Tour of Oman - stage 1

Traskel and Uchima have a 6 min 30 advantage

See ive gone Sagan as im not sure bouhanni will make it, well not tomorrow anyway.
But it has compromised my team

Sagan
Kristoff
Boonen
kittel
Fortin
Appollonio
Van Avermaet
Elissonde
Goddaert

Darn u traskel, had him all of Qatar and not a single point! grrr

he he same here had him in my oman teams but switched to rob ruigh last minute always the same:)

phinney i did not play in qatar guess he wil score not a point here then:)

KOM 1

1.Traskel
2.Uchima
3.Stamsnijder

That was the only KOM, 2 sprints to come

Leading pair now have 9 mins

Sprint 1

1.Traskel
2.Uchima
3.Rollin

7 mins now the gap, 100km to go

Hope don't regret leaving out kittel

Sagan
Goss
Appollino
Fortin
Bouhanni
Dombrowski
D Van Poppel
Bewley
Arndt

Gap 5 min 20 with 54km to go

Picked my team early due to work commitments and checked this moring to find my puris team has only 3 riders with the rest not racing. Mind you one of them is Stamsnijder so will get something today.

My standard team lost 4 for todays stage.

Thats me knackered for the whole season with the same happening in the tour of med.

Thanks for the updates, very handy!
I couldn't not choose Sagan, although I have a feeling Viviani might be going for it today.

My standard team...
Sagan
Degenkolb
Bouhanni
Van Avarmaet
Bennati
Appollonio
Goddaert
Mezgec
Devolder

Purist team is similar so it won't be scoring many points on stage 4...

That's why I didn't pick Sagan, I assumed Viviani would be protected sprinter and Sagan would be just getting some miles in as part of his build up to the Classics.

I cant see Viviani making it to the finish in the lead group tomorrow

However after Viviani's spectacular no show last week, will they trust him, at least Sagan is abit like Cav and wont need a leadout to get decent position

2nd sprint

1.Traskel
2.Uchima
3.Colbrelli

less than 30km to go, gap down to 40 seconds

I take some risks with my purist team (no Sagan):
Froome, Kennaugh, Gilbert, Van Avermaet, Bouhanni, Jeannesson, Gallopin, Appollonio, Fumeaux

Got a feeling I may have got this wrong

15km to go

Kittel wins

Appollonio 2nd, Bouhanni 3rd

Took Bouhanni out for Boonen last night

But have 1st and 2nd in both my teams

1.Kittel
2.Appollonio
3.Bouhanni
4.Kristoff
5.Boonen
6.Phinney
7.Fortin
8.Goddaert
9.Viviani
10.Guarnieri

6 of the top 10 for my team (1,2,4,5,7,8)

Mother fudger, I took out Kittle, Appollonio and Bouhanni lastnight

I'll get on the scores, but pretty sure there is no KOM classification so that wont be scored

Podium badge

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7

Gallopin, Breschel and Iglinsky not reported so doubtful I'll get full house but surely 6 of the top 7 nets me a top 10 place on the stage?

Correct no KOM, but there is Combative award, surely 10 points for Traskel

And quite Possibly the stage!

I need Sagan and Van Avermate to have come 11th and 12th

Love to know how many had Goddaert though

There was a KOM after 45km won by Traksel.

Depending on the points and youth classifications I make that somewhere in the region of 200 points

Question now though is do I stockpile transfers for the Green Mountain stage or do I switch it up and bring in Sagan/Degenkolb types for tomorrow?

Yes but there is no competition in the race

7 in top 10 for me! (1-4, 7, 8, 10)

Well I already had Sagan as I knew he could be a mainstay throughout, also why I went Boonen over Bouhanni with tomorrow in mind. I dont think there is much I can change unless I can somehow get Phinney in

Spoil the fun why don't you

You may have won the stage then, my only hope is Sagan and GVA coming next of the rest

Im going for the purist again 1,2,7 and 8 and I still look strong for stage 4 and 5 with Sagan, Gilbert, Velits, Gallopin and Ellisonde

For the stage win, it depends on where Sagan and Jarc came... However, I might lose the stage due to the GC points I lose on account of Traksel that soooo let me down in Qatar...

