Stage 6

The first rainy stage in the Tour today. After yesterdays amazing sprint finish, Cavendish took a back seat at HTC Highroad today to allow for Australian Sprinter Matthew Goss to have a go at the win. The 3 short climbs coming into the finish allowed the final break riders to be caught and good ole Thomas Voeckler to have a go before the big boys lined up for a sprint finish.

Jose Rojas, Thor Hushovd, Romain Feillu and Philippe Gilbert all lined up at the line with team Sky rider Edvald Boassen Hagen just getting there first - his first stage at the Tour.

The break of the day included Lieuwe Westra and Johnny Hoogerland who must have only just recovered from their previous breakaway rides in stages 1 and 4. Their gap strengthened to 10 minutes at one point before being pulled in towards the final km's of the day.

Most of the classifications remain the same with Thor Hushovd still in yellow, Philippe Gilbert in Green and Geraint Thomas in White. Johnny Hoogerland however takes his first career jersey and will ride in polka dot tomorrow.

Tomorrows stage takes the riders south from Le Mans for 218km arriving in Chateauroux for a sprint finish. No categorised climbs feature tomorrow so expect a long break and a bunch sprint, watch out for Mark Cavendish.

Fantasy League

Some big movers today as the teams featuring Boassen Hagen make big gains. It was his first win at the tour so he picked up the 50 point "first stage win" bonus. Team M&M moved from 7th to 2nd and Team Type 2 (even after losing Janez Brajkovic yesterday) moved from 8th into 3rd.

Team Heeead is still out front due to the successes of Philippe Gilbert and Jose Rojas and Team "My Boys" is still in the lantern rouge spot after Andy Schleck, Fabian Cancellara and Nicholas Roche have yet to score serious points.

League stats

Stage 6 scoring riders: 48

Stage 6 high scoring rider: Edvald Boassen Hagen - 110

Highest scoring rider in single stage: Philippe Gilbert - 195

Highest scoring rider total points: Philippe Gilbert - 391

Second highest scoring rider: Jose Rojas - 241

Third highest scoring rider: Thor Husvhod - 226

Stage 4

Cadel Evans took his first true win at a stage in the Tour today. Though he was awarded a win in stage 13 of the 2007 in retrospect upon Alex Vinokourov's doping ban - today was his first outright stage victory.

The stage finished with a sharp 1.7km Cat 3 rise to the finish, known as the "wall" of Bretagne for a reason. It was an incredibly elite group who finished together after the 172km stage. Contador initially attacked with 1.4km to go, followed by Philippe Gilbert and Evans. Thor Hushovd was in the mix all the way to the line even taking over the attack at one point. Because of his efforts he will retain the yellow jersey - quite a feat for the world champion seeing as those attacking on the climb included Evans, Contador, Frank Schleck and Sammy Sanchez - some of the best climbers in the world.

It was certainly a good day for Thor, there is little doubt that he will now retain the yellow jersey for the remainder of the first week.

Evans was also a surprise winner, though very close to the yellow jersey going into the stage it was tipped as Gilbert's stage. When Contador attacked, clearly with something to prove, few doubted he (or the following Gilbert) would win. So for the Australian to have matched everyones wheel, move for move, is a very good sign heading into the mountains next week.

Fantasy League

Today saw the highest number yet of riders to receive points in a stage. A total of 50 riders achieved points today from 76 points going to breakaway instigator and the stage's most aggresive rider Jeremy Roy all the way down to 1 point for Maciej Paterski, currently ranked 10th in the White Jersey classification.

Those with Evans on their team picked up big points today. The BMC rider netted a total of 75 fantasy points, Thor Hushovd and Frank Schleck also picked up quite a few.

Team Heeead is still way out front, thanks largely to the success of Jose Rojas and Philippe Gilbert in the first few stages. Both were first time wearers of their respective jerseys and have finished high up in each of the first 3 road stages. Both of these riders however should, if all goes as is expected, fall by the wayside in the mountains as the true climbers come to form, so it will be very interesting to see how the leader board changes over the next 10 days.

Tomorrow is a shorter 164km stage with another bunch sprint to finish. The final 70k are all coastal though with high winds expected. Expect peleton splits and riders attacking in the final 10-15km...look for those classics guys and expect Hushovd to be right at the front.

Stage 3

A sprinters stage today in the Tour took the riders 198km from Olonnes-sur-mer to Redon further North. The only "climb" of the day, a short Cat 4 bridge crossing caused some serious problems for the peleton as a major split occured leaving favourites such as Sylvain Chavanel and Ivan Basso with some ground to make up.

The breakaway got off to a good start within the first 3km of the stage and built up a lead of no more than 5 minutes. They lasted well and went through the intermediate sprint taking the top 5 spots of the points classification. The riders, none of which are featured in any of the fantasy league teams this year, finally broke down with around 20km to go, though Jose Gutierrez (former Spanish TT champion) pushed on until 8km to go.

