Vuelta Stage 15

I think I got about 134 points yesterday although that's with calculations on back of a fag packet.

Valverde(for Moncoutie) He has almost as many guaranteed points from GC/Pts/KOM than Moncoutie can get with ALL the bonuses today.

Stages 16 and 20 are the big fantasy breakaway days I reckon.

Thats my only change leaving 2 transfers in the bank(I almost dare not take out Cesar or DeLaFuente as I just KNOW they'll do something on the day I do!!)

Contador
Rodriguez
Valverde
Capecchi
Cesar
DeLaFuente
Talansky
Marczynski
Sarmiento

Different teams today Ter

Contador
Valverde
Henao
J-Rod

Talansky
Anacona
Marczynski
Aramendia (been in a few breaks this year)
Clarke (surely in the break today?)

Contador
JRod
Valverde(for Roche)
Ten Dam
Clarke
J Moreno
Astraloza
Florencio
Talansky

Got 155 yesterday without big breakaway so same today will do me fine

After yesterdays events I'm not going to be paying much attention to this game for the rest of the Vuelta. I'll be stage hunting for the final week;

J-Rod
Contador
Jeannesson
De Gendt
Marczynski
Talansky
Kreder
De La Fuente
Meyer

Finally scrapped Froomedog

Alberto Contador
Alejandro Valverde
Joaquin Rodriguez
Laurens ten Dam
Winner Andrew Anacona
Xavier Florencio
Andrew Talansky
Tomasz Marczynski
Rafal Majka

First intermediate sprint
1. Lloyd MONDORY
2. Ruben PEREZ MORENO
3. Pablo LASTRAS GARCIA

Santo Emiliano (Cat 3)
1. David DE LA FUENTE RASILLA
2. Antonio PIEDRA PEREZ
3. Kevin SEELDRAEYERS

Your break today, thankfully no-one I took out has gone for a break

The escapees have an advantage of 9'25'' over the bunch (break away day??)

David DE LA FUENTE RASILLA
Kevin SEELDRAEYERS
Andrey KASHECHKIN
Ruben PEREZ MORENO
Vicente REYNES MIMO
Sergey LAGUTIN
Lloyd MONDORY
Simon GESCHKE
Antonio PIEDRA PEREZ
Pablo LASTRAS GARCIA

Phew

I came within a whisker of going Clark in for DeLaFuente

Definitely doing it for tomorrow though.

Got 193 yesterday so not going for stages yet.

Swapped Capecchi for Henao so I can have Verdugo.

Valverde
Purito
Contador
Henao
Clarke
Verdugo
Marczynski
Bouhanni (get rid of tomorrow)
Talansky

Hope we get some live pictures soon as this is only the second time I've been able to watch anything live.

Getting a bit pissed off and pissed.

15ª etapa Vuelta: Un cuarto de hora para la fuga

A 46,5 kms de meta. Lastras (Movistar Team), Mondory (Ag2r), Seeldraeyers y Kashechkin (Astana), De la Fuente y Piedra (Caja Rural), Rubén Pérez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Reynés (Lotto), Geschke (Argos-Shimano), Lagutin (Vacansoleil) comienzan las ascensión a El Mirador del Fito con 14:50.

Break definitely going to win today. Got no-one in it. Scores will be much lower today. Hope De la Fuente doesn't too well as he's the only rider most people will have.

Contador
Rodriguez
Valverde (for Froome)
Viviani
Niemic (for Meersman, nearly went for Verdugo but my girlfriend thought Niemic had a better name)*
Talansky
Marczynsky
Quintana
Bouhanni

Couldn't work in a decent Bouhanni replacement so decided to leave him for now. Team is stacked towards the finish for today rather than breaks. Froome is looking tired and out of ideas (why attack yesterday if he was so tired? He needs to work on his tactics) so have gone for an in form Valverde, hoping he'll continue to outscore him.

Getting nervous for my purist team, 1st place has Valverde and Clarke and its hurting me, my team is:
Contador
Rodriguez
Froome
Viviani
Talansky
Meersman
Marczynski
Quintana
Bouhanni

Hoping Marczynski and Talansky score heavily.

*don't laugh, its a tactic that worked really well during the Giro.

With 15 points on offer for the special climb today. Clarke might not be holding it at the end of the day

I made some good transfers for a change - Seeldraeyers and Contador in for Moncoutie and De Gendt.

