Stage 15 TdF

After many failures, I've put a lot more effort into todays team;

Sagan - should get some good finish line/int. sprint/green jersey points.
Greipel - same as above + it's his birthday.
Cavendish - was going to keep Goss, but he's stopped contesting int. sprints and I think Cav will get more points at the finish.
Dumoulin - was planning to bring in Van Hummel, but he had abdominal pains yesterday.
Arashiro - could finish top 20 today
Simon - same as above
Huguet - said something about being in the break today
Cantwell - same as above
Ladagnous - same as above

Now watch it all fall apart.

My stage hunting team. Hoping Roy finally pulls his finger out and gets in a break

Andre Greipel (LOT)
Matthew Goss (GRE)
Peter Sagan (LIQ)
Jeremy Roy (FDJ)
Joan Horrach (KAT)
Julien Simon (SAU)
Pablo Urtasun (EUS)
Jorge Azanza (EUS)
Giovanni Bernaudeau (EUC)

Dumoulin(for Voeckler)
Greipel(for RuiCosta)
Sagan
Gerrans
Albasini
Izagirre
Vichot
Pinot
Edet

FAIL for my stage hunting, Izaguirre off again for my purist.

Then it comes back

I was going to take Chavanel out this morning but bought Boeckmans in for Iglinsky and Cavendish in for Gilbert and have only just discovered that Chavanel's abandoned

Cavendish
Chavanel-abandoned
Sagan
LuLuSanchez
Edet
Cantwell
Boeckmans
Pinot
Vichot-was in an early break that got pulled back

Current leaders with 13" on the peloton

Millar
Grivko
Arashiro
Grabsch
Rui Costa(!?)

Odd mix but seems more likely than Frank Schleck on the attack on a flat stage...

Rui Costa....... I just took him out of my stage team, but Grivko is in my purist team

Dropped riders
BERNAUDEAU Giovanni
HUTAROVICH Yauheni
TANKINK Bram
VAN HUMMEL Kenny

Bernaudeau better get my last place today......see if Kern drops back and comes in last again, I want an ASO investigation

Might have known Rui Costa would be in the break Still confident that Greipel will outpoint him today though!!

3 decent TT'ers in this break though with Grabsch,Millar and Grivko

Yeah, very good break for a flat stage, they should have enough nous to draw this out right to the line too unless OPQ shut it down early.

...actually, with Grabsch in there I assume he won't be doing much work so I don't give this break much hope.

Annoyed with Van Hummel, but I've now officially given up on a decent placing, I was doing well and making up ground until yesterday when I threw it all away

Time to plan for the Vuelta...

Why would OPQ shut it down? Lotto Belisol perhaps?

Bah!

I couldn't remember which team Gripel was riding for, had a blank moment, and plumped for Omega-Pharma Quickstep (Wiki still says he's a member of OPL) rather than Lotto

Yes, Lotto might shut it down for Gripel and the fact that Grabsch is in the break will make no difference to them...

And the break is caught again

I don't see many getting away because Sagan will want points at inter sprint

Will Sagan realy care?

He's so far ahead now that unless he doesn't contest any of the remaining sprint finishes he's unlikely to be caught. He's 97 points up on Griepel, that's pretty much three uncontested sprint finishes which Griepel would have to win just to catch him.

Yeah Dr, Wiki is confusing with him, but I guess its because of team name change.....I've always been tempted to become an "editer" on Wiki and sort out some of their cycling stuff

Current team Lotto-Belisol

2011– Omega Pharma-Lotto

Sagan's the type of rider thats hunger for anything. He'll want as much as possible, He didn't have to do all that climbing yesterday, But he did to chase down the guys and get back to the front. He's a monster and can do everything. In a few years, If he works a little on him climbing, He'll be a GC guy that can take every jersey

Yeah, I guess as Lotto Belisol is now using the old OP-Lotto license he's in the same team and OP-Quickstep are racing on the old Quickstep license.

Either that or he'll be serving some form of ban

I'm kidding, but he's exactly the kind of rider who explodes onto the scene and who can do so much to such a high standard that you do begin to question their performances.

I'm sure Fedrigo is riding for FDJ

Dumoulin! Not the guy I thought I'd get in the break, but happy nonetheless.

Swings and roundabouts again

Voeckler AND the man I bought in for him(Dumoulin) in the new break....one that looks like the break of the day.

