A day for the sprinters with the one caveat that there's a 1.6 kilometres climb at 5.3% and it's positioned 3 k's from the finish. There's a fast downhill section leading to a fairly straight couple of k's leading into the climb so positioning will be important. Over the climb, it's followed by two 1.4ish k sections that are straight so that will give anyone out of position a chance to come back.
The final climb isn't long enough or steep enough to get rid of the fast-men. There are two types here though. The first are those who will want the climb taken at full tilt to numb the legs of the second type such as Merlier, Jakobsen, etc and that might prove to be decisive. Timmy is the fastest man here and will survive the climb. He'll start near the front and has the team to bring him back for the last k.
Meanwhile, Trek, Visma, Wanty, Bora Alpecin and Jayco will be hammering it all the way to the line. That's a lot of horsepower. By my count there's at least 13 riders here that if they had a podium finish, it wouldn't be a surprise. Bert has been huge this year but it's Trek with Consonni, Fast Eddie and Jasper who give Johnny the nod. And a lot of nodding there is sure to be.
Unfortunately it's difficult to tell what the wind direction will be come Monday afternoon. If it's a headwind, then Timmy is the fave. If it's a tailwind however, then maybe Gav can time his run close enough to the right spot to 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... LeeVus@alone.com
