UAE Tour

Condor Andy wrote:

Oops, should have gone for Gaviria...

Went for Ewan and Halvorsen over Gaviria and Mezgec. If Ewan keeps his third place i’ll eat my hat.

Kittel sitting up again throws away so many points for us. 

Condor Andy wrote:

I already had Viviani, Bauhaus, Halvorsen, Mareczko, and Walscheid from stage one, flipped a coin for Bennett or Gaviria for today and decided on the former. Can't believe I didn't go for any Jumbo guys yesterday.

What happens if you get a repeat of Stage 1 in ALgarve

Condor Andy wrote:

MinardiM189 wrote:

What happens if you get a repeat of Stage 1 in ALgarve

In all honesty, that's probably what's going to happen 

I had a slighlty lighter day yesterday and am sprint heavy today.

Gaviria, Kittel, Bauhaus, Viviani, Halvorsen, Walscheid.

Did have one Jumbo rider yesterday, but didn't have Roglic which cost me.

No transfers used yet.

Crosswind chaos or a crash and I could be in trouble.

MinardiM189 wrote:

Not a bad result for me.

Maybe should have brought another sprinter in rather than Moscon.

Pretty good result for my purist where I have De Plus. Hopefully he can hang on in the mountains.

Amazed that Walscheid managed to hang on to the finish. He could take the leaders jersey with a top3 tomorrow.

Good pick with De Plus...I considered him....I went with Valverde Porte Roglic and Nibali as my GC boys in that, so no room at their inn for him. Glad Valverde and Nibali rode well from the comments....Nibali seemed risky.

Dr Winston wrote:

Good pick with De Plus...I considered him....I went with Valverde Porte Roglic and Nibali as my GC boys in that, so no room at their inn for him. Glad Valverde and Nibali rode well from the comments....Nibali seemed risky.

I think Nibali will do OK, he is usually better early in the season when he is doing the Giro.

Hopefully my tactic of leaving out the top sprinters for tomorrow will pay off in the long run, more transfers later in the race when things are clearer.

MinardiM189 wrote:

Dr Winston wrote:

Good pick with De Plus...I considered him....I went with Valverde Porte Roglic and Nibali as my GC boys in that, so no room at their inn for him. Glad Valverde and Nibali rode well from the comments....Nibali seemed risky.

I think Nibali will do OK, he is usually better early in the season when he is doing the Giro.

Hopefully my tactic of leaving out the top sprinters for tomorrow will pay off in the long run, more transfers later in the race when things are clearer.

I've done the same, bit light on sprinters. Am hoping for a good tour as have had a poor start to season, life getting in the way of fantasy planning, need to get my priorities right!

archieboy wrote:

Just a thought, but why was Tony Martin not at the team presentation? 

Lost 9 minutes today.  Suspect he is sick.

Sniffer wrote:

archieboy wrote:

Just a thought, but why was Tony Martin not at the team presentation? 

Lost 9 minutes today.  Suspect he is sick.

Yeah, a possible DNS in the moring

Sniffer wrote:

archieboy wrote:

Just a thought, but why was Tony Martin not at the team presentation? 

Lost 9 minutes today.  Suspect he is sick.

He also got dropped during the ITT, so it is highly likely he is ill but is soldiering on.

Jumbo would have won by more if he wasn't ill !!!

Dr Winston wrote:

Planning not to use a transfer until day 3.

My dither was Ewan and Halvorsen or Gaviria and Mezgec...went for the former...not even sure why.

How does Evenepoel even fit in ?...two sprinters or is he in the train somewhere ?

I'm not planning any transfers until stage 3 either, I'll take a hit on Stage2 as my sprinters are a bit limited.

Evenepoel has a free role to go for it on the Mountain stages.

Gaviria was ill in Columbia and doesn't know his lead out train at all, so Ewan is probably a sfer pick.

Mezgec is very good at posioning and usually does well when he sprints for himself. Halvorsen may get a few pints today but is inconsistent in the sprints. Maybe he should use Mezgec as a lead out :).

Stage 4 at Hatta Dam could be a critical one, usually sprinters do OK but this year there are a lot of talented climbers here. Getting around the climbers and maintaining pace could be a problem for sprinters.

