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“The Sky is Falling!” announces Spartacus. Sort of. Wiggins not looking worried. Sort of. July 10, 2012

Posted by John Frederick Ashburne in Tour de France 2012.
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And I thought mind games were restricted to old Scottish farts resident in Manchester. This from Fabian ‘Not Miffed Because I Only Managed Third Yesterday’  Cancellara from today’s Cycling News. BTW, Atomic Saddles loves Cancellara. I reckon his Team Manager put him up to this slur-like (er, actually very accurate) assessment of those Sky tyros’ chances.

Swiss predicts tough two weeks ahead at the Tour for British squad

At the end of Tour de France‘s first long time trial in Besançon, Fabian Cancellara predicted a tough remaining two weeks for Team Sky and questioned the British squad’s strategy to defend the maillot jaune so far from Paris.

“Chapeau to the results,” said the Swiss time trial specialist after he was beaten into third by the British team’s duo of Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome on the 41.5km stage. “When you see how Sky was born and how they are performing now – better and better – it shows that they’ve been working really hard. That’s normal. It’s the same as when we saw Tony Martin becoming better and better at time trialling; it’s just a demonstration that the whole team is growing.

“They have a hard Tour de France now for sure because Bradley has said they will not throw it (the yellow jersey) away or give it away, but now there are hard mountain stages and yeah, I think we will see them pulling a lot.”

The 31-year-old Swiss pointed to Sky’s dogged defence of the yellow jersey on yesterday’s tough stage 8 which saw the team pulling hard to neutralise breaks for the first 80km which ultimately left Wiggins isolated on the final climb and descent.

“We saw they defended the jersey really well. In my opinion I would do it differently but I am not a sports director. We look at our own things,” added Cancellara, who won his fourth Tour de France prologue in Liège [and his fifth opening stage including the 15km time trial in Monaco in 2009].

Cancellara said he was impressed with the performance of Froome. “The problem is they have Froome and Wiggins and I think it will be hard to destroy Chris – probably it will be like four RadioShack riders and just Froome and Bradley in the mountains with people around. I don’t know, maybe they do like a double time trial…. We know the strength from Sky.”

But Cancellara dismissed the idea that the British squad had over-extended themselves and would pay in the remaining stages. Cancellara said Sky’s belief in its strategy was crucial: “I think they’ve shown big strength and they believe in what they are doing. This is what counts.”

He added that with RadioShack-Nissan riders crowded into the top of the GC –four in the top 15 – he said the team was focusing on its own race in the two remaining weeks.

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More on yesterday’s stage here

Bonjour mes amis! I am un peu en retard, but it is better than being un Retard, non? July 7, 2012

Posted by John Frederick Ashburne in Tour de France 2012.
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Sorry it has taken so long, but that awful thing known as La Vie Hebdomadaire has been getting in the way of my TdF-ing. Well, bougre that, and off we go. I was a tad concerned if we could get enough punters together this year, at such short notice, and in the wake of Euro 2012 footie sweepstakes fatigue. I need not have fretted. My half of the trans-global sweepie sold out in about, er, 4 minutes. Glad to know there are so many amis sypatiques out there. Joe B is gathering the bretheren in England as I type, and we can expect to kick off with our small bagatelle on the morrow.

This is how I have constructed the sweepstakes this time around.

Every punter gets a star; a dark horse; two trusted lieutenants; and five or so warriors-in-the-saddle. I have created a system (see above pic) that uses random numeric sequence generating software to try and ensure that every punter has an equal shot at winning a bottle of cheap rotgut. FYI, I used a more primitive system for the recent Euro football and… it failed dismally. I was stuffed thanks to two favourites exiting early (France and Holland). Which simply serves to remind that it is all a bit of a bleedin’ lottery, innit mate?

