Dunas Douradas - Albufeira 151 km

A new race that as far as I know hasn't been available for a wide TV audience before but will be this year thanks to Eurosport. More live racing, gotta love that.

This is the traditional kick-off for the serious stageracers and Ardennes specialists. With five stages, generally hilly/climby and the final stage being a 26 km timetrial it's the perfect course for them to gauge the quality of their winter preparation and get back into the rhythm of racing.

Last year's race was won by Tony Martin ahead of Tejay Van Garderen and before that Contador has won two years in a row. All in all it also reads like a pretty good preview to who will do well at Paris-Nice.

Stage 1 is lumpy-ish with a flat finish, made for a sprint-battle.

Podiumcafe likely suspect: Gerard Ciolek

Official site , Startlist , Stageinfo

Live video:16:45 CET (10:45 US EST, 02:45 AUS EDT)
Video: steephill , cyclingfans , Procyclinglive , Sports Livez.

I hope it hasn't escaped anyones attention that this year through the hard work of our in-house wizard Ted, the women's FSA DS competition is connected to the old trusty men's version on the same site. The rules are slightly, slightly different but the basis is the same for those of you who are familiar with the old VDS game. Most importantly, for those of you are signing up to play the men's game that means you can easily put together one more team and double your chances of gaining all-important bragging rights. Simply select Women in the top right corner, name your team and pick your riders.

For those of you who aren't that familiar with the calendar the women race this will familiarize you with it and give you a brief overview of some priorities you might want to consider. Later on we will also look closer at some of the races and give some ideas on riders that might be interesting. But for now, the racing calendar.... follow me after the flip:

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Sealine Beach Resort - Doha Corniche 120.5 km

Last day of the fun in the sand.
Podiumcafe's likely suspect: Andrea Guardini

Official site , Startlist , Stageinfo

Live video:13:00 CET (07:00 US EST, 23:00 AUS EDT)
Video: steephill , cyclingfans , Procyclinglive , Sports Livez.

Camel Race Track - Al Khor Corniche 160 km

Today can't possibly be as good as yesterday. Or can it?
Podiumcafe's likely suspect: Adam Blythe (still)

Official site , Startlist , Stageinfo

Live video:13:00 CET (07:00 US EST, 23:00 AUS EDT)
Video: steephill , cyclingfans , Procyclinglive , Sports Livez.

Al Takhira - Madinat al Shamal 147.5 km

Climbers, no sorry, sprinter's stage. Podiumcafe's likely suspect: Adam Blythe

Official site , Startlist , Stageinfo

Live video:13:00 CET (07:00 US EST, 23:00 AUS EDT)
Video: steephill , cyclingfans , Procyclinglive , Sports Livez.

Dukhan - Al Gharafa Stadium 146.5 km

Quick Step to protect a slim lead for Boonen.

Official site , Startlist , Stageinfo

Live video:13:00 CET (07:00 US EST, 23:00 AUS EDT)
Video: steephill , cyclingfans , Procyclinglive , Sports Livez.

Bad news for Alberto Contador as CAS overturns the ruling of the Spanish federation and hands out a two year ban. The ban is backdated,starting from January 1 2011 so he loses the 2010 Tour & 2011 Giro victories and is out from racing until August 5 2012 (time deducted for the provisional suspension served) . This also means that Andy Schleck gets the 2010 Tour win, Michele Scarponi is the winner of the 2011 Giro and anyone hoping to win this years Vuelta can probably start aiming for second place instead.

UCI pressrelease , CAS Press release, Full CAS decision in english (big Pdf)

Image by: Bryn Lennon, Getty Images Sport

Lusail - Lusail 11.3 km TTT

First team timetrial of the season. Usually a bit of prestige in this one.

Official site , Startlist , Stageinfo

Live video:13:00 CET (07:00 US EST, 23:00 AUS EDT)
Video: steephill , cyclingfans , Procyclinglive , Sports Livez.

Barzan Towers - Doha Golf Club 142.5 km

Sand > Mud. The road racing season is here.

Official site , Startlist , Stageinfo

Live video:13:15 CET (07:15 US EST, 23:15 AUS EDT)
Video: steephill , cyclingfans , Procyclinglive , Sports Livez.

The riders are ready. 61000 people are ready in the sandpit of Koksijde. We're ready. Let's go!

Where will they be racing? On sand!

Who will be racing? Startlist

Where can I watch? Sportz-livez or Cyclingfans

When does it start? At 15:00 CET. Sporza have prerace from 13:30

Big Day is here! We start the action off with the women's race. Massive crowds expected today.

Where will they be racing? On sand!

Who will be racing? Startlist

Where can I watch? Sportz-livez or Cyclingfans

When does it start? At 11:00 CET.

