Vuelta stage 6

109pts drops DOWN the standings

However two of my stars(Davis/Degenkolb) were left in for the 'Grand Prix' stage so should pick up tomorrow.

I'd started so well but steadily falling away now, dropped a few more places today despite having 1, 3 & 4 plus other placings and GC points.

On the other hand, I'm up to second in the purist comp

Had a 1,2,4,11 today from my stars! Florencio finally got some points too...

Disaster for me, knew i should have gone valverde and not moreno well im gonna drop mollema and moreno tomorrow for sprinters, then get in contador and J-Rod

should be decent for my purist team, J-Rod, Froome and De Gendt

Another 'treading-water' sort of stage for me, but at least I finally had the stage winner in my team.

And where TF did Meersman come from? I wish I hadn't dropped him this morning now, although I suppose 2 points isn't the end of the world

All the above are provisional and given previous days on the Vuelta, may change.

Simon beat me to it

My purist squad should be going well today though, big points with De Gendt getting two sprints and a climb, shame combat number aint scored as he had that aswell

Mountains
1 152 CLARKE, Simon OGE 16
2 9 VALVERDE, Alejandro MOV 11
3 214 LIGTHART, Pim VCD 11
4 67 MATE, Luis Angel COF 10
5 101 RODRIGUEZ, Joaquin KAT 9

Points
1 191 DEGENKOLB, John ARG 51
2 101 RODRIGUEZ, Joaquin KAT 45
3 9 VALVERDE, Alejandro MOV 41
4 181 FROOME, Christopher SKY 37
5 151 DAVIS, Allan OGE 29

GC
1 101 RODRIGUEZ, Joaquin KAT 21h 45' 06''
2 181 FROOME, Christopher SKY + 10''
3 201 CONTADOR, Alberto STB + 35''
4 188 URAN, Rigoberto SKY + 43''
5 161 GESINK, Robert RAB + 53''
6 9 VALVERDE, Alejandro MOV + 54''
7 19 ROCHE, Nicolas ALM + 1' 04''
8 166 MOLLEMA, Bauke RAB + 1' 12''
9 107 MORENO, Daniel KAT + 1' 17''
10 1 COBO, Juan José MOV + 1' 34''

chrisdstripes wrote:

De Weert is a funny one - have you had him for a few days? I had him for about ten stages of the TdF and got virtually nothing! But he is a very good rider. Are you expecting something soon or are you just waiting for a chance to get rid?

I've had him from the start, I read somewhere that he'd be given the nod to go after GC so thought I was being clever by getting him in early and hoping he'd do well in the hills.

Unfortunately it hasn't really played out that way so I will be looking to get shut of him when I can for either a cheap climber like an Euskatel rider or whoever hits form over the next couple of days, or someone like Meersman who I'd considered but after he let me down at the Giro I didn't want the risk.

At least I took J-Rod in for today. I missed the whole stage, go home in time to see Contador crossing the line. FINALLY Nocentini got me some points though

Nicolas Roche
Laurens ten Dam
Joaquin Rodriguez
Daniel Moreno
Bart de Clercq
Nacer Bouhanni
Mikel Landa
Gorka Verdugo
Rinaldo Nocentini

1 101 RODRIGUEZ, Joaquin KAT 4h 15' 56''
2 181 FROOME, Christopher SKY + 5''
3 9 VALVERDE, Alejandro MOV + 10''
4 201 CONTADOR, Alberto STB + 18''
5 121 CAPECCHI, Eros LIQ + 19''
6 188 URAN, Rigoberto SKY + 20''
7 17 NOCENTINI, Rinaldo ALM + 25''
8 49 SANTAMBROGIO, Mauro BMC + 27''
9 19 ROCHE, Nicolas ALM + 28''
10 161 GESINK, Robert RAB + 32''
11 183 HENAO, Sergio Luis SKY + 35''
12 1 COBO, Juan José MOV + 35''
13 91 TALANSKY, Andrew GRS + 39''
14 117 NIEMIEC, Przemyslaw LAM + 44''
15 171 MONFORT, Maxime RNT + 44''
16 216 MARCZYNSKI, Tomasz VCD + 47''
17 168 TEN DAM, Laurens RAB + 47''
18 12 BOUET, Maxime ALM + 47''
19 136 MEERSMAN, Gianni LTB + 49''
20 48 MORABITO, Steve BMC + 51''

'Low Countries' break with DeGendt the biggest name involved.....took him out for yesterday's sprint stage and kind of gave up on him to be honest

Don't expect him to win the stage as Katusha are controlling the gap for a J-Rod/Moreno win but I reckon he could take points in the first sprint and climb and finish top 10 today.

Why are the Vacansoleil guys so inconsistent?

Viviani is great value, doing OK in points competition and the cheapest star rider of the lot by nearly 5 points. I reckon Gilbert might surprise us today but can't afford him...

My team is very boring;

J-Rod
Valverde
Contador
Viviani
Talansky
Quintana
Kreder
Cardoso
Bouhanni

With my current transfer strategy I could've picked a wildcard just for this stage, but I couldn't see past the obvious guys (and not going with the obvious pick yesterday burned me a bit).

524th overall/190th premium so far for LaVuelta

This stage has J-Rod written all over it with a short steep cat 3 finish after quite a tough looking Cat 3 to thin things out a bit....we may even see a little sprint between GC guys for the bonus seconds in between the climbs.

Only 2 transfers after using all 4 yesterday playing catchup(it worked as I climbed 375 places thanks to 91 pts)

Cesar(Andalucia)for Bouhanni trying to luck into the Andalucia breakaway man of the day.

J-Rod for Gilbert....obvious reasons

Add them to

Froome
Davis...points competition position/good for tomorrow
Degenkolb...see above
Talansky
Quintana
DeLaFuente...thought was him finishing 4th on stage 4
Florencio...possible top 20+teammate of J-Rod

High hopes for today

peloton pundit saying on twitter that the stage finish is *much* harder than it looks on paper. gone for the big guns

Oh as for poistion is not great 448 (150 odd in premium) but still time to go, with some luck, if someone like anacona or maczynski can score big for me that others dont have i could gte back into the top 100

Well tip for today is moreno

my team looks okish, but keep chopping and changing between sprints stages to hills makes it quite difficult so ive gone

Moreno (in for Davis)
Mollema
Froome
Degenkolb (will score at least a handful of points for points jersey)

Anacona
Talansky
Bouhanni
Quintana (could do well today)
Marczynski (in for Cimolai)

Been plodding along and sitting 221st (87 premium)
Swift setting up and Valverde crashing stuffed me a bit! but must keep going
Froome
JRod
Anton
Swift

Bouhanni
Terpstra
Florencio
Astraloza
Talansky
Can't afford Contador yet so brought in Bouhanni gore tomorrow leaving some spare change!

Currently 22nd (8th premium) but falling over the last.couple of stages. Now about 70 points behind 1st and need some serious luck to catch them.

Rodriguez
Contador in for Degenkolb
Valverde in for Swift
Viviani
Quintana
Bouhanni
Rasilla
Talansky in for Santambrogio
De Weert

Needed to swap out some DSs so have had to compromise and leave Viviani in, my only major decision was Froome or Contador. Contador seems more aggressive but Froome has the benefit of the potential 5 bonus points from a Henao/Uran win.