Another stage, another yellow for Nocentini

The most exciting thing in the Tour right now is the Luna Cycles Fantasy Tour de France.  While the real race plays out with awful predictability this week, the LCFTdF is a topsy turvy world of upset and rising fortunes.  The ladies have stepped up mightily this year as we have Nicole Thomas in 2nd place on GC and fast rising Melanie Black moving into 4th place.  Player Barrett has extricated himself from the last place position, but just as in the real Tour, there is a reward for the trick of finishing in last place in the LCFTdF, too!

current standings and results:

Charles Bennett    Bernanke's Bumblers    5956
Nicole Thomas    Espresso Train    5885
Ron Swenson    Team Theoretical    5762
Mellie Black    Team Limp Along    5679
Peter Purcell    Team Heal With Steel    5564
Shane Norris    Team Inizio    5344
Charles Hicks    Team Buuurrnn!    5314
jim brown    stylin' and profilin'    5271
Grom     Team CrashWagon    5211
Grant Dunstan    Lone Beer Ranger    5105
Steven Boike    RPM    5103
Eddy Winkler    Team Not Caught Yet    5087
Mary Ann Brown    Hope & A Prayer    4997
John Hansen    Lumpy skates    4983
Chris Thomas    Dessel Engine    4982
Chris Harris    Equipe Poisson    4862
Jenna King    Le Chiffre    4760
Trey Barnes    Steam Donkey    4743
Jeff Welch    Pigs in Zen    4727
Lara Cassidy    Lara's team    4606
Player barrett    team player    4568
Scott Staley    JRB Racing    4455

Another stage

The next week of the Tour will pretty much go as follows: Nocentini will keep the yellow courtesy of Astana.  The real race will start with the ITT and the Alps.  This could all come down to Mont Ventoux on the second to last day.  It is going to take all the other teams working together to have any hope of breaking Astana's apparent stranglehold on the race.  Cadel's move today showed a bit of brashness, but there is no way anyone on Astana is going to let him go and with only one tt left in the race, he is pretty much sunk.  Wiggins and Vande Velde could make things interesting, but I don't think that will happen until the Alps.  I think Armstrong will try to gain time on Contador in the time trial and then shadow him in the mountains.  Contador will have to attack hard on the steeps to dislodge people, but he will also have to count on Armstrong riding the team "plan" and not chasing his own teammate.  Still up in the air as to how this rivalry is going to play out.

Fantasy Tour results are here.

current GC

Nicole Thomas                Espresso Train                    5344
Charles Bennett              Bernanke's Bumblers           5302
Ron Swenson                 Team Theoretical                  5166
Peter Purcell                   Team Heal With Steel          5086
Mellie Black                   Team Limp Along              5082
Charles Hicks                 Team Buuurrnn!                 4955
Shane Norris                   Team Inizio                        4942
Grom                               Team CrashWagon            4766
jim brown                        stylin' and profilin'            4764
Eddy Winkler                 Team Not Caught Yet         4581
Chris Thomas                 Dessel Engine                    4540
John Hansen                   Lumpy skates                     4400
Steven Boike                  RPM                                   4398
Grant Dunstan                Lone Beer Ranger              4381
Mary Ann Brown          Hope & A Prayer                 4371
Jeff Welch                      Pigs in Zen                          4333
Chris Harris                   Equipe Poisson                   4289
Trey Barnes                   Steam Donkey                     4191
Jenna King                     Le Chiffre                          4178
Scott Staley                   JRB Racing                         4099
Lara Cassidy                 Lara's team                          4097
Player barrett                team player                          3898

Tour de Fraaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhnce

In what looked to have the makings of an epic stage full of sound and fury, today's jaunt to Andorra was remarkably unspectacular.  Sure Contador threw down an accelleration at the end, but realistically this was the Cat. 5 city limit sprint blindside moment of the Tour.  Armstrong stated that it wasn't part of the plan but he didn't expect Contador to follow the plan, while Bruyneel said there was no plan.  That kind of muddle doesn't bode well.  But Kloden sure did stay up there and could still pull the you-guys-have-the-measuring-contest-while-I-go-win-this-thing attack up his sleeve.  Sad to say, but Armstrong has brought both drama and dullness to this Tour.  Astana pulled it out the tried and true playbook and set tempo at the front, daring anybody to try and attack.  Poor Evans hasn't figured out he's already dead.  One small light shines in the Garmin bunch as both Wiggins and Vande Velde held up on the stage with Zabriskie doing decent climbing duty for a good part of the day. 

