The Great Grand-Tour-Game 2014/15 "TdF Monster Edition"

[Flamin]

Nice timing, just came to take a look.

Fantastic work again Foxx

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Thank you...

I am surprised that Boonen wasn´t picked once. Now he will squeeze one out somewhere.
I am more surprised that Lobato isn´t taken for serious. Did I miss something? He is not picked very much...
The biggest surprise is the conservatism for the overall win. If I wasn´t taking a gamble with Porte, and fauniera coming as replacement (picking Aru), there would have been a unanimously Contador win. Now I look forward to get paid off big time: Porte goes on to win besides the usual obscure Sky tactics. He is the new Froome/Wiggins vol.3

 

[Netserk]

So the picks for today is:

Orica (26): FoxxyBrown1111, Geraint Too Fast, ILovecycling, Poursuivant, Pricey_sky, vladimir, al_pacino, Flamin, greenedge, Jspear, Mellow Velo, Ruudz0r, Wallenquist, Eshnar, aarnold517, diggercuz, Hugo87, LosBrolin, mutschi, Netserk, Sasquatch, Jorik112, kiilike, search, The Hitch, the sceptic.

Sky (5): Pantani_lives, jaylew, Arredondo, mortand, minessa.

BMC (2): Tigerion, fauniera.

Movistar (1): Vino attacks everyone.

Katusha (1): Ferminal.

Tinkoff-Saxo (1): l.Harm.

If Orica wins today, it will hurt real bad for those teams who won't get their pick in the top-3 as they will basically lose a point to almost everyone else in the group. On the other hand, betting against the market also means that if their pick wins today, they will have one up on almost everyone else as well.

PS: I only skimmed the GC, but is it really only Foxxy who doesn't have Contador as number 1?

 

[LosBrolin]

Vuelta '14 TTT only five users managed to pick the right winner, so going by that flawless logic SKY is obvious winner today

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Interesting: In the RR thread Orica has only 41% of the votes, while us more informed pros have 72% on Orica. By that flawless logic, Orica wins.

Also by that logic Contador wins the Giro. GGTG players have him at 94%, the RR thread only with 65% of the votes (I didn´t count the fun votes for Betancur and Basso there)...

@ Netserk "PS: I only skimmed the GC, but is it really only Foxxy who doesn't have Contador as number 1?"

Fauniera has Aru.

 

[Jspear]

fauniera has Aru as number 1.

In my division alone there are 6 of us that have the exact same top 5 GC. I guess great minds think alike!

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Re:

In my division alone there are 6 of us that have the exact same top 5 GC. I guess great minds think alike!

The Aru-Pick reminds me of VinoAEs Nibali TdF-tipp which saved him in the end. Big gamble...

Yep, and great minds prevail. As said in the previous page; this flawless logic gives us a Orica win today.

Edit: Didn´t realize you meant in the exact same order. But that it is. Amazing. Actually it´s 6 of 9. ... and 9 of 9 have the same T-5 but not in same order. Wow!

 

[Jspear]

Re: Re:

In my division alone there are 6 of us that have the exact same top 5 GC. I guess great minds think alike!

The Aru-Pick reminds me of VinoAEs Nibali TdF-tipp which saved him in the end. Big gamble...

Yep, and great minds prevail. As said in the previous page; this flawless logic gives us a Orica win today.

Edit: Didn´t realize you meant in the exact same order. But that it is. Amazing. Actually it´s 6 of 9. ... and 9 of 9 have the same T-5 but not in same order. Wow!

I checked everyone's lists as well. A total of 12 players have the same top 5 in the same order (that's like 33%.) I didn't count but plenty more have the same top 5 in different orders.

 

[Netserk]

So today results mean I'm now only 0.5 point after Ferminal and 1 point after I.Harm and LosBrolin. Good start.

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Re:

So today results mean I'm now only 0.5 point after Ferminal and 1 point after I.Harm and LosBrolin. Good start.

Correct.

