At the time you're reading this, the Superprestige race at Diegem must have been ridden or about to start. This one's the third-to-last bet on this year's program, before we enter 2009 and come to a new experience in Fantasy Betting: finally road races are coming into town! Keep in mind we have a busy schedule, full of bets for the first week of next year: Middelkerke in the 29th, GVA's Loenhout in the 30th, GVA's Sven Nys GP in Baal for New Year's Day, Sint-Niklaas in the 2nd, and Tervuren and Richard Groenendaal Sint-Michielsgestel GP in the 4th. Things will get calm after that, since the World Championships are approaching.

Also, you might have seen we already set a bet for the Down Under Classic, the very first colective race for major teams in the 2009 calendar. wackojackohighcliffe noted we were going to reset the standings by the end of the year, with everyone getting 100 PCM$ again and a honorifical winner being signaled for the 2008 off-season. That's, of course, true, but bear in mind that anyone who bets right now is taking some risks. If he bets for a rider and that rider gets injured or he is taken out of the TDU lineup before the 18th, the gambler will lose his money, with no possibility / obligation from us to refund it; on the other hand, he can earn more money than the others by taking advantage of his 2008 budget, before we reset the rankings in a certain point between the finish of the Loenhout GVA race and the start of 2009. The most clever ones will surely wait for the last days before the criterium, and thus they won't exploit that resetting-rule. Besides, players who wait will have chances to raise up their winnings, since some national championships in road and cyclocross are being held before the TDU. The bet got out of the panel right now, so you don't have to worry for it anymore ;)

Some rules you will have to keep in mind for road races: we're only setting up bets for races which are .1 onwards, plus races below that level with more than 50% ProTour teams. There won't be ANY refund for your money by human error at our side (unless AaB-ern comes up with the appropiate tools; then we'll take this rule out), for injuries, retirements or doping cases (winners changed by the UCI will not be taken into acoounut). GC bets are only likely to be found for great stageraces, or, at least, races with mountain or TT stages (so as to keep them slightly predictable); last, but noit least, Face to Face, Team and combined events will be only available for GT's or great classics.

I hope everything is clear now. I wish you enjoy this last holiday week and have a nice year 2009!