Vuelta - Stage 13

I dont like taking penalties, but could get a full house I reckon today if fabian cancellara scores....so lets see a chris horner win. Hot tip. Luke Rowe might be targetting this stage.

I have 7 of the top 9 on GC plus an Eusky and a Caja, with one transfer left over. Thinking today will be a GC day, but still plenty of KOM points up for grabs - and keep remembering that stage with De Gendt and Cataldo last year, not to mention Piedra's epic ride. Expecting those kind of stages to wait until next week though...

Purists need Capecchi and Txurruka to score 100 points more than Lulu Sanchez and Pozzovivo - tough ask!

Completely throwing caution to the wind, making some bold transfers (including three penalties) so fingers crossed it pays off. I've omitted a couple of obvious choices so hoping that doesn't come back to bite me in the ass.

Good for me - no-one in the break but had a mainly GC team so didn't drop back that much. Txurruka in the purists.

Made my transfers for tomorrow - tried to play safe but I can never resist picking for the break on a day like tomorrow!

Our winner today was

1 Team Lucas lucas 145

I had thought today was a break away chance and I had some inside information, so took Christian Meier in....but I didn't see where he dropped back

14,16,17,19,20 - mere crumbs!

Flecha in 19th - thought he might make a go of it, Sitges is as close to a hometown as he has in Spain.

12, 14, 16, 17, 19, 20 plus GC and other points

1. BARGUIL, Warren
2. NOCENTINI, Rinaldo
3. MOLLEMA, Bauke
4. SANTAROMITA, Ivan
5. ZANDIO, Xabier
6. TXURRUKA, Amets
7. SCARPONI, Michele
8. MARTÍNEZ, Egoi
9. COPPEL, Jerome
10. INTXAUSTI, Beñat
11. ULISSI, Diego
12. GILBERT, Philippe
13. VANENDERT, Dennis
14. VALVERDE, Alejandro
15. MORENO, Daniel
16. BASSO, Ivan
17. ROCHE, Nicolas
18. RODRIGUEZ, Joaquin
19. FLECHA, Juan Antonio
20. NIBALI, Vincenzo

12,14,16,17,20 for me

Barguil wins... didn't see that one coming.

Scarponi has won the most combative

Sounds it'll go to the break but with Meersman dropped I have no-one in the remaining ten man breakaway. Seriously annoyed because I'd ear-marked Scarponi and Txurruka for tomorrow...

Remaining break is:

Bauke Mollema - Belkin Procycling Team
Amets Txurruka - Caja Rural
Warren Barguil - Team Argos-Shimano
Xabier Zandio Echaide - Sky Procycling
Ivan Santaromita - BMC Racing Team
Jérôme Coppel - Cofidis, Solutions Credits
Rinaldo Nocentini - AG2R La Mondiale
Michele Scarponi - Lampre-Merida
Beñat Intxausti Elorriaga - Movistar Team
Egoi Martinez De Esteban - Euskaltel Euskadi

Sprint 2
1 Scarponi
2 Nocentini
3 Intxausti

Clement (BEL) has also abandoned

Sprint 1 was
1 Kiryienka
2 Txurruka
3 Meersman

A few have left
DNS
Reynes (LTB)
Lander (BMC)
Abandon
Ten Dam (BEL)
Lastras (MOV)
De La Cruz (TNE)
Mangel (FDJ)
also unconfirmed Soupe

Cat 1
1 Scarponi 10pts
2 Txurruka 6
3 Martinez 4
4 Nocentini 2
5 Barguil 1

Just one man from my team in this sticky-looking break (Meersman).

What's the Spanish for 'jour sans'?

Good sized break has three minutes on the peloton:

Rinaldo Nocentini, Mikael Cherel (Ag2r-La Mondiale)
Warren Barguil (Argos-Shimano)
Bauke Mollema (Belkin)
Ivan Santaromita (BMC)
Antonio Piedra, Amets Txurruka (Caja Rural)
Jerome Coppel (Cofidis)
Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi)
Michele Scarponi (Lampre-Merida)
Jelle Vanendert (Lotto-Belisol)
Beñat Intxausti (Movistar)
Iker Camano (NetApp-Endura)
Gianni Meersman, Serge Pauwels (Omega Pharma-QuickStep)
Christian Meier (Orica-GreenEdge)
Xabier Zandio (Sky)
Tomasz Marczynski (Vacansoleil-DCM)

Some strong riders in there and good climbers, if they can push the break up towards 8-10 minutes I could see this sticking.

These 6 out front
Situation

Break
Bauke Mollema Belkin Procycling Team
Iker Camano Ortuzar Team NetApp - Endura
Rinaldo Nocentini AG2R La Mondiale
Egoi Martinez De Esteban Euskaltel Euskadi
Amets Txurruka Caja Rural
Warren Barguil Team Argos-Shimano

but 12 more un-named riders have joined on

Valverde
Horner
Nibali
Roche
Basso
Spartacus
Matthews
Richeze
Edet (for farrar)

Alto del Collet (cat3) mountain result:

1. Diego Ulissi
2. Nicolas Edet
3. Luis Leon Sanchez

Valverde
Roche
Nibali
Basso
Horner
Pozzovivo
LuluSanchez
EBH
Gilbert

3 transfers tomorrow to get the bottom three out.

Gilbert (for Horner)
Flecha (for Farrar)
Meersman
Richeze
Matthews
Valverde
Nibali
Roche
Basso

Will keep the last four for tomorrow and probably stick in three penalty transfers.

Want Rodriguez back in but not sure if he's worth either an extra transfer to swap with Valverde or whether he's worth having at the expense of Horner/Pozzovivo or some other mid-value climbers.

Edit: Had a quick look at transfers for tomorrow, which would you have:

Valverde, Rodriguez, Elissonde, Arroyo (or other under 4 credit rider)
Valverde, Pozzovivo, Pinot, Moreno

leaning towards the latter although I suspect J-Rod may do more in the final week than Valverde depending on who's targetting the Worlds.

I got:

Meersman
Valverde
Basso
Flecha
Nibali
Majka
Huzarksi
Roche
Dempster

Some steady points, some stabs-in-the-dark.