USAZorro

Ineos is not impressing me.

The apathy was overwhelming today. Imagine what an amazing stage it could have been if more than 4 riders had tried to win the stage.

GrainBrain

Great ride by Powless, took 36" back. Fun fact we both share birthdays

slcbob

There wasn't as much of a slug fest as I expected. Heck, even Richie hung, and stayed in front of Sebastian Reichenbach. I wonder where Tejay went?

I love the 1 second show of righteous indignation and moral victory from Ahlaphilippe with what was left.

diphthong

ugh. so much eyeballing. whatta stage it coulda been. it coulda been a contender. it coulda been somebody. nice win by lutsenko tho.

slcbob

I'm waiting for my duo of Movistar cast-offs to light things up



Then it will be meatloaf for dinner.

Way back in post #20 , I limited the scope of my snivelling to Ahlaphilippe, Buchman, and Pogacar. It's nice to finally be on the virtual podium of the VG league (still a long way to Paris) but seeing the sizable lead the (s)pokes have fueled by Ahlaphilippe and Pogacar, I figured I'd have a small cry over those regrets, however fleeting they may be. I'm a little less sad looking at Team Velocrank, mitigated by a smidgeon of love for our Adam and a smidgeon less of a can of whoop ass being levied upon the rest of us at the moment, but still ample whoop very well levied.

slcbob

P.S. the old Velogames dog should acknowledge the new Tissot trick. Totally crushing it over there, Velocrank. Chapeau. I looked for visibility of how you're doing against the general population, didn't find it, but must be solid.

I did find the nifty little "most riders selected during last 48 hours" and "most riders de-selected" boxes. Sagan is #1 de-selection. Wow. It's the end of days. Or at least 2020.

diphthong

going with ewan (again) on stage seven to wrap up the first week of racing. bol finished dfl today so expecting him to be in the top six tomorrow.
i'll go out on a limb and say bol finishes in the top three if it comes down to a sprint (which it should). it's a long way from that cat 4 climb to the finish.

slcbob

A nice stiff breeze from the south is forecast. Do the crosswinds dampen the chances of the breakaway,, the pocket rocket, +/- a GC hopeful or two?

diphthong

dunno...i actually like the nod to the unsung domestiques in the velogames vehicle with the assists and breakaway points. gotta be a pita to calculate tho...hence the midday scoring updates
vs the nearly immediate tdf tissot scoring updates (which is really nice). the "captain" thingee with the tissot vehicle is interesting
(and the theoretical ability to swap riders here and there is too but defeats the ds concept). the tdf tissot sight def has better graphics/interaction/stage info but less comprehensive scoring info that you
can research/track easily. never understood the reticence of velogames to award daily and final placement white jersey points when it awards green, yellow and polka dot points.
something about it diluting total points. whatever. the white jersey is a viable objective and should be recognized. the tdf tissot site recognizes it along with a super combative award.
if you could combine the best of both sites, then we'd really have something that encompassed a grand tour fairly well.

i did like the ability to go "mercato mode" in the tdf tissot league and set a parameter...such as creating a team with no more than 60 points or whatever. i think it would be a real challenge to low budget
things and say no rider above an 8 point cost. about as realistic as doubling points, transferring riders or having a ninth rider. if we had twenty+ participants, then i'd think about adding another
league...like say bike forums deep fried frankenstyle.

one4smoke

Hoping Sagan puts an ass-whoopin' on Trentin at some point in time...

Gyro

Why the panic to get Sagan into Green today, tour going to be ended after the upcoming rest day?

diphthong

slcbob’s stiff breeze brought the race some gc changes that a few of us were expecting from the stage before. thanks?!

wout...wow. would love to see he, mvdp and remco ride a gt as head of their respective teams next year.

sagan’s not finished yet. he may have lost some top edge speed but still wily enuff (and still has enuff pull within bora) to bend the team to his will in pursuit of that eighth green jersey.

horrible predictions 2020 tdf-style has me picking ewan three x so far. lucked out all three x. actually found an acorn once and had wout (on both teams) win the other two times. i should probably just auto-prognosticate ewan for all the remaining stages regardless of terrain/style. mountain tt on stage 20? ewan.

slcbob

On VG vs. Tissot, from a few posts back -- the thing I was acknowledging was that Velocrank is cranking and ooga-booga ain't doin' bad. Not any sort of general acknowledgement of the platform. I do like the VG approach and am on board with a lot of what you're saying here.

Over the years, I've played a few games that let you make changes along the way. Mixed feelings because a) it's work; b) sometimes I had some dark periods and couldn't get there so fell behind; c) but it's much more of a contact sport and it can have some pluses vs. the set & forget nature of VG.

I don't feel strongly about it, but I totally understand George NOT awarding points for white. They're redundant with the GC placings and risk over-valuing the young GC contenders after the first few stages of over-valuing a young sprinter or two. Think of what a coup Bernal would have been last year. The game is probably complex enough already, but if he wanted to tart it up a bit more, I'd co-sign some combativity points (though a bit redundant with breakaway) and the teams standing before the white jersey.

The thing I do NOT like about what we're doing in Tissot land is that you can't compare yourself to the general population, since they're making changes and we're hobbled. However, as long as the rules are there, it's fun getting in and mixing it up with whatever group joins. I did not look into Mercato mode but it sounds like an evil genius playground.