Into the final 2km and the sprinters teams who had been working hard for the 8km prior began to seriously ramp up the pace. HTC seemed to have things under control though with 1km to go Cavendish lost the wheel and their train fell apart. It was Garmin-Cervelo who stepped up to take over with yellow jersey wearer Thor Hushovd taking a huge turn on the front to slingshot Tyler Farrar to his first ever Tour de France stage victory.

Fantasy League

Today's win for Farrar sent shockwaves through the fantasy league leader board. Team M&M gained a huge 132 points from the success of Farrar and Edvald Boassen Hagen amongst others and shot from 8th to 2nd place. Team Type 2 also rocketed into 3rd position.

Yesterdays lantern rouge winner, Hanan/Thompson Cycling, went from last to 8th place today just showing how much difference one rider can make to a teams points haul - especially early on in the race.

Most teams have now picked up a good level of points from one of their riders with Thor Hushovd, Jose Rojas, Philippe Gilbert and Tyler Farrar each netting over 100 points each at this stage. The lagging teams, perhaps more suited for the mountains, will undoubtedly gather some significant points once we hit the Pyrenees.

Tomorrows stage is another sprinters day though with the deceivingly tough Mur-de-Bretange to get over I think there may be some fireworks on the horizon.

Stage 2

Stage 2 and the Team Time Trial over and done with today in France. A good result for Garmin-Cervelo sees Thor Hushovd pick up his 3rd career yellow jersey who will hope to now carry it throughout the first week.

With 3 flat stages next on the agenda Hushovd will undoubtadely (barring any crashes or serious mechanicals) be in the yellow for a while. Even up until the race hits more mountaineous stages 8 and 9 both with tougher uphill finishes, I suspect Thor will remain in yellow. He is a tough rider who can roll through the hills unlike some of his other Sprinter counterparts.

Unfortunately for Alberto Contador his Saxo Bank Sungard team did nothing to help his time losses in today's stage. After his relatively large losses of 01' 20" in yesterdays events he lost a further 00' 22" to the lead today and is now sitting 01' 38" behind most of his main competition.

After Andy Schleck staying exactly with Contador in the mountains in last years race and only losing by the 00' 39" margin Contador put on Schleck when the Luxembourger dropped his chain - I would think the Spaniard will be getting nervous about this years race...especially considering the Giro already lingering in his legs.

Tomorrow holds a day for the sprinters, with no doubt HTC's Mark Cavendish looking for his first win of the Tour. The mainly flat 198km will take the riders from Olonne-sur-Mer to Redon further North.

League Rankings:

Some more movers and shakers today in the league rankings, many points were gained with the overnight calculation errors (see below) having been addressed. But also due to Garmin's win today and Thor Hushovd's move to the top of the GC many teams picked up points.

Team My Boys moved off the bottom spot and joined Team Fast and Random in a tie for 11th. Hanan/Thompson Cycling is now in the lantern rouge spot! An interesting intrafamily battle is happening already for 4th spot where the 3 Akeroyd siblings are within 4 points. No doubt things will shake up again tomorrow with the allocation of more sprint points and no doubt another breakaway...who will be picking up most of the intermediate sprint points.

Some initial calculation hurdles have been overcome in the fantasy league in the past 24 hours, much to be expected seeing this is the first edition. Firstly the points yesterday weren't accurately calculated for the breakaway riders, some missing out on their 15 point breakaway bonuses. Then today it was decided to award the riders in Garmin-Cervelo the 5 point "Team mate stage winner" bonus as the Tour does not award points for finishers in the TTT. Also there was some confusion as to the validity of the Polka dot Jersey classification yesterday and today.

Overnight no leaders had been posted or points awarded for riders in the top 10 of the mountains classification - however after consideration and an emergency officials meeting it was decided today, seeing as Gilbert is listed as leader of the Mountains Classification and Thor Hushovd today was de facto wearer of the polka dot jersey (as Gilbert was in yellow and Evans de facto wearer of the Green) points will be applied in retrospect for yesterdays Polka Dot leaders.

All updated points and rankings can be find to the right and left hand side of this post.

Stage 1 GC confusion

With the crashes that occurred at both 8km and 3km to go there was initial confusion as to who finished where and who had lost time. I can confirm the main GC contenders and their overall GC positions and time gaps after day 1 below:

2nd Cadel Evans - 00' 03"

5th Jurgen Van den Broeck - 00' 06"

7th Andreas Kloden

10th Chris Horner

12th Frank Schleck

15th Damiano Cunego

17th Alexandre Vinokourov

19th Nicholas Roche

33rd Andy Schleck

38th Levi Leipheimer

39th Janez Brajkovic

44th Ivan Basso

50th Bradley Wiggins

75th Robert Gesink

79th Samuel Sanchez - 01' 20"

82nd Alberto Contador

96th Ryder Hesjedal - 01' 55"

99th Roman Kreuziger

Those numbers may look significant, especially the 01' 17" gap from Evans to Contador but with multiple bumpy stages between here and the mountains where team tactics and peleton breaks are likely...not forgetting more crashes PLUS tomorrows team time trial, I think the leader board might be changing a lot before we hit the Pyrenees.

