Friday, March 27, 2015

Dwars door Vlaanderen - Topsport come out on Top

What's up Pance Fans? Seeing as E3 Harelbeke was today, I guess it means it's time to catch up on the happenings at Dwars door Vlaanderen, which I believe happened around Flanders a couple of days ago. 


If like me, you've been around for a few years, (and judging by the by the state of the Tour de Pance league, you have), then you have probably noticed that Quickstep, or whatever they are called this season, are the team to beat at this time of year. So I think a "chapeau" is in order to the cycling minnows at Topsport Vlaanderen, who managed to work over Quickstep's talented, and I imagine well-paid World Champion, Michal Kwiatkowski to take a 1-2 at Dwars door Vlaanderen. I've always had a soft-spot for Jelle Wallays when I cast my eyes over the Velogames start list, because he has an awesome and pun-worthy name, (please leave any catchy Jelle Wallays puns in the comments, and I'll try to recycle them next year when he's riding for a proper team).


Unfortunately, I like to stick to the ProTour boys for my picks, so Jelle didn't get the call-up for the Bile Beans. In fact, no-one got the call-up for the Bile Beans, as I didn't get my shit together to make any transfers. I did have some guys pencilled in, but seeing as they wouldn't have scored any points, it was probably for the best. My loss  was the Kleofekappers gain.

Stage 2


Hopefully, coming up before Gent - Wevelgem, will be the E3 report. I'm optimistic that I might possibly maybe do it tomorrow. On the one hand, I scored some points, on the other hand, anyone who didn't score points on my team fell off.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Milan - San Remo: Bile Beans Best at La Primavera

Let us ignore the fact that the Dwars door Vlaanderen finished a couple of hours ago and take a look at how Milan-San Remo panned out this year. I was pleasantly surprised to catch a bit of the race on TV Sunday morning. However, it seemed that things were going a lot like they did last year, Nibali did a futile attack and Kristoff got the win. 


Then it occurred to me, that I was actually watching last year's race and before I could catch much of this year's race I had to go out. So once again I was reduced to following things on the internets, where it turned out that John Degenkolb won.


So it all turned out quite nicely for the Bile Beans in the end, with the top 2 riders and a few more sprinkled through the top 20, I got mostestest points. Not that there's much in it and my failure to make any transfers before the start of Dwars door Vlaanderen probably won't do me any favours when those points come in.

Overall

Friday, March 20, 2015

Fantasy Classics 2015!

Hello again. It looks like the Fantasy Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico passed me by, for I was jet-setting it around the world to attend the exclusive Chanbot wedding. Unfortunately, due to illness of a digestive nature, I wasn't able to fully deliver on my promise to get drunk and make a scene, but I'm sure I probably congratulated the Chanbot on his win at the Vuelta last year at some point.

To be honest I did just have time to pick a Paris-Nice team before I left. They had a bad start, but by the end of the race the Bile Beans had improved their performance to become mediocre.


Some may say the Bile Beans days of stage race success are behind them, but I have been doing quite nicely in the Classics for the last couple of years. So I present you with the code for the Tour De Pance Fantasy Classics league. Have at it!

League Code: 20204341

I know I say it every year, but be careful with those transfers people! And if you have the time, use the startlists over at CyclingFever to try and plan ahead a few races.