Tour De Romandie

Totally agree with Stevemarks comments....This was a tough prologue to call but in all honesty I think its utter bolloc*s when riders enter a race and then dont give 100%.....Spilak and Peraud could not have gone harder on that stage, given current form, I dont think so.......

I'm convinced Spilak and Peraud actually gave 100%. They were in excellent shape at Pais Vasco, couple weeks ago. Many riders were sick afterwards and it's not easy to mantain that shape tho (recover without losing form). A lot of riders racing Romandie are close to peak form between Ardennes and Giro. Not anyone can be top 20 on any day. There are many factors that can be decisive in a 7.5 km prologue (shape, mental strength, preparation, weather). Spilak is on my team too and I expect some fine racing from him this week.

In Columbia there are more mountains, less flat roads, and to do well on the local junior scene you need to climb. Perhaps its a failing of the system but it just doesn't seem set up to produce sprinters.

Ooooh, Phinney out.

TER....come on mate, You are changing to the wrong startlist at this time at night??

http://www.tourderomandie.ch/en/38-racers <<< That's the start list.

Phinney is listed there....

This is the team from the BMC official site posted today: Adam Blythe (GBR), Brent Bookwalter (USA), Marcus Burghardt (GER), Mathias Frank (SUI), Steve Morabito (SUI), Dominik Nerz (GER), Marco Pinotti (ITA), Danilo Wyss (SUI).

Lampre's official site From 23rd to 28th of April, in Team LAMPRE-MERIDA selection that will take part in Tour de Romandie there will be Matteo Bono, Damiano Cunego, Kristijan Durasek, Roberto Ferrari, Adriano Malori, Manuele Mori, Josè Serpa Perez and Simone Stortoni.

Just a note that everyone should check their teams as a few possible TT contenders have dropped out including Phinney and Sergent.

Cheers just checked my teams and lost Ulissi from standard and de Gendt from purist. This has been a complete head breaker to chose for!

Heads up, TV Coverage is on Sky Sports 2 grrrrrr

Gutted that this is on Sky and not on Eurosport this year...

commentary on sky is so unprofessional!

I have no idea what to expect from my team today or throughout this race, it's too hard to predict.

I've gone with:

Froome
Martin
Porte (just for today, think I might regret this)
Gesink
Frank
Majka
Dennis
Wyss (M)
Van Rensburg

Only the first five are picked for today with the rest just being week long filler. Plan is to drop Frank and one of Martin/Froome/Porte/Gesink depending on how they do today (and how many GC points they'll through the next three stages) and pick up some sprinty types.

Purist is:

Froome (who'll win)
Martin (who'll wear the leaders jersey for three days and win two stages)
Gesink (who'll podium)
Tshcopp (who'll drop loads of time and go for the KoM)
Spilak (who's boring)
Morabito (who's Swiss)
Majka (who can climb)
Landa (who will get in breaks)
Rensburg (who was cheap)

Finally settled on...

Standard.
TONY MARTIN
RUI COSTA
PETER VELITS
SIMON SPILAK
SVEIN TUFT
J-C PERAUD
TIAGO MACHADO
MARCEL WYSS
ROHAN DENNIS

Purist.
DAN MORENO
ANDREW TALANSKY
PETER VELITS
ENRICO GASPAROTTO
SIMON SPILAK
J-C PERAUD
MIKEL ASTERLOZA
MARCEL WYSS
GABRIEL RASCH

My purist squad for Romandie:

Froome
Moreno
Rui Costa
Spilak
Gavazzi
Vichot
Sicard
M.Wyss
Ludvigsson

Excellent, I like it when everyone's teams are nice and varied. I think its just a case of go with your gut for the first two days and hope for the best!