Fantasy Tour de France standings are here.

Nicole Thomas         Espresso Train                4754
Ron Swenson           Team Theoretical            4542
Charles Bennett       Bernanke's Bumblers      4530
Peter Purcell            Team Heal With Steel     4509
Charles Hicks          Team Buuurrnn!              4496
Shane Norris            Team Inizio                     4416
Mellie Black            Team Limp Along           4310
jim brown                stylin' and profilin'          4207
Grom                       Team CrashWagon          4198
Eddy Winkler          Team Not Caught Yet      4114
Jeff Welch               Pigs in Zen                       3958
Chris Thomas         Dessel Engine                  3935
Steven Boike          RPM                                 3847
John Hansen           Lumpy skates                   3796
Grant Dunstan        Lone Beer Ranger            3789
Scott Staley            JRB Racing                       3765
Mary Ann Brown    Hope & A Prayer             3751
Trey Barnes           Steam Donkey                   3677
Jenna King             Le Chiffre                        3618
Chris Harris           Equipe Poisson                3567
Lara Cassidy          Lara's team                      3505
Player barrett         team player                      3305

History is made

Today is an historic day in the Luna Cycles Fantasy Tour de France.  For today is the day that the gender barrier has been broken and a female directeur sportif has ascended the top step in the GC.  Nicole Thomas has become the first female GC leader by ousting Peter Purcell from what appeared to be a pretty commanding lead.  Chapeau, Nicole!

Latest standings:

1. Espresso Train (N. Thomas) - 4219 pts.
2. Team Heal with Steel (P. Purcell) - 4082 pts.
3. Team Buuuuuuuuurn! (C. Hicks) - 3981 pts.

Complete standings here.

Complete list of teams and their riders here.

Tomorrow is the day that could reveal all.  With a final 10.6 km that looks like a graphic from a math SAT question requiring knowledge of the Pythagorean Theorem,  a first kilometer with an average gradient of 8.7%, and an overall nasty disposition that travels skyward, the finish will definitely seperate the contenders from the pretenders.  The big question on everybody's mind is what will Armstrong reveal on this climb?  Is it all just smoke and mirrors?  Will Contador send a message? or will Lance lay down some horrific smackdown after a brutal softening up of the bunch courtesy of his faithful domestiques?  Will Levi take advantage and for once lay down an attack?  Will Kloden ride for himself and be the big spoiler?  This is going to be an interesting day...

LCFTdF update

The sentimental favorite, Thomas Voeckler, guts out a crazy win after a looooooooooooooong break in swirling crosswinds 5 years to the day of taking the yellow jersey in 2004.  The darling of France is back!

Your Fantasy Standings:

1. Team Heal with Steel (P. Purcell) - 3554 pts
2. Team Buuuuuuuurn! (C. Hicks)   - 3391 pts
3. Espresso Train (N. Thomas)         - 3390 pts   (first female to crack the top 3 in GC!)

lanterne rouge Team Player  (P. Barrett) - 2144 pts

Complete standings here.

Friday will seperate the contenders from the pretenders so stay tuned! 

LCFTdF update

After Stage 4, the top 3 are as follows:

1. Team Heal With Steal (P. Purcell)  - 2854 pts
2. Team Buuuuuuurn! (C. Hicks)       - 2683 pts
3. Team Not Caught Yet (E. Winkler)- 2524 pts

lanterne rouge Team Player (P. Barrett) - 1748 pts

 Complete results here

The ghost of Tours Past

In 1985, while on a break with Stephen Roche of Ireland, Greg LeMond was ordered by his directeur sportif to wait for his ailing team captain, Bernard Hinault.  LeMond had become the yellow jersey on the road, but the internal politics of a french team with a great french champion trying to win his record tying 5th Tour de France proved too much of an impediment to LeMond taking what looked like his first Tour victory.  At the end of that stage, a completely wasted Hinault appeared gracious for LeMond's sacrifice and vowed to aid LeMond in his bid for the Tour the next year.

