slcbob

I lied.

Me too. Sort of. I could have compromised less with 130 velobucks, but I did leave some on the table at 100.

It's sort of a strange feeling. Kind of like not maximizing your ROI at the all-you-can-eat buffet line. Which I have almost managed to leave on the table, too. Almost. As my hill climbing ability demonstrates. I can really sympathize with Froome that 2-3kg of extra "muscle" from all that "therapy" slows you down.

slcbob

There's GOLD in that Portuguese one. You should watch it.

USAZorro

I guess I'm halfway between Lance and Mr. Merckx. I focus on the Grand Tours. Karma has a much better window to announce itself than in one day races.

Advance warning... I actually have not zero , or one, but two Ineos riders on my squad. Not that I'm proud of it.

slcbob

Rock on.

I'm not an Ineos hater. I'm all about marginal gains. Or should I just say I'm all about being marginal.

I haven't Ineosed up this go 'round but I am fairly committed. And I was thinking about doubling up.

diphthong

so much for no changes. went from boring yet predictable to meh yet predictable and likely weakened what little toehold i hoped to gain and planned on defending.

diphthong

should be some decent diversity amongst the teams involved...not expecting to have seven overlapping riders with GrainBrain again but 4-5 riders shared with slcbob is pretty much a given.

GrainBrain

Can't wait for the big reveal to see into the league's mind. I was all over the place and had some Ineos but finally went for a twofer on EF. Swapped Landa for Carthy then Guierro fit in well so I went with it. Twofer on DQS as well. I think I'm most interested with my unclassed riders in Goosens,Herman's,Champousin. Quinten Herman's under rated.

No Pro teams so look for multiple stage wins from Eolo/Androni/Bardiani

I probably should have put Serry in but I didn't want to just follow some YouTube videos advice in fear of over lap with others. I kept Yates, really think he'll go all the way. No Bernal but I hope to see him perform.

Max Kanter for the sprint - I was annoyed that Patrick Bevin wasn't considered a sprinter, or Moviestars Torres. Torres would've been nice to pick. Bevin will nab some good results.

diphthong

the four gc riders i wanted were buchmann, sivakov, bilbao and carthy. only missed sivakov because of fixating on the sagan/ewan sprinterfest. still think he's
going to supplant bernal and go tgh potentially. all four guys are due for an outstanding gt result. sivakov lost out because i think he does the worst time trial out of that foursome.
in his defense, he (and carthy) may have the highest upside. buchmann and bilbao have been pretty consistent last two years...consistent top ten placings
and seemingly always in the picture but without the explosiveness of a handful of gt contenders. the corresponding lack of explosiveness seems to serve them well
and find them relevant in the last week. will admit a certain pull towards vlasov but ultimately settled on carthy, buchmann and bilbao with that tt ability better than many that can climb.
originally had george bennett and dan martin as the "climbers" and both turn in a solid tt but there are some ridiculous climbs in this giro. knew i hadda have carthy. briefly considered formolo
and if he had a team including brandon...then maybe as an 8-pointer? looking for lower priced guys that can finish in the top ten of the gc and maybe snatch the pink jersey for a day of two
along with a stage win. formolo...I'm thinking top 12-15. g. bennett and danny martin...same range. looking for more. also considered felix da house cat and ruben james...er guerreiro

opted, yet again, for the twin(ning)-fueled sprinter approach as i suspect a few other nutters will do. thinking ewan and sagan are able to successfully contest/pull meaningful results from 6-7 stages.
that's (nearly) a third of the stages. i'll take the consistency of the high-strung sprinters vs the relative here today, gone tomorrow lifestyle of the mountain goats. tuff call tho...

diphthong

entry/changes deadline is finally passed. thank the bleeping whom/whatever....

GrainBrain

For sure had to have Hugh, that's more a personality choice then a performance choice but also because he's been racing one weeks as a worker and not a protected rider. Don't quite buy into the Buchmann hype but I'll have a chance to eat those words I bet. Going the twin sprinter approach seems smart to me I never thought of that

Just quickly glanced at the league this will be a tough one to podium.
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dstrong 

I'm not last!

slcbob

Great minds think alike.
And fools seldom differ.
it's one of those.

one of our own is in the top 1%. All hail.

diphthong

rob and team MTBrider killed it on stage one. well played

more people took a flyer on remco than i expected. did anyone go with dylan gee? at work currently and can’t remember...*canam73 did*. think ewan was only grabbed by me.

dstrong 

I didn't really follow cycling last year so didn't really appreciate Remco's capabilities...nor did I know about his injuries. When I look at the "firsts" for him (first race of the year & first grand tour), I just couldn't bring myself to select him. I'm hoping it'll be the downfall of many.

slcbob

Ganna was on v1 of my team. Swapped him out.

