Tour de Suisse

I did go Fuglsang today which might be my point of difference.  Hopefully he will be useful tomorrow.

It seems lots of us went Yates, so in the end it probably didn't matter.  Turfing our Matthews, Bettiol and Pidcock was not something I will regret.

Brought in Yates and Evenepoel which wasn't great. Now looking a bit short on transfers as it wouldn't be a shock if Evenepoel DNS tomorrow (and even if he does start will probably be dropped once the pace gets upped) May end up carrying Bettiol for the final TT.

Rosskopf's team announced that he was pulling out at 11.30 this morning on Twitter.  He still isn't listed anywhere officially as a non-starter at 3.30pm.  I just don't get it.

Condor Andy wrote:

Yeah, some kind of safegaurd or money back if your rider doesn't start the stage.

I don't mean the game organisers, obviously.

Another 2 transfers gone.

You are not alone. 

I also put Yates in this morning.

You would think organisers/teams would have an obligation to the betting organisations to announce non starters early. I notice Mader and Kuss still on bet365's books just before race start. Bahrain and Jumbo did the right thing, but I see that there are 13 non starters (pcs).  Having to check last minute, is taking away some of the enjoyment of our (or anyone's Fantasy) game.

Iv'e been very frustrated with the MM stages, having absolutely no idea of who to pick. (I'm surprised only a few have picked Leknessund). So today I thought, stuff it, I can see a (small) wall finish and tomorrow is SF, so I'll go with GC riders (Yates included), but I notice no one else shared my enthusiasm, so I'll probably go down in a screaming heap. Hard to assess Schachmann and Lutsenko's capabilities after their crash. And how will Kron go today?

I'm sure Shachmann and Lutsenko will be right in there if it goes to the line. Another break allowed 7.30 though is a bit of a problem... why do they keep persisting with doing that.

Leknessund is an odd one.. i missed seeing his cumulative pts somehow. 

I wouldn't be surprised to see Lutsenko allowed to get away near the finish if the climbs are run hard. (-4:43 on GC)

I was going to go more GC, but resisted dropping Kron - for Martinez or Kuss(!!!) - based on the recent performance of Kron in the similar profile race here: https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/gp-du-canton-d-argovie/2022/result  Also kept Simmons as thought he was saving himself for today.

Completely agree that it is unacceptable for teams to announce withdrawals as late as they can.  They knew Yates was positive this morning, as any rider who tests positive in the morning is kept away from the soigneurs and team for obvious reasons.  Some other teams have clearly done the same.  They might argue they were waiting for tests to others to see whether the whole team were withdrawing, but it is a piss-poor advert for cycling when the organisers appear to not be certain who was going to ride...

ETA: Did add Vlasov and Yates.  Trying to be less irritated.

ETA2:  I'd really would be steaming if I'd been in the betting markets this morning.

I left Kron in just in case he feels he can grab the leader's jersey for one day. As I've said previously, I have got no feel for this race & today no different hence me keeping a couple of non climbers just in case stage 1 is repeated. Adams not starting has really messed up my plans as I hadn't budgeted to replace him.

If they get many more then the whole race may be a DNS.

If one rider in a team has Covid (eg Yates), doesn't the whole team have to pull out?

Jumbo apparently had 4 cases though.

Hard to justify staying in at that point.

Resisted Matthews > Yates. I'm not very hopeful on Matthews anyway so i may be no better off... it would need a truce amongst the GC men early in the final climb for Matthews to grab much... if anybody attacks it from the bottom he'll be toast.

I subbed Yates in as well - checked for DNS's up until 30 mins before deadline but then had to go out. It really is frustrating because I think we were all balancing keeping the Pidcocks & Matthews versus bringing in the climbers early. Went for a bit of both - left in Kron/Bettiol & took out Matthews/Pidcock. Was happy when I went out......fuming now!

I did the 'transfer of shame' & brought Pidcock back in after removing him day before. At least it worked out ok. Used more transfers than planned though. 

Only used 3 transfers so far.  Hoping that will pay later.  

Exactly the opposite strategy I tried with the CdD which didn't work out well.

Missed the Simmons boat though.

I've only used three as well... it might be a record.

I reckon if you both only used three transfers, you are on the correct strategy that I wish I'd had the discipline to stick to.

Low number of transfers on these unpredictable stages was my plan but gone wrong.  Feels like I'm in no man's land.  Might have made a mistake (wasted transfer?) dropping Lutsenko...  Almost certainly won't be in the mix to win this race after my recent good run.

Probably, the sensible thing to do is not be too bold and play it safe.  It just feels wrong, though.

Going for the overall just doesn't suit the instinct to try something different...