Tour de France Pool 2010!

As winner of the Tour de France Pool 2009 held by Meyrick Jones, I decided to step up and copy all of his questions from last year and apply them to this years tour! Very original I know.

How to play:

1. Answer the 18 questions below in an EMAIL. They are mostly multiple choice... easy peasy...

2. Send the e-mail to me at the address below:

vlavallee @ gmail.com

3. Lay your smack talk down in the comments section below if you wish....

4. Watch the Tour and enjoy!

5. Winner is the respondent with the most points after the final stage on the Champs-Élysées.

6. Have your votes in before the first racer starts on Saturday.

7. Anyone who tells me the results of a stage before I have been able to watch it, is automatically disqualified.

The PRIZE:

Bragging Rights.

Spoils of Victory - The winner will also receive a soon to be prestigious (and highly sought after) custom "TdF Pool 2010 Winner" image to display on blogs or websites - if you don't have a blog you can print it and put it on your refrigerator. Your friends will all be jealous!

Since I am not very good at photoshop. It will be last years image with some shotty altering to say 2010!

Also, local prize. We will go to All you can eat Sushi at BC Sushi sometime and winner gets paid for by the rest of the attendees. If I am the only person who shows up with the winner, well then it could also be a romantic date.

Without further ado...

The Questions

1. Lance is getting old, he just announced his retirement will be official after this years Tour. Predict Lance Armstrong's final placing in this year's two individual TTs. Add the numbers together. What is the sum? (ex: finished 1st and 3rd = 4)

(1 point)

A. 2-5

B. 6-9

C. 10-14

D. 15-20

E. 20+

2. Will Lance end up ahead of Frank Schleck in the GC? (1 point)

A. Ahead

B. Behind

3. How many stages will Cavendish win? (1 point)

A. 0-1

B. 2-3

C. 4-5

D. 5+

4. What will the winning individuals avg speed be in the Individual time trial Stage 19 in km/h?

(ITT Stage details are HERE)

-Within 1 km/h = 5 points

-Within 2 km/h = 3 points

-Within 3 km/h = 2 points

-Within 4 km/h = 1 point

-off by >4 km/h = deduct a point

5. Who will win the polka dot jersey for King of the Mountains? (1 point)

6. How many riders will be banned, fired for suspicion, or otherwise ejected due to doping related issues? (1 point)

Only during the race are riders counted (July 4th to Finish in Paris)

A. 0-2

B. 2-4

C. 4-6

D. 6+

7. Which team will finish the tour with the most riders? (1 point)

8. What will the average speed bein km/h for Stage 17 finishing on the Col du Tourmalet.

-within 1 km/h = 5 points

-within 3 km/h = 3 points

-within 4 km/h = 1 point

-off by 4+ = deduct a point

9. What will the margin of victory be in the GC? (The margin in minutes and seconds between winner and runner-up.)

(1 point)

A. 0-1 minute

B. 1:01 - 2:10

C. 2:11 - 3:20

D. 3:21 - 4:30

E. 4:30 - 5:40

F. 5:41 +

10. Who will win the GC? (1 point)

11. Who will win the Green Jersey? (1 point)

12. Which OLN broadcaster will win the competition they have each year to predict winners? (1 point)

A. Paul Sherwen

B. Craig Hummer

C. Phil Ligget

D. Bob Roll

13. Will it rain during any of the TTs? There are 2... (1 point)

A. YES

B. NO

14. Who will end up being the team leader for Saxo Bank? (1 point)

A) Frank Schleck

B) Andy Schleck

15. What is the second longest stage of this year's tour? (1 point)

16) Will Fabian Cancellara ride away from the competition again for a stage victory. (1 point)

17) Will Jens Voigt bring the pain? (1 point)

18) How many useless full day escapes will Sylvain Chavanel from Quick Step be involved in?

A) 1

B) 2

C) 3

D) 4

E) 5+

Good Luck!

Catching Up

I had a great Victoria Day weekend and decided I didn't want to let it slip by without describing.

Ride 1) 50k

The weekend started off with the now customary hammer ride Friday night. We had a newcomer this week with Derrick Lee. I think he enjoyed it despite the screaming pain in his legs and the screaming in his ears (HAMMER RIDE!).

Ride 2) 75km

To follow this up did a great bike ride Saturday morning. A group of 7 of us headed out to Horseshoe bay/ Whitecliff. It was a little cold of a morning, however, I opted against jacket and legwarmers and apart from a few short moments didn't find the cold too much. This was a great ride and Winston guided the way as the group of us followed. This turned out to be the longest ride ever for a few people. The group somewhat shattered on the way back as people turned off to go home or do more mileage.

Group arriving in Whitecliff Park

Winston posing at the Cliff

In the end it was only Mel and I riding through Stanley Park and along Beach road. As long as I have been in Vancouver I don't think I have done a Saturday morning ride without passing the hot dog stand on my way home and wishing that could stop and get one. Well this day Mel made a passing comment about the hot dog smell and that was all the excuse I needed to stop. After 3 years in Vancouver I finally stopped for a hot dog.

Mel and I with the most delicious hot dogs ever!

Tip, want to make food taste good. Ride 70km before eating

Ride 3) Cancelled, it was raining and I didn't want to get wet.

Ride 4) 162km!!!

On the Monday holiday a group of 6 of us attacked the north shore. Starting with Seymour, followed by some Indian River road and then a quick jaunt to Horseshoe Bay. As I was heading home over the Burrard Bridge saw Mel and Brittany heading the other way and decided to meet up with them and finish of my century ride. I was pretty surprised at how good my legs felt. I took Seymour pretty strong (dumb with lots of surges but strong) and by the end of the day my only problem was leg cramps however my muscles felt great and refreshed.

Weekend total: 287km. Pretty good.

When I add up all my mileage for the month of May I did 900.5km of riding. Not bad for a month with two weekend races!

A little excessive..

So I came across this on Bruce Schneiner's blog. A lot of interesting facts there, however, this seemed ridiculous.

The Canadian government disclosed Tuesday that the total price tag to police the elite Group of Eight meeting in Muskoka, as well as the bigger-tent Group of 20 summit starting a day later in downtown Toronto, has already climbed to more than $833-million. It said it’s preparing to spend up to $930-million for the three days of meetings that start June 25.

That price tag is more than 20 times the total reported cost for the April, 2009, G20 summit in Britain, with the government estimating a cost of $30-million, and seems much higher than security costs at previous summits the Gleneagles G8 summit in Scotland, 2005, was reported to have spent $110-million on security, while the estimate for the 2008 G8 gathering in Japan was $381-million.

These numbers are crazy. There simply isn't any justification for this kind of spending.

By comparison, the estimated total cost of security for the 17-day 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver was just over $898-million.

This, too. Think of all the actual security you can buy for that money.