Paris Nice. Prologue.

I potentially have 6 top 10 guys for the prologue but its all about what happens in the day

It's not Mollema. Not worried about not having the stage 1 winner as I have 2 of his team mates and one of them at least is going to smash it. Also have a team mate of 2nd placed rider not just incase he wins but because he's also going to smash it! I think I have 4 top 7 prologue guys in my star picks, I can't afford the winner without sacrificing one of them so I think it's worth it not to pick him for stage 1.

Mollema is stupidly expensive this year and also got an upgrade to GC, I'm thinking he might bomb this season and been like Wiggo since he joined Sky, high up in the GC one year and then no where the next

If i had 1 guess id say you mean mollema

well smash a top 5 TT and overall podium, let the guessing games begin...

Should have mentioned him now....
B. Wiggins GC SKY 38.4
F. Schleck GC RSN 38.0
A. Schleck GC RSN 37.8
B. Mollema GC RAB 36.8
C. Froome GC SKY 35.8
D. Menchov GC KAT 31.5
I. Anton GC EUS 27.6
A. Kloden GC RSN 27.6
I. Basso GC LIQ 26.7
D. Arroyo GC MOV 24.8
L. Leipheimer GC OPQ 22.6
T. Martin AR OPQ 38.4
T. Hushovd AR BMC 35.0
T. Voeckler AR EUC 33.3
D. Cunego AR LAM 31.1
C. Le Mevel AR GRM 31.1
M. Monfort AR RSN 30.7
K. Siutsou AR SKY 28.3
A. Valverde AR MOV 28.3
D. Millar AR GRM 28.2
T. Boonen AR OPQ 27.8
G. Thomas AR SKY 27.4
S. Chavanel AR OPQ 25.2
N. Nuyens AR SAX 23.5
J. Roy AR FDJ 23.3
J. Brajkovic AR AST 21.8
S. Gerrans AR GRE 21.7
L. Sanchez AR RAB 20.9
B. Leukemans AR VCD 20.5
S. Lagutin AR VCD 20.4
H. Haussler AR GRM 20.3
A. Jeannesson AR FDJ 18.7
T. de Gendt AR VCD 18.4
H. Dupont AR ALM 17.9
F. Sabatini AR LIQ 16.9
K. Kroon AR SAX 15.5

Well I've managed to pick the winner in every first stage this year but I'm not going for either the winner or 2nd placed rider this time as I can't afford them. Interestingly my very first no-brainer pick was someone that nobody has mentioned yet, think he could well smash a top 5 TT and overall podium, let the guessing games begin...

My team is as follows:

L Armstrong
M Indurain
S Kelly
S Roche
G Lemond
P Delgado
M Pantani
D Abdujaparov

and to round it off................F Landis.

I think they were canny riders.

I think the following will do well next week

Phillipe Gilbert
BELLETTI Manuel
KREUZIGER Roman
ROLLIN Dominique
VAN SUMMEREN Johan
LANGEVELD Sebastian
WILSON Matthew
KUSCHYNSKI Aleksandr
GALLOPIN Tony

Personally i think the term "fishing" is more apt than anything else...my team bares absolutely no resemblance to any posted but i'm not leading the comp so what do i know

And this year I am doing each race as 'purist'

Largely agree with you, except I've gone for Froome instead of Wiggins (saving himself for the Tour & all that.

Well Wiggins, Martin & Porte is a pretty safe bet.
Same here.
And Rein Taramae. He's my banker for this Tour. I can see him doing well in any of the stages.

I think at the moment as the "official" startlist has not been finalised, Dave may have left the replacements on the selection process as it will be easier just to take off those who are not riding when offically confirmed than add on once confirmed (i may be completely wrong)

On a seperate matter, i love how people still continue to post teams on the forum, whether they are serious teams or just fishing or what. its just funny

Someone brought up an interesting point on the other Paris Nice forum. Rasmussen is on the official list as a replacement but he is still on our list as racing - is it that he is a replacement and therefore on our list or is it an oversight or has someone dropped out from Garmin.

Leipheimer 22.6
Kloden 27.6
Van Garderen 28.8
Menchov 31.5

Coppel 14.6
Talansky 8
Westra 8.4
Astarloza 2.5
Bookwalter 5.9

Got to be Daniel Ratto?

My master plan / genius tactic has been foiled. The cheap team mate of my winner for the ITT has pulled out znd the other team mates are too dear.

Well that's it. I won't win paris nice now.

Nice

!

My 9 guys above were just guys who won a stage or classification in last years paris-nice.
It looks nothing like my current squad.

Stage
1
Paris-Nice
Stage 1: Dampierre-en-Yvelines > Saint-Rémy

Star riders
Bradley Wiggins (SKY)GC Value: 38.4
Luis Leon Sanchez (RAB)AR Value: 20.9
Tony Martin (OPQ)AR Value: 38.4
Thomas de Gendt (VCD)AR Value: 18.4
Domestiques
Richie Porte (SKY)DS Value: 14.4
Stijn Vandenbergh (OPQ)DS Value: 2.7
Taylor Phinney (BMC)DS Value: 11.7
Mikel Astarloza (EUS)DS Value: 2.5
Javier Moreno (MOV)DS Value: 2.5

I've gone for Wiggins and Martin, on account of not knowing enough about all this (yet!) to know if anyone is likely to be better over that distance. So playing it safe.
AND a cheap teammate of Martin's, a couple of cheap sprinters for Monday, 2 good American TT-ers, one prologue specialist and a French guy I've never heard of but was the right price and seemed to place high in a recent TT elsewhere. Can then bring in a top sprinter for Monday, and then... well then I'm pretty clueless frankly. Any opinions on how stages 3 and 4 are likely to pan out would be of interest!