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Tour of Oman Open for Business

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  • February 12, 2019 at 11:32 am #29361
    Condor Andy

    Just for fun this one, but an interesting race. Last year’s edition was won by Alexey Lutenko and he’s back to defend his title. There was also 6 different stage winners and this year looks to be just as varied. The field is sprint heavy with Kristoff (who was ill in Valencia last week and not at his best), Greipel, Nizzolo, Colbrelli, Coquard, Bouhanni, Bonifazio, and a few more from the PCT teams will make for very competitive sprint stages.

    However, the race isn’t that simple. I can see 2 stages guaranteed to end in a sprint, and a couple of other slight uphill finishes or tricky finales with nasty climbs 5km from the finish. Good classics training for the likes of Van Avermaet, Naesen, and co.

    There is also the usual summit finish up Green Mountain, and Lustenko doesn’t have Lopez to help him this time as he’s off in Colombia. Maybe Pozzovivo fancies it, or Jesus Herrada, Rui Costa, or Jan Polanc?

    Last year the wins were all close, as was the GC. So, who are your favourites?

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Viewing 15 replies - 46 through 60 (of 85 total)
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  • February 19, 2019 at 10:38 am #935427
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    Dr Winston

    Damn. I needed a good finish

    Damn. I needed a good finish from Magnus Cort but he’s nowhere to be seen. That should end my challenge.

    February 19, 2019 at 10:24 am #935425
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    Dr Winston
    tony kappler wrote:
    Do any of you guys (particularly Dr Winston and Minardi) play chess (with it’s requirement to think many moves ahead)?

    Swapped Costa for Colbrelli, which I thought was only a marginal improvement. Hoping Cort and Costa are only so so in stage 4.

    Any thoughts on your 5th and 6th climbers for stage 5?

    I think there is a new performance enhancing drug out there which is undetectable. I noticed last year various Spanish riders doing uncharteristically well. Lutsenko and Kristoff are both good riders, but they both seem to be at 110%

     

    Not sure who else to go with yet Tony. As it’s not for OR i’m Just gonna see if a couple of extra transfers can help me….if it was on OR the chances of me being without Kristoff today would be about nil…he’s really strong.

    I need Cort and Colbrelli to do well and for one of the GC boys to drag the others into the points.

    I should fall several places and then see if I can rise….not many choices though.

    February 19, 2019 at 9:36 am #935423
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    MinardiM189
    tony kappler wrote:
    Do any of you guys (particularly Dr Winston and Minardi) play chess (with it’s requirement to think many moves ahead)?

    Swapped Costa for Colbrelli, which I thought was only a marginal improvement. Hoping Cort and Costa are only so so in stage 4.

    Any thoughts on your 5th and 6th climbers for stage 5?

    I think there is a new performance enhancing drug out there which is undetectable. I noticed last year various Spanish riders doing uncharteristically well. Lutsenko and Kristoff are both good riders, but they both seem to be at 110%

    I am hopeless at chess, far too impulsive. What I do have is quite a bit of spare time, so I go through quite a few permutations before making the wrong decisions.

    As for climbers for stage 5, apart from Lutsenko, Pozzovivo, Herrada, Costa, then ????

    Astana always seem to start the season with a bang, this season even more so. I suspect their training is aimed at peaking  early in the season to get results in the bag. Lutsenko has gone well in Oman since 2017.

    Kristoff has always been strong in the early part of the season, so not a great surprise he is doing well this year.

     

    February 19, 2019 at 7:31 am #935421
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    tony kappler

    Do any of you guys

    Do any of you guys (particularly Dr Winston and Minardi) play chess (with it’s requirement to think many moves ahead)?

    Swapped Costa for Colbrelli, which I thought was only a marginal improvement. Hoping Cort and Costa are only so so in stage 4.

    Any thoughts on your 5th and 6th climbers for stage 5?

    I think there is a new performance enhancing drug out there which is undetectable. I noticed last year various Spanish riders doing uncharteristically well. Lutsenko and Kristoff are both good riders, but they both seem to be at 110%

    February 18, 2019 at 8:52 pm #935419
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    MinardiM189
    stevemarks wrote:
    Huge gamble leaving Kristof and Coquard out here but I need two transfers and I just don’t think it’s worth using them up. Colbrelli won this stage in 2017 so I don.t want to take him out, best do nothing and save the transfers. 

    I just discovered I have 2 more transfers than I thought.

    Colbrelli finished 2nd behind Kristof in 2017 with Van Avermaet 3rd, but there is a lot more distance between the final climb and the finish this year.

