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tour of qatar 2014
Who to pick? Will haedo have any gas left in his tank for the toq? Will boonen race or just captain his squad? Will katusha be a dark force? Will the smaller teams be more motivated, and push their puncheurs to the front? All tres ineressant, nest ce pas?
If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.
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http://www.letour.fr/indexTQA_us.html official site might have one
Twitter perhaps......i'm at work so can't access it
Greipel
Cancellara
Boonen
Haussler
Bennati
Guardini
Sergent
Haedo
Forster
I'm just hoping Astana stick with Guardini in the sprints, Haedo keeps his form going and Fabien tries. Does anyone not have Boonen?
Picking Greipel meant I had to stay away from the other top sprinters
purist
greipel
cancellara
fenn
tuft
boonen
boom
lucas haedo
forster
locatelli
Anyone know of a live ticker?
Checked all my normal sources, can't find a thing
Puriste:
Demare
Haedo
Morkov
Boonen
Selig
Markus
Kruopis
Kristoff
Guardini
Umm-ed and aah-ed about both Cancellara and Greipel, but left them both out in the end. Kristoff and Demare both big punts (N.B. not rhyming slang); impossible not to pick Boonen at that price.
My Purists:
Greipel
Viviani
DeMare
Boonen
Boom
Tuft
Waeytens
Haller
Rasch
Mine was that bar haller when the comp opened however I swapped and changed so much it's now :
Morkov
Demare
Viviani
Haussler
Bozic
Boom
L.s haedo
Z. Waeytens
Ruffoni
Picking breakaway types just seems so risky, though, especially in races like ToQ where there's a lot less at stake (so fewer true domestique duties), there aren't any local riders and there is a very large pool of lesser riders/teams who might fancy it. Unlike, say, Tour de France where you could (in days of yore, anyway) happily put Hoogerland in your purist safe in the knowledge that he'd be likely to be in at least three or four sticky breaks.
Re. penalties, it is a risk for that kind of stage, not least because you then have to penalty-transfer out again for the next one (as opposed to a transition from e.g. a group of MM/FL stages to HM/SF stages). Also as noted above some of the speedy sprinters, especially tracky types like Morkov, might fancy the short TT for a shot at GC.
I always try and pick a guy from the smaller teams who might go for the breakaway every day. Ive been lucky to hit gold in the tdu, but my other picks were garbage. Lol.
So ive tried again with the toq, as the small teams want the coverage, just hope I picked right.
Yup, to Greipel or not to Greipel is my big thumbsucker for Qatar. There are a whole bunch of other riders, especially in the 10-15 bracket, who could be great picks or total busts. I've fiddled and faffed enough now that I'm not going to change any more.
The TT coming on stage three also forces some selection choices, but given it's so short I'm going to trust in my fast men to do OK and not worry too much about getting a full squad of TT specialists in place. Ideally no changes tomorrow, then three-in-three out for stages three & four.
I think thats gonna be the tactical choice for most of us , perhaps those that don't use that approach can gain a bit of a lead by using penalties?
Penalties are always risky, in theory if you get it right you can make big gains but get it wrong and you quickly lose a lot of ground.
I'm not sure which way to go. Given that it's a TT there won't be huge points hauls but the stage winners of the TT should form the GC for the rest of the race so getting them in could be useful later on. Decisions decisions....
I'm sure I've swapped and chopped my teams so much it's going to be another bust for me , my biggest decision was do I include griepel or spread the cash on my purist , either way it is going to be very interesting as you have said
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