VUELTA Stage 4 Barakaldo-Estacion de Valdezcaray

40 today, dropped a few places but holding at around 50 points off first, annoyingly unless I luck out and get a couple of unpopular winners that 50 points is going to be really tough to make up.

Got four sprinters for tomorrow, I'd love to swap them all out again after tomorrow but I need my transfers to change some DSs

Got only 44 but still went up! Had Valverde from the day before and put in Intxausti for Kessiakoff for what i thought would be for some good points but didn't quite work out. Put in 2 sprinters for tomorrow otherwise still going for the climbers mainly.

I've got froome. Jrod and heneo for peanuts.

Valverde still gets 8 points or so for his points/KOM position - so having him and Clarke will put you in the top 10% I'd expect!

I was cheering for Clarke as I had Sulzberger for the 5 points bonus, but then realised I have Stybar as well so would've got the bonus if Martin had won anyway. Doh.

Well, good and bad for me....I had Simon Clarke but also Valverde. It seems that every time I select Valverde he crashes!!

Not a good day, but maybe not too shaby compared to some as having mollema, froome and henao as stars and then Davis will have scored me 8 points too, and then anacona.

Arghhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So not happy with today' result

Well that was OK. Decided today would be too difficult to predict so didn't make any transfers. Turns out I was right on that score! No-one in the break so not many points, but enough to match any team that didn't have anyone in the top ten, and 4 transfers for tomorrow (although I'll probably only use 2...)

Mine was unchanged from yesterday,

Froome
Contador
Rodriguez
Henao
Bouhanni
De Weert
Rasilla
Quintana
Santambrogio

Glad I didn't pick Valverde after all but not a particularly good day, hopefully I won't lose a lot of ground though. What worried me most today was that Contador was just happy to mark Froome, I was hoping he'd be more aggressive but there's still time I guess. Really need to overhaul my climbing DSs as Quintana and de Weert have been disappointing, might bring in Niemiec, Marczynski, Talansky or Anacona as they seem in better form than the ones I've got at the minute.

I'm going to have to make some MASSIVE changes to my team. Might take some penalties aswell. My even spread has just not worked and I can't afford any of the top guys at the moment.

At this rate my purist will outscore my transfers. At least Roche got me some, but only a couple more than if i'd stuck with Ten Dam

Stage standing has already been changed. Probably best to wait 'til it settles down before reposting.

Not a good stage for me, but it could've been so much worse. At least my transfers for tomorrow are obvious now.

Top 10 GC

J-Rod
Froome
Contador
Mollema
Gesink
Uran
Moreno
Roche
Valverde
Ten Dam

Top 5 Points

Clarke
Valverde
Degenkolb
J-Rod
Martin

Top 5 KoM

Clarke
Ligthart
Valverde
Mate
Martin

1 152 CLARKE, Simon OGE 4h 30' 26''
2 141 MARTIN, Tony OPQ + 2''
3 32 BAZAYEV, Assan AST + 22''
4 58 GARCIA, Marcos CJR + 55''
5 19 ROCHE, Nicolas ALM + 55''
6 175 GERDEMANN, Linus RNT + 57''
7 168 TEN DAM, Laurens RAB + 57''
8 39 ZEITS, Andrey AST + 1' 01''
9 166 MOLLEMA, Bauke RAB + 1' 04''
10 172 BAKELANTS, Jan RNT + 1' 04''
11 117 NIEMIEC, Przemyslaw LAM + 1' 04''
12 216 MARCZYNSKI, Tomasz VCD + 1' 04''
13 48 MORABITO, Steve BMC + 1' 04''
14 54 CARDOSO, Andre Fernando CJR + 1' 04''
15 181 FROOME, Christopher SKY + 1' 04''
16 101 RODRIGUEZ, Joaquin KAT + 1' 04''
17 171 MONFORT, Maxime RNT + 1' 04''
18 183 HENAO, Sergio Luis SKY + 1' 04''
19 36 SEELDRAYERS, Kevin AST + 1' 04''
20 201 CONTADOR, Alberto STB + 1' 04''

Clarke
Martin
Bazayev
Garcia
Roche
Gerdemann
Ten Dam
Zeits
Mollema
Bakelants
Niemiec
Merczynski
Morabito
Cardoso
Froome
Anacona
Monfort
J-Rod
Henao
Seeldrayers

Yeah, but would have been better if I had swap him in for De Gendt and left Ten Dam. They are both together

I got rid of Contador for Valverde...

Movistar right now are probably regretting attacking in Paris-Nice when Leipheimer went down and Gutierrez ignoring Sky requests to ease off on the day Siustou crashed out of the TDF

Oh right. I went out because I thought nothing was going to happen, everyone was just rolling home. Unlike when I went out yesterday and the race exploded.

So if you ever want something to happen in the race. Just tell me to go out

Valverde went down in a big old pile-up. peloton smote in twain.

So I went out to get supper in.....Someone crashed and the peleton split??

Anyone fill me in on what happened?

Just as well the combat number is not being scored. They changed it overnight from Valverde to Gilbert

Nicolas Roche (ALM) (for Ten Dam)
Fredrik Kessiakoff (AST)
Eros Capecchi (LIQ) (for de Gendt)
Daniel Moreno (KAT)
Bart de Clercq (LOT)
Johan Vansummeren (GRM)
Paolo Tiralongo (AST)
Gorka Verdugo (EUS)
Rinaldo Nocentini (ALM)

No-one in the break

Id say either swift or degenkolb, not decided yet

stupid computer making me post twice

I guess if you look at like that, gonna bring in another lampre guy tomorrow and be rid of machado and then another star sprinter

Yup he is, i was torn between going for him or verdugo