slcbob

Here's a thread to talk about our little fantasy league of misfits (nobody likes a Charlie in a box) and/or the race action that will be coming hot and heavy now. As I type this, Milano-Torino is on the road and the [Super]clasico races are stacked up like cordwood. canam73 and the Killer Bees might be hung over from toasting their tremendous recent performances. Others have used the early season to get bad picks out of the way. We'll see where the karma comes or goes.

The league code for Velogames set up earlier by diphthong in the TDU thread is our 2024 slum. Same notion here, just a big rainbow tent without the TDU label. Labelling is disabling, right?
league name: bike forums
league code: 230144811

Feel free to blabber on about any of the races here. Or follow your muse and spawn other threads in whatever unholy fashion speaks to you. It's still a free country, at least for now. We might as well get used to that sort of freedom in this election year. I wouldn't be surprised if GrainBrain is already working on a deep fake late entry and semroc is throwing salt over his shoulder at small furry animals in a move to shake the Ullrich curse and claim the top step after two near misses to CanAmstrong in the one week tours.

Here are the Superclasico standings after Strade Bianche. It's a long way to Lombardia & Veneto. Plenty of opportunity to pile in, grab stage wins, and even the overall. Plenty of other games. Saluti.

semroc

Great pick in Torino with Bettiol, slcbob. Hirschi had a good ride considering his nose. Tough dude, like most of em. Bettiol was all in. I didn’t see him look back once until about 200 meters to go.
Shake the Ullrich curse!! Lmao!!

slcbob

A young Kaiser Jan is looking pretty trim there in front of Il Pirata. Do you know if that was that before the return of his mono-balled nemesis?

Yes, I stumbled into luck in Torino. Still a long way to go to catch up to the pack after my first non-picks, but there's a long time to get there. I've got a Smokey & The Bandit ear worm now and may pop a Coors open.

Best to all competitors! MSR beckons, soon enough.

slcbob

I forgot about the Fantasy Spring Classics. That pesky high maintenance thing with 12 riders and 24 transfers that does a great job of pitting apathy against OCD on top of all the rest of the afflictions.

Not sure if I can afford to have both Pog and MVDP. Or if I can afford not to.

Best wishes to all at MSR, then let's have some cobbles! There's a video going around of Kung taking out the whole chase group in a mucky cobble section in a recent race. Lots of variables there for the hard men to contest with.

semroc

Exciting San Remo. Great finish. The Poggio provides for some great racing. Mathews with a great ride. I thought Mohoric might hold on, but Stuyven and others were cranking it up.

GrainBrain

Ha ha ha, I had wondered about Philipsen, I didn't even see any info on the race yet. Woke up to see the results, can't wait to see the final half hour. Big, big vibes between Jasper and MvdP? Jasper my pick for Roubaix.

I have to go see how Philipsen did it with Matthews and Tufts, that's wild!

slcbob

MSR was a gunfight. Too bad UAE left some of the guns back at the OK Capi.

I wouldn't bet against Pog in Catalunya.

diphthong

oopsiedoodles...

GrainBrain

But it's streaming on Peacock with McCrossan so that's nice. Wow talk about some great riders here - geeze UAE stacked. How many wins will Tufts get here? Sean Quinn, Craddock are here. C'mon Craddock get in the break! I bet Matthews was wishing he had Craddock yesterday.
Oh duh GC Kuss is here also, I would assume he would support Cian but Sepp has great legs and this would be an incredible over all to win.

GrainBrain

I can't see what anyone has placed - did you go for Sepp or Vlasov or... Mas?

slcbob

Everyone went for Nick Schultz. It was a magic moment. Sad you missed it, buddy.

GrainBrain

Ha ha, I wouldn't have picked him in a million years due to ignorance! That was magical to see in the last kilometer and a half, to see Williams let him go. Williams wasn't so bad himself, the only one there to somewhat pace Tufts. Incredible race sense to be like, go go go. I was watching and cheering him on!

GC Kuss due tomorrow? Or Landa - wouldn't he love that? I'd love to see him grab one for sure. I hope Bernal isn't injured, he found himself among the barriers today at 500m and took awhile to get up. Didn't look bad though. I run the risk of losing streaming privileges tomorrow if Bernal makes it up first - there will be much commotion and shouting from my corner of the "office".

Edit-Hugh, would be wonderful to see also!