Also have De La Fuente in the break, and J-Rod and Valverde behind, so hoping for my best stage so far. Maybe I'll even get back in the top 500!

Tool Piedra out today.....

1 59 PIEDRA, Antonio CJR 5h 01' 23''
2 75 PÉREZ, Rubén EUS + 2' 02''
3 15 MONDORY, Lloyd ALM + 2' 02''
4 56 DE LA FUENTE, David CJR + 2' 02''
5 5 LASTRAS, Pablo MOV + 2' 07''
6 197 GESCHKE, Simon ARG + 2' 12''
7 36 SEELDRAYERS, Kevin AST + 2' 25''

1 59 PIEDRA, Antonio CJR 5h 01' 23''
2 75 PÉREZ, Rubén EUS + 2' 02''
3 15 MONDORY, Lloyd ALM + 2' 02''
4 56 DE LA FUENTE, David CJR + 2' 02''
5 5 LASTRAS, Pablo MOV + 2' 07''
6 197 GESCHKE, Simon ARG + 2' 12''
7 36 SEELDRAYERS, Kevin AST + 2' 25''
8 35 KASHECHKIN, Andrey AST + 3' 35''
9 137 REYNES, Vicente LTB + 3' 49''
10 213 LAGUTIN, Sergey VCD + 6' 45''
11 9 VALVERDE, Alejandro MOV + 9' 25''
12 101 RODRIGUEZ, Joaquin KAT + 9' 25''
13 201 CONTADOR, Alberto STB + 9' 25''
14 7 QUINTANA, Nairo Alexander MOV + 9' 38''
15 71 ANTON, Igor EUS + 9' 48''
16 216 MARCZYNSKI, Tomasz VCD + 10' 00''
17 161 GESINK, Robert RAB + 10' 00''
18 112 ANACONA, Winner LAM + 10' 00''
19 91 TALANSKY, Andrew GRS + 10' 00''
20 132 DE CLERCQ, Bart LTB + 10' 00''

Hmmmm, not sure how I feel about getting 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 19. Same as everyone else, I guess.

GC :-

1 101 RODRIGUEZ, Joaquin KAT 58h 17' 21''
2 201 CONTADOR, Alberto STB + 22''
3 9 VALVERDE, Alejandro MOV + 1' 41''
4 181 FROOME, Christopher SKY + 2' 16''
5 107 MORENO, Daniel KAT + 4' 51''
6 161 GESINK, Robert RAB + 5' 42''
7 91 TALANSKY, Andrew GRS + 6' 48''
8 168 TEN DAM, Laurens RAB + 7' 17''
9 71 ANTON, Igor EUS + 7' 39''
10 216 MARCZYNSKI, Tomasz VCD + 9' 01''

GC seems to have changed ...

1 101 RODRIGUEZ, Joaquin KAT 58h 17' 21''
2 201 CONTADOR, Alberto STB + 22''
3 9 VALVERDE, Alejandro MOV + 1' 41''
4 181 FROOME, Christopher SKY + 2' 16''
5 107 MORENO, Daniel KAT + 4' 51''
6 161 GESINK, Robert RAB + 5' 42''
7 91 TALANSKY, Andrew GRS + 6' 48''
8 168 TEN DAM, Laurens RAB + 7' 17''
9 19 ROCHE, Nicolas ALM + 7' 21''
10 71 ANTON, Igor EUS + 7' 39''

This is exactly how the USA Pro Challenge went. The GC sorted itself out very quickly, so teams hardly had to be changed. All good fun, though.

11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 19 plus 1, 2, 3, 7 and 10 GC.

Not sure but probably about average except I went Niemic over Anacona. Not sure what to do with my team, want to bring in Anton but not sure how I could afford him.

My worry now is that Katusha won't want to chase any breaks and risk Contador picking up bonus time whereas Saxo won't chase because Contador fears Rodriguez continuing to get the jump on him and getting the bonuses. That means that today could be repeated with breaks staying away.

I got 4,7,11,12,13 today, plus some extra bits and bobs from the climbs and sprints. Strategy too risky to reap dividends overall, but went well today. Now to decide whether to keep Seeldraeyers...

Clarke will be overtaken tomorrow....mark my words, I won't be taking him in. Not going to use my 2 transfers tonight so I work my team towards the sprinters on Tuesday/Wednesday ready for Thursday/Friday and Sunday