heywoodu

Chris Froome led the short strike/protest by the way. Shooting himself in his own foot there, since the little delay might mean the grupetto finishes in the dark.

But he was already visible in the peloton, in red

War on the first little climb already, Bennett is screwed badly.

And only Luis Angel Mate actually went to the start at the right time and was half a kilometer ahead of the rest

Well it's Staverden, so...it's basically either the castle or setting up a tent in the forest around it There's some rooms reserved, maybe go ahead and get a taste of the Uddelaer beer to try and deal with the Black Lady, why do you think our Irish friend and his buddy Seamus are located here?

is in Only @thepharoah for Egypt and @amen09 for Tunisia are still missing, although our Egyptian friend answered positively yesterday, so I have good hopes. Other than that, @LDOG is the only jury member missing, but since our other Argentinian contestant has voted, Argentina is already known to be officially in for a while.

Delegation location 8 - Staverden In the woods around Ermelo, we find a city - although you do either have to know it's there or just happen to stumble upon it, as yours truly once did. We could list all of the inhabitants without too much hassle, since Staverden is home to only 30 people. That is not a typo: 30 people, and with that Staverden officially is the smallest city in the Benelux - it was granted city rights in 1298, the German emperor confirmed them in 1309, but around 1320 the idea of a true city was given up and so Staverden remained small...but a city. Staverden castle, which lands comprise basically the entire city of Staverden The main reason of existence for Staverden is the castle with the same name, built around the year 1300 and rebuilt and restyled several times since those days. The local dukes used it as a hunting castle and had to keep and protect it for the count, with one of their obligations being to keep white peacocks there: the feathers were used to decorate the count's helmets - the nickname of 'White Peacock's Keep' didn't come out of nowhere. This tradition is still around, although the feathers aren't used to decorate helmets anymore, and every two years one person or organization who has meant something for the cultural and natural heritage of the Gelderland province receives a white feather. This is a peacock and the keen observer will have noticed that it's white Reading this takes longer than walking through Staverden, so we'll finish up with the local legend: there's a sort of monument behind the castle, with the text 'Leonora 1353' engraved into it. According to legend, this is about Lady Leonora van Barchem, who was supposed to get married with some dude. She married someone else, but he went on a crusade and the first guy tried to swoop in and then killed her lover when he came back. Leonora went to live with her foster mom - Eleonor of Woodstock of the royal House Plantagenet, married to the local count - at Staverden and slowly withered away and died in 1353. The 'Black Lady of Staverden' is still around, according to locals, and at night one can hear her cries around the castle, a place one should avoid during the night. The stone monument for Leonora, the Black Lady of Staverden - seeing her means certain death, so get out when you hear her greet the peacocks and let out her cries of torment and sadness Lastly, a less...eery kind of fun fact: double Olympic hockey champion Jacques Brinkman leads a brewery at the Staverden castle since 2018, where they brew De Uddelaer, named after the nearby town of Uddel. Apparently this beer is getting popular around here and one can go and get a tour from the hockey legend himself. Delegations in Staverden Italy Malta Ireland

Of course I'll make myself available as well.