In 1986, Hinault clashed with LeMond early in the Tour.  An epic duel between two teammates was put forth upon the roads of France, and there have been few Tours de France as gripping and exciting.  The two riders split their team with French riders siding with Hinault and LeMond having the lithe neo-pro Andy Hampsten and the Canadian workhorse, Steve Bauer, solidly in his camp.  LeMond and Hinault ripped the Tour apart and remade it as a personal race.  LeMond contended that Hinault was going back on his pledge to help him win his first Tour.  Hinault countered that he was helping, but that he never pledged to just give the race to Lemond, either.  Ultimately, LeMond prevailed, but the biggest winners were all of us who got to witness that epic race.  I will never forget those two men, resplendent in their Mondrian-inspired La Vie Claire team kits, hurtling down the Alps helmetless on fragile looking steel framed bicycles, alone except for each other.

Yesterday's stage may be a peek at a potentially brewing epic battle such as that witnessed in 1986.  Questions still linger, though.  There are several scenarios that could play out and various reasons that they are not what is truly going on, but I will give it my best to try and lay them out.

1. There is no rivalry
Could it be that all of this Armstrong-Contador infighting is just a big made up issue put forth by Bruyneel, et al in order to distract the competition and keep them slightly off balance?  This could be another mind game like the ailing Armstrong that was played up to the cameras as a successful bid to get Jan Ullrich to whip his Telekom team to overextend itself prior to the attack that has forever been dubbed, "The look". 
I don't put a lot of faith in this scenario simply because it is too convoluted and the results would be minimal if even apparent.

2. Armstrong is trying to win the Tour
Yesterday's move was pretty heads up racing on the part of Armstrong.  More suspicious is the question of radio communication: did Bruyneel communicate the wind situation to both Contador and Armstrong or did he just communicate with Armstrong?  Since Astana has made it clear that they want to build a team around Contador (and Vinokourov) with or without Bruyneel and Armstrong, could these two be throwing a big monkey wrench into the works by concocting a huge win for Armstrong?
I'm a little more curious about this scenario, but an unproven Armstrong will have to fight for every scrap for the next three weeks to pull this off and that may prove to be to tall of a task for him to pull off.

3. Armstrong is helping Leipheimer win
I suspected this up until yesterday.  It makes since that if Armstrong wants to work against Contador, his best bet is to assist Leipheimer. Levi isn't all that far off the mark when it comes to Contador and could legitimately compete against the guy. 
This scenario lost some plausibility due to the absence of Leipheimer in yesterday's break, but then again it could still be in the running...

4. Armstrong is helping Contador like Hinault helped LeMond
"I said I would help, but I didn't say I'd give it to him."  Maybe this is what's going on, but at this point I have no clue.

5. Team Telekom redux
Maybe there are too many big guns on this team just as there were on Team Telekom.  Ullrich, Vinokourov and Kloden were all super strong, but they seemed to fight more with each other than against the common enemy of Armstrong.  I would think Bruyneel too smart to let this happen, but maybe the lions are out of the cage and there's no getting them back in...  What would be curious in this scenario is how Kloden will react since he has been there/done that with this situtation. 

Fantasy Tour Standings

1. Team Heal with Steel (P. Purcell) - 2148 pts.
2. Team Inizio (S. Norris)                 - 1856 pts.
3  Team Buuuuuuuurn! (C. Hicks)   - 1845 pts.

lanterne rouge Team Player (P. Barrett) - 1355 pts.

Cav' kicks it, Farrar feels it, and Boonen blow(s) it

Having spent the day in Asheville, checking out the WNC Nature Center with Owen and Golden, downing some vegetarian grub at The Laughing Seed, and getting Owen out on his first rock climbing experience at the climbing gym, I had very little time to spend on the scoring of today's Fantasy Tour de France.  But never fear, a BIG, BIG thanks to neopro directeur sportif Jenna King for her awesome and amazing excel spreadsheet skills, I have a much easier job for scoring.  There are still a few kinks to be worked out, but bear with us while we address them.  The main issue to realize is that results are not in order according to who is leading, so you will have to do a bit of figurin' to find out what place you are in (for now).  I will tell you the current podium positions.

 Results after stage 2:

1st place - Team Heal with Steel (P. Purcell)
2nd place - Team Not Caught Yet (E. Winkler)
3rd place - Bernanke's Bumblers (C. Bennett)

lanterne rouge - Team Player (P. Barrett)