Useful links

If you haven't already picked your team...

Here is a link highlighting the top 10 contenders - CLICK HERE

Here is a link for the official Tour start list, if any riders are on here that aren't included in my lists please let me know and I will amend the pdf's - CLICK HERE

Plus here is an official stage preview - CLICK HERE

All major rider changes are listed below:

In Team Garmin-Cervelo Johan Van Summeren has been replaced in the line up by veteran David Millar. There categories and points will remain the same.

Christophe Riblon and Edvald Boassen Hagen, both riders who could have good showings this year are still "unsure" as to their condition. Riblon is getting over a back issue and Hagen stuggling with Shingles. I will keep everyone up to date with the situation.

On the Team Katusha line up Pavel Brutt and Egor Silin have been added to the roster replacing Arguelyes and Ovechkin. Both new riders will be classified as 6 point domestiques.

And finally HTC have added sprinter Bernard Eisel to their squad who will act as another leadout man for leader Mark Cavendish. Eisel is ranked as a 12 point sprinter.

Rider updates and the National Championships'

A few rider updates heading into the final Pre-Tour week.

FDJ climbing guru Pierrick Fedrigo has decided to pull out of his teams line up for this years race due to an on going back injury. The veteran Frenchman won a stage at last years race and this year would be his 8th consecutive start.

FDJ will line up with other French veterans Sandy Casar and Anthony Roux and will hope to have a successful year as one of the 4 wild card teams in this years race.

A pre race illness seems to have the race chances of Team Sky wonder boy Edvald Boassen Hagen on the ropes after he was diagnosed with shingles last week. The 24 year old Norwegian is a 5 time national time trial champion and finished 6th in the points classification at last years Tour de France. His withdrawal is not yet official and I will update as things are announced.

This weekend past was that of the National Cycling championships around the world. This can often be the ideal indicator as to pre Tour de France form for many of the top riders. Here is a link to the results summary (http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/2011-national-champions-summary) but shake ups of note include the pre race favourite in France - Tommy Voeckler of Team Europcar being out ridden by Sylvain Chavanel and Anthony Roux with Chavanel just clinching the victory. All 3 were in an aggressive mood and broke from the pack with 27km to go finishing well in front of the remaining field.

In the Spanish Road championships pre tour favourite Alberto Contador broke away on the final climb along with Movistar sprinter Jose Rojas and was out sprinted by 1 second to steal the national title - which Contador has never won. Rojas will be a hot contender in the points classification at this years race following his 4th place finish in the Green Jersey competition last year.

There were no surprises however in the Belgian nationals when UCI world rankings leader and 2011 show stopper Philippe Gilbert finally stole his first national championship after 4 times finishing second. He broke the field in 2 with 100km to go and pushed hard from the front, with 2km to go on a cobbled section he made his move and went on to win. He will be a hard man to beat in some of the up and coming stages of this years Tour de France.

Also some additional information the Team Europcar riders: Yohan Gene, Vincent Jerome, Perrig Quemeneur and Sebastian Turgot have all been added to this years line up. They are free to be added to your squads with all being classified as "Domestiques" and all will be worth 3 points, excluding Turgot who will also be a "Domestique" but valued at 9 points after his 7th place Points Classification finish at last years race.

Good luck in choosing your squads and remember to get the forms back asap,

Mike

Rider Lists OUT

The official Fantasy League riders lists have been released. If you haven't received the email with the entry form, rule summary, riders points and riders categories fire me an email : mikaadams@hotmail.com

Do your research!

Mike

Shake Ups!

Plenty of shake ups in the world of cycling over the weekend.

With only 12 days to go until the start of the 2011 Tour de France teams are frantically shuffling and reshuffling their provisional start lists before the cut off date for team rosters passes next week. However the task is proving ever difficult this season with the emergence of some new and very genuine threats to what has become in recent years Alberto Contador's race.

In the Tour de Suisse an all but wrapped up race for Lampre-ISD's Damiano Cunego was taken away from him on the final ITT by the veteran Radioshack rider Levi Leipheimer. Levi stormed the final 32km ITT to pip Cunego to the top spot of the podium by a sliver of 4 seconds. There were other shuffles in the final GC also as Rabobank's young Bauke Mollema falls to 5th and pre race favourite Frank Schleck to 7th.

This has also put a spin on the pre tour UCI world rankings with Cunego and Leipheimer shooting up the rankings to 20th and 18th respectively. Andreas Kloden, Kruijswijk, Fuglsang and Mollema have all climbed up to higher positions within the top 50 also.