There will be no cash prizes this time, just wine. Lots of it, and of a quality hitherto unimagined. Say no more. I need to consult with my Man Overseas, monsieur Banerjee, on how precisely we are going to rig, er, I mean construct the prize formats but I am thinking of trying to be even more egalitarian/Maoist than usual. That means no Cavendish-style sprinter green jersey concentration of winnings this year. I wish to award domestiques, and super-domestiques this time. I am even so passionate/biased as to have considered awarding a bottle of Cotes du Stiquey-riche Luberon ’55 to the oldest rider to complete the course. (Hint: he’s likely to be German. Terrifying. God-like. The road is scared of him). Any creative prize category suggestions highly welcomed.

Anyway. Here are the randomly generated Punter allotments. Later today you’ll know who got whom.

Just fyi, the huge crash on Stage 6 played havoc with the GC standings, and my seedings, so I rejigged them this morning to be as fair as possible.

Punter A

● John A

Your Star Rider:

● Philippe Gilbert (BMC) S40

Your Dark Horse:

● David Moncoutie (COF) S63 FRA

Your Trusty Lieutenants:

● Richie Porte (Sky) S196

● Pierrick Federigo (FDJ) S77 FRA

Your Warriors in the Saddle:

● Rafael Valls (Vacansoleil) S99

● Stuart O’Grady (ORI-GRE) S128

● Mikael Cherel (AG2R) S141 FRA

● Yuriy Krivtsov (Lampre) S169

Your Favoured Team:

● FDJ BigMat

Punter B

● Mike D

Your Star Rider:

● Andre Greipel (Lotto) S6

Your Dark Horse:

● Robert Gesink (RABO) S28

Your Trusty Lieutenants:

● Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil) S68

● Kevin de Weert (Omega) S83

Your Warriors in the Saddle:

● Marcus Burghardt (BMC) S113

● Yann Huguet (Argos) S115 FRA

● Nicolas Edet (COF) S151 FRA

● Marco Marzano (Lampre) S170

● Pieter Weening (ORI-GRE) S195

Your Favoured Team:

● Saur Sojasun

—————————————————————————-

Punter C

● Cathy

Your Star Rider:

● Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre) S18

Your Dark Horse:

● Tejay van Garderen (BMC) S31

Your Trusty Lieutenants:

● Yaroslav Popovych (RNT) S67

● Matthew Lloyd (Lampre) S81

Your Warriors in the Saddle:

● Jimmy Engoulvent (Saur) S101 FRA

● Dries Devenyns (Omega) S133

● Roy Curvers (Argos) S158

● Vladimir Gusev (KAT) S166

● Rob Ruigh (Vacansoleil) S193

Your Favoured Team:

● Garmin-Barracuda

—————————————————————————-

Punter D

● Riki’s Tim

Your Star Rider:

● Jurgen Van den Broeck (Lotto) S12

Your Dark Horse:

● Rui Costa (Movistar) S32

Your Trusty Lieutenants:

● Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) S60 FRA

● Remy di Gregorio (COF) S73 FRA

Your Warriors in the Saddle:

● Jurgen Roelands (Lotto) S109

● Anders Lund (SAXO) S130

● Jan Ghyselinck (COF) S153

● Francis de Greef (Lotto) S177

● Daryl Impey (ORI-GRE) S185

Your Favoured Team:

● Europcar

—————————————————————————-

Punter E

● Colin D

Your Star Rider:

● Denis Menchov (KAT) S4

Your Dark Horse:

● Steven Krujswijk (RABO) S37

Your Trusty Lieutenants:

● Kenny van Hummel (Vacansoleil) S47

● Romain Zingle (COF) S74

Your Warriors in the Saddle:

● Maxim Iglinskiy (Astana) S93

● Maxime Bouet (AG2R) S116 FRA

● Patrick Gretsch (ARGO) S156

● Jelle Vanendert (Lotto) S181

Your Favoured Team:

● Lampre

—————————————————————————-

Punter F

● Joe B

Your Star Rider:

● Edvald Boasson Hagen (SKY) S9

Your Dark Horse:

● Jerome Pineau (Omega) S56 FRA

Your Trusty Lieutenants:

● David Millar (GAR) S78

● Anthony Roux (FDJ) S95 FRA

Your Warriors in the Saddle:

