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TdF Stage 18 - Blagnac to Brive-la-Gaillarde
Long 'flat' day today but a 4th cat climb 10km from the finish may mix things up. Chance for Goss to finally win a stage? Will Lotto/Sky/Liquigas bother to chase down a breakaway for their guys or will it all go the way of Monday?
My team:
Wiggins
Froome
Sagan
Hinault
Jeandesboz
Vichot
Simon
Boeckmans
Impey
Hoping for one of my three disappointing french DSs to get in the break and actually do something for once and for a sprint finish without Goss/Griepel.
If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.
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Yeah. I agree. French teams need to get behind their main riders and give them some help. Otherwise they won't win anything big.
Think I got mixed up between Giro and Dauphine with Vichot. It all blends into one after a while. He's more of a sprinter than anything so I was surprised to see him win that stage. He was 6th on stage 6 last year and that helped me win a stage as very few people had him.
He didn't do anything today though because he, Gilbert, whom I originally fancied for today, and some other riders were involved in a crash caused by a dog. Vichot, Urtasun, and Izagirre came in the bottom 10 so no hope now. Going to try and stay top 20 Premium or even full TdF and top 20 overall as I originally intended. Pretty sure everyone is going to have the same 4 riders for the TT tomorrow and I've already done my transfers as there's nothing to think about. Just got to decide whether I'm going to put in Cav for 20 as whenever I have him he crashes and I want him to win!! Back to his best today and the hill didn't cause too many problems so more hopeful now about Olympic gold especially as Boonen's not on top form.
Interested in the 'same four' that everyone's going to have, I can think of an obvious three who may well be 1, 2, 3 but the 4th isn't as obvious, Grivko maybe?
I've already got Wiggins and Froome, will swap out Sagan/Hinault for Van Garderen and either Millar, Sanchez or Velits. Won't be bothering with any TTing DSs, saving a transfer for Sunday so I can bring in some extra sprinters.
*edited and put in new thread
Europcar really need to get into the 'Big Leagues' first which would guarantee 3 grand tours.
Every time I lose confidence in Cav and don't pick him, he goes and wins!!
I suppose I'd better not pick him for Paris now!
Looks like 97 points or thereabouts.Hoping for green arrows
Hmmm, 3, 8, 9, 17 and 19 plus 10 points for Cav winning plus Boeckmans at the intermediate. Not a bad day but not amazing.
Gotta love the yellow lead-out though.
3rd and 4th in the last few stages of a 3 week tour for a purist. I say thats great. plus 15 for the sprint.
The person i'm chasing has Sagan aswell and had Impey but not Boeckmans
So overhauled the 22 points I was behind them
Dry run for Sunday me thinks and hopefully Cav will be able to deliver then too
Nice one Gkam - what TTers and sprinters do you have in your purist team for the weekend? Confident?
My team looks like this, taking out the 3 riders who have gone. So Wiggo, Sanchez and Grivko are my TT me, Izagirre might get in the top 20. But I hope Sanchez can live up to his Spanish nation TT championship
Bradley Wiggins (SKY)
Luis Leon Sanchez (RAB)
Peter Sagan (LIQ)
Andriy Grivko (AST)
Gorka Izagirre (EUS)
Kris Boeckmans (VCD)
Nice work by Cav, some power. Sagan got my 3rd and Sanchez still up there.....Good day and will be returning to my top premium purist again......
Cavendish WOW
Come on Sanchez
It's a game of cat and mouse, I reckon the Peloton would have preferred to make the catch after the last climb. Having a group sat up the road at 30 seconds makes it perfect for launching small counter attacks and that means the pace up the last climb may well be high, spitting out a few sprinters before the top.
Could well be an interesting last 15km, shame about the first 205...
I was thinking the same, but its come down again now. If they reach them before the last climb, it could actually end up being a good end - more attacks on the climb and the sprinters trying to stay in touch for the sprint...
Its fine doing the odd update here and there, but minute by minute is only worth it when something is happening. So in the final climb of a mountain stage or something like that. Today is boring as hell because no-one has anything left to work for.
I dont think the break will get caught. They are working together, where are in the peleton, there are 3 teams trying to pull the lot along, its just yo-yoing
OK - I'll stop now! Thought I'd carry on til someone said otherwise
Saur on the front now! Boeckmans and Fouchard looked like they were slipping out the back of the break but I think they've got back. ("Boeckmans got back" - a new Sir Mixalot single maybe...)
At this rate the break will get caught by the last climb, but there are some strong guys in there (Millar, Nuyens, Popovych, Vino, Rui Costa, EBH) that could string it out a bit...
Please stop with the spam
If you've been injured in an accident at work, apparently there are about seventeen different phone numbers you could call. Minute-by-minute with ad breaks isn't quite the same...
Break group back together, then EBH tries to up the pace. Paul Sherwen gives us our daily unwanted reminder that his nickname amongst the Sky Team is Bo-Dog. Surely he can come up with another Edvald fact by now?
Now Arashiro goes, with Rui Costa following. Arashiro gets the 5 fantasy mountain points.
Just realised I'm acting as if I'm doing minute-by-minute - hope nobody minds, its quite fun...
Millar attacking on the penultimate climb, Vino and EBH leading the chase...
On the front now are the teams with no-one in the break - OPQ, Euskatel and Rabobank - gap down to 1:30 with 45km left. Blimey - it just went down 10 secs in about 1 km...
I'm home now and watching. Rabobank have been on the front, maybe they think the climb is close enough to the finish for LuLu. Liquigas have just put a man up there too, gap down to 1:45. OPQ must have been working for my man De Weert...
Scratch that, Le Tour live text has come to the rescue and told me OPQ are on the front, why... I have no idea, do they even have a sprinter?
Two Lotto, one Sky, one Greenedge... I can't really see who's going to bother chasing this one down.
Anyone watching coverage? I'm stuck at work, who's on the front of the peloton?
Unlucky Gkam - Roy took decent points in the intermediate too. I've got 15pts there for Boeckmans, and its quite conceivable thats all the points I'll get today!
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