paris nice prologue

Its short enough to bring sprinters into the mix although TTers will likely make a showing too. If either Boonen or Gilbert are racing hard they could do something.

Chavanel seems a good bet.

I've gone with 4 time triallers and 5 sprinters today. Hoping for a 1234 and then won't need to change much over the flat days

Purist wise, /i want a triple who might win stages and the rest will hopefully stay high in the gc for most of the race.
So . . .

In form american who might win overall.
In form frenchman who might win >1 stage
off centre Dane, who might come good overall
The french option for overall GC
An in form french possible stage winner & high in GC
Cheap sprinter, who mimes
Must have a Sky GC option too
A belgian GC possibility - bit of a gamble
Italian sprinter to make the numbers up.

Think this year might favour the sprinters in the main for the majority of stages, though in the end, overall GC may be decided on the summit finish.

My dilemma for my purist team is do I pick Talansky or go for one of Roche/Costa/Fugslang/Lofkvist?

Is Talansky in form right now? If not then some of the others are but are generally 2nd tier GC guys.

Second-tier GC guys can do well this week though - not many stages to really separate the men from the boys, so could be quite an unpredictable (and close) GC. So I've just gone with gut feeling - which meant dropping Talansky today...

Standard:
Youth jersey points may come in to play so I've picked my young overall GC pick who will be the one definitely staying in till stage 4 plus young sprinters who can TT or have a solid track grounding as the course looks quite technical.

I only have one guy not eligible for the Youth Jersey.

I'm hoping that they will be high up in GC and pick up pts in the sprints until the 4th stage which looks as though it's the one that will give the first time splits.

Purist:
The new 'SS'
'Roger'
The Dutch Yankee
Prince Harry
'The Boxer'
An Argonaut
A European scratch AND omnium medallist
A Tasmanian Devil
Queen Stage Winner last season

AUSSIES!

I had Jimmy Engoulvent until he pulled out, he was a shoe in for victory today!

But here is my team

Bouhanni
Kittel
Renshaw
Meersman
Hivert
Grivko
Larsson
Tejay
De Gendt

Standard:
Van Garderen
Westra
Vivia
Renshaw
Bouhanni
Chavanel
Howard
Kittel
Hivert

Purist (for the win):
Van Garderen
Costa
Porte
Peraud
Westra
Spilak
Hivert
Bouhanni
Kittel

My purist team is GC heavy but hoping that pays off.

Standard

Porte
Westra
Peraud
Talansky
TJ
Kristoff
Larsson
Pauriol
Chav

My Standard then

Bouhanni,Howard,Gallopin,Viviani,Kittel,Tejay,Matthews,Turgot,Kelderman.

A proper young team....odd then that I'm most afraid of The Jensie today!!

Standard

Grivko
Renshaw
Viviani
Howard
Kittel
Matthews
Westra
Spilak
Porte

Purist - I'm aiming for finish line points more than GC.

Viviani
Howard
Kittel
Bouhanni
Meersman
Westra
Spilak
Porte
Quintana

May as well name my purist team, I think its well balanced, and has some in form riders too

Bouhanni
Renshaw
Quintana
Coppel
Monfort
J Izagirre
Peraud
Westra
Tejay

*In other words Spilak,Kelderman,Tejay,Renshaw,Bouhanni,Kittel,Viviani,Porte,Westra

Boom Bouhanni goes quickest (after 15 riders) but its a decent time of 3'47"

Incidentally

Bouhanni leads with 3'47"

Early doors yet though.

Anyone think it could be a Kittel-Bouhanni 1/2

Scratch that Bouhanni down to 3rd

Tjallingi 1st 3'44" followed by Rojas 2nd

This is Larsson's to win I reckon

Bozic new leader at 3'40"

I reckon Turgot

Velits is the new leader after half the riders

1.Velits
2.Bozic
3.Herrada
4.Bonnet
5.Smukulis
6.Tjallingi
7.Albasini
8.Rast
9.Pineau
10.Rojas

Soupe has gone fastest, Kristoff put in a good run and is 7th

so thats 3 non scorers already for my team in Bouhanni, Larsson and De Gendt.....Bad start!

Larsson sitting 37th at the moment!!

Galloping Gourmet goes 3rd

Im relying on Hivert. Meersman came in 8th, so he wont score come the finish of it.

Kelderman goes fastest, my choices seeming worse and worse

Viviani 6th

Turgot 6th

This has nil points written all over it for me haha

i had velits up till 10:14 this morning :'(

My purist team may actually get me my latern rouge badge, Monfort just crashed!

Or not, Klier has ruined that. Despite that crash, Monfort only 40 seconds down, not out of it at least as he may have been with a long TT

I'm in the pub - is bauer in yet?

Chavanel fastest

Yes, not in the top 20

Gaudin now fastest!

Bah, I consdered Gaudin this morning, he's a track cyclist by trade, but went Howard instead!

quote=TERatcliffe26]

Yes, not in the top 20