slcbob

I see now what ooga-booga tried to do to me a little while back with his Nizzolo pick. Making horrible predictions about my guys to try to torpedo the few shreds of hope I have left. OK, the gloves are off now! I'm picking Ewan, Buchmann, and Sagan will win all the remaining stages.

Rob continues to kick names and take @$$ up there at the front of affairs, still firmly into the top 1/2 a percent and just BARELY into triple digits. Well done.

There has been a little jostling in the middle of the pack but nothing like the battle in the autobus. dstrong ruthlessly ripped the league's brown jersey from the competition. He may be staking out his claim there, no thanks to Sagan and a little lightning in a bottle with Juul Jensen, but all due credit to a little bad luck (Landa, Sivakov) and some pilot error (Nibali? Oss? C'mon man!)

2cam16

I just checked right now after reading this. I don't even know the results as I have no broadcast access. Thanks Bob! Still a LONG way to go. Anything can and will happen.

USAZorro

ROFL.

Ewan will be pedaling backwards after the first cat 1. Buchmann won't be the #1 GC rider after this season for Bora. Grosschartner (I don't have the keyboard to spell it correctly) has way more heart and generally better legs.

diphthong

grrr...you're onto me. multiple expletives conjugated/past perfect. is this our new mano y mano competition? who's worserer horrible jinxy prediction pays off more often? i say yea...bring it on.
slcbob, cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war. you and i may have finally realized our true calling/talent. suspect the other hostages...er...participants already knew it.
stage seven? gimme more nizzy. anyone but rule #87. no way in hades that peter whatshisname finishes in the top four. buchmann?! relegated to the memorial meintjes/talansky crypt to me.

diphthong

smoking it. cheech-style.

slcbob

Those who can, do. Those who can't, prognosticate. Those who can't prognosticate, make horrible predictions that put people into snowdrifts and under inflatable arches and into the portaloo and otherwise drag down the vibe. And post about it in this forum.

I had to go back through using the Advanced Search feature to refresh my mind as to who is dead to me. Here they are for my edification, in less of a Day of the Dead and more of an "I spit on your grave" roll call: Petachi, Menchov, Renshaw, Viviani, Die Panzerwagen, our Adam (a surprise to me! may warrant a reclama), Aru, Meintjes, Lazarus Meintjes, Rohan. Honorable mention to Zakarin. Dani Martinez on double secret probation but amongst the living.

As always, our historian ooga-booga is on point. I had mentally given Louis yet another resurrection. I'm not sure if I was getting softly forgiving or just senile, but enough of that, back to the fire and brimstone for him. He should be doing the chicken dance with Rasmussen who others have put down there.

There have been many failures at my hand. It's not enough to simply score no points (don't listen to that, Cepeda, it might be for you), there needs to be an additional je ne sais pas with almost malice aforethought to make it onto the list.

It reminds me of playing golf in Liberia with a vibrant lady friend who has gone on to prosecute war criminals and RICO cases. She was indignant that we could not articulate the ladies' flavor of the didn't-hit-it-past-the-lady's-tee penalty. Yet she is nothing if not fair and pragmatic, on top of being hyper competitive, verbally combative, legally minded, and insistent on an articulated compass point rich in whatever clarity and least imperfection could be delivered. The result: "it's like pornography, you know it when you see it." And that worked. She owned it. She occasionally golfed like a porn star.

Others have their lists. And their standards. Or lack thereof. Those are mine.

diphthong

was not expecting a potter stewart ref in here but there we are.

we all have our own personal cryptologies...some are more extensive and chronicled than we would prefer.

never hope to make the siempre horrible predictions but they occur. with regularity. on days ending in "y."

cepeda...approaching cicada status...

never my intention or goal to ride selected/not selected professional participants into traffic furniture, snowbanx, motorcycles, peds, guardrails, woofers, autos, etc...

can still do...just at about 49.73% of the pros. worse than they. better than a few. less than many...altho a forum ride might settle some outstanding debts.
agree with slcbob that dani m. iz def on double secret probation. for dani m (with apologies to both bill shakespeare and harry nilsson), it's time to be or not to be.

go through some of the older giro threads (or vuelta or tdf) for giggles and people/riders gonzo. the horrible predictions are constantly consistent. so proud...

GrainBrain

102 of 20953!

Let the wailing begin with my regret on not picking Betiol or Ganna! At one point in my mix but thrown away. I don't have a dead-to-me list but instead I've chosen to ignore the ones that earlier caught my praise.

Oof Max Canter I'm hoping he comes to life on the rolling hills ... I mean c'mon DSM Jai ain't feeling it so let's get some stage wins. Gosh Vivianni effing really, slcbob I accidently crossed the fantasy-reality streams yesterday yet have received no swiss francs fines as yet. Like Pieter and the Bike Exchange wolf I have been knocked unawares by fabulous rouleuin'-sprintin' teams as I slide down a bit.