STANDARD
T Martin
Grivko (looked very strong in the Ardennes)
Albasini
Gruzdev
Westra (never scores when I pick him...)
Kelderman
Nizzolo
Wyss (both of them)

PURIST
Martin
Albasini
Porte
Rui Costa
Meersman
Gavazzi
Fumeaux
M Wyss
Ludvigsson

Standard

Porte
Talansky
Spilak
Westra
Tuft
Kreuziger
Grabsch
M Wyss
Astarloza

Purist

Froome
Talansky
Betancur
T Meyer
Landa
Tschopp
Rolland
Dehaes
Kozontchuk

few randoms for breaks

I really don't know what Ive done

Talanksy
Spilak
Martin
Kelderman
Dumoulin
Gavazzi
Bouet
Dennis
Dehaes

Purist

Dehaes
Ludvigsson
Lobato
Meersman
Capecchi
Spilak
Betancur
Talansky
Froome

difficult to choose indeed!
But nice to see so much difference in approach...

ive gone with:

standard:

froome
martin
porte
spilak
westra
machado
m wyss
van rensburg
r dennis

purist:

froome
talansky
porte
spilak
westra
machado
m wyss
van rensburg
r dennis

I see froome winning prologue and GC, porte podium on both, martin top 5 prologue and win on final day.

Grivko is an interesting one, he looks good and does well in prologues but seemed a bit expensive so I was wary.

I'm surprised more people haven't gone for Morabito in their purists. At 8.5 credits he's cheap and apparently he's designated BMC leader so I'm hoping for good things!

From a point of view of picking a team this race has been awful but I think from a fantasy cycling point of view once it gets under way it's going to be great, lots of different teams, lots of potential riders, no obvious results to the first three road stages (is it a sprint, is it a small bunch sprint, is it a GC day, is it a breakaway?!) and then a ma-hoosive mountain stage running into a final TT makes it very difficult to plan.

I'd got in mind to make two changes after today picking either people who've done well in the prologue and are cheap or people who've done poorly in the prologue as a pre-cursor to going on a break, then leave my team as it is before making 3/4 changes before the mountains and as many as I've got left for the TT but I get the feeling I'm going to be chasing my tail over the next few days trying to keep up with however the race plays out.

I had Morabito at one point, but then I didn't know what to do with the credits I saved, so went Capecchi instead. I really don't know what Im doing with this tbh. My standard team no looks a mess and my purist an even bigger mess

This one is a bit of a lottery.....but for fantasy purposes I think thats its just what we need to get the pulses racing....Not many safe option picks in this one,as we all know from our pre-race tinkering....Good luck to all...

The race could go any number of ways and I don't think that we'll really know who's a contender until the end of today.

Hesjedal/Betancur are both racing the Giro so likely won't go hard for the full race, Gesink too (although he perhaps has more to prove) and then there's the likes of Moreno who might feel he needs time in the hills before the final time trial so the race could really break up.

Add on top of that the fact that three of six days are 'transitional' stages and it may be that picking obvious single stage point scorers (Martin for the TT, Pinot/Rolland for the queen stage) might not be the best tactic. A team with Gavazzi, Dumoulin or Meersman might take three stages and a raft of top 10s and put us all to shame but I was afraid of how unpredictable that may be and stuck to the safer option of climbers.

Also, my biggest concern for this week is not picking Albasini...

I think Dumoulin could top 10 in the prologue...
Then i went Gavazzi and Bouet for tomorrow in my standard and just Meersman in my purist. but I plan on bringing Meersman into my standard after today.

Meersman, Nizzollo, Dumoulin, those are the riders I'm looking at for later in the week.

Probably will avoid Matthews if he's working for Goss, and no idea how Cav will do on the 'flat' stages. But there's plenty of sprinting options in the race with Viviani, Bookwalter, Blythe and Ferrari all racing.

Que Sera, Sera......Whatever will be, will be.....

Live leaderboard here - Brajkovic the early leader!

http://www.matsport.fr.php53-23.ord1-1.websitetestlink.com/Tribune/index...

We all fell in love with Johnny as a result of some shi*e driving and a barbed wire fence...sadly his legs dont match his heart at this level....