As some of you may know, the Bicicleta line of Cono Sur Wines is an official sponsor of this year’s Tour de France (which starts this Saturday, July 1st)—the greatest sporting event in the world. (That last point has been clinically proven, so there is no need to argue and if you dare bring up something lame like the Super Bowl or even worse, the World Cup, I am afraid we can no longer be friends.)

The other day, I had a Skype conversation with my friends at Cono Sur down in Santiago, Chile in the hopes of convincing them that we should do a contest together during the three-week long race. To my surprise, they agreed!

There was a problem, though—they would have to check with the organizers of the Tour to get their permission. The tour is owned by the Amaury Sport Organisation (A.S.O.) who notoriously keeps rather strict control over all things Tour de France.

I did not have high hopes.

But….

They approved it! (I attribute their acquiescence to my stellar reputation among the professional peloton—either that or they have absolutely no idea who I am and could not possibly care any less. I am going with the former—I will leave you to make your own evaluation.)

Regardless, we have a contest!

So far, Cono Sur has agreed to donate some wine and I am working on trying to get some really cool cycling jerseys from them, too. I am not sure that will happen, but I never thought the ASO would agree in the first place, so we are really ahead of the game.

There are two contests you can enter. The first is exceedingly easy: At the end of each day’s stage (and before the start of the next stage), tweet the name of that day’s stage winner to me (@masi3v) and Cono Sur (@ConoSurWines) with the hashtag #TourDeBicicleta.

That’s it!

You can enter for just one stage or all 21—the more times you enter, the better chance you have to score some wine! (Personally, I would hope to score some Pinot Noir, which I reviewed HERE.)

The second way is tougher conceptually, but potentially a lot more fun. The general populace probably has no idea, but just like Fantasy Football and Fantasy Baseball, there is Fantasy Cycling.

Girl, you know it’s true (to quote the bastions of American music, Milli Vanilli).

The site I use (yes, there are a few) is called VeloGames (velogames.com). To enter, go to the site and click on “Enter Now!” in the top right-hand corner. Follow the prompts to create a new account. You are then taken to a screen where you make your selections. You must choose nine riders for your team, and only have 100 points to select them.

(Of course, the Cono Sur Bicileta Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc would be great choices, which I reviewed HERE.)

The concept is fairly easy—the higher the point value, the better the rider (more or less). If you stick to that premise, select a rider in each slot, and use all 100 points, you have a shot at winning. I wish I could give you more advice than that, but it really comes down to a crap shoot. I have done this many times before and once I crushed everyone (by a lot) and the next time I came in DFL (Cycling term: the first word is Dead, the last word is Last, I leave you to figure out the middle word).

Then you need to click on “Join or Create a New League” and enter this code: 960629418

That’s it! The winner of our League will get some wine (yes, even if there is one entry!).

Simple.

Please Note: You need to enter VeloGames no later than the start of the race this Saturday!

Feel free to either comment here or send me an email if you have any issues:

jeff(at)thedrunkencyclist(dot)com

Now, go grab some Cono Sur wine to get ready to watch the Tour this Saturday (and go play that Milli Vanilli playlist that I know you have)!