Tour de France

[doddy2731]

It was a farce.
The top of Ventoux is bare and very exposed and with the high winds expected they moved the finish line 10km down the mountain. So the crowd crammed into a shorter climb and were all over the road.
A break away got clear and went to the finish with little trouble.
However, the main contenders were gapped by Froome, Porte and Mollema when disaster!. The motorbike leading these 3 through the crowd stopped suddenly - due to the crowd getting in the way - and Porte ploughed into it with Froome running into Porte and Mollema into Froome. Mollema recovered OK but still lost his momentum and time. Porte got going later but lost even more time. Frome's bike was wrecked and he had to use a neutral bike while waiting for his team car to bring his own bike up. He went from being 19sec ahead of the main group to over a minute behind them.
Thankfully, the tour organisers set the finishing times for the stage as they were at the accident. So Mollema, Porte and Froome were all given 5.05 behind compared to the group's 5.24. But the way they were riding they would have, should have, picked up even more time.
On-bike video of the crash:

As for scoring in fantasy: I'm going slowly backwards. It's the trouble with mtn stages - who will be in the breakaway? Get that right and you can do well.

What a bloody joke. The fans are starting to ruin it.

 

[keffa]

What a bloody joke. The fans are starting to ruin it.

I think it's one of the amazings things about the tour, and about watching road cycling in general, just how close you can get. Aint nothing gonna change.

 

[Grater]

Went with the big 3. Course really doesn't suit Dennis with all the head wind. He struggled in the wind in Australia last year and fell off his bike in the nationals time trial. If it wasn't windy, I'd be on him, but I'm sticking with the classics guys. Cancellara, Martin and Dumoulin as they are powerful enough and experienced enough to handle these conditions.

Anyway, I have Sagan, Lapote and Enger for the sprint stage on Saturday. Might bring in another sprinter for Tony Martin. Will leave in Dumoulin in case he attacks on Sunday's stage which suits breakaways and Cancellara for Monday's stage finishing in Berne, as well as the sprinter I brought in. Dumoulin will stay in until the final stage coz the time trial next week suits him and he'll probably be in breaks.

Will use the amensty to load up on climbers for the time trial. Wendesdays stage will go to the break because the GC guys will want to keep their powder dry for the time trial. Friday's stage is a MTF as well which could go to the break and Saturday's will go to a break. So will use a trade or two after the time trial for breakaway riders to try and get lucky.

Have 5 left for the final stage, bring in 5 sprinters.

 

[Grater]

This is why the Giro and Vuelta are better races because they are better run. They just bring in the army.

 

[doddy2731]

I think it's one of the amazings things about the tour, and about watching road cycling in general, just how close you can get. Aint nothing gonna change.

I'm all for up close but getting in the way is just ridiculous.

 

[keffa]

I'm all for up close but getting in the way is just ridiculous.

Yeah of course, but I'm sure we've seen riders and audiences tangle before

 

[doddy2731]

Hey guys I was just on the Tour fantasy site enjoying the fact I finally got some points and noticed we may have another loophole in the amnesty like the last time.
Don't quote me just yet, when I saw it I got very excited so the mind may have played come tricks on me.
Anyway if it's the case lets hope not to many others pick up on it and we can take advantage of it.

 

[Rupert]

It does look like we have an identical loophole. They appear to have got the date for the rest day wrong again,

Just checked my scores after the time trial and they don't make any sense:
Dumoulin won but they have him placed 6th with a zero scored; Froome came second but he's placed 3rd with 16 points.

 

[doddy2731]

I'm thinking that they didn't take the time difference into the equation when they set up the site.

 

[Rupert]

I'm thinking that they didn't take the time difference into the equation when they set up the site.

I wondered if that might be the case but it doesn't make sense unless you accept that they did try to account for the time difference but did so incorrectly.
The trade amnesty is from 3.00am on the 18th to 7.00pm on the 19th. As France is 8hrs behind us that would make the amnesty from 7.00pm on the 17th to 11.00am on the 19th. That is, from immediately after the end of stage 15 to just before what would have been the start of a stage 17 if it was not a rest day.
They have placed the amnesty off by one day. It should have started just after the end of stage 16 to just before the start of stage 17. I.E, From 3.00am on the 19th to 7.00pm on the 20th. Instead of placing the dates of the amnesty one day ahead of French time they placed the dates one day behind.