MinardiM189 wrote:

Dr Winston wrote:

Planning not to use a transfer until day 3.

My dither was Ewan and Halvorsen or Gaviria and Mezgec...went for the former...not even sure why.

How does Evenepoel even fit in ?...two sprinters or is he in the train somewhere ?

I'm not planning any transfers until stage 3 either, I'll take a hit on Stage2 as my sprinters are a bit limited.

Evenepoel has a free role to go for it on the Mountain stages.

Gaviria was ill in Columbia and doesn't know his lead out train at all, so Ewan is probably a sfer pick.

Mezgec is very good at posioning and usually does well when he sprints for himself. Halvorsen may get a few pints today but is inconsistent in the sprints. Maybe he should use Mezgec as a lead out :).

Stage 4 at Hatta Dam could be a critical one, usually sprinters do OK but this year there are a lot of talented climbers here. Getting around the climbers and maintaining pace could be a problem for sprinters.

I spent an entire season last year front loading races with my transfers and then kinda clinging on. In the Algarve game i tried to do it the other way around but was somewhat scuppered by happenstance....namely EBH and Konrad...but the plan was sound...Giving it another go for this one. A thinner day than i could have had for today though maybe.

Yeah. Mezgec is brilliant. Good rider and under used.

Dr Winston wrote:

I spent an entire season last year front loading races with my transfers and then kinda clinging on. In the Algarve game i tried to do it the other way around but was somewhat scuppered by happenstance....namely EBH and Konrad...but the plan was sound...Giving it another go for this one. A thinner day than i could have had for today though maybe.

Yeah. Mezgec is brilliant. Good rider and under used.

Keeping transfers until later is  a good tactic.

I've made a bit of a commitment to GC with my choices for the TTT. Hopefully Roglic, Kelderman & Moscon can perform on the climbs. (Kelderman is usually a disaster when I pick him).

I'm very interested to see what happens between Moscon & Kwiatowski. They are joint leaders for Sky and I'm not sure how that will work out.

MinardiM189 wrote:

Dr Winston wrote:

I spent an entire season last year front loading races with my transfers and then kinda clinging on. In the Algarve game i tried to do it the other way around but was somewhat scuppered by happenstance....namely EBH and Konrad...but the plan was sound...Giving it another go for this one. A thinner day than i could have had for today though maybe.

Yeah. Mezgec is brilliant. Good rider and under used.

Keeping transfers until later is  a good tactic.

I've made a bit of a commitment to GC with my choices for the TTT. Hopefully Roglic, Kelderman & Moscon can perform on the climbs. (Kelderman is usually a disaster when I pick him).

I'm very interested to see what happens between Moscon & Kwiatowski. They are joint leaders for Sky and I'm not sure how that will work out.

 

Kelderman in instead of Ewan was the obvious alternative...meaning...doubling down on Jumbo and Sunweb for the probable win today for one or the other. So basically Kelderman today or Ewan tomorrow given i've decided not to use any transfers until day 3. 

Condor Andy wrote:

The Tour Down Under was 10 for 6 because in the past it's been 2 transfers in between each stage. We might have done 2 more for Oman and Algarve because they aren't counting, and a couple more transfers is a bit of fun. Happy to increase though if that's the general consensus, still 2 days to go.

That text might have been carried over when the competition was created Tony,  I can't see it anywhere on the admin page. It's something for Dave to fix.

Just to clarify, this competition is absolutely counting to the season totals.

I really like the idea that the the number of transfers equalling the number of stages. That gives two transfers per day but then twice to do a bigger change of three....if that’s the kind of general idea. I know most do far more changes between Sprint > Mountain stages rather than two a day but some races fluctuate a lot between Sprint, roller, Summit and TT which can make for a bit of a stale race. ...When there are races like that those extra two become part of the strategy about when to do the big changes. I just think it works better as shown on the Oman game.

The game is a bit of a Morecambe and Wise type of game...we all know the right notes but not necessarily in the right order, and that’s the part of this game at it’s best...trying to work that out....those extra two transfers feed into that nicely.