UAE Tour

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  • #29385
    Condor Andy

    And so, onto the next stop in this season’s world tour! Welcome to the inaugural UAE Tour, an amalgamation of the Abu Dhabi Tour and the Dubai Tour, this new race encompasses the best of both. On paper there looks to be something for everyone, with a couple of sprint stages, two summit finishes, a TTT and a couple for the rouleurs.

    There are 2 PCT teams in Novo Nordisk and Gazprom-RusVelo to go along with the 18 WT teams, and no one is pulling any punches it seems. The classics men might be absent as stage 7 clashes with Omloop, but on the start list are defending champion Valverde, Dumoulin, Roglic, Nibali, Kwiatkowski, Porte, and many other contenders. And the sprinters field is stacked with Bennett, Viviani, Ewan, Gaviria, Kittel, and Kristoff all going along.

    So what are you looking forward to? Who are you looking to pick above all others? All I’m hoping for are some crosswinds and carnage!

Viewing 15 replies - 76 through 90 (of 98 total)
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  • #935961
    0
    MinardiM189

    Not a bad result for me.

    Not a bad result for me.

    Maybe should have brought another sprinter in rather than Moscon.

    Pretty good result for my purist where I have De Plus. Hopefully he can hang on in the mountains.

    Amazed that Walscheid managed to hang on to the finish. He could take the leaders jersey with a top3 tomorrow.

    #935959
    0
    triccky100

    MARCEL KITTEL 

    MARCEL KITTEL 

    ELIA VIVIANI 

    MAX WALSCHEID 

    PHIL BAUHAUS 

    REMCO EVENEPOEL

    PRIMOZ ROGLIC

    WILCO KELDERMAN 

    MATTEO MOSCHETTI 

     

    probably one transfer tomorrow

    #935957
    0
    Dr Winston
    MinardiM189 wrote:
    Dr Winston wrote:
    I spent an entire season last year front loading races with my transfers and then kinda clinging on. In the Algarve game i tried to do it the other way around but was somewhat scuppered by happenstance….namely EBH and Konrad…but the plan was sound…Giving it another go for this one. A thinner day than i could have had for today though maybe.

    Yeah. Mezgec is brilliant. Good rider and under used.

    Keeping transfers until later is  a good tactic.

    I’ve made a bit of a commitment to GC with my choices for the TTT. Hopefully Roglic, Kelderman & Moscon can perform on the climbs. (Kelderman is usually a disaster when I pick him).

    I’m very interested to see what happens between Moscon & Kwiatowski. They are joint leaders for Sky and I’m not sure how that will work out.

     

    Kelderman in instead of Ewan was the obvious alternative…meaning…doubling down on Jumbo and Sunweb for the probable win today for one or the other. So basically Kelderman today or Ewan tomorrow given i’ve decided not to use any transfers until day 3. 

    #935955
    0
    MinardiM189
    Dr Winston wrote:
    I spent an entire season last year front loading races with my transfers and then kinda clinging on. In the Algarve game i tried to do it the other way around but was somewhat scuppered by happenstance….namely EBH and Konrad…but the plan was sound…Giving it another go for this one. A thinner day than i could have had for today though maybe.

    Yeah. Mezgec is brilliant. Good rider and under used.

    Keeping transfers until later is  a good tactic.

    I’ve made a bit of a commitment to GC with my choices for the TTT. Hopefully Roglic, Kelderman & Moscon can perform on the climbs. (Kelderman is usually a disaster when I pick him).

    I’m very interested to see what happens between Moscon & Kwiatowski. They are joint leaders for Sky and I’m not sure how that will work out.

     

    #935953
    0
    Dr Winston
    MinardiM189 wrote:
    Dr Winston wrote:
    Planning not to use a transfer until day 3.

    My dither was Ewan and Halvorsen or Gaviria and Mezgec…went for the former…not even sure why.

    How does Evenepoel even fit in ?…two sprinters or is he in the train somewhere ?

    I’m not planning any transfers until stage 3 either, I’ll take a hit on Stage2 as my sprinters are a bit limited.

    Evenepoel has a free role to go for it on the Mountain stages.

    Gaviria was ill in Columbia and doesn’t know his lead out train at all, so Ewan is probably a sfer pick.

    Mezgec is very good at posioning and usually does well when he sprints for himself. Halvorsen may get a few pints today but is inconsistent in the sprints. Maybe he should use Mezgec as a lead out :).

    Stage 4 at Hatta Dam could be a critical one, usually sprinters do OK but this year there are a lot of talented climbers here. Getting around the climbers and maintaining pace could be a problem for sprinters.

    I spent an entire season last year front loading races with my transfers and then kinda clinging on. In the Algarve game i tried to do it the other way around but was somewhat scuppered by happenstance….namely EBH and Konrad…but the plan was sound…Giving it another go for this one. A thinner day than i could have had for today though maybe.

    Yeah. Mezgec is brilliant. Good rider and under used.

    #935951
    0
    MinardiM189
    Dr Winston wrote:
    Planning not to use a transfer until day 3.

    My dither was Ewan and Halvorsen or Gaviria and Mezgec…went for the former…not even sure why.

    How does Evenepoel even fit in ?…two sprinters or is he in the train somewhere ?

