one4smoke

Ahhhh, what might have been.... I was a whisker from picking Pinot, but decided to go with Bardet for whatever reason. That, combined with the Van Aert tragedy, finds me not very optimistic. Pleasantly surprised to be where I am in the standings at this point in time.

Stage 16 prediction: After a rest day, with a flat sprint finish ...I'll go with Viviani for his second stage win.

dstrong 

Well...with one4smoke in my draft...and since both of us have so many of the same riders (including sagan, viviani and greenwagon), I guess the only way to gap him would be if one of my climbers gets the jump on the pack and amazingly sprints for the win! Ok...not likely...so I'm looking to sagan to get a big jump again for the win!

slcbob

We all have our little ride casualties. Well, except for the guys transferring. For me, Rohan taking his ball and going home moments before the ITT added insult to my self-injury of picking him by mistake.

I'm counting on all the Colombian hemoglobin doing some goodness for me via Bernal in the last week at 2000+ meters. Though perhaps everyone has him.
@one4smoke, I did not stay upright. Had a bit of a get-off at around 50mph. Sort of like my podium action! But ATGATT and insurance, so it will be OK again eventually, sort of unlike my podium action?

Tuesday's stage -- I wish it was uphill at the end instead of pan flat and straight, I might go with Colbrelli. As is, I'm thinking Sagan comes out of the mountains better than the heavy guns, even with the rest day.

one4smoke

Just to help Alaphilippe out, and give him a fighting chance (by not picking him as the overall winner), I’ll go ahead and predict how the top five will look in Paris.

(1) Bernal
(2) Pinot
(3) Kruijswijk
(4) Thomas
(5) Alaphilippe

GrainBrain

Stage 16 has an uncategorized hill right before the flat finish, that could be interesting.

feel like quickstep is all in for Juju, we saw vivianni at the front during stage 15.

Last chance for sprinters before the possible craziness of the Pyrenees - time gaps could be deadly if the GC battle heats up.

Haven't seen much from van avermaet, maybe he'll try his hand on 17? Along with Michael Matthews...?

I'm thinking Sagan prioritizes Buchmann getting a good place on GC? He has the green jersey in the bag.

Once again just hoping for a good showing from EF. Watch the wind!

slcbob

OK, I'll bite.

1 Bernal
2 Pinot
3 Thomas
4 Kjrjuisjwijjkj
5 Buchmann

I don't want it to be true, and maybe by predicting I, too, am giving him a fighting chance, but I think when the moment comes: stick a fork in Juju, he's done, and he sheds 10+ minutes and out of the top 10. Perhaps he stays in contention d1 in the Pyrenees and then finishes with the laughing bunch d2.

There's always a risk of a jour sans for anyone, so I'm not counting out those in the top ~12 now from hip checking someone off the podium. Landa is perhaps the most likely to take a flyer and fight his way in, though it is hardly likely. Quintana may try and ultimately go backwards. Fuglsang and Uran well positioned to hang around and advance through any attrition.

Wildcards: can Bala's old lungs and young man's legs do some magic at 2000m? Will Richie really finish? Will Barguil hang in there?

Should be an epic week. At least I will enjoy the racing while Juju and I slip back through our respective packs.

Stadjer

I'm very bad a cycling predictions but I believe Kruijswijk's has been a bit under the radar too much and his chances are underestimated. Maybe it's wishful thinking that it will be decided by lots of exiting jumps and not by boring big diesel power. I root for him, not because he's a countryman, I don't care much for that in cycling.

Btw, if it's any help, the 'IJ' is one letter, most akin to the 'Y', also both a vowel and a consonnant.

slcbob

OK lads, when the scoring comes in later today, that will be my foot you feel on your throats. BAM! I'm not dead yet.

Then I'm going to suffer like a suffering thing over the next few days in the Alps. We'll see if I'm still in the running when we get to le Champs.

one4smoke

I’ll enjoy today’s standings, for that’s as good as it will get for me ...with another rider out.

Better to be lucky than good, and unfortunately I’m the latter.

dstrong 

Great day for you slcbob! I was psyched to see my sprinters in the top 5 and thought I was secure. NOPE! 2 places down! Le Tour's excitement makes for exciting fantasy also!

GrainBrain

I also had Fuglsang, I hate seeing guys crash out!!

I'm down Van Garderen, Van Aert and now Fuglsang. Feel like I'm cursing these guys

Will I see a rise in the BF overall with my hopes of mountain greatness from King, Herrada, Uran, Dan Martin?

Will my hopes of Uran making a huge attack ala Froome'd'finestre transpire?