    The weather forecast suggests it will be a windy day, so echelons could well play a part.

    Coquard has been taking it easy so far, so it is difficult to know if he will be OK over the climbs.

    February 18, 2019 at 8:48 pm #935417
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    Dr Winston
    stevemarks wrote:
    Huge gamble leaving Kristof and Coquard out here but I need two transfers and I just don’t think it’s worth using them up. Colbrelli won this stage in 2017 so I don.t want to take him out, best do nothing and save the transfers. 

    Considering the same gamble of leaving Kristoff out. The gamble is that I could do better with seven remaining transfers for the last two stages. Realliscally I would have to do something like Costa and Cort > Kristoff and 3.0 to get him in and leave me with just 5 transfers for the last two days and no Costa. 

     

    Mmmm…

    February 18, 2019 at 8:20 pm #935415
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    stevemarks

    Huge gamble leaving Kristof

    Huge gamble leaving Kristof and Coquard out here but I need two transfers and I just don’t think it’s worth using them up. Colbrelli won this stage in 2017 so I don.t want to take him out, best do nothing and save the transfers. 

    February 18, 2019 at 2:01 pm #935413
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    stevemarks
    MinardiM189 wrote:
    stevemarks wrote:
    Hmm why are we doing algarve and not Ruta del Sol?

    There was a post about upcoming races asking for peoples’opinions.

    Oman, Algarve and then UAE were proposed and nobody suggested anything else.

    TBH looks the right choice given the fields. 🙂

    February 18, 2019 at 2:01 pm #935411
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    stevemarks
    MinardiM189 wrote:
    stevemarks wrote:
    Hmm why are we doing algarve and not Ruta del Sol?

    There was a post about upcoming races asking for peoples’opinions.

    Oman, Algarve and then UAE were proposed and nobody suggested anything else.

    TBH looks the right choice given the fields. 🙂

    February 18, 2019 at 12:50 pm #935409
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    Dr Winston
    Condor Andy wrote:
    Yeah, when Dave figures out a fix, we’ll rerun the updates to take the scores out of the overall game. Sorry.

    doesn’t matter…just have to do it again. Will the Algarve game be part of overall or not?

    Quite nice to have a few exempt races where we can be far more cavalier with picks to try and win a race. I went for a few differentials last year to try and win races but it’s a gamble on our OR’s. 

    February 18, 2019 at 12:44 pm #935407
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    MinardiM189
    Dr Winston wrote:
    Going well. Up to 4th in the standard game. …and 7th overall (am I going to lose my rank with that reset?)

    Wasn’t sure whether this was a GC finish or a Rolleur finish so in the end I had a straight choice of Herrada and Pozzovivo or a fudge of Herrada and Gibbons. …went for the latter for Kristoff and Capiot…Gibbons could be the better pick than Pozzovivo  today so maybe for the best over the two days.

    Another odd looking day today…those three climbs are tough and could see a few sprinters unhappy If  the pace is high.

    A better day for me. I won the purist stage 🙂

    The question for tomorrow is which sprinters will be in touch over the final climb.

    Do I drop GVA for Kristoff, or do I abandon Colbrelli ?

    Do I bring another spriner in?

     

    February 18, 2019 at 12:33 pm #935405
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    Condor Andy

    Yeah, when Dave figures out a

    Yeah, when Dave figures out a fix, we’ll rerun the updates to take the scores out of the overall game. Sorry.

    February 18, 2019 at 11:59 am #935403
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    Dr Winston

    Going well. Up to 4th in the

    Going well. Up to 4th in the standard game. …and 7th overall (am I going to lose my rank with that reset?)

    Wasn’t sure whether this was a GC finish or a Rolleur finish so in the end I had a straight choice of Herrada and Pozzovivo or a fudge of Herrada and Gibbons. …went for the latter for Kristoff and Capiot…Gibbons could be the better pick than Pozzovivo  today so maybe for the best over the two days.

    Another odd looking day today…those three climbs are tough and could see a few sprinters unhappy If  the pace is high.

    February 18, 2019 at 11:36 am #935401
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    Sniffer

    Another day another error. 

    Another day another error.  Spent yesterday evening pondering a single change for stage 3 Herrada for De Decker.  Decided I wasn’t sure enough about Herrada and kept the transfer for another day.

    Herrada 2nd, De Decker DNF.

    Did have 3 of the top 4.  ‘Could have been a contender’

    February 18, 2019 at 9:58 am #935399
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    MinardiM189

    Echelons in Stage 3

    Echelons in Stage 3

    Costa, GVA, Lutsenko, Cort in a group of 13 that has broken away.

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