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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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Dry run for Sunday me thinks and hopefully Cav will be able to deliver then too
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
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.
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)
Looks like 97 points or thereabouts.Hoping for green arrows
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!
Vichot has been a waste of space, but last year he helped me win a stage (no prize unfortunatley) so I kept him in as a lucky charm, which worked yesterday I suppose. I should have had Izagirre from the beginning though. Would have got me 60 more points at least. I think to be fair the Giro knackered Vichot. He's only about 24 and he's ridden 2 Grand Tours back-to-back. I can see him winning more breakaways in the future.
Simon's picked up a few points when I've had him.
The best FDJ DS has been Pinot who has been great for me. Put him in before stage 7 so he's earnt me a lot of points. I can also see him winning more breakaways in the future and maybe challenging for GC if he moves to SKY.
Agreed, Vichot has been poor but he won a stage of the CdD so thought he may be in form, either way he's been too cheap/pointless to ditch so he's stuck there, Jeandesboz has scored a few points but is similar, stuck there as their are other people that needed transferring out first. Simon has got me a few points but not what I'd hoped for but I've had Izagirre for most of the tour, only ditched him after Wednesday thinking he'd be knackered.
Pinot has been great but I picked him two stages too late missing his big break and the day Rolland won (thinking he'd had his day and wouldn't do anything else). I can't see him moving anywhere yet but surely with the quality of French riders coming though one of the French teams needs to get serious and try for the GC. All of them (Saur, FDJ, Europcar, Cofidis) seem to bring a guy that can manage on his own and maybe top 20/30 GC but they never work for him, Coppel being a prime example. They all concentrate on stage wins picking aggresive do or die riders, not consistent climbers.
If FDJ or Europcar got their act together and really tried to push one of Rolland/Pinot onto the next level I reckon they could be on the podium next year. Their only flaw is time trialling.
Europcar really need to get into the 'Big Leagues' first which would guarantee 3 grand tours.
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
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