The Course
Frankie Howard will be disappointed that we only start here and don’t go Up Pompei. There is however quite a bit of climbing over a fairly short stage for the Giro. The last climb is 17.9k at 5.7% average but with a bit of flat and a short downhill, the first half is closer to 6% and the second around 7.2% average. The last time this climb was used was 2021 when Lafay won from a break. The fact that Gav hung on for a top 10 should tell you it wasn’t the finishing climb. In fact it was about 50k from the line. A stage that ended with a 3k climb.
The Favourites
Pog isn’t just ruining cycling. He’s ruining PG. I can’t think of another rider, who gunning for a Giro/TdF double, would have the lead he has and not treated Saturdays stage as an opportunity to save something. For himself and his team. It should have been a day for the break but Pog doesn’t like not winning. So even though stage 14 looks a day for a bunch of climby non GC threatening types, who knows…?
Add to that that it’s the day after a rest day. I’m always wary of tipping a break on MTFs when there’ll be teams hoping that a rival or two might struggle to get going again. The final climb is long enough to make differences if ridden hard enough and you can still do that and not have the stage in play by giving the break a big start. Whether UAE do that though would seem to be a bit of a long shot based on what we’ve seen so far.
So if it is a GC battle then you can probably guess who will win and the 6 guys who will no doubt finish in the top 10. If it were a break though, with a flat 50k start, light climbers will find it hard to make it if it goes before the road starts to go upwards. So if you do think a break has a good shout, then you’d probably want to pick riders who have the power to get away on the flat. I’ve a few names in mind but don’t listen to me, I’m miles behind!
Here's your start list.
The Rules
In this game, only the race results matter. You're not committed to keeping the same riders throughout the series, you make fresh picks before every race. Our overall competition is just the sum of individual race scores. You're eligible for the overall even if you miss some races.
Pick 4 riders for the upcoming race. The order of your picks doesn't matter. All of your riders can score.
Riders score points down to 10th place. Less popular riders score more points than heavily-picked favourites. See below for scoring details.
The strict entry deadline is the official start time of the race, the neutralized roll-out or Départ Fictif. Be warned - if your post is timestamped one minute late your entry won't count! So do remember that there's no disadvantage to getting an entry in early, even the day before, because you may always change your picks up until the deadline. Feel free to rethink your picks when it emerges which riders are more or less popular with other players. If you make changes, post your revised 4 picks in a reply to your original post.
The Scoring
The last 3 races will be secret entry between the top contenders… To avoid defensive picking.
When we say top contenders we leave the number open because who knows how many will be within striking distance...
We will notify you by email if we need you to do a secret entry.
