And the fact that, although there aren’t a lot of KM, he refuses to improve his TT’ing. Think it’s quite exciting to have the TTT on stage 2. Bardet, Pinot And Dan Martin could find themselves with time to make up before they’ve started.
All the TTT does is play to the strength of the strongest teams. For all this talk of it being the most open tour since 2012, Ineos could be out of sight by stage 3 (bit of license here but you get the drift). The likes of UEA, BM, AG2R, FDJ could be cut adrift straight away.
Yes, that’s what I meant when I said Bardet, Pinot and Dan Martin could find themselves with time to make up from the start. You can add Nibs into that but he’s only going for stage wins. He says.
I like having TT’s bear the start. Means you don’t spend the first week of GT’s with all the GC on the same time.
Finally found the rules tucked away at the bottom of the page. There’s a very long tail for points (compared with velogames) - right down to 1pt for 81st-100th on a stage
Unlike Velogames you can have substitutions mid-race, which is a common thing in fantasy sports but makes absolutely no sense in cycling because it isn’t possible IRL. Oh well
Also prizes - if you come first overall you get 2 VIP tickets for next year’s Champs-Elysées stage
Sagan will probably win green, but I don’t think he will win many stages with Groenewegen, Ewan and Viviani all riding. Quite a bit will depend on how many of those guys can be arsed to ride all the way to Paris
He will grind it out and get intermediates, plus do well on classic-style lumpy stages like stages 3, 5 and 9. Though in the latter I think he will have tough competition from the likes of Alaphillipe, van Avermaet (who’ll be desperate for wins after a poor season), van Aert, and Niki Terpstra who’ll be under pressure to perform for his new team on home soil