Tune in tomorrow fantasy fans!

dstrong 

Ugh...I didn't even realize that Fuglsang had crashed out! He wasn't contributing much but every little bit helps!

slcbob

How in the heck did @one4smoke stay in front of me?

Nibali and Adam better do something in the Alps, or I'm coming for them! It's the only way I'll stay close enough in the mountains for Ewan to come through for me on the Champs and put me on the top step. JUST. LIKE. I. PLANNED. IT!!!!!!

I'm sad for Fuglsang. But not for all of you that picked him like I meant to but wasn't coordinated enough to pull off. Feel my Rohan ITT-that-wasn't pain.

OK, for stage 17 predictions -- we can't leave @ooga-booga hanging with his west coast graveyard shift prognostications as the only picker. My heart says Adam and Nibali take a flyer, perhaps with Roman but then they drop him and he finishes a distant third or perhaps gets swallowed up by the charging peloton led by Sagan. My head says a break stays away -- 3-sided coin flip between Trentin, Oliver Naesen, or I'm a little punchy and don't know what I'm spouting.

slcbob

10k to go. I just came back to check in to see if Trentin was indeed one of the half dozen or so predictions I spewed out yesterday. Damn I'm good!!

I hope Mateo holds on. Either way, well done, slcbob. Even if I do say so myself. Ha ha ha.

dstrong 

Great call slcbob! You may have been punchy but it seemed to work!

Stage 18 - I'll be glued to my screen for the next three days and getting little to no work done until mid-morning. May not be a big shake-up tomorrow, with the long descent after they top out on the Galibier. Just hoping Thomas doesn't crash again! The top 6 are going to be eyeing each other constantly and I don't really have a prediction...although Thomas in yellow at the end of the day would certainly help my chances!

diphthong

trentin’s been awfully quiet so great call by slcbob to pull that rabbit out of a hat. i think stage eighteen gives the contenders (krusijn, thomas, bernal, pinot, buchmann) a big springboard to wear down and extract 10-50 seconds from the maillot jaune by the summit of the galibier. alaphilippe will recoup a few seconds on the descent into valloire but the ***** in the armor will just embolden the attackers even more on stage nineteen. expect the high-speed and technical (in places) descents off the izoard or the galibier to catch out a top ten gc rider with a crash. hope i’m wrong again. going with landa the panda on stage eighteen. woulda picked pinot if the stage finished atop the galibier but not sure he’s 100% over his descending issues.

diphthong

maan, this new censor is indefatigable...

dstrong 

What could be wrong with "nicks in the armor"? For some reason it didn't censor me!

slcbob

Next couple of days:



With this epic plummet off the Galibier, surely this is a chance for the shark to take a bite out of the race? !! Why else is he swimming in these waters?

In other pre-news, mi ese Egan shows the glimmer of greatness tomorrow that is going to flare into a cosmic singularity on Saturday on the Val Thorens.

diphthong

i don't think bernal has the cajones to essentially pull what contador did to armstrong when they were both teammates on astana in the tdf that one year...
thomas crashing or having un jour sans would be different. love him or hate him, for contador to essentially say bleep you to the (at the time) greatest tdf rider ever
was mega-cajones with a double rasher of bacon on the side. and contador backed it up (nearly) his entire career.

you and me and everyone we know would love to see it tho.

nibbles/el tiburon has been mostly absent the entire tdf and the last few days of the giro. it would be nice to see him at least animate the proceedings, much less a stage win.

maybe one of the tried and true coulda been a contender domestiques gets loose and gets the stage eighteen win like cataldo did in the giro. it would be a feel good story.

diphthong

better choices than you + a decidedly loose and cavalier contingent may have pushed some chips/credits across the table undetected to ensure your 4th place..er...off the podium finish.

slcbob

You cut me!











Spot on about Alberto Bernalador. That would be an epic display of crumble from G and/or an enormous sacking up and schwing around from the white jersey.

slcbob

Imagine my disappointment and lack of surprise that there is no Nibali in the break. *sigh*

But there is a silver lining in that black & yellow cloud. I'm counting on my boy Adam running it to the line, holding up his end for the tear that Mitchelton-Scott has been on. Him winning would be fine with me -- partly because he's my wife's home boy, but mainly so I can hang on by a thread here. At least A Yates has got to come out of this better than Bardet / @one4smoke !!!

diphthong

tough to tell a former multiple world champ tt'er to totally shut it down at his best discipline with another potential stage win but guessing the energy expended with rowe of ineos was previously authorized. the finishing second to last reads like a go to hades/personality conflict between martin and the team.

diphthong

you and me both.

hahahahahahahahahahaha ha ha. methinx the yates are the schlecks 2.0.