The Giro Purist thread

my purists are all italian.
nibali
scarponi
viviani
tiralongo
bennati
santambrogio
rosa
garzelli
cattaneo

couple of sprinters but more focussed on the hills

As discussed elsewhere, I went (as far as I could) for an all-Colombian purist. They are:

Henao
Uran
Rubiano
Sarmiento
Duque
Betancur
Pantano
Serpa
Rodriguez (token Venezuelan)

I generally fail spectacularly at Purist, so thought I'd have a bit of fun with it.

Bradley Wiggins
Michele Scarponi
Robert Gesink
Matteo Rabottini
Rigoberto Uran
Mattia Gavazzi
Luka Mezgec
Julien Berard
Stefano Garzelli

I think Gesink who has been fairly quiet recently could do quite well.

Looking at the teams, I'm more and more happy that no-one is looking like this

Bradley Wiggins (DUH)
Ryder Hesjedal (No-one else is picking him, he should score well)
Vicenzo Nibali (Double Duh)
Michele Scarponi (Has been in good form, should score well)
Jorge Azanza (Always have a Euski)
Julien Berard (Don't know what I was thinking)
Thomas Dekker (Decent wee climber and can TT)
Vladimir Karpets (Climbs and has cool hair)
Stefano Locatelli (Sprints? Breaks? Climbs? TT? Abandons?)

My team for purist

Mark Cavendish (OPQ)
Elia Viviani (LIQ)
Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ)
Taylor Phinney (BMC)
Samuel Sanchez (EUS)
Matti Breschel (SAX)
Oscar Gatto (VIN)
Mattia Gavazzi (AND)
Luka Mezgec (ARG)

to be honest this is an unashamed attempt to win stage podiums and high roller badges as I have no interest in the prize and it was me who suggested the numbers on the badges to begin with.

My real purist team to win would be:

Wiggins
Hesjedal
Nibali
Santambroglio
Betancur
Locatelli
Pellizotti
Battaglin
Mezgec

might score it myself if I can be bothered.

I agree drh - Scarponi could well be a good shout. I think Gesink could also go well (with Mollema likely to lead Blanco in the TdF), but he's been rubbish every time I've picked him in the past so I decided to leave him out, and put a fiver on him to finish on the podium instead!

Betancur and Sammy S are the two that I could really do with having a bad time of it - expecting them to feature in a lot of teams.

Regardless of the game though, just really excited to have a grand tour back on, and for it to be getting so much coverage.

I have a similar team to you drh.

Wiggins
Nibali
Scarponi
Betancur
Santambrogio
Pirazzi
Di Luca
Gavazzi
Dekker

Hoping Pirazzi has a go for the KOM jersey.

I did stick with Cav in the end - I'm hoping there might be a couple more sprint finishes than people seem to think. My main concern with stacking it with climbers was that their main chances to score don't come until later on. Still...
The first 5 names on the sheet were...
Wiggins
Nibali
Locatelli
Santambrogio
Gavazzi
The rest changed several times, before I stuck with...
Cavendish
Bole
Pellizotti (really no idea, but thought it might be worth a gamble)
Jeannesson (I like him. If he's not in good enough condition to ride with the big boys, he's as likely as anyone to get in those breakaways...)

Didn't want to be too risky, as I'm 5th overall in purist at the mo. Still a couple of wildcards tho!

Didn't pick Wiggins for mine, kept in Cav.

Michele Scarponi
Thomas Dekker
Alex Dowsett
Mauro Santambrogio
Mark Cavendish
Stefano Garzelli
Pieter Weening
Vicenzo Nibali
Stefano Pirazzi

The other thing with Sanchez is that IF he gets his much desired stage win it's quite likely he'll crest a few KOM's on the way and he could easily have a blockbuster 'Voeckler' type stage.

Either way he'll either be in contention on GC picking up regular points or if he falls behind he could easily pull off a 'spetacollo'.....for cheaper than Nizzolo or Kiserlovski(did-dig arsene )

I went for all Italians as I am rubbish at this sort of thing:
Nibali
Scarponi
Modolo
Santambrogio
Aru
Pirazzi
Rosa
Viviani
Marangoni

ok so my purist team

Wiggins
Nibali
Santambrogio
Sammy S
Betancur
Durbridge
Chicchi
Ludvigsson
Cattaneo

Not very good at this purist lark so fingers crossed and all that

Here's my team:
Hesjedal
Nibali
Kiserlovski
Nizzolo
Santambrogio
Atapuma
Aru
Pellizotti
Battaglin

Great minds think alike on Gavazzi.....let's hope he can stay between the...ahem....'white lines'?

Surprised no Samu though Dr?

I guess a Cav blue jersey in Brescia would kill us both though!!

Wiggins(must have)
Nibali(ditto)
Weening(great form)
Garzelli(a last swansong)
Gavazzi(likely to be there at the end-hometown=Brescia)
Sanchez(bargain of the Giro for me)
Betancur(youth)
Aru(youth)
Ludviggson(breaks + decent TT)