Tour Mediterraneen stage 4
If you haven't seen it elsewhere this is a heads up that Garmin have had all their bikes stolen and 'probably' won't start today's stage.
At this point in time there's no official confirmation on whether they'll start the stage or not so they're still in the game BUT Garmin riders are tweeting that they aren't going to ride so be aware of this.
Deadline for transfers is 11am UK time.
Also note, it is possible to make penalty transfers (extra transfer in addition to your usual two per stage) at a cost of 10 points per transfer.
Well ive made 1 penalty transfer, Ten Dam for Talansky as well as my 4 others
my team is
Ten Dam
Boom
Roy
Roelandts
Lofkvist
kreuziger
Vimpere
Monfort
Jungels
no garmin for me 
team
Nicolas Roche
Cars Boom
Robert Kiserlovski
Arthur Vichot
Rory Sutherland
Jeremy Roy
Carlos Julio Quintero
Thomas Lofkvist
Maxine Monfort
Hopefully a better day for
me....
Roche
Ten Dam
Izagirre
Boom
Monfort
Lofkvist
Roy
Roux
Pellizotti
-40 points
Non-starters: (in addition to Garmin Sharp) Pinotti, Kiserlovski, El Fares, Giraud, Jarrier, Malacarne, Bacquet, Taciak.
Don't buy upgrades. Ride up grades.
Breakaway 7km in: Julian Kern, Urtasun, Martijn Keizer, Brice Feillu, Juan Arango, Geoffroy Lequatre.
Don't buy upgrades. Ride up grades.
Breakaway 7km in: Julian Kern, Urtasun, Martijn Keizer, Brice Feillu, Juan Arango, Geoffroy Lequatre.
Boooo i needed Vimpere to go in for mountain points, should still be in the top 5 though come the end of today
Non-starters: (in addition to Garmin Sharp) Pinotti, Kiserlovski, El Fares, Giraud, Jarrier, Malacarne, Bacquet, Taciak.
Darn you kiserlovski 
I've got 2 Garmin riders in my standard and purist teams. 
Talansky, Schleck and Ista gone from my purist!
Camacho abandons. Damn.
Don't buy upgrades. Ride up grades.
Just found out about garmin so talansky and nava are both going to cost me. Time zone penalty for me today. Maybe i can make it up during the Tour of Cali or the USA pro cycling challenge.
Link to the text commentary
http://direct.directvelo.com/live-course/1530/tour-mediterraneen-4e-etap...
I have 2 in the break, but I have Garmin in both my teams, 2 in purist.....This race has been a shambles by the organisers. Lets delete it and don't do points 
No no no no thats bike racing, the unexpected 
Dont delete the stage haha, just go with it, my team has done so badly, ive gone from 2nd overall to 30th because of 20 points in the Indiv-TT! and dan martins out for me 
Ha ha surely it can't much worse for me
Brought Martin in last night. 20 penalty points to take him and Talansky out this am and now I find that El Fares DNS Thank god there's only one more stage of this 
Kreuziger DNF's. I'm glad about my last minute coin tossing this am now.
FFS. Kreuziger abandons.
Don't buy upgrades. Ride up grades.
he he he if anyone has a purist or standard team
with 9 finishers today he should go to the casino tonight:)
FWIW & FYI
14h58
Résultat du sprint intermédiaire de Signe :
Martijn Keizer
Julian Kern
Juan Esteban Arango
15h44
Passage au sommet du Col de Garde :
1. Pablo Urtasun
2. Brice Feillu
3. Jean-Marc Marino
JC Peraud wins.
Looks like Geniez got 4th so that mostly covers my penalty points.
"Well f@#! me gently with a chainsaw Veronica!" I have got some points at least with Feilu and Arango.
1 Peraud 2 Reda 3 ? 4 Geniez 5? 6 Rebellin
EDIT
16h18
1. Jean-Christophe Péraud (AG2R La Mondiale)
2. Francisco Reda (Androni Giocattoli)
3. Bauke Mollema (Blanco)
4. Alexandre Geniez (FDJ)
5. Matteo Montaguti (AG2R)
6. Thomas Lövkvist (IAM)
7. Ivan Santaromita (BMC)
8. Davide Rebellin (CCC Polsat)
9. Nicolas Roche (Saxo)
10. Ion Izagirre (Euskaltel)
11. Thibaut PInot (FDJ)
12. Thomas Voeckler (Europcar)
13. Amaël Moinard (BMC)
14. Arthur Vichot (FDJ)
Maxime Monfort (Radioshack) prendrait le maillot pour 1".
GC
1. Monfort
2. Boom 1"
3. Lövkvist 2"
4. Peraud 2"
5. Roche 22"
Average day for me, I think. Had picked Peraud, but the only Izagirre and Roche in the top finishers. Can never remember how many points you get for GC; I also have Monfort and Boom.
Provisional scores updating at the minute. I may need to update them again once the official ones are released though.
A stage win with only 6 riders! I'm delighted with that. 
Ahhh should have gone Roche not Ten Dam, decent for my purist team though
Ahhh should have gone Roche not Ten Dam, decent for my purist team though
Had 2 Garmin and too busy in the morning to even hear of it, although not sure if I would have taken a risk with pens or not. Luckily had Peraud, Roche and Monfort so 142 on 7 riders ain't bad. 5th on the stage is crazy. Had Taaramae as well so Purist down to 6. Sometimes I think these little races aren't really bothering with.
Bring on the Classics and some real racing!!
Know how Garmin feel though, had 3 bikes stolen in a month a couple of years back (Cambridge) and keep them all indoors now, which is a pain with 2 bikes in a narrow hallway.
TERatcliffe26 wrote:Ahhh should have gone Roche not Ten Dam, decent for my purist team thoughHad 2 Garmin and too busy in the morning to even hear of it, although not sure if I would have taken a risk with pens or not. Luckily had Peraud, Roche and Monfort so 142 on 7 riders ain't bad. 5th on the stage is crazy. Had Taaramae as well so Purist down to 6. Sometimes I think these little races aren't really bothering with.
Bring on the Classics and some real racing!!
Know how Garmin feel though, had 3 bikes stolen in a month a couple of years back (Cambridge) and keep them all indoors now, which is a pain with 2 bikes in a narrow hallway.
I had Monfort bu that is it, and my 10 point penalty for binging in Ten Dam didnt pay off. Peraud and Izagirre in for tomorrow. Im actually hoping Roelandts can hang in and he will win the stage. Him hanging in should see me win the purist league (I didnt realise my purist team was top of the purist league for ToM)My biggest threat is the fact the guys behind me have Lofkvist and Roche and I dont 
I actually find them interesting as they are much more difficult to predict than the big races
It's true they're more difficult to predict, not sure if that makes them more interesting though. I prefer to be able to watch the racing and make my picks based on what I see. I haven't managed to see any live racing yet. Just going on what I've read and gut instinct. Be glad when I can see the racing and get a feeling for what's going on. Although the classics themselves are difficult to predict and Boonen probably won't be so dominant this year.
I haven't actually had a good start yet to any tour but transfers have saved me. Don't normally pick Roche but as the terrain suited him I went for it as some of the riders above him weren't really climbers. Luckily had Peraud from the beginning and nearly dropped him but others were more dropable so they went first.
32 comments