The Tabletop Tour de France - Part 5

This weekend Catherine and I managed two more races in our Flamme Rouge replay of the 2024 Tour de France. We're coming out of a rest day and, if you remember from the previous part, the scores are looking close.

Stage 10 runs from Orleans to St Amand-Montrand and is completely flat. Not even any cobblestone sections. There are a couple of supply zones though.

An early headwind would slow down the start, but there was a nice tailwind just after to give everyone a boost. As ever red and blue did the breakaway.

Catherine's green riders started well, although red and blue really pulled away early. I got a bit stuck near the back, as I'd decided not to throw away my good cards too early

Whilst we obviously want to beat the bot players, the real competition is between Catherine and myself. My aim was to beat her. Going into the final run to the finish I was still slightly behind her riders.

But I'd saved up my sprints and pushed through to gain what I think was my first win, as well as a fourth place for my second rider. It was a close finish, though; all of these riders finished on the same turn.

My win put my pink team in joint first place with Catherine's green team. Her rouleur was still ahead of mine on points, but my sprinteur was doing better than hers.

After that nice easy race (in game terms anyway) Stage 11 offered more challenges. This run from Euaux-les-Bains to Le Lioran is a nightmare of ascents; our first challenging mountain sections.

Red and blue went into the breakaway, but this time it was red's sprinteur who was out there; not the best strategy on a mountainous section like this, but that's bot teams for you.

The weather was nasty; the only really fast open section was at he start and was affected by a crosswind then a headwind which would prevent slipstreaming and general speed at precisely the points when we'd need such things. This race was going to be a slog.

Red and blue got out in front and ran a great race. The white peloton team pushed one of their riders into the lead. Once again I found myself close to, but just behind, Catherine's riders.

A well-times push saw me edge ahead of her in the run to the finish. There would be no epic sprint over the line, though.

White, red and blue picked up the top three spots well ahead of everyone else. But my rouleur picked up fourth place, whilst Catherine finished mid-table. 

I got my timing sorted in these races, managing my cards well early on and pushing my riders into teh attack at just the right moment. And I finished the stage with a small lead over Catherine's team - 167pts to her 163pts. White is in joint second with 163pts, and blue is in fourth with 162pts, so it's all still very close and there's ten stages to go. Catherine's rouleur is still the best individual rider, though.