Standings after Stage 1 are out. Links see frontpage...

 

[ILovecycling]

First point scored was a must in this stage,yapeee

 

[ILovecycling]

Re:

The supplemental draw will start in a few minutes.

"Game stoppers" that thus dropped out:
From A; asdfg
From B; Afrank
From C; 18-Valve & Oliveira
From D; Byop & Movingtarget

Replacement & Call-up Players to be drawn:
Eshnar, Fauniera, Minessa, Netserk, Pantani, Sasquatch...

Certainly Sasquatch the guy to prevent with having good past results and coming with the most inherited points.
Interseting to see where Netserk goes. A true Forum verteran.

Prodecedure:
Each step I will draw the group (thus once A and B; twice C and D), then the player

Any thoughts on guys who didnt submit lineups for this round? If its not secret


Also I see Im in the toughest group huh ,will be fun

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Some were shifting houses, one had the guts to inform me early to just quit, two havn´t logged in since at least March (may because of the forum overhaul?)...
Anyway, the show goes on.
A new round of good old line-ball as Sasquatch used to say.
Yes, we are in the thoughest division. The group of death if you will.

 

[jaylew]

Such a stupid pick by me. That's what I get for trying to get cute. Everyone else in my group picked Orica and my first inclination was to go with Orica. It's like starting off with a penalty. So stupid. I knew better.

 

[Ferminal]

Well, that didn't work...

 

[ILovecycling]

Today is gonna be more interesting!Very hard to predict mass sprint winner in this Giro.

Division Anquetil today's tips:
Greipel (Pantani_lives,FoxxyBrown1111,Poursuivant and Pricey_sky)
Viviani (Geraint Too Fast and Vino attacks everyone)
Mezgec (vladimir and the asian)
Modolo (ILoveCycling)
Mathews (Tigerion)

This will make some differences if Greipel wins, for the sake of fun Mathews should win in order toTigerion get more points from last place in division.

 

[NairoQ]

This looks like an exciting game. I hope I can participate if you ever start a new one.

 

[Hugo87]

I have Nizzolo for today's stage, I think i'm the only one.

 

[Netserk]

I have Viviani, most in my group have Greipel. Both riders are a gamble in that they have the top speed, but lack positioning and a good leadout-train. The reason I didn't go with Greipel (certainly not for the first mass-sprint) is that it will probably be very hectic with a whole lot of riders rubbing each other, so I figured Greipel would be like 8th or something like that. I think he will do better later when riders are a bit more tired or at the end of stages more challenging than the one today. I picked Viviani because the first sprint (when Kittel is not around) is often quite random, so all my Mezgec picks have been used for later in the Giro. Pelucchi could also be interesting for today.

In general I think the sprint stages are the hardest to pick a solid pick this year (compared to other years. Breakaway stages are pretty much always hard).

 

[Geraint Too Fast]

If Greipel is badly positioned with 200-300m to go (which happens quite a lot these days) then he often gives up, so he isn't going to get as many half points as he should. I didn't pick him at all.

 

[Flamin]

Why wouldn't he have a good lead-out? Only Sieberg and Roelandts are missing from his A-train, but he still has Hansen and Hendo who are super experienced and can make things right in the final k if necessary.

So yeah, easy pick for me.

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

For me it was a tough call. Either Pelucchi or Greipel. Then I saw it goes slightly uphill... and somehow the photo of Förstemanns vs Greipels leg flashed in my head. So the massive legs of Greipel decided it for me. No exact science at all, but I had to find a criteria to decide for a pick.

This looks like an exciting game. I hope I can participate if you ever start a new one.

Yes I plan to run it next year too... And if we get another (unseen before) mass extinction of qualified players like we had in the long off-season between the last Vuelta and this years Giro, you may have a small chance to start this year...

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

OK... Greipel 3rd at least.

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

yay got this one

 

[LosBrolin]

Daemn Greipel. Netserk only 0.5p behind after this one