[hide] Week 2 - Stages 7-12 Stage Top 3 Riders Vitoria-Gasteiz - Villanueva de Valdegovia Stage 7 October, 27th 1st: Omar Fraile 2nd: Alex Aranburu 3rd: Jonathan Lastra Robert Power Tim Wellens Michael Woods Esteban Chaves Ricardo Carapaz Remi Cavagna Guillaume Martin Nans Peters Dan Martin Jetse Bol Rui Costa Primoz Roglic Willie Smit Omar Fraile José Herrada Enric Mas Luis León Sánchez Alejandro Valverde Logroño - Alto de Moncalvillo Stage 8 October, 28th 1st: Primoz Roglic 2nd: David Gaudu 3rd: Enric Mas Michael Woods Esteban Chaves Ricardo Carapaz David Gaudu Guillaume Martin Dan Martin Davide Formolo Wout Poels Rui Costa Aleksandr Vlasov Primoz Roglic Enric Mas Marc Soler Alejandro Valverde Sepp Kuss B.M. Cid Campeador. Castrillo del Val - Aguilar de Campoo Stage 9 October, 29th 1st: Pascal Ackermann 2nd: Sam Bennett 3rd: Jasper Philipsen Jasper Philipsen Gerben Thijssen Magnus Cort Mihkel Raim Lorrenzo Manzin Emmanuel Morin Pascal Ackermann Max Kanter Sam Bennett Jakub Mareczko Matteo Moschetti Dion Smith Jon Aberasturi Castro Urdiales - Suances Stage 10 October, 30th 1st: Pascal Ackermann 2nd: Sam Bennett 3rd: Jon Aberasturi Jasper Philipsen Gerben Thijssen Magnus Cort Mihkel Raim Lorrenzo Manzin Emmanuel Morin Pascal Ackermann Max Kanter Sam Bennett Jakub Mareczko Matteo Moschetti Dion Smith Jon Aberasturi Villaviciosa - Alto de La Farrapona. Lagos de Somiedo Stage 11 October, 31st 1st: Sepp Kuss 2nd: Wout Poels 3rd: Guillaume Martin Felix Grossschartner Michael Woods Esteban Chaves Ricardo Carapaz David Gaudu Guillaume Martin Hugh Carthy Dan Martin Davide Formolo Wout Poels Aleksandr Vlasov Primoz Roglic David De La Cruz Enric Mas Mikel Nieve Marc Soler Alejandro Valverde Sepp Kuss La Pola Llaviana/Pola de Laviana - Alto de l'Angliru Stage 12 November, 1st 1st: 2nd: 3rd: Felix Grossschartner Michael Woods Esteban Chaves Ricardo Carapaz David Gaudu Guillaume Martin Hugh Carthy Dan Martin Davide Formolo Wout Poels Aleksandr Vlasov Primoz Roglic David De La Cruz Enric Mas Mikel Nieve Marc Soler Alejandro Valverde Sepp Kuss [/hide]

Officially, yes, but if tomorrow morning works better, that's perfectly fine as well.

Belgium going into a near authoritarian-like lockdown effective immediately. People can't visit each other anymore, with an exception for singles: they're allowed to have one cuddle contact

A total of 31 out of 35 nations have now voted. I have had positive responses earlier in the week from @thepharoah, @Janakis and @amen09 and today received word out of Malta that their votes are coming in either today or tomorrow morning, which is entirely fine by me. This leads me to believe there's a 99% chance of having all nations in the contest As for multi-member juries, I haven't had word yet from @LDOG, @Gianlu33 and @Olympian1010. I hope they'll vote, but if they don't, it's not a major issue in terms of countries being disqualified.

Votes are pouring in left and right.

Although that will also man there's going to be a significantly lower number on election day itself. Curious how the total turnout will end up.

Aaaaand Roglic is in the lead What a mess, the Vuelta organizers themselves don't seem to know whether or not it's a sprint or uphill finish. It was listed as sprint (there's an official list of uphill finishes) and that has an effect on the rules about how big the gaps need to be before seconds start counting.

He would have been right until 2017, when the rules changed

Except they're not on the same time

For the leader of a youth classification, Enric Mas has a very worrying hairline.

I have PM's from New Zealand, Canada, Malta and Slovenia, I'm assuming/hoping they contain votes but will look when I'm with my personal laptop (soon)

Choosing Ackermann and Bennett for this Oh my, the failure is too big.

I should have spent more than just a minute looking at the profile before making my predictions, completely missed it's more of an uphill finish than a sprint finish Today would have been a perfect day to pick Aranburu or something..

Bennett has been dropped from the peloton by the way.

Wait, his father accused him of fraud? And 80% of Jordan's people are born in Palestine? I am a little confused but very interested

Ireen Wüst finished outside of the 1500m medals at the Dutch championships just now, the first time she's not on the podium since 2004 (!).