Yates was on v2nd-to-last. Swapped him out. Almost wanted to pick Landa. Couldn't do it.

Already a great race for home town boy in pink Top Ganna. No doubt Mikel and our Simon have great days ahead. You're welcome, lads.

I think ooga-booga and the Pocket Rocket might get a jump on us tomorrow.

The cycling mole chose Viviani. That gives me serious reservations about him and Evenpoel, who was not on my team until vLast after he waxed lyrically about the young man.

GrainBrain

I looked at ciclismo but just before his preview was posted I'll look again. Ganna is sure to rack up serious points for the next few stages holding the young rider + pink jersey (and points but that will soon pass). That's quite a deficit to make up over the next two weeks.

Props to canam with Bernal-Groenen combo.

diphthong

egads! no such luck but stage three presents another opportunity to invoke rule #87. thinking he'll be lurking along with that peter guy, mohoric and tales of brave ulissi.
part of me thinks ganna or cavagna attacks over the top of the last climb and tries to power those last 5 downhill km's to the finish for the win while, undoubtedly,
sweeping up remnants of the invariable break(s) along the last few km's. could also see nibbles going out on a long-distance runaround waiting to feel the sound.
reluctantly invoking rule #87 again ftw. just another mad mad prediction day on the road.

GrainBrain

We saw how Ewan clung on in San Remo over the cat 3, but according to cycling mole there's opportunity for rain tomorrow! Plus that cat 3 road is super narrow that could be a real mess and bad time for GC.

A reduced bunch sprint maybe, with teams focused on the ciclamino really trying for it. Could be a day for the break if the Italian teams do something wild and launch from the base of the cat 3. I think a lot of riders will want to sit back if it gets bad out, third day in a grand tour and you're out. Though riding to a team bus is a dangerous affair now too.

This rule #87 ... if I understand ... Would favor my Quinten Herman's/Champousin/Goosens. All capable in foul weather.

slcbob

Rule #87 favors only Ewan.

It's sort of a pro-Caleb post-Cavenidsh/Kittel apocalypse alternate reality that emerged from the idle musings of our gracious host.

And all restaurants are Taco Bell.

diphthong

six teams have cavagna and evenpoel. five teams have sagan and carthy. four teams have almeida. three teams have sivakov, ganna and yates.
looks like as dqs goes, so goes the league with ineos the same to a lesser degree.

thought the ganna and cavagna love would be flipped and a few more peeps woulda taken buchmann, martinez (no one!!), ewan, vlasov and hindley (ditto no one!!).

diphthong

goosens is only one capable in fowl weather...

slcbob

v1 of my team had Ganna and Yates. No Evenpoel. Never Ewan.

Ewan won't finish the race and was too pricey. His remarkable display of hanging on the Poggio this spring was out of character and I don't see him gathering the points at the end that a top 5ish GC rider will, so I skimped a bit and invested firmly more on the GC side at first. Then fiddled with it until I re-found mediocrity and indecision.

I didn't think the home boy would pull of the TT victory. His form earlier was below par but he championed his way into where he needed to be and delivered. It was good to see. And as Mrs. slcbob said: "It was nice of you to not curse him with your pick and allow him that special moment." Partly for the same gift to her home boy, and partly because of a new found willingness to roll the dice with Remco, I un-picked our Simon.

I'm only a tiny bit suprised no one bit the Bernal bullet. Much more love for Cavagna than I expected but he's been having a good season.

I have some points on layaway with Martinez that he better deliver next time I pick him or he'll be dead to me, but it would have been unfair to add more of load to him than the bidons and wind he is carrying for Bernal and Sivakov. He's just too deep on the depth chart. Perhaps he can disappoint me in La Vuelta.

diphthong

much truth here. dunno if ganna was sandbagging as suspected or just "recovering." not a big sample size but he loves him some giro flavor flav.


ewan proly won't finish but there's little reason for him to do so.


suspect martinez will be buried/relegated during his time with ineos. hope i'm wrong. twere he the number one or two guy with a lesser outfit, my outlook

would be different. thought he could be purito 2.0 but not seeing it so far.


love cavagna. difficult to be noticed on that team tho.


sivakov is either ready for a tgh breakout, super-domestique contract with a smaller outfit or poised to be the go-to guy for a second division outfit.


think i bleeped up bigger than usual by not going with vlasov. dude is ready to pounce.

diphthong

if there is significant rain on stage three, it's gonna mess up more than a few of us with crashes/abandons/lingering effects with the route.
the optimist in me is hoping everyone makes it through safely. the realist in me knows a few peeps will go down and they will go down hard.

diphthong

not a big points day for any of us but MTBrider is still riding single track past 99.5% of the field.
kudos!