tdf-stage 16

I've pretty much given up and didn't even bother making transfers for today's stage.

I promptly got my highest score of this year's Tour.

Cavendish beat Scarponi today - I wonder what the odds were on that?

aaaargh why did I put in Rolland, not Voeckler!

I already had Rolland and Kessiakoff in my team so I thought I was covered for the KoM.

I wrong I was

I give up.

Voeckler worth 100 points today! 2 HC's (15 each), 2 cat 1's (10 each), combative, first on the stage and KoM jersey leader!

Not a day to miss that one.

Stortoni about 8th though so that makes up for it a bit!

I'm suffering from my stubbornness not to pick Izaguirre just because everyone else has!

Looks like another day where I do reasonably well, but miss out on the big scorer of the day (Voeckler today).

Evans being distanced by Basso/Nibali and Sky, the big question is, do BMC allow TJvG to stay with the front group or does he have to help out his leader?

maybe brining in Rolland was amistake, but couldnt afford voeckler, although i expect him to be at the finish for tomorrows stage and try and win it.

so far 14pts for casar at the sprint, then 12 for kessiakoff and 1 for izagirre

Quote:

Result of the col d'Aubisque
1. Voeckler (EUC) 15pts
2. Kessiakoff (AST) 12pts
3. Arashiro (EUC) 10pts
4. Sorensen (STB) 18pts
5. Vinokourov (AST) 6pts
6. Martin (GRS) 5pts
7. Karpets (MOV) 4pts - at 12"
8. Martinez (EUS) 3pts
9. Vorganov (KAT) 2pts
10. Izaguirre (EUS) 1pts

Those are fantasy points by the way, Voeckler (62) has closed the gap on Kessiakoff (89) to 27 points. Rolland (55) is now 34 points behind Kessiakoff in 3rd and is pretty much out of it now, Sorensen (53) in 4th.

Well its a better start for me - the three I wanted in the break are all in (Stortoni, Valls and Chris-Anker), but with 35 others its unlikely that the first two will score much, although Sorensen should hopefully be going for it. Then Rolland, Froome and Pinot to come through later, and Jeandesbosz and De Weert saving themselves for tomorrow, with Boeckmans dead last - Perfect!

drheaton wrote:

I don't know, if you had the choice between top 10 GC and the polka dot jersey which would you choose?

He's likely to lose another good few minutes against the clock on Saturday so I'm sure Sky would let him go, they weren't fussed when he got in the break to win a stage last week.

Other teams with riders in the top 10 would be worried about letting him go, not just Sky.

I don't know, if you had the choice between top 10 GC and the polka dot jersey which would you choose?

He's likely to lose another good few minutes against the clock on Saturday so I'm sure Sky would let him go, they weren't fussed when he got in the break to win a stage last week.

Rolland's only aim is a good GC place and he wouldn't be allowed in the break anyway.

It depends, HC are 15 points each, cat 1 is 10 points so today the max you can get is 50. As long as Kessiakoff places well on every climb he should be ok, he's got a 30 point cushion back to Sorensen and 32 to Voeckler.

I think there's another 42 on offer tomorrow so I reckon as long as Kessiakoff picks up 30 points today he'll have the jersey in the bag.

Dissapointed with Rolland though, thought he might fancy his chances.

I've got
Kessiakoff
Izagirre
Dan Martin(6 int sprint points)

Looks like 3 way for polka today

Kessiakoff
Voeckler
Sorensen

Maybe 4 with Casar in the break too

The break:

Quote:

The 38 stage leaders
Cummings, Hincapie (BMC)
Popovych, Voigt (RNT)
Voeckler, Arashiro (EUC)
Azanza, Martinez and Izaguirre (EUS)
Hondo, Manzano, Stortoni (LAM)
Martin (GRS)
Bouet, Minard (ALM)
Taaramae, Dumoulin (COF)
Feillu, Levarlet, Marino (SAU)
Hoogerland, Valls Ferri (VCD)
Caruso, Trofimov, Vorganov (KAT)
Casar, Fedrigo, Ladagnous (FDJ)
Kruiswijk, Ten Dam (RAB)
Costa, Karpets, Kiryienka (MOV)
Paulinho, C. Sorensen (STB)
Kessiakoff, Vinokourov (AST)
Sprick (ARG)

I have one

I have at some time or another had about 7 of those and I have two Saur riders today, Simon and Jeandesboz, unfortunately three of the other Saur riders decided to get in the break instead

My team.

Michele Scarponi (LAM)
Steven Kruijswijk (RAB) in the break
Fredrik Kessiakoff (AST) in the break
Chris Anker Sorensen (SAX) in the break
Matthieu Ladagnous (FDJ) in the break
Yann Huguet (ARG)
Vasil Kiryienka (MOV) in the break
Yukiya Arashiro (EUC) in the break
Julien Simon (SAU)

I have at least 6 in the break, although a couple of them will undoubtedly get dropped on Aubisque.

intermediate sprint wrote:

1. Paulinho (STB) 20pts
2. Casar (FDJ) 17pts
3. Kruiswijk (RAB) 15pts
4. Arashiro (EUC) 13pts
5. Vorganov (KAT) 11pts
6. Cummings (BMC) 10pts
7. Marzano ( 9pts
8. Vals Ferri (VCD) 8pts
9. Voigt (RNT) 7pts
10. Martin (GRS) 6pts
11. Azanza (EUS) 5pts
12. Ladagnous (FDJ) 4pts
13. Kiryienka (MOV) 3pts
14. Levarlet (SAU) 2pts
15. Costa (MOV) 1pt

Grrr

Fedrigo is in the break, I had him down as a must have for this stage (he always wins on the Tourmalet stage!) but figured he wouldn't bother after Monday

Sounds like a huge break of 38 including the likes of Voeckler, Vinokourov, Kessiakoff, Paulinho, Egoi Martinez, Brice Feillu and Jens Voigt.

I agree that Rolland and Kessiakoff are very atractive thanks to the KOM battle and think that this is the kind of stage for Nibali to attack on the final climb and try and make it stick on the descent..

That left me with a decision on the fourth star and I went for Tejay over Roche as I can then leave him in right through to the time trial.

This will be my team for today and tomorrow barring withdrawal

Nibali
VanGarderen
Kessiakoff
Rolland
Pinot
Albasini
Vichot
Edet
Izagirre

Also it comes to exactly 150 credits so hoping that's an omen

Conservative is no bad thing, conservative is certainly the way to go when you're near the top of the league as I've found in general that taking risks never pays off. It's only because I'm so far behind I've picked Rolland and Kessiakoff otherwise it'd be Nibali and Zubeldia probably, or Van den Broeck maybe.