Traksel got combativity tho

Think traskel did get the Combative

Yes he did, that may scupper my chancesof the win, unless Gallopin/Breschel get 11 and 12.

too bad nobody got him after his ToQ...

God this is tense, why does it take so long to publish results!

I am not going to have a productive afternoon...

Hmmm, had first, second and sixth but little sign of anything else , points-wise. Not a disaster, but I suspect a fair few people did well today.

Ummed and ahhed this morning over dropping out Bennati for Viviani, but left him in because, er, he's worth more. I really have to get out of the habit of trying to pick my team up the maximum value.

Got 1-3 but not much else, like many others had Traksel for Qatar but not here. Team is balanced for tomorrow with Sagan, Gilbert and Gallopin whom I'm hoping will do well, saving transfers for 4 when the GC will be shaken up, although that will probably happen tomorrow as well. A good start for my strategy, which was not too sprinter heavy, and the ones I picked brought home the bacon.

Picture of the finish,
Looks like downing made top 20!?

This is my favourite pic of stage 1

ARGH, here we go, Scores are coming, Last man home was officially Chan Jae Jang at +0 but Wiggo rolled in +1.21

Yep, Wiggo last for GC +1.31

Aye, but he's not Lantern Rouge unless he's physically the last man over the line

As Gkam said Chan jae jang is Lantern Rouge
Shame it wasn't wiggo got him in my purist

Scores are almost complete, just waiting for Dave to sort out an issue to see how I'm going to score the Combat award, because its been awarded in a 3,2,1, set up.

I don't think its fair for only one man to score if three riders are listed

As no KOM might as well score all 3 riders!

Aye, split the 10 points between the three or award 10, 6, 2 or something like that?

I was thinking 10,7,5 or 5,3,2

Yeah, tough decision, maybe a compromise of 6, 4, 2 like the sprint?

IIRC the 'combativity' award in Oman is just the intermediate sprints. so it's debatable whether it should be scored at all, since the riders already get points for those

Seeing as there's no KoM standing points why not score the sprint as is (6, 4, 2) and then score the combativity ranking as a 5,4,3,2,1 competition as a direct replacement for the KoM?

Well I need a decision folks and I'm willing to make it, but mine would be that NO-ONE get a combat score

For what its worth, I agree. They shouldn't get points twice for contesting the sprints.

Yep I second that.

You could always put it on that way and then update later.

From the look of the website there is no overall combative standing, they're just ranking the three combative riders for the stage.

I don't know if it's linked to the sprints (for which they got points and ranked in the points comp) so I'd be inclined to just give the 1st guy 10 points and be done with it. That's not really double counting as on any other race the combative breakaway guy would probably have gotten sprint and KoM points anyway.

10 points to the winner, nothing to anyone else and keep it consistent with the rest of the season.

I've gone with no points for the combat award, because it doesn't reflect who was the rider adjuged the most combative by the race commissaires

Agreed here, seems like the right thing to do.

If you read the blog on the official ToO website it does say that Traksel was awarded the most agressive rider award. If there are to be points he should get them.

208 points, 14th on the stage... So close.

Why do I always put in Sagan
Nasty little kick upwards in tommorows sprint, to much for bouhanni?

I probably wouldn't remove him.

hmmm well I just bought him

I'm keeping Sagan but thinking about Boonen for Bouhanni.

Well sagan might, just might, do well tommorow, more of an alrounder and the hills might suit him well

i already Have Boonen and Sagan, but no Bouhanni. Ive made two tranfers so I could bring in Phinney for GVA

Ive got bouhanni, sagan, kristoff and boonen for tommorow

i would rather puit in GVA for phinney then the other way

and as for boonen he is not realy in the best shape
would surprise me if he would be in the first 10 toaday

Really? Ive had GVA for the last 7 stages he has raced and has done absolutely nothing. Phinney will be there at the finish today so im guessing he will be the designated sprinter

todat is to hard for phinney i guess but afcourse i could be wrong:)
but if zo BMC will go for gilbert or greg don't know wich of them so i have no BMC toaday

Seems it was too hard for all of them!