All you have to do is look at the preparation of some of these riders in the past few months to see that they are clearly aiming for victory, or at least a podium in Paris. Though not a new threat but still a huge one, BMC's Cadel Evans has gone through all the necessary pre tour steps and races to get himself in the best shape possible - BMC also announced yesterday a highly "Cadel" focussed team for this years race that will sacrifice everything they have to try and get their team leader the top spot on the podium. However it is in riders such as Robert Gesink, Jurgen Van Den Broek, Nicholas Roche, Benat Intxausti and of course Andy Schleck who I believe will be the real challengers in this year's race. They have all been put in teams that are almost entirely centred around putting them in the best position for victory and they have all been through rigorous pre tour training and race sharpening events throughout Europe.

That said I wouldn't count out the old boys yet. As I mentioned Cadel Evans is in the form of his life heading into this years race, put that alongside a very much on form Bradley Wiggins, Ryder Hesejdal, Andreas Kloden and Levi Leipheimer and you have yourself a race.

This years tour could be the best in decades. Count on attacks, aggression, team tactics, fighting, crashes, sprints and breakaways - it's going to be a fight to the death out there.

Tour de Suisse

This years Tour de Suisse, while not coming to a close until after Sunday's 32km ITT, already looks - baring any crashes - wrapped up by Lampre ISD's Italian superstar Damiano Cunego. This looks to be good news for the Lampre squad who have been supporting Cunego since he joined in 2005 after his Giro D'Italia win in 2004 at the young age of 22.

He has since had a relatively quiet career always placing well in overall standings but baring 2 more top 10 finishes in the Giro, a win at the 2008 Amstel Gold race and best young rider in the 2006 Tour, has yet to rack up another major victory.

This year however he has been performing well and is now back inside the UCI world top 75 after picking up a stage at the Tour de Romandie. After now looking to have wrapped up the definite "pre Tour fitness" race at the Tour de Suisse it will be very interestng to see how he fairs against Lampre's newest addition - 3rd ranked in the world this year - Michele Scarponi come the Tour next month.

The stages thus far at this years TDS have turned out in the following fashion:

Stage 1 prologue: Cancellara 1st - 9 seconds in front of Tejay Van Garderen in 2nd

Stage 2 149km mountains: Movistar's Juan Moricio Soler breaks from Cunego, Frank Schleck and Danilo Di Luca to take the win

Stage 3 107km mountains: Peter Sagan from Liquigas pips Damiano Cunego to the finish in a very close few meters

Stage 4 198km rollers: Thor Hushovd finally picks up his first stage win of the year to outsprint Peter Sagan from Liquigas

Stage 5 204km flat: Vacansolei's team work paid off for Borut Bozic as they outsmart the sprinters teams to beat Oscar Friere and once again...Peter Sagan to pick up the win

Stage 6 157km mountains: After his impressive top 10 in the Giro D'Italia Rabobank's Steven Kruijswijk outclimbs the rest of the field to take an impressive win atop of the HC Triesenberg/Malbun ascent

Stage 7 222km mountains: Large 17 man break propels Andy Schleck and Vacansolei's Thomas De Gendt to a final attack - De Gendt took the win with Schleck a further 35 seconds back.

Tomorrow is the final full stage of racing before the final 32km ITT on Sunday. The GC, as mentioned, is currently looking well wrapped up by Cunego and I have summarised the top 50 below. Assuming all things stay the same Damiano will take the win and himself along with Frank Schleck, Bauke Mollema and Steven Kuijswijk will all be heading into the Tour with some confidence.

GC Summary

1st - 27:09:49 Damiano Cunego

2nd - 0:01:23 Bauke Mollema

3rd - 0:01:36 Steven Kruijswijk

4th - 0:01:41 Frank Schleck

5th - 0:01:59 Levi Leipheimer

12th - 0:05:15 Maxime Monfort

20th - 0:16:18 Andy Schleck

22nd - 0:19:30 Ryder Hesjedal

41nd - 0:34:52 Andreas Kloden

UCI rankings, Cadel Evans and the French team line-up

UCI World Rankings

With the Criterium du Dauphine officially finished and GBR's Bradley Wiggins taking his first major race win of his Pro Tour career the UCI World Rankings have shuffled around considerably from this time 2 months ago pre Giro D'Italia.

Not only are they used by the world governing body to decide how many rider's each nation will be able to field at the World Championships but they are a very useful tool for cycling buffs who want to evaluate rider's performances across a season.

Since wrapping up the Dauphine in France yesterday Wiggins, Cadel Evans and Alexandre Vinokourov have all moved up the rankings - now sitting in 12th, 4th and 7th positions. Early season classics start Philippe Gilbert of Belgian team OmegaPharma-Lotto is in the narrow lead of Giro winner Alberto Contador. The convincing winner and clearly in good form Joaquin Rodriguez of Team Katusha is sitting in 5th with other TDF GC rivals Sammy Sanchez and Robert Gessink in 13th and 14th.