● Andriy Grivko (Astana) S124

● Fredrik Kessiakov (Astana) S160

● Yohann Gene (Europcar) S163 FRA

● Ruben Plaza (Movistar) S182

Your Favoured Team:

● Katusha

—————————————————————————-

Punter G

● Topher W

Your Star Rider:

● Cadel Evans (BMC) S2

Your Dark Horse:

● Nicolas Roche (AG2R) S48

Your Trusty Lieutenants:

● Bert Grabsch (Omega) S88

● Christian Knees (SKY) S103

Your Warriors in the Saddle:

● Christian Knees (SKY) S103

● Yauheni Hutarovich (FDJ) S120

● Jorge Soto Azanza (EUSK) S149

● Giovanni Bernaudeau (Europcar) S162 FRA

Your Favoured Team:

● Saxo Bank

—————————————————————————-

Punter H

● Wil F

Your Star Rider:

● Bradley Wiggins (SKY) S1

Your Dark Horse:

● Levi Leipheimer (Omega) S36

Your Trusty Lieutenants:

● Christophe Kern (Europcar) S51

● Brett Lancaster (ORI-GRE) S85

Your Warriors in the Saddle:

● Baden Cooke (ORI-GRE) S106

● Arthur Vichot (FDJ) S121 FRA

● Biel Kadri (AG2R) S143 FRA

● Kristijan Koren (Liquigas) S173

Your Favoured Team:

● Argos-Shimano

—————————————————————————-

Punter I

● Gail

Your Star Rider:

● Samuel Sanchez (EUSK) S14

Your Dark Horse:

● Chris Horner (RNT) S35

Your Trusty Lieutenants:

● Samuel Dumoulin (COF) S61 FRA

● David Zabriskie (GAR) S79

Your Warriors in the Saddle:

● Luis Leon Sanchez (RABO) S105

● Matthieu Ladagnou (FDJ) S150 FRA

● Aliaksandr Kuchynski (KAT) S168

●Laurens ten Dam (RABO) S186

Your Favoured Team:

● Omega Pharma Quick Step

—————————————————————————-

Punter J

● Sasha A

Your Star Rider:

● Tyler Farrar (GAR) S16

Your Dark Horse:

● Christian Vande Velde (GAR) S41

Your Trusty Lieutenants:

● Jerome Coppell (Saur) S46 FRA

● Sergio Paulinho (SAXO) S91

Your Warriors in the Saddle:

● Jens Voigt (RNT) S104

● Pablo Perez Urtasun (EUSK) S127

● Gorka Izagirre (EUSK) S148

● Adam Hansen (Lotto) S179

● Guillaume Levarlet (Saur) S189 FRA

Your Favoured Team:

● BMC Racing

—————————————————————————-

Punter K

● DJ

Your Star Rider:

● Jani Brajkovic (Astana) S21

Your Dark Horse:

● Mark Renshaw (RABO) S23

Your Trusty Lieutenants:

●Michael Rogers (SKY) S55

● Lars Bak (Lotto) S64

Your Warriors in the Saddle:

● Dimitry Fofonov (Astana) S71

● Ruben Perez (EUSK) S76

● Bram Tankink (RABO) S110

● Cyril Gautier (Europcar) S125 FRA

● Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil) S139

Your Favoured Team:

● RadioShack Nissan Trek

—————————————————————————-

Punter L

● Tomas S

Your Star Rider:

● Chris Froome (SKY) S17

Your Dark Horse:

● Peter Vellits (Omega) S26

Your Trusty Lieutenants:

● Tom Veelers (ARGOS) S49

● Vladimir Karpets (Movistar) S87

Your Warriors in the Saddle:

● Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar) S118

● Jean-Christophe Peraud (AG2R) S144 FRA

● Robert Kiserlovski (Astana) S161

● Juan Jose Haedo (SAXO) S190

Your Favoured Team:

● Astana

—————————————————————————-

Punter M

● Sanborn B

Your Star Rider:

● Andreas Kloden (RNT) S30

Your Dark Horse:

● Rein Taaramae (COF) S38

Your Trusty Lieutenants:

● Christophe Riblon (AG2R) S59 FRA

Your Warriors in the Saddle:

