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60 comments
And now Wout Poels has quit too.
Km 74.6, GPM 2e cat. à Villars-Bramard :
1er Burghardt , 8pts.
2e Bérard, 6.
3e Bilbao, 4.
4e Kruijswijk, 2.
5e Brändle, 1.
Adam Blythe has abandoned as well.
Cruise quick is only 31 seconds behind Froomedog cannot see them letting that group stay away. Stevie can TT too.
Moreno is ill.
Bilbao is up the road too I understand.
Hmmmm
Anyone know why Moreno has pulled out? He was looking in good form and I was half-tempted to throw him into my Giro purist squad.
Kruijse kwik, Reza, Branadle, Berghard, and Berard, have 3.12 Sky pulling the peleton.
Burghardt, Kruiswijk, Berard, Reza, Brandle and now Bilbao after a chase on are the break. 3'25" ahead after 47 km. Daniel Moreno has abandoned.
Debating Brandle Berard or Bravo guess which one I choose?
i booted nizzolo and goss ( mistake?) for pinot and betancur, starting to transfer to climbers for tomorrow, and it could end up as a more reduced bunch sprint where the GC guys start to occupy top 20 finishing positions- still banking on meersman, albasini and gavazzi to take the lions share of points though.
Thats my thinking too - fingers crossed...
Hoping to see Fumeaux in the break today or tomorrow for my purist team. Was very confident that he'd do something this week, but only 2 chances left!
Frank (BMC) other non starter
Sorry Nizzolo and another as yet unnamed DNS
Well at least I know early that I shudda swapped out Nizzolo...defo shudda kept Clement two days ago
No DNS today
Stick and Twist for me Nerd
Talansky
Porte
Cav (stick)
Dumoulin (stick)
Pinot (twist for westra)
Bravo (twist for tuft)
Nizzolo finished in the second group yesterday.
That's a good point, after an unpredictable TT it may have been worth just picking the sprinters and then having them in from the start.
Also, wasn't aware Nizzolo had abandoned, that sucks
Picked it up this morning, in a tweet from RSN.
For a moment I thought you had a crystal ball.
I was going to do nothing then Nizzolo abandons so have to make changes and having done so do I take the penalty points today and change things around.
It's all a bit difficult really needed to get it right from the start and although I left all the sprinters out should really have had the strong sprinters in from the beginning. My failure to read the first TT has cost me dearly in terms of being able to transfer. Spilak and Peraud, not happy with those guys they were my bankers and they turned out to be something rhyming, good practice for the Giro though, can't wait.
One thing I will say though, dropping the price of penalty transfers to 10 points has been a stroke of genius, it's really opened up the tactically possibilities when considering transfers and it's a more balanced cost for making that extra transfers than last year's 20 point penalty which was so penal it was never ever worth taking the hit and making that extra transfer.
Now the decicion is much more situational and has a greater (but not too great a) chance of working out in your favour.
At 10 points per penalty it is a fine balance between making it worth it to save transfers or to just take the hit.
I felt that getting my sprinters in ahead of the three flat-ish stages was worth taking the hit and it's worked out ok. I probably missed out on Mezgec though for yesterday because I was trying to save transfers. Saving that transfer in the end wasn't worth it as Mezgec scored more than 10 points.
Now that I'm commited to saving the transfers though I'm sticking to the plan and will take 6 into tomorrow. That doesn't just allow more re-jigging, it allows me more transfers for the TT too and means I can potentially bring in and then axe more specialist climbers.
Stick and Twist for me
Talansky
Porte
Cav (stick)
Dumoulin (stick)
Pinot (twist for westra)
Bravo (twist for tuft)
Grabsch
Astarloza
M Wyss
After only scoring 32 felt it was time push on.
Have 4 transfers for tomorrow, gonna have too take penalty probably
From my team as it is I'll keep Froome and Porte tonight, and Morabito, and drop Meersman, Nizzolo, Gavazzi and possibly Albasini depending on budget. I'll be picking up as many quality climbers as I can afford (which is probably not many).
I'm tempted to ditch Porte as I think he'll be working for Froome and may not feature at the finish but I'll want him for Sunday's TT.
Once I looked at prices and having just 2 two cheap guys wasn't enough and would need a 3rd one anyway which is why I brought Mezgec in, and then Albasini is likely to do something today or tomorrow.
See thats kind of my problem with Porte, its do I go Porte or do I go Rui Costa, over the two stages Im favouring Porte. Yes he may ride for Froome, but its is a hairy decent to the finish so I think they will try and have him and Froome there at the top, and so will both be at the finish.
Its seems I will be going for quantity over quality, I could get Froome in for tomorrow and bring in Morabito too, or can go for Porte and say Betancur or Tschopp instead. But my problem is the TT, I could be left with Froome and Morabito and not be able to get Martin in and another I wont name, or I can have Porte, Betancur, Martin and the other along with Kelderman and Talansky, which to me looks strong enough, but means no Froome.
In order to get that line up for the TT with Froome instead of Porte, Betancur would have to be replaced with someone of 6.2 credits or less and I see no value in that (unless you lucked in on the breakaway guy and he picks up all the points). As over the two stages I think the combo or Porte and Betancur will score more than Froome alone.
Because I already had Talansky and Kelderman who can TT (as well as Dennis as a cheap guy) and Pinot for tomorrow I didn't see saving transfers adding too much value, apart from jigging around my cheap guys and axing Dehaes, but again that would have been lucking in on someone, whereas Megzec could score for me today
I twisted, which puts me in a mess for stage 5 and 6
Meersman
Gavazzi
Mezgec (for Nizzolo)
Albasini (for Ferrari)
Dehaes
Dennis
Kelderman
Pinot
Talansky
I have two saving graces, I think Albasini will either try and hang in on the cat 1 tomorrow, or will go in the break, as I will replace Gavazzi and Meersman.
Also I have 3 cheap guys, 1 of of which can TT, so I should still be strong for the next todays, but no froome (will go porte instead) and can still put in my two favourites for the TT, it will just mean axing Pinot
Yes, I'm going to have to keep either Albasini or Grivko for tomorrow - I just know whichever one I drop will go in the break...
Maybe I'll drop both with a penalty transfer, then they'll both go in the break!
I was going to leave it, but I had 2 guys (D Wyss and Nizzolo) that I think have virtually no chance of scoring today if they couldn't get to the finish yesterday, so have made a couple of my GC transfers a day early. Trying to work out how I can fit Froome in tomorrow - its not gonna be easy!
Stick, Mezgec and Nerz are tempting (in place of Rensburg and Morabito) but I'll keep my transfers for tomorrow.
My team (unless I have a change of heart) will be:
Froome
Porte
Albasini
Meersman
Nizzolo
Gavazzi
Morabito
Wyss (M)
Van Rensburg
That gives 6 transfers tomorrow and I'm planning to use 4 or 5 of those to bring in the likes of Talansky or Costa.
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