One observation of interest: the Monuments offer a pretty sizeable chunk of points, and they also feature a fair number of continental tour riders, the kind of guys who, while racing to win, might also be pretty happy to go home with minor placings. If you're with Serramenti, for example, you might be crowing about placing two guys before the first Milram rider. What it means is that one way to win the Virtual Directeur Sportif is to identify these big point-poachers from the 1 and 2-point ranges. Not that anyone had Rafaelle Illiano... but I'm wondering who the Belgian version is.

Oh, and Jered -- DS of The Bike Game, our new jersey holder -- has opened a can of ... uh, he scored a lot of points last week. Which means our game has been heisted by PezCyclingNews. Horrors! Somehow I bet he finds a way to work this into a Eurotrash column. I know I would.