Tour of Oman. Stage 5.

got Nibali for the stage win but was swithering whether to go for Velits or not! Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

So why didn't I do it then.

Darn, subbing Slagter for Gallopin wasn't a great choice. But Jeannesson did work out for 110 points and one place up to 7th.

That really wasn't a good day for me. Oman is giving me a right kicking ARGHHH!!!!

95 points today, not too shabby! Disappointed in Fuglsang over the last 48 hours, he has now been sacked in favour of a restored Greipel for tomorrows inevitable sprint. One transfer to ponder on. J-Rod out but do I go for Farrar for the day, or Nibali for the overall?

A rough day for the purists. I nabbed a whopping 23 points and still managed to move up 8 places in the Purist TOO league!

Best stage position this week at 32nd and only got 133 points....not as well set up for 2morrow as some. Hoping Gallopin will go for the sprint tomorrow to make sure he hangs on to the white and 3rd in GC

I thought Jeannesson was going to be my worst pick, but he turned out to be the best. Fulgsang bit of a disappointment and Vandevelde was a waste of space. Might as well have stuck with Greipel and Steegmans.

Wish I'd had Gallopin all this week like I did last. Damn! Damn! Damn!

But at least I had Slagter so not so bad today as the rest of the week. Schleck nowhere but he tends to use this as a warm-up. Not surprised Nibali won but I couldn't afford Nibali or J-Rod the way my team was set up.

So-so overall like the whole of the ToQ and ToO. Probably dropped a couple of places on the overall.

Now we've got athletics/Volta; FA Cup, and Track. Then an evening ride. Not obsesssed with sport or anything though!!

Not a good day at the office for me 2, 7,8 & 17 but I do have 4 transfers + Sagan, Bouhanni, Cooke, Guardini & Sutton. Which means Grepiel, another big name sprinter, Gallopin & possibly I transfering out Veltis for Galimzyanov.

Might of caught a couple in front of me in the overall, but am going to get over run from those rising from below.

Yh my transfers done too, they were too obvious not to do

I've made my four changes for tomorrow already, 4 guys from 2 countries

I got 2,5,7,10,12 not too bad, 2,3,4 in points and 1,3 in youth

I think ten dam and J-Rod for the axe to bring in a german and belgium to go with Sagan and bouhanni for 2morrow

Cool I got 2,4,5,7, and 15. Should go someway to mending that 33 point hole from yesterday!

Could be on for my worst score this season now and also, Jai Crawford, had him lined up for Qatar, but never picked him, glad to see his name coming up, 18th today

Top 10 GC

1. VELITS
2. NIBALI
3. GALLOPIN
4. CASAR
5. JEANNESSON
6. SLAGTER
7. RODRIGUEZ
8. NAVARDAUSKAS
9. LEBAS
10. CANCELLARA

Top 5 points

1. GREIPEL
2. SAGAN
3. BOUHANNI
4. GALLOPIN
5. KITTEL

Top 20 stage

1. NIBALI
2. VELITS
3. CASAR
4. JEANNESSON
5. GALLOPIN
6. SLAGTER
7. RODRIGUEZ
8. LEBAS
9. CANCELLARA
10. NAVARDAUSKAS
11. GUSEV
12. TEN DAM
13. SHIMIZU
14. VAN SUMMEREN
15. FUGLSANG
16. CHAVANEL
17. HANSEN
18. CRAWFORD
19. PINOTTI
20. SCHÄR

Sandy Casar 3rd on the stage

Velits lead is 1 second over Nibali, maybe some fireorks 2morrow? also Gallopin to go for the win (although dont know how many seconds he is behind)

Gallopin finished 5th (white jersey and 3rd in GC) which is good for me, Cancellara came 9th and Fuglsang 15th

Velits is in Red

Seems from what i can make out from twitter Velits may well be leading overall, will make it easier to axe J-Rod for Griepel

Yh same with velits second, depending on how far ahead of velits on the road nibali was velits could be overall due to the 15 seconds yesterday, also not knowing other placings if sagan etc were up there close enough he had 40 seconds on nibali

Velits comes home 2nd

Velits 2nd from what i can gather

Back from my ride after getting caught in a bloody blizzard, so had to cut short and come back, wasn't in winter gear because when i left the sun was blasting

So it seems Nibali won stage 5, no reports from Ant as he seems to have no signal, so nothing further

Nibali wins! looks like i made a mistake going for J-Rod then

I have 4 riders for today in my purist team:
Vandevelde, Ascani, Slagter and Sagan.