Transfers for stage 12 - it's got to be Cav

From report of Spanish road champs:

"Contador made the decisive move on the tough category-two climb, the Desierto de Las Palmas. Rojas was the only one able to follow the surge..."

My mountains tactic = fill up with Spaniards and bleeding carrots.

Alberto CONTADOR VELASCO
Jose Joaquin ROJAS GIL
Rigoberto URAN URAN
Philippe GILBERT
Thomas VOECKLER
Jesus HERNANDEZ BLAZQUEZ
Alan PEREZ LEZAUN
Ruben PEREZ MORENO
Jelle VANENDERT

ok for mine

KLODEN
ROJAS
URAN
GILBERT
VELITS
JEANNESSON
RUIJGH
TAARAMAE
PERAUD

My team for a day of pain....

EVANS - Be surprised if the other GC`s drop him today
ROJAS - Best climbing sprinter by a mile
URAN - Cheap and has been quiet...Possible breakaway
SCHLECK F - Because he will be holding his brothers hand
TOMMY.V - Biggest bollocks in the peleton and will hold yellow
RUI COSTA - Good climber and might go up the road today
JEANNESSON - Riding well and poss white jersey points
JEROME - Lanterne Rouge holder but under threat from 50 other riders today
PATE - Transfers made,so I really have an 8 man team as Mr Pate will get zilch....

My selection:

Evans (this may be his last appearance for the Lactics)
Rojas Gil (hoping he can hold on for the intermediate sprint and keep the PC points too)
Minard (Bastille day roll of the dice: hopefuly he can double-team with Dupont to drag themselves up the hills)
Gilbert (much as for Rojas Gill)
Voeckler (Bastille Day pride: should hold on to sufficient GC and KM points, even if he loses yellow)
Dupont (Bastille Day again: with Gadret gone, his climbing lieutenant from the Giro may get a chance to shine)
Jeannesson (Vive le France! Crossed fingers he can hold onto his WJ points)
Jerome (he's still got a 2min 40sec cushion over Steegmans)
Perez Lezaun (Euskaltel, in case Sammy S rides off FTW and a bit of Spanish pride for the Pyrenees)

The Lactics are banking on patriotic fervour to see them through today

Quote:

Except one name in there, to free up some quid

Good old Hans

Here's my 9 men:

Andy SCHLECK
Hans DEKKERS
Bauke MOLLEMA
Philippe GILBERT
Thomas VOECKLER
Hubert DUPONT
Denis GALIMZYANOV
Vincent JEROME
Geraint THOMAS

Reason, mostly the same as Dave above - had just 2 transfers. Except one name in there, to free up some quid

Here's me. The why for most of them is, 'because they were in last stage and I only got two transfers'

Cadel EVANS
Jose Joaquin ROJAS GIL
Rigoberto URAN URAN
Sylvain CHAVANEL
Ryder HESJEDAL
Tony GALLOPIN
Arnold JEANNESSON
Vincent JEROME
Adriano MALORI

Swapped out Gilbert and Feillu. Luz-Ardiden is a very steady climb and I reckon Evans will be able to stay with Contador on that one. Whether he'll still be in touch after the Tourmalet though...

Having just got rid of Cav and Koren, mine now looks like this:

Tejay VAN GARDEREN
Jose Joaquin ROJAS GIL 
Rigoberto URAN URAN
Philippe GILBERT
Thomas VOECKLER
William BONNET
Vincent JEROME
Rein TAARAMAE
Geraint THOMAS

Fancy Rojas for a climb tomorrow and Taarame to start to make some movement. No giggling at me either.

Ok, here's my team and why

Alberto CONTADOR (test others legs)
Jose ROJAS (inter sprint points)
Bauke MOLLEMA (Gesink is dying out there)
Johnny HOOGERLAND (Come on, he's gonna try hold the polka)
Thomas VOECKLER (In yellow, will make an effort to keep)
Vincent JEROME (hope he keeps last place)
Rein TAARAMAE (New white jersey)
Paolo TIRALONGO (One of the better astana riders left)
Xabier ZANDIO ECHAIDE (Spanish and will go in the break)

I wanted to put Gautier in, but 2 riders already, Looked at Moncoutie, but dont think he's got it in him and Sanchez might give it a good, but Contador will stick to him. Another 2 tips are LL Sanchez and Arroyo if he's feeling better

Yes its Bastille day, but remember alot of the fans at the top of the hill will be Spanish, so i think you will see a few Spanish riders up there with one big meat eater giving the others a leg test

Well i hope anyways, i've taken a risk, taken Evans out and put Contador in

OK here is the team no giggling, so messed up that it doesn't matter, and for sure nobody will be copying these picks.

Sandy CASAR
Mark CAVENDISH
Rigoberto URAN URAN
Philippe GILBERT
Thomas VOECKLER
Dmitriy FOFONOV
Tony GALLOPIN
Vincent JEROME
Christophe RIBLON

The switches were Casar and Riblon. I'll switch out Cav when I see what the lie of the land is tomorrow.

But my gut feeling is Moncoutie, A Schleck, Contador, Sammy Sanches. But I would only have been able to manipulate one of them in because of points available.
The bookies more or less agree with this too. It will be all or none of the GC contenders in the shake up at the end, especially if they all hang back and play cat and mouse, and somebody further back the order will take it, or a Frenchman from the inevitable break away.

remember NO giggling

It's bastille day. And Chavanel's been taking it easy since stage 1. Surely. Surely.

As usual I haven't got a clue. All my points are in Cav and Gilbert. maybe HTC will play a different game and send somebody up the road to take points, Van Garderen for example. Then there is a great possy of french riders who took it easy today, Bastille Day tomorrow.

One would think that Martin and Velits are not going to bust a gut towing Cav up to a bonus sprint in such a big stage! So presumably he'll be down a few members to help in that respect. Actually I think Gilbert will take it but of course he's not a "sprinter"

As for the lantern rouge,I feel that it must change hands tomorrow....Trouble is with the severity of the stage,its impossible to predict who will have it...So fingers crossed Jerome will hang on to it,but I cannot see it happening....

I wouldn't be so sure of the Rojas could get some points because he can go up smaller climbers and the inter sprint is up a small climb, so if he can scored 2 places ahead of Cav, he will score more points

Its a steady climb to the sprint point and I wont be surprised if Rojas gets there before Cav....Had Cav in for the last two days but swapped him now...Needed to free some pennies for tomorrows transfers as tomorrow will answer many questions....Im tingling with anticipation.....Thought HTC were immense today....

Yeah it's going to be flat out to the foot of the first climb! All the same I've put in Feillu, Galimzyanov, Bonnet, and Cav just to pick up all those bonus points! Clearly I'm winding you up... or am I?

Seriously though I have kept in a sprinter for tomorrow and yes he will be on the start line. Just hope nothing disasterous happens to my GC guys!

On another note it's starting to look a bit tight at the other end of the field. Could we have a new lanterne rouge tomorrow?