Season 9

[Sjiz]

The new calendar is out. It looks like a balanced calendar. Climbers will be happy with the route for the world championship.

I am looking forward again! Verbeek should have a new awesome season with a lot of hill stages and no TT in Down Under.

[Vos]

CFF season 9 ; world championship climb race in Colombia.

SPORTLIFE has a few good climbers, so I'm happy that season 9 will finish in Colombia.
The best cyclist of my team is a climb TT specialist and there is just one real climb TT stage, so that is less good of this schedule.
Overview :

Both World Championships = flat-TT + climb

Classic Races = ( always the same )
5x cobble-hills + 3x hills + 2x climb-hills + 1x hills-sprint + 1x cobble-hills-sprint + 1x flat-cobble + 1x climb-hills-sprint

Grand Tours =
5x climb ( 2xG + 2xT + V )
4x hills-sprint ( G + T + 2xV )
4x flat-climb ( 2xG + T + V )
3x hills ( G + T + V )
3x climb-hills ( G + T + V )
3x flat-cobble ( G + T + V )
2x flat-sprint ( 2xT )
2x flat-TT ( G + T )
1x cobble-hills ( V )
1x flat-cobble-hills ( G )
1x climb-TT ( V )
1x flat-cobble-sprint ( V )

Little Tours =
8x hills
6x flat-sprint
6x climb
5x hills-sprint
4x flat-hills
4x climb-hills
4x flat-cobble
3x cobble-hills
2x flat-TT
1x climb-sprint
1x flat-climb
1x special TT (MDFFF27km)

[Sjiz]

A lot of wind predicted for stage 1. Thats going to be a tough race.

[Vos]

  selection SPORTLIFE

A new season starts ! 
SPORTLIFE is motivated and ready to start in Glenelg, a beach-side suburb of the South Australian capital of Adelaide.

Five Four silver cyclists are selected for the TDU, so the expectations are not high and every point is welcome.
Despite I have an Australian team, no Aussies are selected and all eyes are on the Spanish cyclists of my team, edit ; and the Hungarian new buy.
I assume they are not good enough to score GC points.

Last minute change ; 45min. ago I bought Jannakopulosz of TeamEuroscalt, he is a golden hills-sprinter so the TDU-expectations are higher.
Too bad for Takács, now he is out of this selection and he has to ride Omloop and Strade Bianche not in top form.
But a golden cyclist needs a good helper, so flat-sprinter Colaco keeps his place.
Due to this new buy my team has the highest back numbers, so it can only go up after the start of this season.

491 Marin (27), hills --> stages 1 and 2
492 Jannakopulosz (27), hills-sprint --> stages 4 and 5
493 Pons (27), climbhills --> stage 3
494 Gregersen (25), hills --> helper
495 Colaco (26), flat-sprint --> helper

Good luck in season 9 everyone ! 

[Sjiz]

A windy start. Many teams anticipated a fast start, many expected that the biggest blow would end after the first part of the race. I instructed my riders to keep going once many dropped the pace. Together with Peachy we got a break. From there on out it was a constant battle. When we reached the hills a few others bridged the gap but Verbeek had been well protected and fresh. Laksa puts printed Verbeek but second was better than we expected. A good start.

[Vos]

stage 1 TDU ;
Despite the storm there was a big peleton of 140 in s1. My whole team could follow.
In s2 a fierce attack of 6 cyclists.
2 cyclists made a successful ánd bold jump in s3 towards the breakaway group.
7 more cyclists did the same in s4, among them my teamcaptain.

So, 15 cyclists to battle for stage victory in the important final hills section.
Peachy and TeamRHB dominated this stage, and that was also the case in s5, Laksa (1st, Peachy) and Verbeek (2nd, TeamRHB) attacked.
Marin did great despite he is just silver and not in topform ; he finished (9th) as last of the chasing group.
A very good start of the TDU. My team moved up from place 50 to place 8 in 1A.

[Vos]

stage 2 TDU ;
Not a good race.
A too big peleton of 125 in s1. And the tactics of Marin/Gregersen anticipated on an attack in s2, but despite that, they could not follow.
In s4 suddenly both in the 4th group ( nrs 63 to 78 ) on 0:28"
Teamcaptain Marin did not even get a dissapointment face in s4, unfortunately that shows he is not so good.
But thanks to his helper Gregersen, Marin could squeeze a few points out of this stage with a 22nd place.
Congrats to stage winner Verbeek of TeamRHB.

Hopefully the other Spanish cyclist of my team does better in the next stage, probably without helper because of the mountain in s1.

[Sjiz]

Thanks again Vos. It was a strange race with the attack of peachy in s2. Happy Verbeek could still get the win. Now to fight for the GC

[Sjiz]

An important stage for the GC this morning. Verbeek did well to finish 16th. Riis was able to overtake him in the GC but we are still second. Now to stay in the group during the sprints

[EpoGlucK]

Very interesting the GC, the best sprinter for the 2 spritns is Kreilis, then Laksa, in 3º position Verbeek,  finally Riis and Voegeli  will suffer a lot I hope^^. Makay and Timermanisare waiting  for an opportunity



1   Alex Riis   27   Astanadena   0: 00"   0   0
2   Arno Verbeek   26   TeamRHB   0: 07"   0   0
3   Remo Voegeli   24   Yvo_Meppelink_ProCycling   0: 11"   0   0
4   Artis Laksa   27   °Peachy°Melocotons   0: 21"   0   0
5   Vladimirs Kreilis   27   Atlantico   0: 33"   0   0
6   Emiel Makaay   27   CobbleCrushers   0: 41"   0   0
7   Agris Timermanis   24   WinterIsComing   0: 55"   0   0
8   Maël Frech   27   FlyEaglesFly   1: 02"   0   0
9   Roberto Moro   26   Rekutxuteam   1: 07"   0   0

[Vos]

stage 3 TDU ;
Unfortunately no helper was good enough to return in s2 with a 55 start, so Pons had to do it on his own.
And not in topform but with TC, he finished good as 10th behind stage winner Voegeli (Yvo_Meppelink) who had an excellent race.

Very good news for stage 4 ; I see that my new buy this season, hill-sprinter Jannakopulosz, is 2nd favourite. I did not expect that.

And indeed, a very interesting GC, good luck to all who battle for that ranking.
15th GC Marin and 18th GC Pons will both drop out of the top20 GC because their sprint is not good.

[Sjiz]

I have instructed Verbeek to get a rope and make sure Laksa and Kreilis drag him over the finish in the same time.

[Mlb]

Latvian power! Both Mlb quality. 

[Zatarra]

Latvian power! Both Mlb quality. 

Apparently you should have used that quality to keep you in 1a, my friend .

[Mlb]

  I'm so bad, they are better in teams that can use them properly.