slcbob

Wow, what a big pack rolling in. 5k to go as I type. Matthews making an effort today. Perhaps a win & some yellow bling at the end of the day?

slcbob

^ shut up, dummy.

one4smoke

Sagan needs some stages with just a wee bit more climbing to take Viva Las Vegas out of the equation. They are so close in acceleration and speed that it’s whomever gets the best positioning. I’m waiting for that sprint when they’re both side-by-side and punch it at exactly the same time.

I’d like to see Sagan win it all, but I would say Matthews is the favorite right now.

slcbob

Yes, that. Plus Viviani benefits from his voracious big blue wolfpack doing a great job for him, and he's manly enough to not get bullied off their wheels like John Waters. Great racing being done by them in 4 and 5.

On my picks, I did not have an adequate appreciation for how well these sprinters were going to get over the lumpy stages we've had the past few days. Stage 6? It feels like it's Stage 12. Thank God it's finally almost here.

diphthong

looks like vivi got his mojo back, just in time for that little july larkabout in france. i’ll take the points for another stage win in lieu of yet another horrible prediction.

stage six: bernal or mas. going with bernal.

slcbob

The way it has been going for me, I'd put your money on Taco.

diphthong

i spend plenty of $$$ on taco(s) as it is. looking for a rider named pizza...or (ham)burger. bo's been retired for a few years now tho...

slcbob

This does not bode well and I don't know that I can hold out until Spain in August to shake off this beating that one4smoke is giving us.

o o gabooga, hurry, quick! Please set up the Fantasy Route d'Occitanie league. The race starts in a few hours.

diphthong

^ "every man has his breaking point. both you and i have them."

saw that as well and hoping something can be cobbled together for the tour of gaul or charlemagne's revenge or 3 weeks in july.
if someone comes across something promising or relatively comparable/easy, throw it out there. my "shopping" last year
yielded a few options but nothing i wanted to pursue due to circuitousness, complication or cost.

and yah, surprised i'm as close to one4smoke as i am. unless mr. zero (aka spilak) regains his 2015 or 2017 overall winning form and soon,
i'll be kindling and go from the penthaus to the outhaus.

one4smoke

So, what happened with Velo and the TdF league? A cease and desist from the official TdF site? If so, why?

slcbob

ASO went after George, the VeloGames guy, last year. Or was it the year before? You know how it all blurs together when you get old. So, yeah, some kind of cease & desist. And now, I guess an echo of the same.

When it went down, I vaguely recall it was moments before the race and we had teams picked and everything. But then again, I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday.

diphthong

came close with the stage six prediction of bernal ftw. drats! and i would have had it too if it weren’t for that meddling kid!

slcbob

And so begins the inexorable clawing back of the (s)pokes. Is there enough race left for me?

I think it is already safe to say chapeau, one4smoke.

Tough to pick against Egan, especially with his Mom out there aggressively working the sidelines to cull the competition. If Hirt, McNulty, and Carthy team up in the break or a late chase off the front of the bunch, I'm going to run right out and buy a lottery ticket.

diphthong

stage seven prediction...that last cobbled climb (talk about adding insult to injury) of the longest stage
looks like a real omg neat to eat taste treat. oh those swiss come across as so proper and nice but they'd
gut you or destroy your undercarriage (or nancyboy wheelset) just for a laugh. i’d like to pick the youth and
optimism of either bernal or mas again but going with the treachery and experience of brambilla or ll sanchez for the win.
brambilla time.

in other news,,,agnoli is up to 8 total points scored and spilak is up to 6 points on team slow (s)pokes. y'all are in for it now...

as for slcbob, you can have my podium spot after you excavate the broken, petrified and fused toblerone from my cold, dead saddlebag.

slcbob

^ If you manage to clutch your toblerone all the way to the bitter end, you'll have your boy Rohan to thank for it. What the heck is he doing out front on top of this mountain? First all those sprinters through stage 5 now the world time trial champ defying gravity. There must be a Suisse anomaly where their gravity is like their cheese rather than their watches. This is the end of days.

