Getting toward Business Time with VDS this year and you know what that means- a quick update of course and folks here laying the smack with what their team has got in the last huge VDS point haul of the year. )Of course the two Worlds races and Lombardia will shake things up too...)

So where do we stand?

-tgartner is looking to run away with the title. It looks close; he only has a 155 point lead over-gosh! Who is that cutie in 2nd place! Could it be? It is! 

ahem

Tgartner lead is only 155 points at the moment but look at his Vuelta squad: J-Rod, Lulu, Nibali, Kolobnev, Van Garderen, Dumoulin, Valls, Caruso, Cardoso, and Pauriol.  That's one serious team and IMO he should pull away from his nearest competitors over the three weeks unless they get awfully lucky.

But you, dear soul? You got anything to brag about? Here are some startlists: Cyclingfever, Cycling startlists, and oh hey! bonus! We also got the Cat 6 Tour du Poitou-Charentes stage race staring today that you can embellish your smack talk with. Here's the Cycling startlist for that one-if you have Anthony Roux, you just picked up 25 points for winning the first stage there. Chapeau!

So who you got?

Tedvdw had this in the last Tour live thread, but let's put this out front and center because there's an interesting thing going on. First, the top ten points earners in the Tour:

1. afx237vi The Hamsterdam Hoppers 2150
2. SirChristopher Fides Fidelity Full Faith & Credit 2145
3. sccycler59@yahoo.com Cruzers 2000
4. irishpeloton Yes well, sortainly! 1965
5. Team Vulture Team Vulture 1940
6. Markk Brandy Old Fashioned Sweet 1935
7. seamu Back in the Pack 1900
8. pedros1973 Benfarrim azul 1885
9. ursula Built for comfort, not for speed 1880
10. andrewp Isickon Cobra 1845

Full listing of the teams for the Tour only HERE.

Tight battle overall but full credit for the Hamsterdam Hoppers. I am sure Bodie, wherever he is, is proud. But just FIVE points separate him from SirChristopher Fides Fidelity Full Faith & Credit's team-and the cool thing is that their teams are quite a bit different. Hamsterdam had Contador, Farrar, Petacchi, Gesink, Lulu; Sir Chris's heavy hitters were Schlecket, Farrar, Menchov, Horner, and Hesjedal. Different paths with almost identical results. 

Now for the year-long top 10, here we go:

1. Vinnie1 Vinnie’s barbarians 8357
2. tgartner Sleeping Maiden Velo 8295
3. Cyclemania JH Cyclemania 8149
4. john.. Slackers Unite! 8128
5. FrankV Vlammende Vedetten 8079
6. dallsopp Maxpower 8015
7. dan beringhele ORB, Inc. 7909
8. SirChristopher Fides Fidelity Full Faith & Credit 7864
9. ursula Built for comfort, not for speed 7765
10. andomujika Gaur ta Beti Laranjak 7737

Full team listings here.  So what else is interesting besides the fact that I am in 9th place on both lists? (Soon to plummet down the rankings faster than if I was made of dark matter?)

Continue reading this post »

Since it's a slow day and various big-work pieces (e.g. Tour previews) are in progress for next week, it's a good time to see if there's a way I can talk a little smack about the Virtual Directeur Sportif. Wait, here's one! My ranking among all 439 teams in the partial raking category of grand tours: 22! With two more of these suckers on tap and a roster full of grand tour semi-contenders (Gesink, Nibali, Arroyo, Van den Broeck, Seeldraeyers! Mollema!! BOOM!!!) this is just a start. Also, thanks to Edvald Boasson Hagen's national time trial title, I've scored more points in Norway than Jens and Holdenmate put together.

Incidentally, if you haven't played around with the partial rankings, do so! Superted strikes again...

Anyway, as for the Tour, I'll be relying far too heavily on a lot of kids growing up in a hurry: Gesink, Mollema, VDB, Seeldraeyers, Boom, Farrar, Boasson Hagen, and half the BMC roster. But then I never really planned for the Tour, since it's worth the same number of points as the Vuelta.

Yep, this is Official stuff here.  What you see is what the teams actually did-and there's some surprising results.

Before we get to them, a slight explanation is needed. The table below ranks the teams this year and last. Of course VDS this year lists more races so this isn't a perfect comparison. But its close because, as you'll see below, most of the new races are not contested much by the bigger teams: you have to go far down the table to see teams that are doing better than you might thing because of those Cat 6 races. 