UCI World Rankings top 20

1 Philippe Gilbert - 356 points

2 Alberto Contador - 349 points

3 Michele Scarponi

4 Cadel Evans

5 Joaquin Rodriguez

6 Fabian Cancellara

7 Alexandre Vinokourov

8 Vincenzo Nibali

9 Tony Martin

10 Matthew Goss

11 Andreas Kloden

12 Bradley Wiggins

13 Samuel Sanchez

14 Robert Gessink

15 Christopher Horner

16 Tom Boonen

17 Roman Kreuziger

18 John Gadret

19 Benat Intxausti Elorriaga

20 Marco Pinotti

Cadel Evans

After winning the early season Tirreno-Adriatico and Tour de Romandie races yesterday Australian Cadel Evans added a third solid result to his 2011 palmares of 2nd place in the Tour du Dauphine. Evans was quoted as saying he was "happy with second...for once" maybe shedding some light on his less than aggressive riding in the mountains of France over the past week, hinting to the fact that this race may have purely been used for training.

The 34 year old still has a few more attempts at Tour victory though some may think this might be his last real shot with youngsters such as Jurgen Van Den Broek, Robert Gessink and of course Andy Shleck rapidly ascending the ranks.

French team rosters annouced

With less than 3 weeks to go before the start of the tour teams have already began to announce their rider line ups for the race with the French teams of AG2R, Cofidis, Europcar, FDJ and Saur-Sojasun announcing their roster's today.

While not fully confirmed and with most roster's including more than the regulation 9 riders, it is clear there are still some decisions to be made.

AG2R

Team Leader - Nicholas Roche

Blel Kadri (recovering from injury)

Christophe Riblon

John Gadret

Cyril Dessel

Jean-Christophe Peraud

Maxime Bouet

Sebastian Hinault

Mathieu Perget

Hubert Dupont

Anthony Ravard

Lloyd Mondory

Cofidis

Team Leader - David Moncoutie

Rein Taarame

Samuel Demoulin

Julien El Fares

Nicholas Vogondy

Mickael Buffaz

Leonardo Duque

Romain Zingle

Aleksejs Saramotins

Europcar

Team Leader - Thomas Voeckler

Cyril Gautier

Pierre Rolland

Anthony Charteau

Christophe Kern

Sebastian Chavanel

Yukiya Arashiro

FDJ

Team Leader - Sandy Casar

Pierrick Fedrigo

Jeremy Roy

Anthony Roux

Remi Pauriol

Yauheni Hutarovich

Anthony Geslin

Saur-Sojasun

Team Leader - Jerome Coppel

Arnaud Coyot

Jonathan Hivert

Jimmy Engoulvent

Yannick Talabardon

Pre Tour racing update

All the races running up to the Tour each year are always used by the top riders to hone their pre tour fitness/sharpness. The 2 big ones are of course Le Criterium du Dauphine and Le Tour de Suisse, both of which are currently ongoing.

Le Dauphine ends tomorrow with a final day in the mountains and Le Tour de Suisse just kicked off today with another 8 days of racing to go.

Janez Brajkovic of Team Radioshack won the Dauphine last year but this year has failed to impress. Currently in the lead heading into the final day is Team Sky's Bradley Wiggins with an impressive margin of 0:01:26 over a dwindling Cadel Evans.

The race this year has featured some excellent climbing (as is expected) to test the rider's legs and those of note certainly include Cristophe Kern of the newly formed Team Europcar, who rode to an impressive win yesterday in the mountains and is now sitting 5th in the GC. Team Europcar has featured heavily throughout this year's Dauphine and are leading the team standings by 12 seconds over Astana. Centered around French heavyweight Tommy Voeckler I suspect they will be an aggressive force at this years tour.

Leading the points classification heading into the final day is Spaniard Joaquim Rodriguez, who after a mighty Giro D'Italia where he finished 5th and an impressive 8th place at last years tour is showing strong form. He took today's stage in the high mountains with a strong ride up the final 11.2km HC climb to Le Collet d'Allevard finishing 31 seconds ahead of an almost as strong looking Robert Gessink and Jurgen Van Den Broeck a further 8 seconds back.

Further East at the start of the 75th annual Tour de Suisse reigning time trial world champion Fabian Cancellara took the win in the opening 7.3km prologue of his home event. Reigning champion Frank Shleck is also returning this year alongside his younger brother and tour favourite Andy Shleck - it is guessed Andy will be riding in support of his older brother this week, with the tables being turned at next months Tour. That said I wouldn't count out a strong but rudderless Team Radioshack (now without their heroic leader Armstrong) but with a mighty group consisting of Andreas Kloden, Christopher Horner and Levi Leipheimer all vying for top spot heading into next month's race I suspect quite the battle with the Shleck's over the next few days.

