Fantasy Giro 2006 winners announced!

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Fantasy Giro winner Marcin Kadzielawski (right)(Image credit: Marcin Kadzielawski)

The winning managers of the Fantasy Giro 2006 game have been confirmed. There were 32 prize winning managers this year with over 45 sponsored prizes. In an excitingly close finish with over 7000 points scored by the top two managers, manager "Kadzielawski" a personal fitness trainer from Rolling Meadows, Illinois, USA won the Grand prize of a Bianchi Via Nirone 7 Alu Carbon Mirage bike. Here's what he had to say about his team strategy:

"My only source of information was cyclingnews.com and help of my wife Joanna - huge cycling fan! After waiting to the last possible stage to pick the final rosters I went mostly with GC contenders and good climbers because of the high number of mountain stages. The rest of the team was completed with all-around raiders or sprinters. With the addition of luck and couple of risky choices I managed to win! Thank you cyclingnews.com for great game and Bianchi and all the other sponsors for the wonderful prizes. Looking forward to Tour de France! Marcin Kadzielawski." Have a look at Kadzielawski's team break down here. Marcin generously donated his prize for his 6th place team to the next manager in the top 10 showing great sportsmanship. Thanks Marcin.

Manager "Hofgaard" from Oslo in Norway came 1st place runner-up winning a pair of HED's Stinger wheels. Here's what he had to say about his winning tactics: "Before the start of the Giro I did a lot of research into which riders were on form. I also looked at last year's results and studied the scoring system in detail to better know the distribution of riders (GC contenders or stage winners/sprinters). After the last "free" stage I did my final team selection based on the above criteria and the results so far in the Giro. My team ended up with 9 overall contenders and 6 sprinters/stage hunters. My selection turned out to be a very good one, but I did a "poor" job in managing the team each day and lost valuable points by not having the right combination of riders in the "points section" and also a bad selection of riders on a few stages."

Stage 1 - PsychoExprezzo, UK
Stage 2 - Suitcase of Courage, USA
Stage 3 - 1Day@aTime2, USA
Stage 4 - Polydactyls, USA
Stage 5 - Pink Winkers, USA
Stage 6 - TimeStimul, BEL
Stage 7 - Team Start, EST
Stage 8 - Archimedespyn, USA
Stage 9 - NYCdominata, USA
Stage 10 - ReTread, USA
Stage 11 - Rude Boys, USA
Stage 12 - ThePancakemen 2, USA
Stage 13 - Shuvit pro team II, SWE
Stage 14 - Flea, USA
Stage 15 - The rest, NOR
Stage 16 - Marcinster, USA
Stage 17 - The Right Mix, USA
Stage 18 - Team One, AUS
Stage 19 - AnyOneCanWin, USA
Stage 20 - Winged Wheels, USA
Stage 21 - Rabid Lemmings, NZL

More details on the prizes these players won can be found in the prizes page. A big thanks to all our prize suppliers:
Bianch for the Grande Prize, a Bianchi 'Via Nirone 7 Alu Carbon Mirage';
BBB for the Daily Stage Prizes of 21 pairs of BSG-23 Winner Team Quick-Step glasses;
Hed for the Hed Stinger Wheels;
Giro for the Giro Atmos team helmets;
Speedplay for Speedplay stainless steel Zero pedals;
fi'zi:k for the new edition saddles from fi'zi:k;
Maxxis for 10 pairs of Maxxis Courchevel Tyres;
and Santini for the complete sets of Santini ProTour replica team kit.