Who will win? It's all a huge mystery. Get some hints here

Swedish olympic silver medallist and current national champion Emma Johansson crashed in training on Grand Canaria yesterday. Apparently both she and the oncoming car managed to swerve, avoiding what might have been a fatal accident according to Emma J in an interview with Swedish television. The accident still resulted in two broken collarbones and some bad bruising. Swedish Eurosport also mention a possible arm-fracture although the Swede herself made no mention of it. She hoped to be back in training in four or five weeks considering herself lucky to escape without even more serious injuries. Recovery will be hard though as two fractured clavicles makes her very handicapped, needing help even to eat and drink

The accident occurred at the end of a 220 km trainingride. An oncoming car overtaking another car illegally, crossed over in the opposing lane in a curve with poor visibility, meeting the rider head-on.

This was the second Hitec Products - Mistral Home rider to collide with a car in the off-season. New signing Sylwia Kapusta also crashed in training earlier this winter but with less serious consequences.

For hundreds of years danish vikings raided, pillaged and conquered the continent. Perhaps then it was only fair that the same would be done to them eventually but really? Getting plundered by a real-estate mogul from a tiny, tiny taxhaven, is that dignified? Would Canute the Great have stood for that? Would Harald Bluetooth? Anyways the house that Bjarne built was more or less left as a half-empty shell as the newly formed Leopard team pinched all the stars and some of the best support riders and staff. Riis bounced back with the spectacular signing of Alberto Contador but a lot of the old depth was lost . So 2011 looked like a very different year for Saxo.

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I have no words but Stybys new ride is pink. Discuss. Race is live now.

VIDEO

In the discussion on the VDS calendar Broerie mentioned smaller races that were available to watch via feed but weren't included in the VDS. As my memory is, let's say, limited I'm asking for some help here. What races can you remember watching this year that were not VDS races?

It's time for prizes!

At long last it's time to give out the prizes for our inaugural women's racing VDS competition. In the end it was a very tight race, only decided in the very last races of the season.

Our winner, Chuck Martel gets a Podiumcafe Jersey and first pick from our shwag-collection, put together at the races this year by the Artist formerly known as Pigeons. There are six team-themed packs to chose from: Nederland Bloeit, Garmin-Cervélo, HTC, Horizon, AA Drink and a Mixed pack.

Our second winner was the man who managed to put together the lowest combined ranking in the VDS  and the WVDS: FrankV and his Vlammende Vedettes were 6th in the WVDS and 3rd in the VDS (among those DSs who had teams in both competitions). Very impressive and for his effort he too wins a PdC jersey and second pick from the shwag box. 

The podium finishers in the WVDS , mpw5 and Albertina both get a Podiumcafe T-shirt and one shwag-pack each for their fantastic effort. All of you who won prizes, check your email so we can get the details on how to get you your prizes.

To round things off I'd like to thank everyone for playing this season. It has been great seeing the enthusiasm and the rivalries, I even got a sweet pair of cow-slippers out of it. And last but not least I'd like to thank, Monty for the tons of work he put in, especially on the tech side, and for being a fountain of knowledge on even the obscurest of facts of women's races; and Sarah ConPigeonolly for all her help steering us right with her insight and knowledge. 

Next year the WVDS will be back, bigger and better and I look forward to even more people joining in on the fun.

Below are the full combined results :

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We've had three polls and while we also had a discussion on what men's teams do best in the social media it turns out that wasn't even necessary when it came to the women. The polls themselves turned out to be a good indicator of which teams are the most influential in that arena. As it turns out the polls became something of a powerstruggle in the ability to mobilize the fanbase. And the winners are:

Rider of the year: Emma Pooley

Pooley won the Battle of the Emmas when the Garmin fans made a late surge to best the norwegian Hitec fans in this poll. Despite a collarbone injury Pooley put together quite the season grabbing the first World Cup win of the year at Trofeo Alfredo Binda and wrapping it up winning the Tour de l'Ardéche. In between she had a strong Giro only losing out to phenom  Marianne Vos on a rampage. 

Best Moment: The Giro duels between Emma Pooley & Marianne Vos

No one really doubted the quality of Marianne Vos but the step up she took this year to be competitive in the toughest climby stagerace on the calendar impressed most of us. To win it she had to  overcome Emma Pooley, the dominant climber in the euro peloton, in a series of hard stages. It made for memorable racing and had the rest of the field fighting for a distant third place.

Team of the Year: Hitec Products

Building steadily towards an established elite team, Hitec took a major step in 2011 with the recruitment of Emma Johansson. With her they upped their level, becoming a winning team. As the season progressed they became more and more a force to be reckoned with and the two biggest wins of the season , Omloop Het Nieuwsblad & Thüringen Rundfahrt, came as a result of strong teamwork. They ended up the third ranked team and are already looking to advance in 2012 with strong signings like France's Christel Ferrier-Bruneau.

Photos by Sarah Connolly & Dave Reitbergen via www.hitecproducts-uck.no

Final category, rider of the year. The nominations and motivations are here if you want some help picking. Cast your vote after the flip.

