PG - Tour De France Stage 3

I'm sure Gripes is cheering on Cav...

The Course

We finish in Pontivy near the Château des Rohan but there's no Dennis riding for the Skinnies so you can forget that simple 'it's written in the stars' pick. 3.5 km of a downhill run into an initially technical flat finish. Pinch points and a roundabout with a sharp turn should see it all strung out as they hit the final kilometre.

The Favourites

Time for the sprinters to start to work out their hierarchy. Win the first one and another often follows. Don't and the pressure builds. Caleb should start favourite with a team ready to place him well. Demare will also be well supported and that will be a big help with this finish. Merlier won't want to be relying on MvdP but he does have Philipsen to lead him out. If he can find him that is. Wout may or may not sprint. He might be initially on Rog duties before he does his thing. Bol is another who has good support but another who loses the wheel with regularity. This though is similar to the stage into Privas last year where he was pipped by Wout. Uphill and technical that time before the final k but his team is capable of putting him on the front here, just as they did there. There's a host of others for top 5's headed by Bouhani. That's assuming McClay doesn't get the nod. One other rider is a certain Mr Mark Cavendish. He's got the best lead out man in the business in Morkov. Will that be enough for win number 31? We'll know in 30 hours or so.

Here's the startlist for your perusal.

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