tour of qatar 2014

Twitter perhaps……i’m at
Twitter perhaps……i’m at work so can’t access it #o

chiv30 wrote:Anyone know of a

chiv30 wrote:

Anyone know of a live ticker?

Anyone know of a live ticker?
Anyone know of a live ticker?

Puriste:
Demare
Haedo
Morkov

Puriste:

Demare
Haedo
Morkov
Boonen
Selig
Markus
Kruopis
Kristoff
Guardini

Umm-ed and aah-ed about both Cancellara and Greipel, but left them both out in the end. Kristoff and Demare both big punts (N.B. not rhyming slang); impossible not to pick Boonen at that price.

Picking breakaway types just
Picking breakaway types just seems so risky, though, especially in races like ToQ where there’s a lot less at stake (so fewer true domestique duties), there aren’t any local riders and there is a very large pool of lesser riders/teams who might fancy it. Unlike, say, Tour de France where you could (in days of yore, anyway) happily put Hoogerland in your purist safe in the knowledge that he’d be likely to be in at least three or four sticky breaks.

Re. penalties, it is a risk for that kind of stage, not least because you then have to penalty-transfer out again for the next one (as opposed to a transition from e.g. a group of MM/FL stages to HM/SF stages). Also as noted above some of the speedy sprinters, especially tracky types like Morkov, might fancy the short TT for a shot at GC.

chiv30 wrote:Ghedebrav wrote:

chiv30 wrote:

Ghedebrav wrote:

three-in-three out for stages three & four.

I think thats gonna be the tactical choice for most of us , perhaps those that don’t use that approach can gain a bit of a lead by using penalties?

Penalties are always risky, in theory if you get it right you can make big gains but get it wrong and you quickly lose a lot of ground.

I’m not sure which way to go. Given that it’s a TT there won’t be huge points hauls but the stage winners of the TT should form the GC for the rest of the race so getting them in could be useful later on. Decisions decisions….

Yup, to Greipel or not to
Yup, to Greipel or not to Greipel is my big thumbsucker for Qatar. There are a whole bunch of other riders, especially in the 10-15 bracket, who could be great picks or total busts. I’ve fiddled and faffed enough now that I’m not going to change any more.

The TT coming on stage three also forces some selection choices, but given it’s so short I’m going to trust in my fast men to do OK and not worry too much about getting a full squad of TT specialists in place. Ideally no changes tomorrow, then three-in-three out for stages three & four.