Vuelta al Pais Vasco - Stage 3

Scores are updating, looks like I managed 144 including my 20 point penalty, now, what do I do about tomorrow?

148 for me....didn't turn out that badly after all!!

Thanks guys I am still learning so much all the time from playing this wonderful game.

I also have someone in the break today (Landa) albeit in my purist team, makes a nice change.

Does anyone want to give me some tips about how you find guys who might go in the break because its not something that you can lay your hands on stats for very easily?

Pick them from a hat.

There are more obvious people, sometimes if a guy drops loads of time on the first stage then they're going to attack the next day, sometimes you can get a feeling of who wants a mountain or sprint jersey (Txurruka) fairly early on and pick them up, sometimes it's just a case of picking a random guy.

Caja Rural as an invitational team were always going to put guys in the breaks and Txurruka, being a Basque formerly on Euskatel, was likely to be their go to guy but unfortunately I dropped him from my team before stage 1 and chose not to draft him in.

Thanks everyone.

I was trying to run a spreadsheet on it but it was too time consuming and I gave up. There were far too many different names too.

Conversely riders on a team who have a GC contender may be under strict orders not to leave their team leader's side eg Saxo for Contador, which is a shame as I am a big fan of Nicholas Roche, who may not be allowed to attack in the mountains.

No surprises
mountain
1 Txurruka
2 Fraile
3 Navarro
I hope Eurosport realise the race will probably not finish until about 30 mins after their scheduled coverage

If you were following biciclisimo, you will probably have seen the sad news that this morning a cyclist was killed in a traffic accident near the course.

Right - home early from work and watching on Eurosport with the sun shining outside and 2 members of my fantasy team in the break. Nice.

Sprint 2
1 Txurruka
2 Fraile
3 Bardet

I know full well that if I transfer in Txurruka tonight then he won't do a damn thing tomorrow.

Yeah. I thought bringing him in yesterday or today would've been a knee jerk reaction. Sometimes knee jerk reactions work. I've still not got him

Looked like Txurruka, Landa, Fraile, Bardet, Navarro in that order over the cat 2 climb. A cat 3 after another 15km, then 20km to the finish...

Gilbert well down. Glad I ditched him now. I was a bit worried I'd made a mistake.

Took some risks today left Gerrans in, had Porte, Talansky Quintana and Peraud from the start and added Anton for the Basque angle. Have a couple of good strong climbers to back that lot up but no Contador, No Van Garderen, Pinot or Fuglsang. feeling a bit nervous about that.

The last time I can remember a Caja Rural rider wear white and red was in the Vuelta TTT at Pamplona.....remember these outfits?

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=325911277504402&set=a.28043313205...

I'm worried about Contador and Pinot but not the other two. They're both expensive though.

Velits suffering, not really a climber, use him a lot for TT though.

Henao and Quintana looking good!

Not overly bothered about Pinot, he'll be looking to peak at the Tour so he's not likely to be in top shape.

Bugger it - Henao just pips Betancurt. Great finish!

Henao wins, Quintana 4th porte ulissi (in my purist)Contador 7th yeah!! didn't do great!!

2,4,5,6,7 and Landa for both teams, plus 8 in purist, and Txurruka in standard - got to be happy with that! (Shame I didn't take the penalty and drop Gilbert...)

1,4,5,6,8,9,10

Damn Henao, was hoping Porte would be the preferred rider today. 2,4,6,7 & 8 so far.

Stage 3 -
1 Henao
2 Betancur
3 Caruso +5
4 Quintana +8
5 Ulissi +10
6 Porte +10
7 Contador +10
8 Spilak +10
9 Anton +16

Any idea what happened to Sanchez/Fuglsang/Peraud?

1, 4, 6, 10 plus Txurruka, Fraile and Didier, top 3 GC. Big points but should have had Anton rather than Izagirre. Ulissi in my purist. Should have had him in my main team.

Should make up some ground on Ray Silvester today

10. Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) a 21
11. Peter Stetina (Garmin-Sharp)
12. Beñat Intxausti (Movistar Team)
13. Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2r La Mondiale)
14. José Herrada (Movistar Team)
15. John Gadret (Ag2r La Mondiale)

Sanchez 10
Peraud 13
Fulsgang 17