All div: Grand Tours

[Aurora Australis]

With 6 out of 10 races gone, but my cyclists' best points scoring opportunities behind them, the team has gained 538 out of the optimistic target of 800.  Not a disaster, but still short of target.

[Vos]

stage 6 Giro :
Miorlin in his pink jersey did great in a free role and finished as 157th on 2:39"
Of course not good enough to keep the maglia rosa.
His fellow country man Lorenzetto (Marcatone) is now the GC leader, 15 seconds before Bauer (CyKings).
Already the third Italian in this Giro who wears the pink jersey. Mazzola (Ares) had the pink jersey two times after stage 2.

[Vos]

Mike Bauer wins the Giro.

Remarkable of this Giro was that 50% of the stages was won by an Italian cyclist.
And almost an Italian GC victor because it was very exciting till the very last few kilometers of stage 10 between Bauer and Lorenzetto.
Final top 3 GC Giro d'Italia ( div.1A, season 6 ) :

1    Mike Bauer   24   CyKings   0: 00"   
2    Antonello Lorenzetto   24   Marcatone_Due   0: 24"   
3    Adam Roethlisberger   24   Rekutxuteam   1: 13"   

It was also a good Giro of my team with 2 stage victories of Miorlin, who finished as 17th in the GC.
And very satisfied with the total Giro-points of SPORTLIFE = 987 points ( almost as much as the GC points of Bauer  )

Next the Dauphine and the Tour de Suisse, and after those little tours it is again time for a grand tour  :

[Flandria23]

Bravo VOS!

Great performance from Miorlin, see you soon on 1st div.

[Vos]

Gracias 

Good luck with your team, I have no doubts that they will be awesome climbers.
For example the 22yo Zack Thompson who won also the Giro stages that Miorlin won. 
Although maybe the 1A managers with climbers should fear more your 21yo's climbers, such as Billeschou, Mottet and Reinertsen.

In a few seasons it will be even more difficult for Miorlin than it is now already.
Miorlin has just 9 stars on climb, and not always one of the 1A favorites. But he has 2 weather icons and sometimes that is an advantage.
And I have a back up plan with a few 23yo climbers.
Probably one of them will be better as Miorlin and hopefully good enough to be a future rival for your climbers.

[Flandria23]

So interesting that back up plan from your part. It will be a true honour to compete against your team on the mountains, given that you're the best Mountain tactical specialist manager on CFF without any doubt.

[Vos]

Thanks Flandria , but too much honor. Like every other manager I also have tactical failures sometimes.
Although Miorlin (in an experimental 11 EP tactic^^) had again a great solo victory as not favorite in stage 4 Dauphiné.
He even could score GC points ( 9th GC ) despite his very low hills(19)- and TT(21)-skills.

Miorlin gets rest now, and it is up to other climbers to get good results in the Tour de Suisse and the Tour de France.
Not really good climbers, because most of them are TT climbers.
Maybe with the exception of the just 23yo Basov, he is a real pure climber but also he has climb TT (as extra).
The SPORTLIFE selections in the 2 upcoming tours are the same. And the main goal is stage 5 Tour de France :


stage 5 Tour de France ; climb TT Alpe d'Huez

&   selections SPORTLIFE

151 Benett (24) --> climb TT.
152 Basov (23) --> climber + climb TT.
153 Dékany (24) --> climb TT + flatclimb.
154 Nieuwendijk (24) --> climb TT + flatclimb.
155 Fagan (24) --> cobble-hills-climber with little bit TT, too low flat and no sprint.

Everyone good luck in these CFF tours and also ; Merry Christmas ! 

[Aurora Australis]

For the TdF, with my cobble purchases, I've changed my strategy regarding my TTers.

341 Isaac Trump (24)  TT
342 Richard Levin (24) TT
343 Nail Tinaev (24) Cobble
344 Christian Pinkney (23) TT
345 Paul Clickett (23) TT

Only Levin & Tinaev are racing for points.  Seeking 500 points from Levin, hopefully the other TTers can pick up near 400-500 points between them.  Tinaev is racing effectively without support in stage 10, so near 90-100 points would be good from him.

Edit:  Levin did his job with two victories, however with 143 (r2) & 178 (r3) from the other three TTers, they've come a little short, although I was perhaps a little optimistic.
Edit2: 138 points from Tinaev gave me a total of 959 points for the tour.

