Stage 4 and we hit altitude early with Galibier peaking at 2642m. It is being ridden from the easier side though and the weather forecast as I write is for headwinds but no rain. Having sweated away on the weekend, 11° might be a bit of a shock to the system too. The stage offers just shy of 4000m in climbing with only a small amount of flat and a little kicker at 2.4% to finish.
The expectation will be for a Pog - Rog showdown and with it downhill all the way to the finish, any lead over the top will be tough to bring back. I imagine I’ll be completely wrong about this but if Pog doesn’t give away the jersey on stage 3, which I suspect he might to Remco, then there’s every chance he does on stage 4. 3 wins for the break in the first 4 stages isn’t a fantasy. Galibier is a long climb at nearly 23k but it never gets steep. If Pog can’t drop Jonas I can see him sitting back down and giving a breakaway a chance. There’s plenty of good climbers that have lost enough time to make them a non threat to Le Bigs. It’s a rising start and the first climb tops out around the 50k mark. It should be a strong break. Lutsenko, Williams, Lenny M, Minkies, Harm and many others have all lost near on 30 minutes plus. I’d love to know who has marked this stage down!
If though there is thoughts of a stage win for the GC riders, then it’s hard to see past Pog and Rog but the headwind won’t help them get too much separation. If it is a faves day and Carapaz misses out on yellow on stage 3 on count-back to Remco, I wouldn’t it past him to take the win.
Here's your start list.
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 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.
Head over to the spreadsheet to check how you fared. Any issues, please email us on... WendyHellfreezes@over.com
