CyclingFever.com has found a sponsor for this year's WorldTour Competition. Zweeler.com has €150,= in Zweeler-vouchers on offer for the best players in our two competitions. Both the winners of the Main- and Stage competition will receive a voucher for €25,= each.
After the Tour de Suisse we also take a look at both GC's. The current number 1 will receive a voucher for €25,=, the number 2 €15,= and the number 3 €10,=.

Following rules will apply: The vouchers will be made available on your Zweeler.com account. If you haven't got one yet, you need to open a new account. These vouchers have to be used in one or more of the available games, in which you can win prizes. The total amount needs to be spent, any winnings can be credited into your own bank-account. In case you already opened an account and have money there, the voucher will be the first bet made after the deposit.

A turbulent year 2012, mostly dominated by the hunt on Armstrong and instigated by the American doping-institute USADA, finally leading to that confession in January 2013. Fortunately there was also some cycling on the roads. Seriously! THE man of spring wasn´t the widely expected Philippe Gilbert, who won just about everything the year prior, but his Belgian Brother Boonen. After taking a stage in Paris - Nice he did missfire in Milan - Sanremo. Simon Gerrans took that one, continuing his streak after the Tour Down Under. Boonen is however 100% present in the week that counts, winning the E3-prijs, Ghent-Wevelgem and the Tour of Tours, De Ronde van Vlaanderen. The man from Balen isn't satisfied yet; a week later he also takes Paris - Roubaix majesticly and total domination of spring is a fact.

After that string of victories by Boonen everyone expects Gilbert to show the qualities he's best known for in the Hills-trilogy. Again we are deceived: the AGR, Flèche and Liège go to Enrico Gasparotto, Joaquin Rodriguez and Maxim Iglinskiy respectively. It's safe to say that Gilbert's spring is completely buggered now and it won't get any better until the World Championships begin. That race he takes in formidable fashion, beating Boasson Hagen and Valverde in the process.

Not just in the stage races and the grand tours, also in the most important fall-classic is Joaquin Rodriguez the best scoring rider in our yearlong competition. Continually getting podiums and stage wins is what this guy does best and that nearly led to victory in the Vuelta a España. One of the great battles of modern cycling times evolved: Contador attacking Rodriguez' leading position stage after stage, only to succeed in the very last mountain stage available. Purito finally had to give way, and also allowed Valverde to snatch second.

The man of 2012 is undoubtedly Bradley Wiggins. The somewhat willful Brit slowly starts by taking Paris - Nice and then perfectly builds his season to the highlight of the year. Team Sky completely dominates in that Tour de France and some say that Chris Froome was even better those three weeks. Froome had the opportunity to prove that in the Vuelta, but had to give way to the forementioned three riders. So Wiggins wins the Tour, but is not finished. The Olympics in London is a goal in itself, the time trial on the road is his for the taking, making his season one to remember. Cycling is very much alive in Britain and new teams are formed like mushrooms in the forest after a rainy summer's day. Tony Martin closes out the season in China, winning the local tour.

So 2013 starts off with Lance and Oprah having some cosy-time and discussing a bit of doping, their home situation and kids. Meanwhile, something happens Down Under that didn't happen in all of 2012. Tom-Jelte Slagter takes the overall win for Blanco and Holland in a World Tour race and we suspect there is more yet to come by the young rider.

CyclingFever.com

This word of welcome almost wasn't written at all. On a yearly basis Marc and Martin discuss the upcoming year for CyclingFever and that discussion reveals that the many hours spent and the actual cost of running the website are taking a huge toll. Together we decide that CyclingFever needs to pay for itself at the very least to continue its existence. CyclingFever owes the 40+ paying members and six donors in 2012 much gratitude, but that isn't enough to sustain the website. We need to 'generate' a multiple of that amount to survive at least to keep the website up to scratch and competitive in between all the (semi)commercial cycling websites.

CyclingFever will consider 2013 a 'trial' year, in which will become clear if the website can indeed sustain itself - helped by its community. The part Martin plays will therefore change; he'll be taking charge of the advertising side of the website and will look into other opportunities to financially support the cause. Obviously, we could use your help. Every new membership, every donation and every new advertisement placed will help us through the year and allows us to further perfect your favorite pro-cycling hangout. So maybe you work for a cycling-crazy boss? Perhaps you can 'break the ice' for us with your organisation; We're sure to make a deal that will suit both parties perfectly.

The numbers of our website are quite incouraging. In 2012 we showed some 20% more pages than the year before and with over 25% of new visitors worldwide shows us that this service for Cyclingfans is all but dead. We have to thank Davey for tirelessly adding every new race-video to our database - the departement that brings in the most people besides our startlists and race results. CyclingFever is rapidly becoming one of the major players because of these 'pillar' features that were built alongside the games.

Personally I'd like to thank the team of steady visitors our website has, starting off with FrankV. Some of you will know that I suffered a heart attack last year and had to have open heart surgery done to fix the problem, which is why I wasn't able to contribute with stage descriptions and previews for races. Without asking, the community stepped in (applause!) and 'replaced' me by taking over those services. Beautiful work was done, which did make me emotional. It was good to see that FrankV became the team-director for all written copy, while JH and his team NielsH, PetervdV and Hjalmar (McK) also kept our startlists up to date. Many thanks to Arturo for helping with several (Spanish and Basque) issues and Seb66 for helping with the French interviews and texts.

Again, thank you all for the assistance and we hope for your continued help in 2013!