Tour de France - Stage 11

De Gendt currently fastest at the second check (until Martin arrives). Looks like he could have been a good pick today.

EDIT: Martin 39" up on De Gendt at the second check and totally smashing it. Can't see anyone beating his time today.

BOOM! totally overcooked the first section going out way too fast, he's now 48" behind Tuft at the second checkpoint.

Lars BOOM! is just ahead of Tuft at the first check (by less than a second), Martin setting off shortly.

Current top 10:

1.TUFT S. OGE in 38' 04''
2.WESTRA L. VCD in 39' 06'' at 1' 02''
3.BAUER J. GRS in 39' 46'' at 1' 42''
4.TIMMER A. ARG in 40' 06'' at 2' 02''
5.STANNARD I. SKY in 40' 07'' at 2' 03''
6.THOMAS G. SKY in 40' 09'' at 2' 05''
7.LANCASTER B. OGE in 40' 22'' at 2' 18''
8.MEYER C. OGE in 40' 25'' at 2' 21''
9.TERPSTRA N. OPQ in 40' 28'' at 2' 24''
10.REZA K. EUC in 40' 30'' at 2' 26''

Tuft still the man to beat, a full minute ahead of everyone else. Doubt anyone will beat that for another hour or so when Navardauskas, De Gendt and Martin all start one after the other.

Terpstra on course and 23" back at the first check, Meyer another 20" behind that

Westra was never going to perform today after being in the break yesterday...

My favourite mid-tour stats are usually based on the distance one rider would be behind another based on time:

Quote:

Murayev effectively 82.5km behind Froome...
After 1,710km of racing, the overall leader Chris Froome (SKY) has an advantage of two hours, one minute and 13 seconds over the rider in 182nd place, Murayev (AST). Converted to distance that's a difference of 82.5km.

Good time from tuft, I think that should end up in the top 10 (which will make bringing him in worth it as I will need a 10 point penalty to axe him tomorrow)

Anyway off to work I go

Tuft 38:04 - over a minute ahead of Westra - pretty good sign...

Tony M knows what he has to beat though, which should help. Hoping Chavanel is going to blitz it too, he seemed to have some decent form last week...

Unlucky Ray! TTs often start early in Grand Tours - so many riders to get through I guess. 180 guys at 2-minute intervals equals 6 hours plus the time it takes the last man to finish. And they have the tide to worry about today!

I did mention it on the thread yesterday (as I missed the deadline in a TT earlier in the season), but I know my posts are normally so boring that everyone skips over them

There was an email sent out yesterday to make absolutely everyone was aware...

Anyway, 180 riders at two minute intervals (3 for the top guys) means you need 6.5 - 7 hours to cover the starts plus the 30 minute ride. If you're finishing at around 5pm CET you need to start at 10:30am CET (10am UK time) just to fit them all in.

Tuft off to a flyer, Westra 8" down at the first check, Thomas lagging way behind (47") and clearly taking it easy.

For the record I WOULD have had

Martin
Froome
Kwia
Tuft
Serpa
Gadret
Kittel
Hoogerland
Fischer

How come the ITT is starting so early......they always go off later don't they.....and why was I not personally informed.....and why am I such a numpty?

I've absolutely blown it......made my 4 TT changes AFTER the deadline(still sleepy from a well deserved lie-in) and now have a TT team for tomorrows sprint and a sprinters team for today's TT.

What a numpty!!

And they're off! Tuft and Westra already on the road, so my optimism about today could be very short-lived if Westra goes faster...

Just a note on Porte, he finished outside of the main peloton yesterday at 1'40 down. I think he's easing off now and saving himself to help Froome later in the Tour rather than trying to make his way back up the standings.

Either way, not sure he's going to be going full gas today.

Froome
Martin

Cavendish
Kittel
DVP
El Fares
Fischer
Mederel
Gutierrez (DNS)

As I said before, figured it wasn't worth making any penalty transfers because I can't see many riders as being guaranteed at least 25 points (penalty in, penalty out and points for Kittel/Cav in the green jersey comp) to make penalty transfers worthwhile.

Tomorrow it'll be Froome/Martin out, Sagan and Greipel back in.

A most pleasing day yesterday. Taken penalties for today.

Froome
Tuft
Westra
Panzerwagon
Monfort
Quintana
Oroz
Mederel
Willems

Penalties again tomorrow then save for Saturday/Sunday

Took my eye off the ball over the weekend. Wrote yesterday off with a view to getting back on track today, so:

Froome
Chavanel
T Martin
Porte
Tuft
Lobato
Mederel
Fischer
Bono

Froome
Tony Martin
Chavanel (over Porte, which I'll probably regret)
Castroviejo
Tuft
Kittel for tomorrow
Le Mevel, El Fares, Hoogerland
(1 penalty)

The respective demises of Malori, Kessiakoff and Kiryienka has at least made it slightly less complicated today to pick a team - checked the odds on Paddy Power and all my top 5 are in their top 7 favourites, which is slightly reassuring, if fairly meaningless...

Only got the four possible TT scorers...

C.Froome
Rui Costa
J.Castroviejo
T.Martin

Tweaking starts for the mountains tomorrow.. Just a nightmare of a Tour for me so far..

My TT men are Martin, Kwia, EBH, Castro, Bauer. I resisted more transfers because my predictions never fare very well on these stages.

Martin
Kwiatkowski
Froome
Mollema
Tuft
Mederel
Fischer

Noval
Gutierrez

Will use my 2 transfers and take the punt on penalties for stage 12 so I can save up for the mountains then, as should have used my transfers today and brought in Cav and Kittel and then gone for penalties, but didnt and paid the price. Catching up again!

you stage hunting, gkam?

I've got Froome, Quintana (we'll see - he's got more table points(11) and incentive than Kwia (4) but I might be wrong here - I reckon he'll go up 2 or 3 places in GC as well adding to his table points), Tuft. Left in some cheap sprinters and Greipel rather than Cav as unsure about T Martin. Two sprinters back tomorrow. Thinking about a penalty for Bonnet over Tuft and go for a stage win on Friday.