FTDF Stage 8 - All Aboard the Groenewegen Bandwagon

Happy Bastille day folks! I hope you had a good one, mine was improved immensely by this flier that came into my mailbox today - who could say no to a shitty mountain bike with the forks on the wrong way round? Alas, it's after 9pm, so this beauty will not be mine.

Anyway, onto the bike race. Sigh... another stage, another sprint. It was Dylan Groenewegen again today, making it 2 stages apiece for the 3 top sprinters of the race so far.

With an upcoming hiatus in sprint opportunities and seeing as I've got a bunch of excel spreadsheets close to hand, lets have a look at some sprint stats....So, he may have been pricey, but Sagan is looking like the top sprinting investment so far, with Gaviria just edging out Colbrelli for second.

Rider	Cost	Total	points/cost
PETER SAGAN	20	1194	59.7
FERNANDO GAVIRIA RENDON	16	762	47.6
DYLAN GROENEWEGEN	14	594	42.4
ALEXANDER KRISTOFF	10	386	38.6
ARNAUD DEMARE	12	361	30.1
SONNY COLBRELLI	8	360	45
JOHN DEGENKOLB	8	357	44.6
ANDRÉ GREIPEL	10	313	31.3
MARCEL KITTEL	12	249	20.8

But wait, who's this guy ahead of Sagan with his Points/Cost ratio? I'm not sure either, but I now wish that I had picked him - he's not even an official sprinter.

Rider	Cost	Total	points/cost
ANDREA PASQUALON	4	243	60.8

For the first time in a while, Waca isn't King of the Daily Scores.

Team	Manager	Stage 8
The Charmers	Craig E Pance	277
Running with the Bulls and an Inhaler	Delphiakid	246
Dudes Riding Using Good Stuff	Drew Stephenson	234
BarmbyWorld	Clive Jeffery	232
History Boys	Warwick Anderson	229
The Golden Lions eating a baguette	Lisa	204
Chanbots Ultra	Evil Dr Chan	109
Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	88
Do Androids Dream of Chris Froome	Eric Mortier	82
Kloefekappers FC	Jan Van Belleghem	70
Smugblokes	Mark Philo	45

Waca is still King of the overall scores though.

Team	Manager	Total
History Boys	Warwick Anderson	3113
Running with the Bulls and an Inhaler	Delphiakid	2692
BarmbyWorld	Clive Jeffery	2287
Chanbots Ultra	Evil Dr Chan	2094
Dudes Riding Using Good Stuff	Drew Stephenson	1926
Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	1695
The Charmers	Craig E Pance	1680
The Golden Lions eating a baguette	Lisa	1509
Do Androids Dream of Chris Froome	Eric Mortier	1320
Smugblokes	Mark Philo	952
Kloefekappers FC	Jan Van Belleghem	729

Stage 9 should bring an end to sprint monotony. The route may be a little short, as they are trying to finish early in an effort to avoid a clash with the "soccer', but there should be thrills and spills as the race takes on some of the Paris-Roubaix cobbles. I'm expecting at least one GC contender to come under the 'spills' category tomorrow.