Le Tour 2012

[N'Rexy]

Cool. You are in!

[Dave Cooper please]

I think I've managed to send a request for Haliborange Overdose to join the league.

[SteveN]

Hopefully N's Strugglers have now joined.

[N'Rexy]

Yep.  Got you all.

[Jon Crofts]

Right then, who's winning the prologue?

I'm going Wiggins with Cancellara a close second.

[N'Rexy]

I am going for DerPanzerWagen aka Tony Martin. Fabian 2nd. Wiggins 3rd. Sky won't want the yellow so early.

[TopDeck113]

So here we go...my favourite annual sporting event.  Pity the news about Lance Armstrong and allegations about the Europcar Team are making the headlines.  If Armstrong is found guilty of doping I'll be so disappointed - one of my all time sporting heros.

Bradley Wiggins is in with a chance as victories in Paris-Nice and the Dauphene show. If, unlike last year, he avoids crashing out, I think he might be the first Briton to stand on the GC podium in Paris - especially as Andy Schleck won't be racing.  However, I don't think he'll be in yellow.

For me it is between Cadal Evans and Ryder Hesydal, with the Aussie probably my favourite as the Giro-Tour double is a big ask.

Cav hasn't got the lead-out train he has had in the past and if Sky's focus is on the GC then he might have to find his own way in the sprints. I'm sure he'll win at least a couple of stages, but will it be enough for green in Paris? My hunch is that he is bloody-minded enough to do it.

Sammy Sanchez for KOM and Peter Sagan for best young rider.

[Dave Cooper please]

Armstrong was doped up to the eyeballs. Mind you so was everyone else, he hardly gained much of an advantage from it!

[Gareth]

Does this work?  Anyway here is the league:

http://www.halfordstdfgame.co.uk/league.aspx?page=league&id=11190


League name is Aston Wiggins

Password is london2012

another one joined - too late for the first stage tho :-)

Bring on le tour!!

[cdbearsfan]

Right, I've asked before but forgotten. How does it work then?

I understand there are some sprint sections, some mountainy sections and some prologues. Whoever wins the most sprints gets a green jersey, whoever wins the most mountainy ones gets a polka-dot jersey. The overrall winner gets a yellow jersey. I think they have some team races too but not really sure how this contributes to the overrall winner?

Do they just add up all the times and whoever is quickest overrall wins, or are some stages weighted better than others? How does the "team trial" work? Oh, and what's a prologue?

[Dave Cooper please]

Right, I've asked before but forgotten. How does it work then?

I understand there are some sprint sections, some mountainy sections and some prologues. Whoever wins the most sprints gets a green jersey, whoever wins the most mountainy ones gets a polka-dot jersey. The overrall winner gets a yellow jersey. I think they have some team races too but not really sure how this contributes to the overrall winner?

Do they just add up all the times and whoever is quickest overrall wins, or are some stages weighted better than others? How does the "team trial" work? Oh, and what's a prologue?

Right, yes the times are added up and the winner is the one who was quickest, no stages are weighted. Some stage races give time bonuses for winning stages, intermediate sprints and climbs but not The Tour.

The prologue is just a short time trial held at the start of the race, it's just a way of introducing the riders to the crowds really.

The jerseys:

Yellow- overall leader on time, Cancellara wears it today as he won the prologue.

Green - Points leader. Points are awarded for where a rider finishes in the stage (25 for the winner of the stage). Points are also given for intermediate sprints which are at set places on the stage. If you are watching and they seem to be sedately rolling along and all of a sudden a couple of teams seem to take up the pace, it's probably because there's an intermediate sprint coming up and they are trying to get their sprinter to the front of the peleton.

Polka-dot - King of the mountains. Points are given for getting up big hills. Hills are rated by their severity, a category 4 is a fairly gentle hill, only 1 point is given for these. Catergory 1 climbs are a bastard, you get 10 points for being first up these. And just to be an extra bastard to the riders, there are even harder climbs called Hors Categorie (literally Unclassified) which are so hard that they can't have a normal number. 20 points for winning up one of these.

White - Best young rider (under 23) on overall time.

This year there are 9 flat stages (the ones Cavendish will target), 9 mountain stages, 5 of which are classified as 'high mountains' in the Alps and Pyrenees, and 2 individual time trials (Wiggins is very good at these, watch also for fellow Brit Chris Froome he's improving all the time).
There is no team time-trial this year so don't worry about it.

[UK Redsox]

Yellow- overall leader on time, Cancellara wears it today as he won the prologue.

And he nearly won again today.

A great attack up one of the few hills in Belgium on the streets of Seraing. However, Peter Sagan just sat on Cancellara's wheel rather than helping with the break (despite Cancellara waving Sagan by to share the work) leaving him in perfect position to nip round and take the win.

[SteveN]

I read that Sagan is not popular in the peleton. Today you saw why that might be.

[N'Rexy]

Textbook way to win a race. He won't be popular for it mind. Shame Eddy wasn't a bit closer to them as he might have had a chance. I think this is the start of the Sagan show though. Cav or Griepel or Kittel tomorrow and then Sagan again tuesday.

[Dave Cooper please]

I read that Sagan is not popular in the peleton. Today you saw why that might be.

Bloody talented though. He'll need a decent team around him to win Grand Tours though, so he might want to learn the etiquette of the peleton sharpish.