Looking forward to the three mountainous stages after today and before the rest day to claw back some points. I've realized my hopes have been pinned upon Clement Champousin or Quinten to set me apart.

diphthong

oh, you will. you will. you don't think you will but you will. so much to look forward to and away from...fantasy life(r)...

diphthong

@mtbrider mashing big-time. go Rob!

diphthong

oh pleeze...you'll be first in line to hold court and subjugate the league during the tdf. some of us are better at the classics. some are better at
th vuelta. some are better at the giro. some of us just blow softly throughout all the proceedings...

slcbob

That would put Max into the famous Jewish sports legends pamphlet and you into the masterful deep picks category. Where you'd be right now, again, if only you didn't cut bait so soon and fished just a little bit longer with Intermarche Wanty Goubert. I don't think a whole team has ever made the list before. But never say never.

GrainBrain

Can't even spell Kanter correctly ... Time to decant after mowing the lawn tonight and look forward to a Classico double track bash through Brittany.

More aggrieved to see Pellaud out in a break today ... AGAIN. I couldn't find where I commented on him but I did have him on the superclassico team for a race.

slcbob

Tomorrow's stage prediction: Honore. Sagan and Buchmann in a two man breakaway. Just barely pipping Goosens.

diphthong

^haha good try.


if it all comes back together, then sagan has a chance. stage has breakaway written all over it.
first names that stood out were battaglin, guerreiro, ll sanchez, one of the ineos boys (ganna/castroveijo) or
one of the movistar laddies (cataldo/villella/oliveira). most of these guys should be shepherding their gc rider
but could see ineos tossing someone up the road and bernal trying to add a few extra seconds vs rivals by winning the stage
and catching a few out of position in the last few km's. ll sanchez always seems to have the green light tho.
let's go with battaglin...he's been berry berry quiet the last year or two.

GrainBrain

Alright look at Goossens getting the break among Campanaerts, Arnt, Oliveira and ... Gaviria!? Looks like Gaviria isn't worried about abandoning with 'knee pain'.

diphthong

oh those flakey sprinters...

winning a stage in each of the gt’s this year is
a cool goal to have...will definitely be thinking twice about selecting rule #87 for the tdf and vuelta tho...even tho he seems to currently be the fastest.

whom am i kidding? it’s like charlie brown lining up to kick the football lucy is holding

slcbob

I'm glad Pedro didn't smack into me & ooga-booga like Joe D into a piece of road furniture when he came blasting through to the front while we dropped anchors and headed backwards. canam73 is going to be flying past soon, too. Watch out for my carcass being all Mohoricy on the side of the road.

I think dstrong has a lock on the brown jersey and I will continue to tighten my grasp on mediocrity for the rest of the route. Whatever I was thinking when I picked that team, it escapes me now.

Go mtbrider go!

slcbob

No Monday rest day? WTF?

I'm really going to stick my neck out and pick Nizzolo for second place.

David Hunter picked Viviani but I recently reminded myself that he is dead to me. And Hunter better be careful.

2cam16

I can't believe I lasted a week. Trying to hang on,Bob! Thanks!

slcbob

Do or do not. There is no try.

The stig does not just "hang on."

GrainBrain

Argh I've lost Champousin! Poked around but couldn't find out why he was a DNF - him and Jasper Debuyst.

40km from that cat 4 to the finish I couldn't imagine you could launch anything that would stick from there. Maybe I'll get lucky and Max Kanter will get in a break.

GrainBrain

Nope I watched a DSM rider go down in the finale, I was hoping it wasn't Max but it was. Oof I was hoping to avoid a bludgeoning this stage

diphthong

rest day recap (a few hours early!):

stage eleven looks like another little barnburner with the gravel roads and the potential to snarl the gc further.
stage twelve just may be my fave stage profile/route of this year's giro. lumpy and wiggly.
stages thirteen and fifteen (ewan, where are you?!) tailor-made for the fearless flatty few.
stages fourteen and sixteen loom as the "bleep this" stages expected to cull the pretenders from the contenders.

second rest day follows stage sixteen. team slow (s)pokes will be out of the running by then but if history is any indication,
3-4 teams will roll into that last week/last handful of stages with a chance to stand on the top step.

a fun 1.5 weeks of racing. yes there have been abandons and crash outs but seemingly less than the usual for the giro.
some rain and giroesque shenanigans...overall a seeming success. the remco question...the bernal question...the
at what point does anyone else make their gc presence known question? merlier started off like gangbusters and now
with ewan gonzo, perhaps he plucks/influences another stage or two? does nizzy (ever) get over the hump? do any of the continental
teams make a big splash and/or reveal a new star? does the unpredictable italian may weather rear its' ugly head and truncate/
completely cancel a stage? covid considerations? does dani martinez show us the stuff that dreams are made of?

MTBrider/Rob is still invalidating our collective delusions of grandeur and in the top 1.23% of all participants. biggie kudos!
dstrong is in the bottom 5% but with yatesie in the fold, potentially could rebound to the middle of the pack-or farther up.
the rest of us are desperately trying to churn that milk into butter so far...up a little one day, down to the whiskers the next.
pleasantly surprised to still be ahead of slcbob at the midpoint of proceedings but not expecting those good good good
vibrations to continue with slcbob having remco on his squad. oh well. no guts no glory. i guess i like it fine...so far.

*edit...merlier bounced. gaviria may finally win a stage*

slcbob

^ yes, lots has gone on, and lots to come.

We've been neck and neck for a while but seem to be drifting down to more of a shin and calf situation in the league. I keep looking at my team and trying to remember what drugs I was on. I'll burn through that and do a clinical after action that allows me to repeat new mistakes in the Tour.