● Luca Paolini (KAT) S97

● Borut Bozic (Astana) S117

● Michael Schar (BMC) S147

● Giampaolo Caruso (KAT) S165

● Jean-Marc Marino (Saur) S187 FRA

Your Favoured Team:

● Vacansoleil-DCM

—————————————————————————-

Punter N

● Kevin R

Your Star Rider:

● Dan Martin (GAR) S20

Your Dark Horse:

● Steve Cummings (BMC) S43

Your Trusty Lieutenants:

● Egoi Martinez (EUSK) S58

● Juanjo Cobo (Movistar) S82

Your Warriors in the Saddle:

● Daniel Oss (Liquigas) S98

● Sebastian Langeveld (ORI-GRE) S137

● Sebastien Hinault (AG2R) S145

● Davide Malacarne (Europcar) S164 FRA

● Alessandro Vanotti (Liquigas) S174

Your Favoured Team:

● Rabobank

—————————————————————————-

Punter O

● Riki

Your Star Rider:

● Pierre Rolland (Europcar) S19 FRA

Your Dark Horse:

● Michele Scarponi (Lampre) S34

Your Trusty Lieutenants:

● Michael Albassini (ORI-GRE) S54

● Tony Gallopin (RNT) S69 FRA

Your Warriors in the Saddle:

● George Hincapie (BMC) S114

● Bernhard Eisel (SKY) S131

● Koen de Kort (Argos) S157

● Joan Horrach (KAT) S167

● Jonathan Cantwell (SAXO) S191

Your Favoured Team:

● Movistar

—————————————————————————-

Punter P

● Fusao

Your Star Rider:

● Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) S15 FRA

Your Dark Horse:

● Frank Schleck (RNT) S25

Your Trusty Lieutenants:

● Grega Bole (Lampre) S53

● Gorka Verdugo (EUSK) S75

Your Warriors in the Saddle:

● Johan Vansummeren (GAR)S94

● Greg Henderson (Lotto) S134

● Gustav larsson (Vacansoleil) S140

● Julien Fouchard S152 (COF) FRA

● Simone Stortoni (Lampre) S171

Your Favoured Team:

● AG2R La Mondiale

—————————————————————————-

Punter Q

● John B

Your Star Rider:

● Fabian Cancellara (RNT)  S13

Your Dark Horse:

● Ivan Basso (Liquigas) S27

Your Trusty Lieutenants:

● Alexander Vinokourov (Astana) S50

● Sebastien Minard (AG2R) S70 FRA

Your Warriors in the Saddle:

● Simon Gerrans (ORI-GRE) S111

● Manuel Quinziato (BMC) S146

● Federico Canuti (Liquigas) S175

Your Favoured Team:

● Liquigas Cannondale

—————————————————————————-

Punter R

● Steve A

Your Star Rider:

● Peter Sagan (Liquigas) S22

Your Dark Horse:

● Tony Martin (Omega) S29

Your Trusty Lieutenants:

● Vincent Jerome (Europcar) S62 FRA

● Sylwester Szmyd (Liquigas) S80

Your Warriors in the Saddle:

● Haimar Zubeldia (RNT) S107

● Cyril Lemoine (Saur) S136 FRA

● Andrey Kashechkin (Astana) S159

Your Favoured Team:

● Team Sky

—————————————————————————-

Punter S

● Jack H

Your Star Rider:

● Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) S10

Your Dark Horse:

● Bauke Mollema S33

Your Trusty Lieutenants:

● Yuri Trofimov (KAT) S66

● Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil) S84

Your Warriors in the Saddle:

● Brice Feillu (Saur) S100 FRA

● Nick Nuyens (SAXO) S135

● Johannes Frohlinger (ARGOS) S155

● Eduard Vorganov (KAT) S178

● Kris Boeckmans (Vacansoleil) S194

Your Favoured Team:

● Euskaltel Euskadi

—————————————————————————-

Punter T

● Paris B

Your Star Rider:

● Mark Cavendish (SKY) S7

Your Dark Horse:

● Sylvain Chavanel (Omega) S44

Your Trusty Lieutenants:

● Jeremy Roy (FDJ) S52 FRA

● Karsten Kroon (SAXO) S90

Your Warriors in the Saddle:

● Matthieu Sprick (ARGOS) S92

● Cedric Pinneau (FDJ) S122 FRA

● Martin Velits (Omega) S138

● Dominik Nerz (Liquigas) S176

● Michael Morkov (SAXO) S192

Your Favoured Team:

● Cofidis le credit en ligne

—————————————————————————-

Punter U

● Aaron C

Your Star Rider:

● Matt Goss (ORI-GRE) S8

Your Dark Horse:

● Nicki Sorensen (SAXO) S45

Your Trusty Lieutenants:

● Danilo Hondo (Lampre) S65

● Maxime Monfort (RNT) S89

Your Warriors in the Saddle:

● Fabrice Jeandesboz (Saur) S129 FRA

● Marcel Sieberg (Lotto) S180

● Julien Simon (Saur) S188 FRA

Your Favoured Team:

● Lotto Belisol

—————————————————————————-

Punter V

● Paul W

Your Star Rider:

● Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) S3

Your Dark Horse:

● Sandy Casar (FDJ) S42 FRA

Your Trusty Lieutenants:

● Amael Moinard (BMC) S72 FRA

● Chris Anker Sorensen (SAXO) S108

Your Warriors in the Saddle:

● Albert Timmer (ARGOS) S123

● Luis Angel Mate (COF) S154

● Vasil Kiryienka (Movistar) S183

Your Favoured Team:

● Orica GreenEdge

—————————————————————————-

Enfin! At last, a definitive list of Les Combattants – The Tour De France Start List July 1, 2011

Posted by atomicsaddles2011 in Tour De France 2011.
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Bonjour amis. Here are the riders, categorised by team. The circled number following riders is their seeding position in the ASSOT (Atomic Saddles’ Scheme of Things). Please note that the seeding doesn’t correspond to the odds of a rider winning the race, or even a stage: it indicates that rider’s chance of winning you a bottle of Moldavian Spumante and a fist full of cash. Yes, lower numbers are better.

So this fellow, Alberto Contador is ⓢ1, for example. You might hope to draw him from the hat on the morrow. His race number (the number he wears on his bike, and is pinned to his back), is, as it happens, also number one. He rides for Team Saxo Bank Sunguard, and if you haven’t already guessed, he is le top chien.

Un autre example. This fellow is Romain Zingle, age 12, who doesn’t have a seeding at all, but he does have a very splendid name. You might not be overjoyed to pull Romain out of the (wooly?) hat, unless, like Atomic Saddles, you have a penchant for riders with exotic (preferably unpronouncable) names. Romain rides for Cofidis, the team that was only allowed to participate in this year’s race if it promises ‘to try harder, and stop pretending that the dog ate its homework’. His race number is #139, and I think he would be delighted to finish in that position in Paris three weeks from now.

Here is the startlist (if you click on a rider’s name, it will take you to his page at the great site run by the nice people of CyclingNews):

This ‘ere is Julian Dean, the Kiwi Feller, unseeded but still quite capable of winning you some plonk in a sprint. No mean time trialist either.
This is Alexander Vinokourov. I would say ‘or ‘Vino’ to his friends’, except he hasn’t got any. He rides for the team that he built/bought to propel a certain Alexander Vinokourov to stardom, wealth and power. He would kick my teeth in if he knew I had only seeded him at number 21. Now you know why Atomic Saddles prefers to use a Nom de Plume. Vino is The Future President of Kazakhstan, it sez ‘ere.
Ivan ‘Shine Up Your Buttons’ Basso. Will he or won’t he? He has had a nice long rest and a cup of tea (didn’t defend the Giro d’Italia this year in preparation for Le Tour), but the ‘Faceplant Gigantico’ that he suffered in training on Mt Etna (’15 stitches to the face’) seems to have knocked him off course a wee bit. I say he won’t. Thus only seed #24. But I wouldn’t mind pulling him out of the hat, I must say.
Bonne chance, everyone!