Giro d’Italia

Condor Andy wrote:

stevemarks wrote:

Hi Folks Viviani appears to have scored 0 but is in fourth place i the sprints comp?

Am I missing something?

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Where are you seeing this? I'm seeing Gaviria, Ackermann, Demare, Moschetti, Yates. I actually don't see Viviani's name anywhere in that jersey comp.

At one stage Viviani was 4th in the points classification with the 18 points he scored on Stage 2.

However it now appears that these points taken off him as an additional punishment.

MinardiM189 wrote:

Dumoulin is starting today but I'm not sure he will go all the way to Verona now.

I don't think he'll finish today, he's apparently in a lot of discomfort on the bike and today might be a fast start.

MinardiM189 wrote:

Dr Winston wrote:

Roglic saying tonight he would quite like a break to win tomorrow and ditch his jersey....he may well get his wish.

The last climb is harder than it looks but after that the route is quite easy. The top sprinters will probably get dropped on the climb, so it is a bit of a lottery who might win from a reduced sprint, if the group finishes first.

Certain teams will probably give Friday's stage priority.

I think it depends on how long the break takes to get away and who gets in the break.

If it takes a long time for the break to go, more teams might give a hand with the chase if they don't have a rider up front.

Historically the break doesn't win very often in the first week of the Giro, unless it is a GC day.

 

Strange few days now, didn't know what to do so just went safe, might be best to not tinker much until Sunday. Normally I'd use up transfers unnecessarily here. Can a safe button be installed on the game to stop me making transfers for a few days? lol

Dr Winston wrote:

MinardiM189 wrote:

My team for today -

ROGLIC
YATES S.
LOPEZ
ULISSI
BATTAGLIN
CIMOLAI
MADOUAS
LONARDI

Pity they don't have live coverage on Eurosport there is a real battle to get in the break.

How many transfers Minardi?

Six transfers taking my total used to 12

stevemarks wrote:

Condor Andy wrote:

Glad it's not just me Steve, I had a dreadful first week. I should have saved transfers, only 16 left and my team looks like Minardi's with Rojas instead of Lonardi.

 

Yes I have Minardi's team with Nibali instead of Lonardi. Was thinking of bringing in Peters but couldn't really establish if it was worth the extra transfer.

Peters should score 13 in both the next two stages, in stage 12 I think he will drop out of top10 in GC and possibly lose the White Jersey. So he will probably score about 30 points total but you will need to replace him later, so it will cost 2 transfers. Probably not worth it , especially as you haven't many transfers left.

Condor Andy wrote:

Dr Winston wrote:

Dear oh dear....missed the deadline again by a distance. Did Ackermann even start?

I’m making a right mess of this one. 

Yeah, he started. Not in a good way though, we'll see how he fares later on. I judged it wasn't worth a transfer so I've stuck with my team. Moschetti didn't start though, so that's one down for me.

No idea what to do for tomorrow. I might wait until Friday to make my changes.

Trek announced Moschetti wasn't starting yesterday evening, I saw it on their Twitter feed.

Tomorrow could well be another crazy stage, all sorts of riders going for the break. UAE won't be able to control it again. Quite likely we will see someone new in Pink.

MinardiM189 wrote:

Condor Andy wrote:

Which makes it super hard to call. This could end up being a really interesting stage. The climb near the end, whilst short, is really steep, and cobbled. I'd love to see some late attacks go over that one.

I've just had a look at 6 transfers I could make that would set me up nicely. Then I would just make a few changes to grab in some KOM chasers and GC men and call it a day. I might limit it to 3 or 4 for tomorrow though just to be on the safe side.

That was Viviani's last stage along with Ewan, so that frees up 2 places.

I'll probably make 6 or 7 transfers but then I have a lot remianing.

I'm really restricted on transfers so bought Roglic in today and only need 3/4 for Friday/tomorrow, but that's the 64 m dlr question?

Dr Winston wrote:

MinardiM189 wrote:

So what is the plan for UAE tomorrow ? Send Conti in the break ?

Don’t see why not. Every chance they’ll give him 5 minutes again...

How do you rate Majka’s current chances Minardi?...looked good today but i’ve been here before.

I wouldn't base too much on today, tomorrow is a much sterner test.

I can't see Hugh Carthy hanging on to white for long, I think Lopez will get it tomorrow.

MinardiM189 wrote:

At one stage Viviani was 4th in the points classification with the 18 points he scored on Stage 2.

However it now appears that these points taken off him as an additional punishment.

That's what I'm assuming too, but I was trying to find confirmation of his punishment.

Dr Winston wrote:

All working out as you said Minardi. Jumbo letting riders back into the race is just a bit naive really. Riders like Formolo and Bilbao can make life difficult.

Formolo messed up there he should have ridden for time not to win the stage. He probably threw away 30s and didn't win anyway.

Can you see why I picked Madous ? He can go in the break and also has a good finish in tough stages, so less a shot in the dark than others.

Battaglin was a bad pick, the team have him protecting Zakarin so he is only free once Zakarin is safe.

Ulissi turned out to be a bad pick.

I used another transfer today bring Conti in for Lopez, at least he should pick up 10 points for the next 3 or 4 stages. Although Lopez got 10 today

MinardiM189 wrote:

stevemarks wrote:

Condor Andy wrote:

Glad it's not just me Steve, I had a dreadful first week. I should have saved transfers, only 16 left and my team looks like Minardi's with Rojas instead of Lonardi.

 

Yes I have Minardi's team with Nibali instead of Lonardi. Was thinking of bringing in Peters but couldn't really establish if it was worth the extra transfer.