Does that makes sense?

 

[doddy2731]

I wondered if that might be the case but it doesn't make sense unless you accept that they did try to account for the time difference but did so incorrectly.
The trade amnesty is from 3.00am on the 18th to 7.00pm on the 19th. As France is 8hrs behind us that would make the amnesty from 7.00pm on the 17th to 11.00am on the 19th. That is, from immediately after the end of stage 15 to just before what would have been the start of a stage 17 if it was not a rest day.
They have placed the amnesty off by one day. It should have started just after the end of stage 16 to just before the start of stage 17. I.E, From 3.00am on the 19th to 7.00pm on the 20th. Instead of placing the dates of the amnesty one day ahead of French time they placed the dates one day behind.

Does that makes sense?

Clear as mud! lol

 

[Grater]

Still ranked 120 odd. I thought the trades reset today. Looks like I was wrong so the only scores I get today are Froome, Sagan, Laporte and Enger and the only scores I get on Sunday are from Froome, Sagan, Porte, and maybe Dumoulin/Roy depending on breakaway.

So if the Amnesty does indeed start for us ahead of stage 16, I can use it to bring in sprinters/breakaway riders and then use it to bring in GC guys. The good thing is, I will have like 8 trades left after my bonus stage so I can use them on stage hunters and then sprinters for the final day, so I should still be in a good spot to maybe win this competition.

 

[Rupert]

@Grater
If I have it right, the trades will re-set after tonight's stage. That gives us 8 to use or lose through to the end.
I probably won't make many, if any, for Sunday's stage 15 as it looks perfect for a break-away and the amnesty kicks in after that stage.
On Monday, the first day of the amnesty, I will trade specifically for stage 16 - a Sagan/Matthews type stage.
On Tuesday, the rest day but still within the amnesty window, I will trade for GC and break-away climbers for stage 17.
Ideally, I will still have 8 trades to use to trade-in TT guys for stage 18, trade them out again for climbers for 19 + 20 and the maybe a couple left for sprinters on the Champs.

That assumes that I haven't stuffed it up completely and mis-understood the scoring for the TTs. They still have Doumoulin with no points from yesterday and Froome with 16 where I figure they should have 90 and 75 for finishing 1st and 2nd in a cat.1 stage.

 

[doddy2731]

Personally had a great night last night and jumped 200 spots and sitting in 172 o/a again so very happy. Especially asb i forgot to look at my side yesterday and had 2 transfers remaining unused.
League still floating around 12th so we as a whole are doing pretty well.
Well done guys.

 

[Grater]

Good job Doddy.

Ranked 132 or something. What I'm going to do is use 2 or 3 trades today on Majka/De Gendt/Costa combo. Then use the Amnesty to load up on riders for Monday's stage and then after Monday's stage use the amnesty to load up on the time trial.

Then the last 5 or 6 trades I'l use for another breakaway rider and then leave the rest for the final day.

 

[doddy2731]

Loving this amnesty loophole, just hope my choices this time are a little better than last.

 

[Rupert]

Going well @doddy2731 and @Grater .
Me - I've stopped dropping down the rankings, just holding steady.
Still thinking about transfers but tempted to wait until amnesty starts as I want to use them when it really counts.

 

[Grater]

Breakaway riders people need to look at are the ones going for the KOM Jesrey/Stage wins.

So you have De Gendt/Costa/Majka in that category for KOM. You have Pauwels. Then Rolland will focus on breaks now that his GC is over. Then you have other guys like Sepulveda, Zakarin, Nibali, Durasek, Grmay, Sicard, Feillu, Coppel etc will all feature in breaks. But really most of them haven't looked good. Astana will start sending riders up the road so Tiralongo, Sanchez might feature, Movistar with Herrada, Izagirre's etc.

So really focus on the decent climbers if you want to go for a breakaway rider. Costa is definitely one.

 

[Grater]

Dumoulin is another one worth taking but I wonder how much he's going to work now that he has his 2 stage wins and is focusing on the time trial at Rio.

 

[Grater]

Just made the one trade. Holger to De Gendt. Took De Gendt coz he will score points tonight and may stay in the KOM jersey so can keep him in for a few days.

The other rider that has been anonymous this race is Tony Gallopin.

So 7 trades left. Enough for me to bring in 2 breakaway riders after the time trial for the last 2 mountain stages and then 5 trades for the final sprint stage.