Fantasy Giro d'Italia: the winners

How was your Fantasy Giro? here at road.cc we hope you've enjoyed playing this year. We certainly have, save for the bit where the server had a bit of a funny turn and booted us out for an evening. Computers, eh? Anyway, the dust has settled on an excellent race that went down to the very last day on the streets of Milan. Hesjedal ended up with the real Maglia Rosa, but who's wearing the virtual one today?

It's been close at the top all the way through the Giro, but in the end it's fitting that Team Cairns take the win. They've been there or thereabouts since a score of 176 on stage 8 catapulted them into the top 20, and from then on they've been super consistent, working their way up to first place and occupying it for most of the second half of the race. It always looked possible that they might get overhauled, and they did drop from the top on a couple of occasions, but they didn't really make any mistakes and in the end were comfortable winners, by 59 points, with a grand total of 2,546 points. That's an average of 121 points a stage.

Things did change on the podium on the last day though. MATT2THEDISATALLFELLA had a bumper 175-point haul on the last day, climbing four places to second spot on 2,487 points. Third place went to The Manx Missiles, nine points further back on 2,478.

So Team Cairns take the top spot, and also the main prize: a Jamis Xenith Comp bike worth £1,499. Podium latecomers MATT2THEDISATALLFELLA weren't playing the premium game, so second prize of a pair of Suplest Supzero Streetracing Road Shoes worth £249.99 goes to The Manx Missiles, and despite just missing the podium in the overall game The Mighty Bulls climb on to the third premium step, nabbing a Louis Garneau Quartz helmet worth £99.99.

In the purist league the kings of the no-transfers crowd were Two Wheels for the Third World, with an impressive 1,479 points. It's tough to pick a team of nine for the disparate types of racing that go on over the three weeks of a big tour, but having Hesjedal, J-Rod and Basso throughout is a pretty decent base to build on, and they picked some riders who picked up decent points on a number of stages along the way, such as Demare and Nieve. Sprint Lads Climb Lads were 24 points back in second, with Big Ring Climbers a further 21 points adrift in third.

On top of those overall positions there's stage winners to be announced. The lovely chaps at Upgrade Bikes furnished us with a big box of Lezyne goodies to hand out to our stage winners, including Carbon Pressure Drive mini pumps, Mini Drive LED front lights, Steel Floor Drive pumps and road tool bundles. The full list of winners is below and we'll be contacting everyone today.

Next up: Criterium du Dauphiné

You don't have to wait long for the next race: the Criterium du Dauphiné starts on Sunday 3 June. Traditionally a warm-up race and form predictor for the Tour de France, the Dauphiné normally attracts some big GC contenders and this year is no exception. Currently on the start list are Bradley Wiggins, Cadel Evans, Andy Schleck, Vincenzo Nibali, Joaquin Rodriguez, Chris Froome, Juan José Cobo, Samuel Sanchez, Denis Menchov… plenty of talent to choose from!

To get your team selected head over to fantasy.road.cc now! Good luck!

Giro d'Italia: winners

Overall

1 Team Cairns           2,546
2 MATT2THEDISATALLFELLA 2,487
3 The Manx Missiles     2,478

Premium

1 Team Cairns           2,546
2 The Manx Missiles     2,478
3 The Mighty Bulls      2,465

Purist

1 Two Wheels for the Third World 1,479
2 Sprint Lads Climb Lads         1,455
3 Big Ring Climbers              1,434

Stage winners

1  PATHETICO ATHLETICO           217
2  Wheeler dealers               154
3  Handlebar Heathens            201
4  The Manx Missiles             106
5  Team Spartacus                196 (joint highest: decided by number of transfers)
6  RichMitch's Cycling Bitches   131
7  Skipollini Racing             135
8  Wardys-Wonderers              183
9  Il Grillo                     124
10 Skye Pro Phsyche-ling         192
11 radovanovica                  143
12 Ee By Schleck                 121
13 Team Romantico                160
14 TeamMattFinish                195
15 Team Raleigh                  187
16 amc654                        124
17 cobble wobblers               240
18 ellysunit                     163
19 serge78                       221 (joint highest: decided by coin toss)
20 Team Dunwoody                 183 (joint highest: decided by coin toss)
21 Team Miguelon                 199