Peters should score 13 in both the next two stages, in stage 12 I think he will drop out of top10 in GC and possibly lose the White Jersey. So he will probably score about 30 points total but you will need to replace him later, so it will cost 2 transfers. Probably not worth it , especially as you haven't many transfers left.

Thank you very much, I wondered if he might pick up some stage points too, but the likelyhood of Nibali doing so seemed greater.

MinardiM189 wrote:

Quite likely we will see someone new in Pink.

But WHO?? That is the question. One of the outside guys who's in the top 20? Carboni? Madouas? Masnada? How are the peloton going to race it? We saw the same kind of racing at the Vuelta last year on stages 5 and 12. Almost identical to this race. Huge gamble to put someone in who might do well, but what have I got to lose at this point?

I could just make 2 transfers a day for a while, building the best team for the final few days.

Dr Winston wrote:

MinardiM189 wrote:

Dr Winston wrote:

Don’t understand this Giro at all. What on earth is going on? No problem with a big break today...almost expected...but 14 mins?

GC riders....what on earth are they doing?

This is exactly what I expected today although I didn't anticipate Polanc being in the break.

It was always going to be a came of call my bluff with the GC teams. At some stage I hope Mitchelton Scott have to chase and nobody does anything to help them.

 

Polanc is a very big surprise....as is the time thay’ve given him. What I don’t understand is why the peleton din’t just close the door at about 6 minutes. They seem he’ll bent on making things difficult for themselves like when they let Bilbao and Formolo go.

None of the GC teams want to work.

If it wasn't for Trek helping out UAE Formolo & Bilbao would have gained even more time.

I think Mitcehelton cause the problem by completely refusing to work.

At some stage I can see someone gaining a hell of a lot of time and no-one doing anything about it.

Condor Andy wrote:

MinardiM189 wrote:

At one stage Viviani was 4th in the points classification with the 18 points he scored on Stage 2.

However it now appears that these points taken off him as an additional punishment.

That's what I'm assuming too, but I was trying to find confirmation of his punishment.

I think he will be on minus points

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/giro-ditalia-viviani-unrepentant-after-s...

Dr Winston wrote:

I’m only on 11. I haven’t liked the look of today and tomorrow for some time. Prepared to fall a bit and save the transfers for a better day. Oomen is interesting me in that breakaway. Oomen Ciccone could be the two KOM picks to get soon. Tomorrow will tell us if TDG is interested or not.

I don't think tomorrow will be a day for the break.

The uphill finish is a good fit for a number of riders - Ulissi, Battaglin, Vuillermoz, Gallopin, Gasparotto, etc.

I'm not sure what to expect on Stage 8.

The 3km to go is near the bottom of a descent (I'm not even sure they have the 3km rule on *** stages) so it will be chaos leading up to the hill and on the descent. A good stage for a late attack maybe.

Condor Andy wrote:

MinardiM189 wrote:

Quite likely we will see someone new in Pink.

But WHO?? That is the question. One of the outside guys who's in the top 20? Carboni? Madouas? Masnada? How are the peloton going to race it? We saw the same kind of racing at the Vuelta last year on stages 5 and 12. Almost identical to this race. Huge gamble to put someone in who might do well, but what have I got to lose at this point?

I could just make 2 transfers a day for a while, building the best team for the final few days.

It is a pretty flat start, so that goes against smaller riders getting in the break.

Once a break goes away it is difficult to know who will control things.

Unless Conti gets in the break himself I think it will be very difficult for him to stay in Pink. The only way is if GC teams take it really easy on the climb, if anyone goes for it Conti will lose over 2 mins. Based on that I don't see UAE working that hard to control the break.

Roglic has a good lead so I don't see Jumbo chasing the break. Other GC teams won't want to use energy with hard stages on Friday & Saturday.

It could end up with all the teams refusing to chase and the break winning by 10 minutes.

Sniffer wrote:

Condor Andy wrote:

MinardiM189 wrote:

At one stage Viviani was 4th in the points classification with the 18 points he scored on Stage 2.

However it now appears that these points taken off him as an additional punishment.

That's what I'm assuming too, but I was trying to find confirmation of his punishment.

I think he will be on minus points

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/giro-ditalia-viviani-unrepentant-after-s...

 

I suspect that some of the punishment is for what he has said to the judges. When Nizzolo was relegated in the fianl stage in 2016 he didn't lose any points.

Didn't Viviani have a major tantrum at the track World Championship one year, accusing all the other riders of conspiring against him, or was that Gaviria?

Dr Winston wrote:

Yeah, Madouas is great. I went for Ciccone for leading the KOM pts and got wind that today he was riding through his home town. I thought today was made for him being as he could do with some more pts now Masnada is in the game.

I though about Ciccone for stages 6,7,8 & 9 but he could only ever score a maximum of 43 points from KoM over the 4 stages. So I decided Ulissi & Battaglin were better options.

I need to figure out what will happen tomorrow now.

Thunderstorms possible at the finish, it should be an interesting descent down to the finish.

GC guys and sprinters teams mixing it up on the descent !!!!

Dr Winston wrote:

Aye. We have to remember the numbers being quoted for Polanc is the lead he will have over Roglic....a lot of the others are a big chunk behind that. As I said last night there really isn’t much wiggle room left for the like of Yates and Lopez. After today they’re faced with maybe getting back 10 mins on Polanc and 3 mins on Roglic. I have no idea who’s making the decisions for some of these teams but they might want to revise their strategies.

Astana will have Cataldo back into contention after today, which gives them 3 options on GC. SO I understand their strategy.

I don't think Mitchelton now have a strategy, apart from not to do any work chasing.