Stage 1

The race got off to an explosive start today with world number 1 and by far best performing rider of 2011 Philippe Gilbert darting away on the final climb to claim his first TDF stage victory and first ever yellow jersey.

The race went to plan up until 8km to go with a small 3 man break consisting of:

Jeremy Roy - FDJ

Lieuwe Westra - Vacansolei-DCM

Perrig Quemeneur - Team Europcar

forming after just 53 seconds of official racing. They went on to hold a lead of around 4 minutes until the gaps started to drop nearer the finish. With around 20km to go they were caught at the team of former French Champion Thomas Voekcler went to work at the front.

With 8km to go a major crash mid pack took down around 40 riders and split the peleton in 2, with Team Europcar still pushing on the front this gap opened up quickly. Alberto Contador, Robert Gessink, Sammy Sanchez, Andy Schleck and Levi Leipheimer were among those caught out.

Onto the final Cat 4 climb to the finish and with the gap now approaching 1 minute to the second group it was Alexandre Vinokourov who initiated the attack, being quickly chased down as passed by a charging Fabian Cancellara. With 500m to go Philippe Gilbert who had been positioning himself for the win throughout the finishing stages surged past Cancellara to victory, his first ever in the tour. Cadel Evans finished second, putting valuable time into his rivals.

Fantasy League:

Gilbert was the big fantasy points winner of the day, picking up 20 for being top of the GC and Points classifications, 50 for his first ever stage win, 40 for being in the yellow jersey for the first time and 40 for being in the green jersey for the first time (though it will be worn by Evans tomorrow due to also being in the yellow). His total points haul was 195, the most by more than 120 points.

Due to winning the combativity prize, plus being present in the break and picking up 15 points at the sprint it was Europcar's Perrig Quemeneur who picked up the next most points at 70. Though he is not included in any of this years fantasy squads.

The leading team by a large margin heading into day 2 is Team Heeead with a staggering 294 points, 220 points more than the team in 2nd place. This was hugely down to this team being the only in the league to include Philippe Gilbert but also picking up points for Team Heeead were Chris Horner, Jose Rojas and Jurgen Van den Broeck.

I am happy to say that all teams picked up points in the opening day, with the lantern rouge on day 1 going to team "My Boys" who thanks to Linus Gerdemann's 11th place finish picked up 10 points.

It will definitely be interesting to see how things shape up tomorrow at the team time trial.

Hope you all enjoyed the first day, it was more explosive than we all thought, get some rest and wake up early for stage 2 tomorrow.

Enjoy the weekend!

The Tour

Well ladies and gentlemen the race is upon us.

Entries are in for this, the first annual Tour de France Fantasy League, and in just a few short hours the 191km first stage of this years race will begin. The first 2 days of this years race will be 2 of the most decisive in recent years. Day 1 holds a cat 4 climb finish where all the tough "finisseur" and Classics riders will be up for the fight. Day 2 holds the Team Time Trial and will no doubt put some valuable time between the main contenders.

The 2011 Tour de France Fantasy League in numbers...

Total Teams: 13

Nations represented: 4

Most picked rider: Fabian Cancellara (chosen by over 50% of players)

Most picked team leader: Andy Schleck

Most picked team: Leopard Trek (21 total picks)

Least picked teams: FDJ and Saur Sojasun (zero picks between them)

It will be interesting to see how the race pans out for the leagues most picked rider Cancellara. The dominant yellow jersey wearer in the first week in 3 of the past 4 TDF's he will undoubtedly struggle more in this years race, with only 1 shorter time trial and no prologue.

It was no surprise to see Leopard Trek emerge as the most picked team. The new "Schleck" brothers outfit hosts a plethora of tour favourites including, of course, both Schlecks, Cancellara, Jens Voigt and Stuart O'Grady - it will be interesting to see how the team fairs in the overall team standings against the possibly stronger teams of Radioshack and Garmin-Cervelo.

Quickstep with its incredible showing in 2010 thanks mainly to the efforts of Sylvain Chavanel have also faired well in the Fantasy League selection process. Chavanel was selected in 4 teams and his team-mates picked up another 7 selections.

Good luck to all who entered, this is hopefully the first year of many future leagues so bare with me, I've hopefully got everything set-up to make this process fun, fair and fast.

Enjoy!