The final piece of news for the day is that reigning Tour and Giro champion Alberto Contador, the newly crowned leader of Team Saxo-Bank SunGard, has announced today that while still not fully recovered from last month's challenging Giro D'Italia he will be on the start line of the tour next month. Though with continued controversy surrounding his last year's failed TDF drug test it is unsure how long his current racing licence will last before a possible ban is imposed. If so all win's from that date back to and including the 2010 Tour de France will be forfeit.

While some teams are beginning to announce tentative tour rosters I suspect most will not be released until after June 19th, with most coming around the week of June 20th. Until then I will continue everyone up to date with the current happenings in the important pre Tour races.

Mike

2011 Tour de France Fantasy League

No one cares about the Vuelta or the Giro – it’s ALL ABOUT THE TOUR.

The tour is right around the corner so I thought I’d let you all know about my 2011 TDF fantasy league. Become your own directeur sportif and hand pick your team of 9 riders who will go head to head with the other teams in the league, the team with the most points come the Champs-Elysees will win, both the competition and the right to boast about it for the next 11 months.

There are some interesting Fantasy League rules as well to try and make it as fun and exciting as possible over the race, breakaways, virgin stage winners and those who attack will all be rewarded – not just those leading the GC.

The rules have been inserted below so you can all brush up on the league guidelines and once the team rosters have been released the rider list will be sent out so you can start picking your players.

Mike

2011 Tour de France Fantasy League RULES

Each team must have 9 riders.

1 rider from each of the 4 categories (Overall/Sprinter/Climbers/Domestiques) must be chosen with a limit of 1 from the Overall and Sprinter categories (these will be specified in the rider list)

Riders will be assigned points and each team will have a total budget of 150 points.

All Tour de France issued race points apply to each rider – these are inclusive but not limited to green jersey points/KOM classification points and all intermediate sprint points.

Extra Fantasy bonus points will be applied after each stage for the following criteria:

Daily General, Points and KOM classifications
1st - 10 points

2nd - 9 points

3rd - 8 points

4th - 7 points

5th - 6 points

6th - 5 points

7th - 4 points

8th - 3 points

9th - 2 points

10th - 1 point

Teammate stage winner – 5 points

Riders in the daily breakaway* – 15 points

Riders in a successful breakaway* (doesn’t get caught) – 25 points

Rider wearing a jersey (Yellow/Green/Polka/White) for the first time in career – 40 points

Rider who is awarded the daily combativity prize – 40 points

Rider who goes on to win the stage from a breakaway* he was in – 50 points

First stage win in rider’s career – 50 points

Final overall standings

GC - 1st-20th (100 points for 1st down to 5 points for 20th at 5 point increments)

Points - 1st-10th (50 points for 1st down to 5 points for 10th at 5 point increments)

KOM - 1st-5th (50 points for 1st down to 10 points for 5th at 10 point increments)

* Breakaway – The league definition of “breakaway” is any group of 15 riders or fewer who split from the peleton at any stage of the race up to the final 40km. They must achieve a time gap of at least 2 minutes and sustain this for a minimum of 39.9km.

In the case of there being 1 breakaway that then gets caught by another breakaway group, so long as this is done before the final 40km and done before the gap to the peleton decreases past 2 minutes, then as long as the total riders in the new group does not exceed 15 riders then all riders will be awarded points. If the group is formed within the final 40km only the riders from the initial breakaway will gain points.

If the larger group forms at a gap smaller than 2 minutes but then stretches to more than 2 then all riders will gain points. At no point can a group stretch past 15 riders and still be considered a breakaway.

If the league officials cannot watch the live Versus coverage of each stage then the daily CYCLINGNEWS.COM play by play race report will be taken as final.

League officials (ME) – daily points will be calculated by the league officials, official tour points being taken once the results are posted by tour officials and official league points being applied thereafter. Daily rankings will be posted on the blog as soon as all results are in and calculations have been completed. Any complaints or queries about calculations or the application of points must be submitted via email to the league officials within 24 hours of the stage finish.

Extraordinary circumstances – In the case that any catastrophic event or act of god takes place that in turn effects the result of a stage then the league officials reserve the right to alter points awarded. For instance if a rider is involved in a serious or fatal accident that results in the rest of the peleton acting in a ceremonial or respectful manner, for instance neutralising a stage or sprint, then the stage points may be disregarded. If a rider is disqualified due to unsportsman like behaviour or a postitve clenbuteral test then all points for said rider will be disregarded. If in doubt though the group will be consulted and a consensus reached by the officials.

Bring on the tour!