Thursday 24th May

San Vito di Cadore - Vedelago 149km

STRICT DEADLINE = STAGE START TIME 13:50 CET

Steve's preview at Steephill:

Except for two modest climbs, this short (139 km) stage is all downhill out of the Dolomites so it's a little out of place amongst the mountainous stages in the last week. The GC teams will take the day off and leave it up to the sprinter team(s), like Team Sky, to control the race. The last 5 km into Vedelago, in the Treviso Province, are almost perfectly straight and flat on well-paved roads.

Stage 17 Results

J-Rod, Basso, Hesjedal

kiwi_dude did well with first and third, but J-Rod and Hesjedal were relatively popular picks. Basso's second place was a unique pick for Gravy24, who picked up the whole bonus to win the stage with 14 points. pablo777 retains his lead in the cappello rosa competition.

Link to spreadsheet with full results history

Rules

For each stage, you (the DS) pick three riders. The order of your picks does not matter. The first three riders score. The basic score is stage winner 4 points, second place 2 points, third 1 point.

In addition there are bonus points awarded. Stage winner bonus is 24 points, second place bonus 12 points, third place bonus 6 points. The bonus points are split equally among all the DS's who picked that rider. Thus you're likely to get a big bonus for an outsider who scores, whereas the bonus for a favorite will be split among a lot of DS's.

The strict entry deadline is the official start time of the stage. Subject to the deadline, you may change any or all of your picks, but only one time, in a single reply to your original post. The only exception to this "one change only" rule is that you may make a substitution for a pick announced as DNS - but still subject to the deadline. If you miss making an entry for a stage, you score zero for that stage, but you're still in the competition. Also, there's no limit to how early you can make picks. If you want to pick for future stages ahead of time, just post in the latest thread and make sure I've seen it.