Tour Of Beijing Stage1

Yeah, with so many "star" sprinters of similar ability it was always going to be a bit random who picked the right ones. Guarnieri was the disappointment for me - thought he was a banker...

I had ebh and bos but swapped out my early picks on van hummel and greg h. Hey ho.

I considered Fenn but went Chicci, had Viviani but then thought stage 2 would suit haussler/Bennati better so went for those 2

At least I had EBH and Bos

Mother f*******, I scored 18.

I had a short list of 17 riders, Viviani, Fenn, EBH, Bos and Kruopis all didn't make the cut

well i got a massive 41!

Good to see Fenn up there, its the first time I've seen him compete against some of the big boys. I picked the wrong stars (except Henderson), but am hoping someone like Viviani might not be quite so strong tomorrow. Will probably swap Davis for EBH, in which case Davis will cruise to a certain victory tomorrow...

GC :-
1 Elia VIVIANI Italy LIQ 23 2:37:39
2 Andrew FENN Great Britain OPQ 22 +4
3 Matthieu LADAGNOUS France FDJ 28 +4
4 Edvald BOASSON HAGEN Norway SKY 25 +6
5 Kenny Robert VAN HUMMEL Netherlands VCD 30 +10
6 Greg HENDERSON New Zealand LTB 36 +10
7 Theo BOS Netherlands RAB 29 +10
8 Enrique SANZ Spain MOV 23 +10
9 Aidis KRUOPIS Lithuania OGE 26 +10
10 Alessandro PETACCHI Italy LAM 38 +10

1 Elia VIVIANI ITA LIQ 23 2:37:49
2 Andrew FENN GBR OPQ 22 +0
3 Edvald BOASSON HAGEN NOR SKY 25 +0
4 Kenny Robert VAN HUMMEL NED VCD 30 +0
5 Greg HENDERSON NZL LTB 36 +0
6 Theo BOS NED RAB 29 +0
7 Enrique SANZ ESP MOV 23 +0
8 Aidis KRUOPIS LTU OGE 26 +0
9 Alessandro PETACCHI ITA LAM 38 +0
10 Klaas LODEWYCK BEL BMC 24 +0
11 Barry MARKUS NED VCD 21 +0
12 Lloyd MONDORY FRA ALM 30 +0
13 Alexey TSATEVITCH RUS KAT 23 +0
14 Tim WELLENS BEL LTB 21 +0
15 Heinrich HAUSSLER AUS GRS 28 +0
16 Lucas Sebastian HAEDO ARG STB 29 +0
17 Rui Alberto FARIA DA COSTA POR MOV 26 +0
18 Jean-Christophe PERAUD FRA ALM 35 +0
19 Jesus HERRADA LOPEZ ESP MOV 22 +0
20 Valentin IGLINSKIY KAZ AST 28 +0

I got my team abit wrong!!

Sprint 1 -
1 Ladagnous (FDJ)
2 Bandiera (OMQ)
3 Linderman (VCD)

EBH
Viviani
Bennati
Bos
Chicchi
Howard
Haedo
Phinney
Krupois

Shame there was no experiment with the star/domestique split for this race, because I've got 35 credits in the bank...

Alessandro Petacchi
Pablo Lastras
Allan Davis
Daniele Bennati
Jesse Sergent
Anthony Roux
Luke Rowe
Valentin Iglinksiy
Moreno Moser

Thats my team. only catching a few minutes of it because I have to go out this morning

I spent ages choosing my stars, kept changing my mind. Had EBH right up to the last minute - not sure why I changed my mind now...

Ended up with this lot...

Henderson
Davis
Haussler
Mondory
Chicchi
Fenn
Guarnieri
Roux
Ligthart

Break is Lindeman, Bandiera, Lewis, Ladagnous, Malori. They initially reported Lindeman as Ligthart, so I got briefly excited.

Edvald Boasson Hagen (SKY)
Daniele Bennati (RSN)
Lloyd Mondory (ALM)
Heinrich Haussler (GRM)
Aidis Kruopis (GRE)
Moreno Moser (LIQ)
Christopher Sutton (SKY)
Leigh Howard (GRE)
Mauro Santambrogio (BMC)

That will probably be my only team as I've lost the motivation with premium now.

Gone sprint heavy also

Heinrich Haussler (GRM)
Daniele Bennati (RSN)
Allan Davis (GRE)
Kenny van Hummel (VCD)

Francesco Chicchi (OPQ)
Rinaldo Nocentini (ALM)
Leigh Howard (GRE)
Anthony Geslin (FDJ)
Steven Cummings (BMC)

Eddie Bos will prob get today's stage because I haven't picked him

Slightly different with an eye on the other stages to save transfers:

Edvald Boasson Hagen
Daniele Bennati
Heinrich Haussler
Theo Bos
Taylor Phinney
Simon Clarke
Luke Rowe
Dario Cataldo
Cameron Meyer