender who last year was riding around the North American scene, managed to get into the World Tour this year with SaxoBank and is now riding into top 10’s in the biggest race!

Stage 5

Yet another sprint this stage was a slight uphill drag into Saint-Quintin, the scene of one of Robbie McEwen’s wins in 2006. It started of fairly dull as usual with the break not getting any more than 5 minutes on the peloton but with a decent lead towards the end they started riding well and fast and managed to hold off the might of the peloton for most of the stage. After all the polemics of the first few stages the run in was the battle of the team trains: you had the GC teams of Sky and BMC line it out as well as the sprint trains from GreenEdge and Lotto.

Unfortunately there was again another major crash this one right on 3km to go (this is important because it’s the marker where if there’s a crash, they get the same time as those in front) as Tyler Farrar went down, bringing down Cantwell and green-jersey leader Sagan and nearly Andre Greipel. The break were still out ahead at this stage and they never gave up, even in the last kilometre as the rode went uphill slightly, in fact as the last bend was rounded it looked like they would win but Matt Goss came sprinting past but had started his print too early and was passed by Greipel, taking his second win in a row. Cantwell’s team-mate JJ Haedo was third, Cofidis veteran Dumoulin fourth and Cavendish came fifth.

Stage 6

What a stage this ended up being for the Tour, it completely changed the complexity of the race as it heads towards the big mountains stages and the Alps tomorrow. Another sprint profile, the weather was like the last few days, overcast and wet in patches but not too bad, the wind only picking up occasionally. The race however was turned on its head at the 25km to go mark as the already battered and bruised peloton, who were already marred today by several smaller crashes, suffered a major crash and pile up which affect half the peloton. Out of those affected the “lucky ones” were only caught behind it but most riders ended up on the asphalt with some degree of injuries, a lot of riders who finished the stage ended up needing to go to hospital. One team who cannot escape the bad luck is Garmin and their team bus afterwards looks like a casualty ward.

A contender for the stage Mark Cavendish was taken out but it was the GC guys hardest hit. Valverde, Gesink, Mollema, Hesjedal, Peraud, F Schleck and Rolland to name but a few of them were caught up in it and lost minutes by the end of the stage as the sprinter’s teams, especially GreenEdge, kept the pace high for the rest of the bunch in order to catch the breakaway. They only just did catch them in the last kilometre and again in the sticky stuff the GreenEdge co-ordination was off and Goss didn’t have the ideal run, starting his sprint too soon. He was trying to get past a Greipel, who earlier that stage crashed twice and needed his shoulder popped back in. This may have cost him the victory because he could not best the most amazing youngster riding, Peter Sagan, who showed he could win on all terrain, going “green” with a Hulk-style celebration.

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Going into the first big mountain stage tomorrow a brief look at the Overall situation and the race for Green:

Current Overall Classification:

1.  Fabian Cancellara (RNT) 29h 22 36

2. Bradley Wiggins (SKY) +7”

3. Sylvain Chavanel (OPQ) +7”

4. Teejay Van Garderen (BMC) +10”

5. Denis Mencov (KAT) +13”

6. Cadel Evans (BMC) +17”

7. Vincenzo Nibali (LIQ) +18”

8. Peter Sagan (LIQ) +19”

Points (Green Jersey) Classification:

1. Peter Sagan 209 pts

2. Matt Goss 178 pts

3. Andre Greipel 167 pts

4. Mark Cavendish 129 pts

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[span style="text-decoration: underline">Fantasy Games

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SBS Fantasy Tour

We’ve had a rousing reception to this game, practically doubling our number of teams since the first post went up so well done guys and I hope everyone is enjoying it, looks to be strong competition in this league already. Our league average, if you take out the ducks eggs down the bottom would see us in 11th spot. For a league our size, way to go TS community!

In the first week a lot of teams have already showed their hands, playing the bonus cards early and lining their teams with sprinters. Pumas tdf were our early leaders but they now sit in ninth place. TS cycling aficionados UnderAchievers and chels with their teams BMC Racing and Fuentes is a great help, respectively are 1st and 2nd on 854 points and 823 points. Will the shiraz help chels surpass his rival?

The Weathered Typicals are third not that far behind on 819 points so are right in it as is Oi Like a GreenHedge who passed the 800 mark by four. Coming up in 5th though on the 800 points is Blind Mice Cycling who has amazingly achieved this without any use of a bonus stage. Considering this should give each team a boost of 100 points if done well this certainly helps Luke’s chances of going for the win providing Stage 8 pays off for him.

Other teams too down the pack could win now as trading and trying to guess who will do well in the mountains and time trials play their part. For some advice for how I see the stages coming up this trade window, in order: Mountains, Rouleurs, Time Trial, Mountains, Mountains, Rouleurs so trade accordingly!

Top 15 (click to enlarge):
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Velogames

Velogames as well is a fiercely competitive league with 22 entrants. Off to an absolute flyer is Debbie with her team Russell, way out on front with 2775 points. Her success is mainly due to having Sagan, the rider with the most points so far as well as the man in yellow Fabian Cancellara. Not to mention EBH and Goss, her team is packed full of sprinters. As the road goes up though she will have to rely on Cadel and TJVG to get her points as her other picks look to be injured or shaky. A fair way back in second but trying for the double is Richard’s team BMC Racing (2267pts). He doesn’t have Cancellara but has the other 3 main point scorers and despite the name there is no BMC rider, not even Cadel as he has picked Nibali and Wiggins, a well rounded team whose main concerns will be points from Roy and the injured Poels.

Ominously in third spot (with 2134 points) is perennial dominator of Velogames leagues, Jodie with Fuentes Favourites. She too has a strong trio in Sagan, Nibali, Wiggins with support from TVJG and Goss. She too is a bit crippled with Danielson and Poels now out but expect something from Mollema/Froome and the rest us the road goes up. Definitely mark this favourite.  Dylan and Team Hammer are fourth with 1946 point, looking very much like the team Richard should have, with 4 BMC riders: Evans, TJVG, Gilbert and Burghardt. Sagan too is his main rider with Cav his sprinter getting him some points as well as the constant attacker Chavanel. I think we know where his success lies with!

Rounding out the top 5 is mals minstrals (1849 points) who had a top sprinter focus with Cavendish and Goss but also the leader Cancellara. Pinning his mountain hopes on Radioshack and Cadel may already be backfiring (Scheck) but the AG2R duo of Riblon and Dupont is unique and could pay off big if they stage hunt. As it becomes apparent this game is more about attrition of those in your team who are my smokies to progress up the ladder? Damian’s Cuz Bruz’z Lab Rats and Brendan’s Los Campones have strong teams tailored for the mountains so expect them to rise but the game is so wide open with the unpredictability of the Tour!

Top 10 (see website for full ladder):
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Feel free to post any comments, questions or advice below, hope everyone is ready for a late night tonight to watch the big action start!