Polka Dot Jersey

redddraggon

Mountains classification
1 Egoi Martinez De Esteban (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 78 pts
2 Christophe Kern (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne 59
3 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas 55
4 Brice Feillu (Fra) Agritubel 49
5 Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) BBOX Bouygues Telecom 49
6 Christophe Riblon (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 46
7 Sandy Casar (Fra) Française des Jeux 43
8 Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 38
9 Vladimir Efimkin (Rus) AG2R La Mondiale 35
10 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 34

Who do we reckon is really aiming for the Polka dot this year?

Martinez? Pellizotti?

Reckon we'll see a bit of a fight over this jersey?

afx237vi

Considering how weak the Pyrenees were, it could be someone we haven't even seen yet. There are still loads of mountains to come:









Bourg-Saint-Maurice to Le Grand-Bornand will be an important one where a breakaway can scoop up a ton of points.

finchy

With a good few days to recover before the Alps, I reckon Martinez might be able to get into a mountain stage breakaway.

knedlicky

I think Martinez said he has hopes, but he has a Fuentes background so not the best to win in an ideal sense.
Efimkin seems very determined to win something, although a bit behind in points.
Fedrigo and B. Feillu as best outsiders? Fedrigo won the polka dot in the Dauphine Libere.
But I expect the bigger names will eventually move up the rankings.

afx237vi

knedlicky wrote:

I think Martinez said he has hopes, but he has a Fuentes background so not the best to win in an ideal sense.
Efimkin seems very determined to win something, although a bit behind in points.
Fedrigo and B. Feillu as best outsiders? Fedrigo won the polka dot in the Dauphine Libere.
But I expect the bigger names will eventually move up the rankings.

I know it's hard to believe that some Spanish riders weren't fingered in OP, but I don't think Martinez was ever on the list.

drenkrom

Egoi Martinez? Puerto?

The Martinez fingered in Puerto was riding for Fuertaventura at the time, so it's not Egoi. Don't remember the first name. It's not as if Martinez was a rare name in Spain. Egoi Martinez was one of those reticent to sign the UCI agreement about the one-year salary reimbursement if caught doping. History has made him right, as we now know just how ridiculous a joke that piece of paper was.

Back to the topic, i can see Euskaltel going for the polka-dots with Martinez or any other rider of theirs, as it's pretty much their only realistic goals aside from stages. I really don't think we're into the thick of it yet, though. No punches landed yet. They're barely tickling each other now.