[MinardiM189]

I brought Kristoff, Bonifazio

I brought in Kristoff, Bonifazio, Bouhanni & Van Poppel in for todays stage.

Between them they scored ZERO !!!!

However, with that result I think I may be joint top in the purist. 🙂

[MinardiM189]

My team for today –

My team for today –

MAS
POELS
KUNG
ANDERSEN S.K.
BOASSON HAGEN
POGACAR
ANTUNES
MATEOS

I shoud probably have waited untiil tomorrow to bring KUNG in.

[MinardiM189]

Kristoff retires from the

Kristoff retires from the race after crashing.

That could make it interesting if anyone went for a radical approach.

Good for my purist team too. 🙂

[MinardiM189]

Stage 2

Stage 2

Skytrain going fast up the fianl climb before Poels attacks in the finale.

I did fancy VanBaarle to do OK in stage 2 & stage 3 and Sky to use him as a 2nd threat on GC. After losing over 1min today he will probably be working tomorrow.

So playing safe and bringing in the 2 best climbers in the race, to go with an ITT specialist. (That was probably a mistake as I could have brought him in tomorrow 🙁 )

 

 

[MinardiM189]

I think that stage will be

I think that stage will be neutralised.

If not, it looks like a reace between Mas & Poels with Andersen, Pogacar and Powless as outsiders.

 

[MinardiM189]

My purist is –

My purist is –

MAS
GROENEWEGEN
ANDERSEN S.K.
POELS
BOASSEN HAGEN
VAN BAARLE
POGACAR
ANTUNES

I’ve actally got 8.7 points left but couldn’t find a better combination I liked.

[MinardiM189]

Dr Winston wrote:

Sniffer wrote:

Gone big on sprinters first up.  Will kill me later, but get a lead and hold on is the strategy.

Who’ve you gone for Sniffer?…anybody off the beaten track?

If I had to pick a cheap sprinter I would have gone with Koch or Malucelli, maybe De Buyst.

Problem with Malucelli is that Caja Rural may go with Aberasturi.

[MinardiM189]

My team for Stage1

My team for Stage1

ACKERMANN
JAKOBSEN
GROENEWEGEN
ANDERSEN S.K.
BOASSON HAGEN
POGACAR
ANTUNES
MATEOS

The big 3 sprinters & then a couple of durable fast men for the next couple of stages.

Then Pogacar my bet for Young Rider competition and a couple of dark horses for the mountain stages.

[MinardiM189]

stevemarks wrote:

Grellier has no record i can see of performing uphill, how does that happen?

 

I missed it and was out, was he in the breakaway?

Yes he was in the break.

[MinardiM189]

Condor Andy wrote:

What do we think, bung in an extra 2 transfers? I agree the lack of stage consistency is the killer here.

I guess that a lot of competitors are at work and have made their choices based on 10 transfers.

It would be unfair to them to increase transfers at this stage.

[MinardiM189]

Dr Winston wrote:

In fact i can word it better than that. At 44 pts behind the only chance i have of winning the tour of Oman is to take GVA out for somebody else and hope Tony keeps him and he bombs up that hill again…and not get Kristoff back in again tomorrow and hope he has a thin day whilst i go for Bouhanni or somebody like that who does well…or wins…I kinda worked out that was my only choice really. I wouldn’t do any of it if counted towards GC.

Pity I messed up on stage 4.

Quite a good stage 5 for me, although I have no idea why I left Coquard in and dropped Kristoff.

Maybe a Grosu, Greipel, Nizzolo combination can pull off a surprise win.

I think Gibbons will ride for Nizzolo tomorrow.

Is it worth keeping Herrada in, last year he picked up points in the sprint?

[MinardiM189]

stevemarks wrote:

Need more transfers for this one, not a lots of good climbers, Mas who will Sky ride for Poels or De La Cruz? then where do you go?

The order of the stages does make it hard work with only 10 transfers. The reduced budget makes getting the sprinters in difficult too.

As for climbers you can always take a punt on Aru.

Very strong Sky team althouh DLC has no form so far this season.

[MinardiM189]

Dr Winston wrote:

The only reason I ignored those at the lower end of the top 10  on GC , like Gesberg, is because I simply don’t know how they ride a hill this steep and long….they have the form on the lesser hills for sure. Frank is the opposite…rubbish form but at least he’s done this one before and done ok without ripping up any trees….and Tony may have been less inclined to get him than the form cheapies….Last throw of the dice really.

Frank did come 7th on the same stage in 2017 but his form in the preceding stages was much better than this year. He is also on my black list.

If Gesbert does OK I can see him moving up to 5th on GC and taking the young rider jersey. That would give him at least 11 points in the final stage which is the best you can expect from a cheap sprinter.

I think there is a good chance GVA gets around top10. The field this year is pretty poor.

[MinardiM189]

I went

I went

POZZOVIVO
POLANC
LUTSENKO
GIBBONS
GESBERT
COSTA
HERRADA
COQUARD

with 4 transfers left for tomorrow (for some reason I though there were only 10 transfers so planned the first few stages based on that).

It is forecast to be windy today, so echelons could blow things apart.

Dropping GVA for Kristoff yesterday messed any chances I might have had up, a top10 is the best I can hope for.

Maybe a top3 in purist.

[MinardiM189]

Dr Winston wrote:

Wish i’d seen that Minardi…where do you see such quoutes?

It was from a pre-stage interview posted on Twitter but was too late to take into account. I had Cort too.

[Author]

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