Okay, on to the rankings! Actually I divided the table into three parts because with 54 teams, it's way too freaking long all together.

Table 1-The Contenders

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As discouraging as my VDS team's "performance" has been (two temporary suspensions, three cobbles aces with zero points, etc.), I still find it enjoyable to spectate on how the season is progressing. And one particular plotline I will continue relishing is Boonen vs. Cancellara: the Virtual Smackdown!

Fabian Cancellara may think he's getting the last laugh, but where it really matters (our fantasy game) it may be Tom Boonen or his owners who laugh(s) loudest. Right now these two rank 1-2 in points, with Boonen's consistency outpacing Cancellara's wins by 85 points. Every VDS team currently placing in the top ten has one rider or the other, or even both. The teams with both are on thin ice, since they spent 50 points and used their 24+ chit without landing a grand tour rider from the upper classes, though that chapter remains unwritten. Anyway, as between the teams with one of them and a grand tour ace, which of Cancellara or Boonen does more from here on out will heavily influence the ultimate race. Let's peer into the crystal ball for a moment...

On the flip. Warning, there may be math.

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Okay, folks--we've had a whole month of VDS now. 184 riders have scored a total of 20,363 points. Up at the top of the ranks sit the 30 highest-scoring riders...let's take a look at how they compare to last year's performance. Both Top 30 lists are included at the end of the post.

Note: due to scheduling shenanigans, I've added in Gent-Wevelgem to last year's points, even though it didn't happen until later in April. That will help give a clearer picture of how the new Cat 6 races are affecting things.

Hot! 6 Riders who have upped their game by 300+ points compared to last year at this time

1. Oscar Freire, +400. Not a surprise here--Oscarito was injured last year in the Tour of California, and had scored bupkis at this point. He's a bit behind 2008, when he won 3 stages and the points jersey at Tirreno, Gent-Wevelgem, and came in 8th in MSR, but not too far off.

2. Luca Paolini +375 Not a win yet, only a couple of podiums at Driedaagse--but consistent performance in the classics so far, with 10th places at MSR and G-W, plus 6th at Dwars door Vlaanderen. One to keep an eye on.

3. Maxim Iglinsky +355 Won Eroica, top tens in G-W and MSR, plus 4th overall at Tirreno. Great spring so far.

4. Matti Breschel +325 His best result has been winning Dwars door Vlaanderen, but also picked up points in G-W and MSR.

5. Jens Keukeleire +325 Poster child for the new Cat 6 races--every single one of his points has been scored in this category. Last year, he wouldn't have been a blip on the VDS radar.

6. Michael Rogers +315 Podium at Eroica and in the overall at Criterium International. Decent result in Tirreno. It's not that he wasn't getting results last spring--3rd overall in the Tour of California--that just didn't count for anything back then.

Brrr! Who's stone-cold? Find out below the jump.

Continue reading this post »

Just wanted to take this brief lull to make sure you've noticed that the Dream -- my offseason plan to drum up automated VDS results, rankings, etc. somehow -- is just about fully in place. Thanks to SuperTed and implementation assistance by Gavia, we are now sporting VDS standings in the left sidebar and rider/team rankings in the right sidebar that are updated ALMOST INSTANTLY following a race. Remember last year when you had to wait days or even weeks for me to redo the spreadsheet? That era is o-v-e-r. Done and dusted. So, get accustomed to looking in both places for your updated standings. Very shortly you'll see the day's race results too. Click on the graphics to get redirected to the main podiumcafevds.com page for more complete results.

Oh, and speaking of graphics, thanks once more to Veloki (and Gavia) for the redesign of the VDS graphic. Not only are these bits of color completely awesome, but we now actually have a coherent collection of graphics to use (save for Cuddles the Cobble, but he's always been a bit odd). To recap:

• Get in the habit of using the sidebars for instantly updated standings
• Click on the names for more details, or on the graphics for complete data
• My VDS team will eventually be better than yours (present excuse under development)

Update: Time is up!

Thanks to some shuffling around among servers, we have now set a deadline of Friday 9pm Pacific (a/k/a 6am Saturday in Belgium and midnight US Eastern) for you to submit your entries. You can even double-check your time remaining here! So clever, our tedvdw. If you haven't sent in your team, 'ead on over to the VDS website and get to work!