Just 5 km today, but vertical rather than horizontal. Stage 9 was fascinating from start to finish, and produced the expected shake up in GC. Those slipping out of contention on the final climb included Simon Yates and Guilio Ciconne. The young pink jersey holder Lopez battled to keep it into the second week, despite throwing his toys out of the pram – or more accurately his water bottle at Sam Oomen – after he was brought to a near stop by others braking suddenly.

Team of the Day

Jai Hindley’s thrilling win – outsprinting Bardet and Carapaz at the top of the Blockhaus – delivered a stage win to Callan, Dale and Stephen, whose Team Ciclominaccia won the day on points (100^th out of the whole Velogames competition!) with 4 riders in the top 10:

The aggregate score for all the mini-league teams was the second highest of the stages so far, despite a rare achievement – aargh I feel bad about mentioning it now – but hot on the heels of the Eurovision Song Contest, Iseabel’s Hormonal Teenager scored nul points on Stage 9.

Rest Day Round-up

In the GreenWightRed mini-league:

1. Don’t ruin it for me (DS Paul W) 3431 pt
2. Cashing the Giro (DS Simon) 3103 pt
3. Stay upright, damn it! (DS Martin) 3073 pt

In the Top Ten Tally:

• =1^st Don’t ruin it for me (DS Paul W) – with 17 top 10s (6 podiums)
• =1^st Stay upright, damn it! (DS Martin) – the same
• 3^rd It’s all downhill from here (DS Philippa) – 15 top 10s (6 podiums)

In the Trophy Cabinet:

1. Thin Fat Boys (DS David) with 22 jerseys and prizes! [*** correction – I accidentally gave away David’s team to Paul M – Sorry! ***]
2. Questa Traduzione è Sbagliata (DS Dale) with 15 (including 4 stage wins)
3. (equal) Lube your gears with porridge (DS James) and Yo Adrian (DS Bendey) with 13 each.

The appearance of Yo Adrian on the podium is remarkable in at least two ways: firstly the prize accumulation to date doesn’t include a single stage win (unique in the mini-league) and secondly in the mini-league, Yo Adrian have been flirting with the Maglia Nera, at the foot of the table. The DS and General Manager of Yo Adrian “MH”, who operates under the professional name of “Bendey”, revealed to me that the Rocky-inspired team name ((4) Rocky II (12/12) Movie CLIP – Yo Adrian, I Did It! (1979) HD – YouTube) is also the key to his overall race strategy:

I’m fairly certain that I will languish down the bottom, taking heavy punches from the likes of [names redacted to protect the innocent], however, on the final rest day my team will perform an uplifting training montage set to some stirring 80’s music before making an almost unbelievable comeback. This will see their battered bodies perform (non-drug-induced) miraculous performances, giving my team places 1 through 9 on the final day after an exclusive all-day breakaway that finishes 30 minutes ahead of the peloton and hence mini-league victory. That’s how I see it playing out anyway.

Bendey (Stage 6 post-stage interview)

I see that a slight uptick after Stage 9 heralds this incredible finale, so I’m cueing up Eye of the Tiger for Monday 23rd May!