    I’m not planning any transfers until stage 3 either, I’ll take a hit on Stage2 as my sprinters are a bit limited.

    Evenepoel has a free role to go for it on the Mountain stages.

    Gaviria was ill in Columbia and doesn’t know his lead out train at all, so Ewan is probably a sfer pick.

    Mezgec is very good at posioning and usually does well when he sprints for himself. Halvorsen may get a few pints today but is inconsistent in the sprints. Maybe he should use Mezgec as a lead out :).

    Stage 4 at Hatta Dam could be a critical one, usually sprinters do OK but this year there are a lot of talented climbers here. Getting around the climbers and maintaining pace could be a problem for sprinters.

    #935949
    0
    archieboy

    Just a thought, but why was

    Just a thought, but why was Tony Martin not at the team presentation? 

    #935947
    0
    Dr Winston

    Here we go.

    Here we go.

    Ewan 

    Viviani

    Roglic

    Bauhaus

    Leezer

    Halvorsen

    Walscheid

    Evenepoel

     

    Planning not to use a transfer until day 3.

    My dither was Ewan and Halvorsen or Gaviria and Mezgec…went for the former…not even sure why.

    How does Evenepoel even fit in ?…two sprinters or is he in the train somewhere ?

    #935945
    0
    MinardiM189

    My team for the ITT stage –

    My team for the ITT stage –

    ROGLIC
    MOSCON
    KELDERMAN
    BAUHAUS
    KITTEL
    WALSCHEID
    MARTENS
    MOSCHETTI

     

    #935943
    0
    stevemarks
    Dr Winston wrote:
    stevemarks wrote:
    MinardiM189 wrote:
    MinardiM189 wrote:
    Seven stages and only 12 transfers?

    Isn’t that a bit low?

    The number of transfer in te last two races confused me.

    I’m happy to stick with the old rule, 2 transfers between stages.

    I think increasing the number of transfers makes the game less challenging.

    I would go further I prefered the system where you had two transfers per day and you could carry them over if you didn’t use them. It made the game even more tactical and in the grand tours you always got 2 transfers on the rest day which was marvelous…..Ah Nostaglia.

    How long have you been playing it Steve?

    Apparently I won the early Classics comp in 2013 so at least that long. not sure whether it’s more than a season or two more than that.

    #935941
    0
    Dr Winston
    stevemarks wrote:
    MinardiM189 wrote:
    MinardiM189 wrote:
    Seven stages and only 12 transfers?

    Isn’t that a bit low?

    The number of transfer in te last two races confused me.

    I’m happy to stick with the old rule, 2 transfers between stages.

    I think increasing the number of transfers makes the game less challenging.

    I would go further I prefered the system where you had two transfers per day and you could carry them over if you didn’t use them. It made the game even more tactical and in the grand tours you always got 2 transfers on the rest day which was marvelous…..Ah Nostaglia.

    How long have you been playing it Steve?

    #935939
    0
    stevemarks
    MinardiM189 wrote:
    MinardiM189 wrote:
    Seven stages and only 12 transfers?

    Isn’t that a bit low?

    The number of transfer in te last two races confused me.

    I’m happy to stick with the old rule, 2 transfers between stages.

    I think increasing the number of transfers makes the game less challenging.

    I would go further I prefered the system where you had two transfers per day and you could carry them over if you didn’t use them. It made the game even more tactical and in the grand tours you always got 2 transfers on the rest day which was marvelous…..Ah Nostaglia.

    #935937
    0
    MinardiM189
    MinardiM189 wrote:
    Seven stages and only 12 transfers?

    Isn’t that a bit low?

    The number of transfer in te last two races confused me.

    I’m happy to stick with the old rule, 2 transfers between stages.

    I think increasing the number of transfers makes the game less challenging.

    #935935
    0
    triccky100

    Thanks for the explanation

    Thanks for the explanation Andy. I would support the transfers equalling the number of stages, Dr Winston has nicely outlined the benefits of this. 

    #935933
    0
    Dr Winston
    Condor Andy wrote:
    The Tour Down Under was 10 for 6 because in the past it’s been 2 transfers in between each stage. We might have done 2 more for Oman and Algarve because they aren’t counting, and a couple more transfers is a bit of fun. Happy to increase though if that’s the general consensus, still 2 days to go.

    That text might have been carried over when the competition was created Tony,  I can’t see it anywhere on the admin page. It’s something for Dave to fix.

    Just to clarify, this competition is absolutely counting to the season totals.

    I really like the idea that the the number of transfers equalling the number of stages. That gives two transfers per day but then twice to do a bigger change of three….if that’s the kind of general idea. I know most do far more changes between Sprint > Mountain stages rather than two a day but some races fluctuate a lot between Sprint, roller, Summit and TT which can make for a bit of a stale race. …When there are races like that those extra two become part of the strategy about when to do the big changes. I just think it works better as shown on the Oman game.

     

    The game is a bit of a Morecambe and Wise type of game…we all know the right notes but not necessarily in the right order, and that’s the part of this game at it’s best…trying to work that out….those extra two transfers feed into that nicely.

Viewing 15 replies - 76 through 90 (of 98 total)
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