VOLTA CATALUNYA

Ok, so if loads of you have a breakaway rider or two, then we know your game.

Did mine last night for once. I can't do right for doing wrong.

I did.  There is a small chance of a sprint, and the bad weather could change the whole race on its head before the final stage.

What happened to Bagioli today?... heavily fancied (as he is tomorrow) and a total no show at +23 minutes. Hard to trust if anybody is ill, or not. 

Yep, a bit of a lottery all round - even more so in the Purist.  Quickstep seem to be the complete sick-note team ATM.

Ha. I ducked out of him because I was wondering if he was ill... and went for Poels instead. Oh, my days.

The lottery continues....

I kept Groves on stage 6 because I thought there might be a sprint (which there was for third).  The only trouble was, I was going to bring Carapaz in for him if I made a change 'cos I knew he likes the "cold" and wet.  Doh!

I just haven't managed to get the luck...  Yet.  My Purist campaign is practically over already.  Every time I select a rider, they seem to get ill or crash.  It's like magic.

Yeah, it's been really tricky. I haven't seen anything that's actually said why so many are falling ill... have you? I really don't recall a time when so many have been laid low. 

I've never seen anything like it.

Apparently there is a stealth variant of COVID.  That might be part of it.  It doesn't come up in normal PCR tests (and I can't see teams desperately wanting to find it for obvious reasons).  With the Omicron variant, gut problems are linked.  Long COVID symptoms.  That combined with lack of regular immunity to viruses from isolating so much for two years?

What about back room staff?... surely they should also have been dropping like flies as well... have they?

Maybe they have been ill.  But there is ill for a regular worker, then there is being well enough to work but still too sick to be an elite athlete.

Yeah I've often debated whether to leave everyone in purist and only remove riders from the standard game, but that would leave them in the game stage file. I wouldn't mind trying it though, think I might have already had a go in the last couple of years, but decided against it.

Don't worry about it. It is one of those things that is probably more hassle than it's worth to correct and it really doesn't bother me. It's nice to have the odd quirk in the game!

I noticed that too, and no idea. Doesn't affect the stage scores, only the KOM classification.

Anyone else have Yates, Woods, Porte and Valverde in their purist team?  They all looked like perfectly reasonable picks to me.

Yes all 4 

All right, I admit Porte often gets sick or crashes (always a mini-gamble), but all four of them?  FFS!

Me too.  And the now departed Bling, but at least I got something in the first 2 stages.

Now, if only Ethan Vernon can win a sprint tomorrow.

I spent the whole of last Purist season, gradually catching up, I seem to remember.  I'd love to test myself by actually being in the running early on.

Not to self: Try not to forget to do my team in the main game and drop out of the overall this year.

Well my purist team had the winner today...... rather it had been in my Standard team!

I went for Peñalver instead of Vernon for Purist.

Guess who had Molano in their Purist team. Carnage! 

Definitely reasonable picks. I compromised on getting Woods and Porte in to have Bling... pffft... but had Yates and Valverde...