Paris-Nice: Stage 2

glory or bust time tomorrow. Got rid of all my sprinters in the hope that they will hammer it up the final 2nd cat climb.

Poss breakaway day tomorrow.

Is it just me or could tomorrow be a short Milan San Remo type stage?

I think 150 for me

A paltry 104 today. Very disappointing.

Now, what to the hell do I do about tomorrow?

Lanterne Rouge - FLENS Rick

I was going to drop "Harvey" Kittel after he trailed in yesterday but I forgot. Just as well really. That's 6 out of yesterday's and today's top 4 scorers I've had in my team, boom.

(Not Lars).

I thought as much bloody Kristoff was up the front trying to contest the sprint, ended up 19th though

11 RAST Gregory
12 PETACCHI Alessandro
13 TURGOT Sébastien
14 SOUPE Geoffrey
15 BOECKMANS Kris
16 CHAVANEL Sylvain
17 HUTAROVICH Yauheni
18 IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI
19 KRISTOFF Alexander
20 TALANSKY Andrew

Yippee.....Wig-Billy is not immortal after all.....Just simply different class....

I got got rid of Kittel last night.

Bah, dropping Howard after stage one keeps coming back to bite me in the ass. Anyone know where Haussler ended up?

1 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Team Argos-Shimano
2 Elia Viviani (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling
3 Leigh Howard (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge
4 Borut Bozic (Slo) Astana Pro Team
5 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
6 Gianni Meersman (Bel) Omega Pharma-Quick Step
7 Romain Feillu (Fra) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
8 Jens Debusschere (Bel) Lotto Belisol
9 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Movistar Team
10 Tony Gallopin (Fra) RadioShack Leopard

Had Bouhanni and once again failed to select Viviani. Silver lining though - had Kittel in the squad

Viviani takes the second sprint followed by Chavanel and Perez Moreno.

Viviani now in yellow by a second over Chavanel.

Boonen and OPQS on the front. Looks like they're driving the pace to try and break the sprinters and give Chavanel a shot up the short climb to the finish.

Quote:

Lip and hand injury for Bouhanni
The race doctor told France Televisions: "Nacer has a deep wound in the lip and a hand trauma. He's staying with us until the end of the stage and then going to hospital for further checks."

Nice to see it's not something that'll wreck his season. Hopefully he'll be up and running again and at full pace for the Tour.

Ouch.

renshaw step up please!!!

Bouhanni out

Nooooo!

Bouhanni appears to have crashed and smashed up his teeth, being stretchered away.

OMg Bouhanni is DOWN AND OUT!!

Crash in the peloton:

Quote:

Huguet and Siutsov crash
As hail starts falling on the peloton Kasntanstin Siutsov (SKY) crashed as weel as Yann Huguet (ARG)

Quote:

Massive pile up
Km 125 - A major pile up took place in the bunch, involving several riders like Ian Boswell (SKY), Alexandre Pichot (EUC), prologue winner Damien Gaudin (EUC) and a few BMC riders.

Quote:

Soupe was also in the crash
Geoffrey Soupe (FDJ), one of Nacer Bouanni's lead-out men, was also involved in the crash.

Pichot has quit the race.

Quote:

De Gendt and Feillu in the lead
KM 64 - Thomas De Gendt and Romain Feillu (both Vacansoleil) have surged. Thay are being chased by Mikel Astarloza (EUS) and Maxime Bouet (ALT), some 15 seconds behind. The peloton is 1:30 seconds adrift.

Still aparently nobody in a break and the peloton taking it very casually:

Quote:

The average speed in the second hour of the stage was 26.7 kph and the overall average speed was 29.6 kph.

I chucked together a team after watching the last 10km yesterday. Needed to take out Rui Costa and Kristoff. Will finally be home this evening to catch up on it all.

First sprint:

Quote:

Result of the first intermediate sprint in Les Choux (Km 15.5)1. Boeckmans 3 points, 3 secs2. Smukulis 2 points, 2 secs3. Christensen 1 point, 1 sec

No break at the minute, Kristoff appears to have started Seeldrayers hasn't.

I've got over 180, but because of penalty points i keep coming up short

Standard

Renshaw
Westra
Gallopin
Kittel
Bouhanni
Pettachi
Porte
Chavanel
Viviani

Really hoping for a high score, want the 180 badge!!