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slcbob

Kuss said Landa can drink on his tab for life 🍻 but I hope we see a shoot out on the two stages. Pog, Kuss, Uijtebroeks (or thereabouts), maybe Lenny Martinez (picked by some of my foes).

diphthong

previewing some guys for the gt's. pretty aware how vlasov, tadej, bernal, gthom, almeida, yatesie and mas (generally) roll. did have kaden groves as the token sprinter but had to swap in coquard
last second with groves being a non-participant. race is taddy's to lose and don't see it happening unless there's a crash out, illness or that which shall not be named.

slcbob

I hope that things are so good in the heartland of 'Murica that GrainBrain has better things to do than dabble in fantasy cycling, rather than they are so bad he can't get around to it. He continues to be the most MIA of the [un]usual suspects and his MSR team fared poorly in Belgium. He has the joy of becoming the first person I caught in Superclasico after sitting out Strade Bianche, but not the last! The rest of us seem to have clued in to the core Philipsen-Merlier combo for Brugge-de Panne, with varying levels of success depending on the rest of the squad. Similarly, in Catalunya, somehow Pogacar made it onto a team or two but the devil is in the lesser places.

We've got two days before E3 to do long division in our heads with that God-forsaken limited transfer Spring Classics game. This is a lot like work this time of year.

semroc

Pretty hectic sprint in Brugge. I thought Turgis got fourth, as did the announcer. Great ride by Van Poppel.

GrainBrain

Yes the very warm winter has interfered, along with everything else it seems! Been busy watching Catalunya and Tufts dominance - though I am very happy to see Landa very much on form!

There I threw in at least active contestants for E3

slcbob

Dang! 2nd overall for Stage 4. Go me!!

Oh well. My fast men won't like the lumps in the road tomorrow and the smart money says canam73 will reel me in before the end. This year he's worse than our stoic Slovenian interloper from recent years. Who was that guy?

slcbob

Sad to see Luke Rowe abandon E3. Iron man. That doesn't happen much. And Danny Van Poppel.

4 of the 6 teams in our little league feature the dynamic WVA MVDP duo. GrainBrain went with WVA, Mads, and a deep but not cheap pick for Trentin.

semroc hit the breakaway lottery in E3 with Herzog. Rush out and play the MegaBucks, too!

I went with none of the above, don't remember what I was drinking, it may bode poorly but let's see. I did roll the dice for breakaway points with a 4 point Bingoal WB rider whose name starts with V. Unfortunately, there were three of them. Curse the odds. Just missed it.

semroc

Nice one slowspokes. Tough conditions in Saxo. I thought I was so smart taking out Stuyven and putting in Mathew’s at the last minute.

slcbob

The (s)pokes are crushing Superclasico. Head and shoulders above the riff raff in our league, 15th overall at E3 pushing to top 12% overall. No pressure. Abrahamsen? Oh yeah.

Matteo Jorgenson is having a helluva season too. Go man go. Not quite as obviously 'Murican, mom & apple pie a name as Sepp Kuss, but viva the melting pot and go USA!

slcbob

Not sure what to make of E3. MVDP crushing it. WVA closing to 10 sec after his Paterberg faux pas. He's taking Gent Wevelgem off but De Ronde and Roubaix may be interesting. What a duo.

slcbob

More racing to come next week, but a quick recap of recent goings on.

Wow. To no one's surprise except in magnitude, Pogacar tore up Catalunya. Lots of news about others in disbelief and racing for minor placings. In VG performance terms, Landa was a distant second with 60% of his points. But, hey, although he's still dead to me, quite a ride by Landa. And it's wonderful to see Bernal back amongst the living. Tiberi? Boutique pick if there ever was one.

In our little league, I barely held off a charging canam73 to finish as cream of the crap, but all of the children were below average as far as the general population was concerned. Nothing to be proud of.



In Superclasico, diphthong continues his run at the top and just outside the top 10% of the GenPop. GrainBrain with a crushing stage win (top 5% for G-W) behind the troika of Mads, MVDP, and Philipsen.

Spring Classics: canam73 wins the G-W stage, I'm clinging to the league lead at ~25%, and diphthong is hoarding transfers to either unleash the fury for the switch from the cobbles to the Ardennes, or an egregious dose of DILLIGAF. TBD.

Kudos to Lidl-Trek for a nice coupla races. The Killer Bees have had a rough few days. We'll see how the whole MVDP / WVA / etc. thing sorts out the rest of this holy week ahead and over to Roubaix.

I had high hopes for Arnaud De Lie but to no avail. Also thought Bling Matthews might do something in Wevelgem. Nope.

Lenny Martinez and Laurence Pithie arise as riders to watch.

slcbob

20k to go in Dwaars as I type this.

I looked at all the teams in our little Superclasico league just now. I see everyone else picked WVA. I did not, but the last roster move I made was to swap out Bettiol. So I've got that going for me.

OOPS. 18k now. Sorry Alberto.

I've leave the live blogging to others. Out.

semroc

What a ride by Jorgenson. He’s having a great year. The break stays away in Dwars!
Terrible crash. Sad to watch on YouTube.