The Lance Challenge! Updated... with Sad News

by Chris Fontecchio on Jun 22, 2009 6:15 PM EDT in Cafe Happy Hour!

Remember this? Yeah, I am sitting on a veritable gold mine of cycling mags from the Lance Era, thanks to Roadside (the same heroic PdC'er who produced our first official snuggie). And am still sitting on it. Not literally. That's the good news.

The bad news is that all of the entries have been lost. I blame Lance himself for taking so long to finally win something that I went beyond the Yahoo! deadline for account inactivity, at which point they scrubbed the thing. Clean. Maybe it's not literally Lance's fault. In which case I blame society. In any event, I apologize to the unknown would-have-been winner of the original contest.

In any event, rather than try to recreate the entries, let's restart the contest. Now, email me where you think Lance will finish on GC at the Tour de France, and whoever comes closest wins. Include as a tiebreaker the number of stages he will win. Rules time:

1. You must be a registered member of the Podium Cafe. Since that already includes half of the known universe (I'm told), this shouldn't be an issue. Unregistered lurkers: we flushed a lot of you out last week, and now you know why.

2. Pick Lance's position on the Tour de France general classification, and number of stage wins. As I said, the latter is just a tiebreaker; the GC position is the thing. And by position I mean anywhere from 1st to 200th or so. N.b., DNS and DNF are also GC positions.

3. Email your submission to lachallenge@yahoo.com. Please do not email me at my usual podcaf(at)yahoo address. That inbox is busy enough.

4. One entry per person. Deadline is July 3. Good luck!

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Comments

if somebody actually entered the original contest, guessing he would win the Nevada race...

…I’d love to have you share it with us here. Please go into detail about why you pulled that race out of your, um, hat as his first win.

The explanation is going to be so wacky that we’re sure to believe you! Truth stranger than fiction, and all that. :)

-Greg

by gregm on Jun 22, 2009 6:19 PM EDT reply actions

Yes

I am taking some comfort in knowing that the existence of a real winner is farfetched.

Abruzziamo!

by Chris Fontecchio on Jun 22, 2009 6:21 PM EDT up reply actions

Tour de Gruene TT, no?

by tedvdw on Jun 22, 2009 6:51 PM EDT up reply actions

well, maybe...

…but if anybody actually picked Nevada, I would be WAY impressed.

by gregm on Jun 22, 2009 7:10 PM EDT up reply actions

no, I thought it was a race in the 2009 season

by sminer on Jun 22, 2009 7:42 PM EDT up reply actions

I keep insisting

but somehow I’m only interested if there’s a snuggy involved. No danged old print journalism.

by R Mc on Jun 22, 2009 8:40 PM EDT up reply actions

I'm guessing, seeing there are now 1,000 members

that at least a dozen will have the correct answer and a few of those the same tie-breaker. But hey, you rules Tourbecco. Oh and a little q, you don’t need us to identify who we are in the email do you Chris? You have all our email addresses and to whom they belong to in your secret layer right?

by Phil H. on Jun 22, 2009 6:25 PM EDT reply actions

I include seond places and top 5 places.. Just to be sure...

Crashdan: "Veni Vidi Vici beats Wing Kong Exchange... … and I’ll change my signature to a backwards smile for a month."
Frining "It's what he thinks.. But he always do.. I eat my shoe if he ride top 15 in le Tour" about Devolder

by Frinking on Jun 22, 2009 6:28 PM EDT up reply actions

your instinct

seems to be answering the question. But even if you didn’t, I would reply using the entry email.

Abruzziamo!

by Chris Fontecchio on Jun 22, 2009 6:29 PM EDT up reply actions

Coolio, I don't know yet if I will enter because I don't have much need or room for those mags

by Phil H. on Jun 22, 2009 6:32 PM EDT up reply actions

Email sned son don't bother anymore

by Frinking on Jun 22, 2009 6:26 PM EDT reply actions

send so..

by Frinking on Jun 22, 2009 6:27 PM EDT up reply actions

Looking at were you stand in the VDS

I’d say whatever position you picked is wrong.

by Phil H. on Jun 22, 2009 6:28 PM EDT up reply actions

Haha ouch..

But Dutch has talent for the Pick a place for Lance question..

by Frinking on Jun 22, 2009 6:30 PM EDT up reply actions

Official Announcement

There will be a Frinking/Phil H. exclusive contest. Winner gets Jimbo’s old mags. I’m sure they’ll be put to good use.

The rest of you may carry on.

by Sui Juris on Jun 22, 2009 6:47 PM EDT reply actions

Oh

So that’s what Frinking means?

"I get paid to hurt other people. How good is that? How good is that?
I get paid to make other people suffer on my wheel, that's good." Jens!

by jsallee00 on Jun 22, 2009 6:48 PM EDT up reply actions

HAHAHAHA

by plinytheelder on Jun 23, 2009 3:05 AM EDT up reply actions

What about his "time back from the winner" as a tie breaker?

A lot of room there.

by ZoeRochelle on Jun 22, 2009 7:16 PM EDT reply actions

I didn't enter the first time because Chris said Lance was going to win "Anything".

Nada, zilch, zippo, the big “O” in the win column. Has something changed?

by sminer on Jun 22, 2009 7:47 PM EDT reply actions

of course that's wasn't

by sminer on Jun 22, 2009 8:56 PM EDT up reply actions

And the TTTTTT counts as a stage win, right?

But only if he finishes with the team? Yes, I’m the master of rethorical questions.

Staring at the swim team gets you killed by a gang of dancing ninja min who know how to twirl.

by TheFigurehead on Jun 23, 2009 4:49 AM EDT reply actions

aRE YOU?

by Frinking on Jun 23, 2009 5:23 AM EDT up reply actions

haw

he’ll be here all week folks

by plinytheelder on Jun 23, 2009 9:27 AM EDT up reply actions

6 Ts?

Are you implying that Astana is in fact two teams in one?

Adrenalina Italiana!

by Albertina on Jun 23, 2009 6:11 AM EDT up reply actions

The Tremendous Tour Team Time Trial

Staring at the swim team gets you killed by a gang of dancing ninja min who know how to twirl.

by TheFigurehead on Jun 23, 2009 6:15 AM EDT up reply actions

Ah!

Adrenalina Italiana!

by Albertina on Jun 23, 2009 7:39 AM EDT up reply actions

Lance wins the TdF this year.

Plus every stage.

Including the ITT. Twice!

Racing for Victory and Free Beer!

by DemonCats on Jun 23, 2009 11:01 AM EDT reply actions

Don't forget the green, polka dot and white jersey

And the combativity classification of course.

"Where there’s a will, there’s a way.": Alberto Contador, shortly after waking up from brain surgery.

by Lopex on Jun 24, 2009 10:52 AM EDT up reply actions

This is way ot

but I don’t know how to do a fan post. And if a thread can be devoted to Armstrong, why not one post to our old friend Ullrich?

I checked his fan site (www.janullrich.de) — don’t really know why, just to see how he was doing. One of his picture galleries is the baptism of Max, his son with his wife, Sara Steinhauser. The godmother (I’m assuming that’s the translation) holding the little boy at the font is Gaby Weiss, his former girlfriend. The family photo includes Jan, Sara, Max, Gaby, and Sarah Maria, the baby induced days before the 2003 Tour.

To me, this speaks volumes about his values and his nature. And one of the things it says is that people were right, he was too nice to be a killer, I mean winner.

I say, Respect.

by NE Observer on Jun 23, 2009 3:30 PM EDT reply actions