The poll closes on Sunday Noon Pacific

GO HERE TO VOTE

Cast your vote for your favorite moment in 2011. All the alternatives come from last weeks nomination thread. After the flip you find the poll and video of the nominated moments in case you missed the highlights of the year.
The poll closes on Sunday Noon Pacific

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This week we turn the voting to the women's categories. Start off by casting your vote for best team. If you didn't follow the nominations already you can find some of the arguments for the nominated teams here.

Polls will stay open til Friday Noon Pacific.

This is the part where it gets tricky...

Picking the nominees for best day of racing. Now for men's racing we have a gazillion races that we all watched and enjoyed, from shit small races in January to monuments in October. Women's races? Not so much. If you were lucky maybe you saw two or three races all season? We got to see the Worlds races of course and Plouay came on after much screaming at the computer, the highlight-shows of theTrofeo Alfredo Binda and GiroDonne were brilliant as usual. But all in all, unless we enjoyed a race because of some terrific race reports from Pigeons or Monty or some extra special tweets, we really don't have much of a selection to base our judgement on. Maybe Düsters desperate fight to stay away at the Tour of Flanders, followed by her teammates winning counterattack was the highlight of the year? Or how about the three best VDS riders of the year battling on the Mur de Huy was? 

What I'm saying here is my candidate for best moment is that day in December(?) when the UCI announce that they are going to make a serious push to bring us live images of the big women's races. I'm not holding my breath but it would be a wonderful and much needed initiative. 
On the road I simply cannot look past the finale of Plouay where Marianne Vos completely rides herself to the ground to set up Van Vleuten's race-winning attack so that's my nominee. If it had been Jens Voigt or Fabian Cancellara doing something similar it would have been the basis for stories we would tell the grandkids.

For some video of the big races to help you pick a favorite there is aways the World Cup Highlights: Binda/Flanders ,  Drenthe/Fléche , Chongming/Valladolid , Vårgårda/Plouay and the GiroDonne highlights

Continuing the season wrapup it's time to nominate your candidates for best female rider and best women's team of 2011. Now, in order to avoid this turning into part 673 in Chris's ongoing Coming Dutch Hegemony series I'm counting on you guys to get a little creative here. The cold hard facts can be found in our VDS Ranking and in the CQ rider & team rankings but as we know the stats don't always tell the whole story (shut up ursula).

So have at . Who deserves the titles of Rider of the Year & Team of the Year? Don't  just let us know who, as always on the cafe, the why is every bit as important.

Time for the second 2012 Grand Tour presentation. We may already know the route but the all important fashion choices of those present are still a mystery.

Live video: 11:30 CEST (05:30 US EDT, 20:30 AUS EDT)
Video: Livestreaming worldwide via LeTour , cyclingfans

Barely did we put the 2011 season to bed with Il Lombardia before it's time to mock look forward to 2012. The presentation of the 2012 Giro route will no doubt be packed with glitz, glamour, scantily clad models and hairgel. Lots of hairgel. Don't miss it.

Live video: 15:00 CEST (09:00 US EDT, 00:00 AUS EDT)
Video: Livestreaming worldwide via the excellent  GazzettaTV 

Milan - Lecco 241 km

Big season finale. The Race of the Falling Leaves, for the last time in it's traditional end of season timeslot. Next year, living leaves, better startfield.

Official site , Startlist , Raceinfo

Live video: 14:00 CEST (08:00 US EDT, 23:00 AUS EDT)
Video:  Gazzetta , steephill , cyclingfans ,  Procyclinglive , Sports Livez.

Milan - Lecco 241 km

Big season finale. The Race of the Falling Leaves, for the last time in it's traditional end of season timeslot. Next year, living leaves, better startfield.

Official site , Startlist , Raceinfo

Live video: 14:00 CEST (08:00 US EDT, 23:00 AUS EDT)
Video:  Gazzetta , steephill , cyclingfans ,  Procyclinglive , Sports Livez.

Milan - Lecco 241 km

Big season finale. The Race of the Falling Leaves, for the last time in it's traditional end of season timeslot. Next year, living leaves, better startfield.

Official site , Startlist , Raceinfo

Live video: 14:00 CEST (08:00 US EDT, 23:00 AUS EDT)
Video:  Gazzetta , steephill , cyclingfans ,  Procyclinglive , Sports Livez.

Voves - Tours 230.5 km

Just two big races left of the season. Lombardia next weekend for the climbers and today's Paris - Tours for the rouleurs and sprinters. 

Keep a special eye out for Kurt Asle Arvesen who is racing his last race today.

Official site , Startlist , Raceinfo

Live video: 15:15 CEST (09:15 US EDT, 23:15 AUS EST)
Video: steephill , cyclingfans ,  Procyclinglive , Sports Livez.

Voves - Tours 230.5 km

Just two big races left of the season. Lombardia next weekend for the climbers and today's Paris - Tours for the rouleurs and sprinters. 

Keep a special eye out for Kurt Asle Arvesen who is racing his last race today.

Official site , Startlist , Raceinfo

Live video: 15:15 CEST (09:15 US EDT, 23:15 AUS EST)
Video: steephill , cyclingfans ,  Procyclinglive , Sports Livez.