I'd imagine Dumoulin would be favourite for the intermediate

Bah, I had Dumoulin in the break on Sat and decided he wouldn't go again, never mind. He was only 6th in the intermediate when I had him, so watch him take the 15 points today...

Thought I might get lucky with Stortoni trying to get across the gap just now, but he just missed it. Lampre have done virtually nothing the whole tour, so surely someone (Scarponi again?) will go for it on Weds...

I had quite a good plan in week one and got to top 50 overall after stage 6, but I've messed things up in week 2 and am left with a team that I look at thinking "how the hell have I ended up with that?" still - hopefully three in the top 5 at the finish today and then I think I'll have 5 transfers for Weds if I want them...

Greipel
Goss
Sagan
Valls for Weds
Jeandesbosz
Stortoni
Pinot
De Weert
Boeckmans

Greipel's birthday today

Wow they went through the int sprint as if it never existed!

Lancaster, Van Hummel
abandoned

Fantasy points for the intermediate were:

1. Sorensen (STB) 15pts
2. Voeckler (EUC) 14pts
3. Devenyns (OPQ) 13pts
4. Dumoulin (COF) 12pts
5. Fedrigo (FDJ) 11pts
6. Vande Velde (GRS) 10pts
7. Sagan (LIQ) 9pts
8. Koren (LIQ) 8pts
9. Bak (LTB) 7pts
10. De Greef (LTB) 6pts
11. Eisel (SKY) 5pts
12. Froome (SKY) 4pts
13. Knees (SKY) 3pts
14. Boasson Hagen (SKY) 2pts
15. Cavendish (SKY) 1pt

Looks like Griepel, Goss and Cavendish have given up on the sprints and the Green jersey.

and Brett Lancaster has abandoned.

21 at the intermediate sprint and I'm hoping DuMoulin can get a win here as less people will have him than Sagan or Greipel......although the sportsman in me would like to see a Cav win after Sky's show of honour yesterday.

Merde.

Bernaudeau needs SACKED, he's done nothing but sit at the back ALL tour.....and never finished last

Thats me down to 6 in my purist, I need some more LL Sanchez breaks

I know the scoring system changes year-by-year, but still...
Sagan now has 340 points, so if and when he finishes top 10 today, he will have the most points since Sean Kelly's 434 in 1985! If he can beat that by Paris he'll have the highest points total in over 50 years!

Break at 8'20" with only 40km to go! What are Lotto playing at? Are they just not bothering to even try and bring it back today?

Yeah they've just let them go, nobody else interested in taking it up, so the break can go.

So much for Cav, Goss, Griepel and Sagan having a heads up sprint

I'm really surprised at this - they get a day off tomorrow! Lazy bastards. Slightly more annoyed about dropping Dumoulin now...

Yeah, very annoying, wish I hadn't bothered to bring in Griepel/Sagan now although I suspect Sagan at least will sprint for minor placings.

Very odd with a rest day tomorrow, I assume that Lotto were looking at Liquigas and Greenedge to chase it down and vice versa and by the time they got organised it was too late. Will be interesting to see the highlights.

The first 50-60km of this stage were really fast with loads of attacking. The sprinters teams are just too tired to chase down the break.

10 bloody minutes what the f@#k this is rubbish racing!!!!

Reminds me of the tour a few years ago when Armstrong used to just let breaks go and could control the peloton. It's only really in the HTC years that we've gotten so used to teams chasing down breaks in order to have a sprint finish.

I wonder if this is what we'll get more of when they scrap race radios?

This could be an all time low score for me

Wiggins - 10
Griepel - 4 + finish line
Sagan - 14 + finish line
Van Hummel - 0
Jeandesboz - 0
Vichot - 0
Simon - 0
Pinot - 0
Izagirre - 0

-20 penalty points.

Best case scenario is probably a Fedrigo win and a score of around 30 points

Gkam,

Next time you choose a Purist team, could you let me know who you pick?

Your abandon rate seems well above average....

I think the overall abandon rate has been high(carnage in week 1 plus upcoming Olympics.....never mind the tackattacks)but yeah.....Gkam can certainly pick 'em

your team is almost the same as mine! except i have boeckmans and impey instead of simon and jeandesboz

64 for me

Pyrenees and some proper racing next!

Finally, Kern not in last, he came in 3rd last

Vanotti your last man home today, 162 home yesterday, only 156 today

No really, 3 riders out of 9 from the start, 36 riders so far out of the tour.....could have been worse and I'm still keeping up there as the top premium purist