GuitarBob

You guys are cracking me up -- keep it up!

diphthong

surprised myself by even taking the rider of rohan after he attempted to join the exclusive tejay/talansky club at the giro a few years back. destroyed my meager chances at utter giro domination and i was forced to redo my personalized stationary order. miffy. better later than never. he’ll still be a rider non grata to me unless he pulls off a top step podium placing.

diphthong

have you seen that stage nine profile? woof! there will definitely be carnage. dennis will need to crush bernal by 3.5 minutes on the stage eight tt to even have
a chance of winning the overall gc. that ain't gonna happen since bernal only lost 23 seconds on the first tt almost exactly half the disto of stage eight's tt. bernal
would hafta apply all of the techniques from the rasmussen tt masterclass for dennis to get that much separation. horrible predictions: dennis wins stage eight.
spilak wins stage nine and jumps onto the lowest step of the podium. bernal holds on to win the overall. dennis rides well enuff to just barely hold onto second place.
aru realizes he's in the top ten on gc and promptly shoves it into reverse on stage nine and finishes 15-20 instead.

slcbob

So the Rohan Dennis Menchov maneuver?

Wait a second, I need to move to the side for a moment to make space for The Bounty to blow through tomorrow.

OK, now where was I? Oh, yeah. +1 on Dennis into yellow. I wonder if Bodnar or maybe Kung can muster the stage since they didn't have to invest all that energy in doing their best Pozzovivo imitations these last few days.

Within 24 hours, I may be eating Toblerone by the light of the Lantern Rouge, blowing my Suisse sorrows out through one of those big Gricola horns.

On a lighter note, I'm totally dominating the Fantasy Route d'Occitanie league. I will carry that forward to crush the competition in whatever guise of e-sport we can find that ASO tolerates. I will break my foes much like ASO breaks the joy and spirit of an earnest little one man shop with no advertisement or sponsorship of note who just wants to help people enjoy their sport that is already marginalized enough. Ruthless victory. At all costs. Next race.

diphthong

yah...both you and canam73 are going to be snacking on my fossilized toblerone and circling above me as the nearly always aptly-monikered team slow (s)pokes does just that. about ready to climb into the front seat of the broom wagon. it’s one thing to go from first to worst in a three week gt. it’s quite another to do it in a week+ stage race like the toc, dauphine, romandie, paris-nice, tirreno-adriatico, suisse, et al. it’s a special(ized) talent apparently.

dunno what july holds besides a giant sucking sound (pour moi) but know this...i will be sunbathing in the roadside weeds for that little spanish caravan in late agosto/early septiembre and tossing boxes of tacks into your fantasy vuelta roads. ‘tis my fave race of the year for a few reasons. toodles!

diphthong

so much for my vaunted stage eight prediction.
if spilak actually wins stage nine, i’ll buy a hat to eat.

canam73

I do like toblerone, but my choice to eschew sprinters and bank on swiss pride (morabito-albasini-frank) didn't pan out out as I hope. Now I have to see if picking the final gc podium is enough to dig me out the early stage hole I dug.

one4smoke

Well, we all have a victory (I think?) heading into the big daddy.

Gonna be fun...

diphthong

congrats to one4smoke and team Riders On The Storm on winning the tour de suisse! and yes...now we’ve all tasted the agony of victory and the sweetness of defeat this year.

slcbob

It was a race to the bottom but you weren't fast enough, ooga-booga. I was still able to snatch defeat from the jaws of defeat. You sure were coming back quickly. Though not as fast as canam73 blew through both of us, moving in the right direction. Towards the storm. well played, all.

Speaking of blowing -- has the rider of Rohan been taking an extra puff on the horn of Gondor or something? What a showing!

Bernal will finish Le Tour ahead of G. Mark my words.

I had written a post about Dennis falling back from the GC group today, having burned all of his matches. Miraculously, it did not submit. I think the same e-magic trend will continue, preventing me from making stupid, last minute "improvements" to my team for France, in whatever venue we find that escapes the eye of Sauron ASO.

Good league. All of the children were above average. I was in our basement by a long stretch and I was still well above the 50% mark for the general population.

Looking forward to the fresh meat Le Tour will bring.