diphthong

through the rain, sleet and snow...oh, that's just stage one...time for fantasy giro d'italia-finally!
tremendous early season already...can the first gt of the year be far behind? pick your (still) nine faves
and ride the wild surf for three weeks. no transfers. no daily modifications or tinkering. pick it and live with it.
back to velogames.com as they seem to be the easiest vehicle to work with and they've discoved a work-around for the
gt's for at least the giro and vuelta. still waiting on that certain race in france in july but dunno why the same giro/vuelta
workaround wouldn't work for the middle gt.

https://www.velogames.com/

league name: bike forums
league code: 113691711
deadline is 16:30 cest (central european summer time) on saturday 11th may so get your picks in now and double check late friday night...

bernal is unfortunately out. thought he had a good chance to podium (likely 3rd/show) but think he was a year away from
seriously contending for the top step anyway. plenty of potential podium players in his absence. guessing 166 riders will finish
the giro. maglia nera pick: cesare benedetti from bora-hansgrohe.

hoping to get a decent turnout from those of you that struggled through last year's uncertainty/wtf fantasy moment and killed it during the vuelta.
welcome back and good luck!

Gallo

I am in

Bernal injury shakes up the start

I have changed my team several times probably not for the better

I love the Giro even with no coverage

Steephill and Tiz will be visited much over the next few weeks

one4smoke

In again!

diphthong

if you're looking to avoid spoilers...this thread will not be your safe space.

dahoss2002

TIGRBAIT in! GEAUX TIGERS!!!

diphthong

with plenty of contenders for the gc and a few teams seemingly lacking a unified focal point, this promises to be yet another crazy giro.

Gallo

not sure about that but it is the Giro and far different tactics. The Tour sometimes gets boring but the Giro always sees attacks leadership change and the big boys mano y mano as the peleton is cracked

love this race You need a team but need to know when to abandon them

then there is the weather....Nobody escapes the weather

My Favorite of the 3

Hell it made me want to wear pink when I was dead against during the izod years

God Bless Andy Hamstead

2cam16

In.

dstrong 

In as Blind Pig.

Thought I was managing my points really well..then noticed I hadn't picked a Wildcard rider! :-(

diphthong

^haha. i thought that only happened to me. now where could slc bob be? must still be hibernating...

diphthong

stage 2-viviani.

diphthong

interesting...three of us were stupid/brilliant enuff to pick two sprinters to attempt to leverage points in the first half of the race
with a better percentage chance of scoring meaningful points with approx seven (semi) sprint stages and holding on for dear life
in the last half of the race. we'll see how that plays out and see how many sprinters make it to the end. dumou seems to be the big
gc pick vs roglic, lopez or nibali. i'm the only idiot that took yates as their big gc aspiration. a nice smattering of youthful/anybody's
guess riders in the gc/kom mix as well. looks (to me) like astana brought the strongest team for the mtns. we'll find out in two weeks.

dstrong 

Sooooo....none of us picked Ackerman, eh? While I remain one spot from the cellar, I'm encouraged that all but one of my riders (yes...I'm looking at you Jan Bakelants) have points!

diphthong

^oneforsmoke has ackermann.

diphthong

going with viviani (again) on stage three. hoping ackermann isn't the new godzilla unleashed on lesser sprinters.

dstrong 

Good call ooga...and...yay!

Gallo

I changed my team so many times it was dizzying

I had Vivani Dumare on one of them

Vivani being the favorite sprinter which often whomever is number 1 red in pre giro does not perform

I thought it would be Dumare year just because of that

Looks like I am in a familiar position of being wrong

Vivanis legs seem to disagree

I got some climbers on my team and TDG always seems to have something for the Giro

dstrong 

Aw crap. Relegated.

Gallo

Not sure I agree with that call. I saw no dangerous move myself

It's racing.

Vivani was robbed

dstrong 

Agree. He didn't have a line at the time...he was moving out to go around Ackerman...and I'll agree...he moved quite a bit to the left...but he had just gotten out of the saddle and was really putting the power down...difficult to keep the bike in control. But...racing.

one4smoke

First the Derby and now this. Bad enough that political correctness is so prevalant in our society ...now it's making it's way into all forms of racing.

Good-grief.

diphthong

a viviani fan here w/him on the fantasy team but the overhead view seems pretty damning. he went farther left than seemingly necessary
which caused (imho) interference. i understand him trying to get out of "the dirty wash" of the leadout rider but it was too far left. viviani pulled a demare
(from last year's tdf where sagan got dq'd vs cav and demare pulled essentially what viviani did today swerving too far left) and got away with it on stage two to place second
yesterday. do i think it was on purpose? no. was it a sprinter riding another into the barriers? no. should he have been relegated a few places. yes.
dropped from the stage results? no. viviani would have finished in the top six w/o the swerve.

diphthong

and yah...the giro has another dodgy approach to a sprint finish-surprise!! seems like there's a few every year and a few miffed teams/riders/directur sportifs every year because same.
the finishing km wasn't the issue with viviani's finish today tho.

diphthong

stage four...nice little punchy finish. if gva or valverde or alaphilippe or gilbert were riding, i'd pick one of them. since they're not...
thinking gallopin or battaglin (even tho he had a bad day on stage three). i'll go with battaglin. i plopped him on the team for stages exactly like this.

Gallo

I saw it different Vivani was ramping watts did not have a line Moschetti if he was stage hunting should have been following hard and got on that wheel he had room plenty of it and this is a big boy making a move get on it and get after it. I think Moschetti had no more matches

This is not Friday night Velodrome this is a grand tour

with a 200k plus lead up and funky as corners right at the end rider will have mental and physical fatigue you cant expect perfection

Vivani was not cheering in the end not because he thought he lost he was spent after a long slog and hard fought win

Still dont like especially relegation The Sagan call was all wrong too. Give the racers more power and the officials less