[Vos]

First of all ;  happy new year and the best wishes for 2020 ! 


Unfortunately, the main goal in the Tour de France was not achieved ; Benett came 1 second short for stage victory on the Alpe d'Huez.
His 2nd place was the best result in this grand tour. And Fagan could score some extra points in the GC (13th).
However, the total amount of points was higher as in the Giro (987), so therefore satisfied with this Tour de France (1.163).

But even more satisfied with the very succesfull Tour de Suisse ; the just 23yo Basov had two stage victories.  

Friday morning the Vuelta d'Espana starts in CFF.
I'm not sure yet what the selection will be. Probably it will be posted tomorrow.
To get everyone in the mood ; the route of the real Vuelta 2020 that starts in Utrecht  :

[Aurora Australis]

Espana team

301 Alipio Velez   24
302 Fraser Morris   23
303 Pavel Lezhnev   24
304 Daniel Cerdan   24
305 Sergio Steinbach   24

Simple goal, score enough points so that Levin can secure the team's retention in Div 1 for next season.  So we're looking at
Sergio Steinbach = 200 points between stages 6 & 7
Pavel Lezhnev = 125+ points stage 9
Daniel Cerdan = 100+ points stage 10
And if Alipio Velez can steal a few points, that will be good.

If we're at least 3550 points going into the TT race, Levin will deliver 1000, taking us to 4550, and a few hundred from Bookout & Jones will see us here for next season.

[Vos]

If we're at least 3550 points going into the TT race, Levin will deliver 1000, taking us to 4550, and a few hundred from Bookout & Jones will see us here for next season.

The amount of points of the numbers 30 in the past 1A seasons :

season 2 = 4.493
season 3 = 4.732
season 4 = 4.503
season 5 = 4.553

Of course past results are not a guarantee to stay in 1A.
Good luck in the Vuelta and with your battle against degradation, AA. (I estimate you will achieve that goal, hopefully I'm not wrong with my estimation)

[Vos]

  selection SPORTLIFE

My expectations are lower as in the 2 previous grand tours of this season.
Miorlin and Benett do not have TC bonus. And all different leaders of the stages have no good support of others.
I assume this will have a big influence on the results.
But that does not matter much because already more than enough points to stay in 1A and way too far behind to finish top 5 in 1A.
Good luck everyone ! 

111 Miorlin (24), climber --> stage 7 (maybe also points in stages 4 and 6)
112 Benett (24), climb TT --> stage 2
113 Engelberts (24), sprinter --> stage 10
114 Trautemberg (24), hills climber --> stage 8
115 Canhoto (24), cobblehills --> stages 1 and 3

[Vos]

115 Canhoto (24), cobblehills --> stages 1 and 3

A good 12th place for Canhoto. Hopefully he can do the same in stage 3.

112 Benett (24), climb TT --> stage 2

VICTORY on the Alto de L'Angliru  !
Excellent result of Benett (without TC bonus). 

[Vos]

115 Canhoto (24), cobblehills --> stages 1 and 3

A good 12th place for Canhoto. Hopefully he can do the same in stage 3.

In stage 3 a 19th place for Canhoto.
I guess I should be very satisfied with that because his tactics were allright, he had no helpers and probably the competition is just too good.
In hills-sprint stage 5 Canhoto surprised me by scoring points, he finished unexpectly as 23rd.

111 Miorlin (24), climber --> stage 7 (maybe also points in stages 4 and 6)

Excellent results of Miorlin because he had no good helpers and no TC bonus :
stage 4 = 9th
stage 6 = 13th (in hinside stage 6 could have been even better in less EP and of course he had helpers on the flat in this stage, but Miorlin is a pure climber and not a flat climber)
stage 7 = 5th (as not favorite and too bad he had no helper in s4, but a tactical choice to chose for 5 different riders in this Vuelta)

114 Trautemberg (24), hills climber --> stage 8

Trautemberg (in a teamcaptain role) had to do this stage solo, despite that, he finished very good = 6th
His best result ever in CFF ! 

[Vos]

stage 9 = 8th place for Canhoto ; an unexpected and very good result.
Canhoto scored points in four Vuelta stages. And so far my team scored points in every Vuelta stage.

I assume that in the final stage sprinter Engelberts will score points too. It is a bit dissapointing that he cannot challenge one of the favorites.
But maybe logical, because he has just a silver sprint icon.The aggressiveness is too low (32). His other sprint-stats look great.