As for today -- lots going on with all those agendas and a bit of a blustery day. I didn't catch the start but I guess they took off like a scalded cat. And here we are. One of the reasons I didn't pick Pogacar was that with his youth and a little less diligent team than, e.g., Ineos or QS or JV, I figured there'd be a chance of him getting caught out. Of course, Landa belongs in the same boat for slightly different reasons, and there he is now bobbing along. I'm surprised Bauke missed out.

diphthong

end of the first wout...er...week of racing. in the tdf tissot league, team velocrank leads while in the tdf gbbg league, team slow (s)pokes is about to reap the whirlwind.
as slcbob would say, "it's a long way to paris" with plenty of teams in both games packing some relatively dormant heavy hitters. i think everyone still has their entire roster
intact in the tdf tissot game and two teams are missing one rider (gilbert) in the tdf gbbg affair. pretty remarkable considering how many crashes the race has seen and how
many rosters are usually destroyed by now.

stage eight looks like a barnburner but that's what i thought about stage six...team michelton has its work cut out for it. maybe they'll send nieve and force the other teams to share the load.
hoping everyone makes it through intact because there are some dicey, downhill sections. *horrible prediction alert!* since bora gets the sprint out of the way relatively early in the stage,
going with lennard kämna from bora to win the stage.

Flip Flop Rider

some tough competition in the tissot league!

USAZorro

Good news for Richie. He didn't crash out on stage 7, he merely crashed and burned. With Mollema taking the same hit, do you think Trek Segafredo will shift its sights to contesting the team title with EF?

Who amongst today's 2nd group has a hope of making the podium still? I'm thinking Carapaz and Pogacar are the only ones who might be able to regain time.

slcbob

Since Ewan is already taken, I'm going out on a limb to pick Roglic. Just me being reckless, I guess. Wow, he sure has recovered from his little incident at the Dauphine that kept him off my roster. I bet we see a commanding, smothering performance from JV reminiscent of the Blue Train days.

Going full Jeane Dixon, I'll throw out reckless guesses of MA Lopez taking a valiant flyer just a bit too soon and Sep Kuss mercilessly dragging him back and crushing his spirit.

Flip Flop Rider

I'll take Alaphillippe

USAZorro

Only way it won't be Roglic is a crash or mechanical, or there's a breakaway that survives. About the only rider who may have the chops, and be far enough back to be given space to make it on a breakaway is Dan Martin, so I'm thinking Roglic is far more likely.

GrainBrain

How awesome was it that Trentin(?) challenged for the intermediate points? Sagan held his own, looks like he's improved!

Last year EF lost out big to the cross winds, it was awesome to see Uran and Higuita only a few spots off the front at times. Pogacar lost out big.

thought on 8? Uran tries for some bonus points at the intermediate and at the line. They have some decent firepower to do it. Probably a break will take care of that though.

diphthong

i think mollema is the only one with that established capability to (very outside chance) get to third place. i was pegging him, pre-tour, anywhere from 4th-10th place. kind of like the new majka.

mollema is consistent, which is great for a gt, but rarely exciting. once the lopez, porte, alaphilippe, pinot, bardet, quintana's of the tour detonate or fail to ignite, mollema just gradually

moves up the standings. landa always seems to have a bad day or two or more early on but then crushes it in the last week and make you wonder "why isn't he closer to being in contention?"


what do you think gives trek more exposure? winning the team title, aggressively challenging 4-6 stages (consistent breakaways), porte and/or mollema finishing in the top ten, a member of the team winning a jersey (other than yellow) or a single stage win?

i'd probably go with a stage win followed by a single or two riders in the gc top ten. can't imagine any team rolling into the tdf and putting one of their major goals as winning the team title. in the third week if within striking distance? absolutely.

it seems like more of a fallback/consolation prize to me. i could be wrong tho and it would only be the third time since dinner.

diphthong

i'd love to see d martin win it, given his comeback from recent injury. roglic is the obvious choice but cautiously optimistic there will be a non-threatening breakaway that curtails roglic's
need/desire to drive for the win vs his need/desire to put the mental/physical/tick tock time clock hurt on another nearish gc contender...or five.

diphthong

today is the day team slow (s)pokes plunges hard from 5th out of 13,428 entries in the tdf gbbg/velogames vehicle. it was a really nice 24 hrs.

slcbob

^ wow. I knew you were crushing it and us, but didn't see you were running in the top 4 one hundredths of a per cent!! Impressive.

C'mon, everyone. Channel all our good mojo into Tejada and Bauer driving a break that survives, with Mollema and Valverde making late attacks of the bunch.

If I could, I'd give you Landa at this point. It's nice to see a homeboy make it big in the bigger pond.

Chapeau to you from all of us at the top of the bell curve.

USAZorro

Mollema is a bit like Cadel at a certain stage in his career. Never embarrassing, but all the stars need to line up for him to win the Tour. After stage 8, you can stick a fork in his podium chances. He's not going to make up a big chunk of his lost time on the top guys ever. There may be some self-destructions, but he's got a lot to make up against some rather steady riders. Without a flat ITT, Quintana isn't likely to implode. Roglic has a good track record. Bardet is riding well. Pogacar has looked good going uphill, Bernal has been composed, and there are MANY others ahead of him.

I know Trek didn't come looking for Team honors, but I think that the only stage win candidates are the two "S" guys. Their GC dreams are ruined.

I have to accept that my faith in Pinot has been misplaced. He sometimes displays brilliance, but he also is accident prone, and I think after today, he'll find himself in a mental prison of his own making. Team leader passes to Pogacar. I hope he can make it to Paris without any more stages like stage 7.