slcbob

With so much in Post #1 now, it's almost like a steephill.tv memorial. Hard core, ooga-booga .

GrainBrain , I think my 2-3 today might pip your 1 for the stage but you'll stay ahead in the Catalunya GC. No risk from me for semroc or canam in the overall.

slcbob

Higuita was an inspired pick. Not by me.

Mrs. slcbob will never forgive me for putting the curse on our Simon. She's fond of Dumoulin, too. Lucky for me I wasn't this time around.

GrainBrain

Absolutely love races in the north of Spain. Great to see Hugh Carthy in action! Higuita a legit pick; I remember watching him just get pipped by the Pog at the Amgen 2019 queen stage? He's a strong rider but still young; Higuita's positioning again cost him imho, just like in 2019. Still a fantastic signing for Bora.

Waiting for the final fireworks between Almeida - Ayuso - Soler

diphthong

Grain Brain really smoked catalunya. woof. a little time for the rest of us to lick our wounds. itzulia tour starts on 4.4 with rider changes/rosters likely available on the appropriate april 1st...

diphthong

itzulia is up and raring to go! great parade of riders at decent pricing. get 'em in before monday!

GrainBrain

DSM with leknessund is interesting, seems like a weak team but I dunno. Curious about Wanty-groupe-gobert with Goossens and Quinten Hermans. Enric mas and Soler will be fun to watch. Higuita and Bora look really strong. Quickstep really brought a gun to the knife fight yeah?

Jumbo has ridiculous fire power also!

Ion Izagirre for cofidis and Herrada will absolutely be riding for WT points yeah?

GrainBrain

AAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH

slcbob

So I was feeling pretty darn bizarro pleased about my distinctive bottom 100 finish in the not-a-prologue results in race formerly known as the Basque country.

Would you know it! Robbed again, by that artful dodger ooga-booga . The man picked a mostly serious team at first glance, and managed to score 0 points. He stole the thunder of my infamy. The only justice is that he somehow comes in only 3269 of 3284, apparently robbed of the brown jersey on countbacks (countups?) or perhaps by some folks scoring negatives.

Respectable showings by the rest of the crew.

As for our interloper's continued success, this seems apropos:

diphthong

saw that. guessing that semi-recent donation bumped me up a few placings in the land of zeros. did the itzulia start yet?
usually use the dauphiné (absolute fave race of the year every year) as the previewing riders format for the tdf but looks like
imma getting an early start on the dfl lifestyle. kudos to me?!

diphthong

eff our "interloper." hope they double flat on tubeless tires in the boonies without support/ability to repair within 40 km on a tuesday in the rain on cobbles with cramps in the dark in heavy honking traffic uphill the entire way back.

not one bit bitter.

diphthong

yay! on the itzulia board in a big way! y’all better watch out…

GrainBrain

I got lucky and was tipped off to Higuita's DNF the race prior to this; then I kinda hedged away from Padun (Horner says he looks out of shape). I have regrets not picking alaphillipe or Gaudu or Latour. Especially Uran, but he'll peak at the dauphine or l'avinir or whatever you call those French races. I swapped out ion at the last moment.

slcbob

#NotMySeason

GrainBrain

semroc seems to have pipped our interloper for the moment; if the mole is right he just may move farther along with Covi. Speaking of Covi I'll be watching my back from canam73 sneaking past me.

Or Knox. Or Paret-Peintre. Will Paret-Peintre ever live up to his Velogames hype? Quinten Hermans has! I'll be patting myself on the back as I come alongside slcbob .

I might be redeemed by C. Rodriguez.

Vendrame victory would be a bitter sweet way to podium; I'd sacrifice to see our interloper not get top honors.

slcbob

Semroc has been on a roll.

GrainBrain is throwing it around d, too, pulling in stage wins in 2 of 3 contests today.

is there a spot to view league stage race standings? Not that I need any more shortcomings...

diphthong

for the first three stage races combined...near the top of post numero uno. will not be updating completed stage races with incomplete stages
from the current race(s) on a day by day basis. sorry. wish i had that kind of free time.

slcbob

Oops, I meant in velogames.

yes, enough work already, and appreciated. Again as MiggyLo would say, no mas.

slcbob

I'm watching the end of today's Itzulia stage. I have only the vaguest idea who is on my team, but I'm pretty sure it's none of the names being called.

GrainBrain

diphthong

congrats to Grain Brain in taking itzulia! Semroc rolls into 2nd and canam73 completes the podium.

next up is the tour of romandie starting april 26th.

slcbob

There were some remarkable results in Basqueland. Congrats.

Let's not overlook the pole-to-pole lock on the autobus by ooga-booga . Even before my brilliant surge in the late stages and end of tour points vaulting me into the top 3,000, I never really challenged you for the BF brown jersey. I still think you was robbed on day 1 and it probably contributed to the dirty dozen squeaking behind you for the VG maglia nera.

GrainBrain

Love Basque country, but Romandie will be a tough one to predict yeah? Seems like a lot of contenders to pick from that can do well.

diphthong

it's tour de romandie time! get them picks in before tuesday the 26th or risk missing out on one of the great stage races of the year. fun route, fun profiles and plenty of wrong choices to be made!

slcbob

That was surprisingly NOT budget constrained. Limited primarily by my knowledge and skill. We'll see how that goes.

I can already envision the skin I'm leaving on the pavement.

slcbob

I just did a little witnessing of the season-to-date standings. Wow, GrainBrain is having a helluva run with semroc not far off plus on a tear in the classics. Even if I gave myself a few extra fantasy points for sleeping through Tirreno-Adriatico, I'd be well off the pace and in the laughing bunch with canam73 and ooga-booga .

Oh well. It's still a long way to Benelux. Let's see how it looks after the Giro and the TT in Verona..