Season 9

[Vos]

stage 1 PN ; 15° Gregersen = good ; because he had no helper.
stage 2 PN ; 31° Gregersen = very bad ; his manager's fault because way too much EP used what in hinside was not needed.

[Sjiz]

Verbeek is currently 3rd in the GC. Staying on the podium will be impossible but perhaps he can stay in the top 10. Lets see

[Aurora Australis]

Currently 49th, with only a team that appears to exist solely to sabotage TT specialist teams below, we're got some catching up to do.

[WinterIsComing]

In Paris-Nice, the cycling world will get to see Spanish talent Ramon Antonio Vigo in competition for the first time on the highest level.

Almost a win in his first competitive appearance. Happy with silver though. 

[Vos]

stage 3 PN ;
Very good race of my team, and Tafi almost won with 97 form. Too bad I have no +3 (or +2, or +1) WC card anymore.
But happy with these results :
2° Tafi ( teamcaptain, 97 form )
7° Riley ( free role, 97 form )
39° Judd ( helper, 97 form, and finished on 0:00" also )

To my surprise Judd was 7th GC after stage 3. With 2x free role and 1x helper.
So I decided that again he gets a free role in stage 4. His 6th race, so in topform finally.
An easy decision because most likely he was nog good enough to help the first 3 sections in stage 4.

stage 4 PN ;
Too bad for Jannakopulosz that he had no good helper for this race. As expected, just both climb sprinters could help him in s1 and s2.
Without the important helper bonus in a windy race, I'm satisfied with this decent result :
6° Jannakopulosz

Free role rider Judd did bad in this race, his 3 EP start was not good enough. He finished as 117° on 1:41"
So he can forget about scoring some extra unexpected GC points, despite he is still 11th GC.
Because he is bad on the cobble stones of the final stage.
But since my team has no suited riders for stage 5, all his teammates are going to try to help Judd in his mission impossible.
Maybe all the marginal GC rivals are bad on the cobble stones too , that is his only chance to finish top 20 GC.

[Vos]

stage 5 PN ;
Pfffffff, despite 165° Judd on 3:18" in this final stage, almost GC points ; 21. Judd on just 0:02" from place 20.
He can try again in Catalunya, probably again mainly in a free role.

SPORTLIFE scored 315 points in Paris Nice. And up some places in 1A, at the moment the nr 20.

Let's go to Lugo ( in the region Emilia-Romagna, Italy ), to start the Tirreno Adriatico.

[Sjiz]

This was a really werd Paris Nice. I did not expect Verbeek to be able to do a GC. He raced as domestique in the climbs sprint. Still got 6th. 22 seconds from the winner. Ah well, happy. As i said i did not expect this. 225 points extra.

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

Again no GC ambition and all focus on seperate stages.
Kangert and VanDerKroon use this tour to get in form, but I expect they can score some points in their own stages.
Although, maybe not, because VanDerKroon is a very good hills-climber but not really suited for the too many flat kilometers in stage 1.
Jannakopulosz is the true nr1 of this selection, because I expect he will score much more points as the other 3 teamcaptains combined.

191 Jannakopulosz (27), hills-sprint --> stages 3 and 5
192 Kangert (25), TT --> stage 2
193 Gregersen (25), hills --> stage 4
194 VanDerKroon (27), hills-climb --> stage 1
195 Colaco (26), flat-sprint --> helper

Good luck everyone ! 

[Vos]

Tirreno ;
stage 1 = 25º VanDerKroon
stage 2 = 20º Kangert ( with mechanical breakdown )
The cyclists who were not in top form scored points.
Now it is up to the sprinters and they are in top form. Unfortunately the teamcaptain cannot challenge the favorites.

[Vos]

Aurora Australis is clearly the best TT team. His results in stage 2 TIR, the time trial :

1º Levin
2º Clickett
3º Trump
4º Mitchum
7º Pinkney

I guess Pinkney will be punished by AA for not finishing as 5th. 

[Vos]

stage 3, TIR ;
Excellent race and results of my sprinters ! 
3º Jannakopulosz
15º Colaco ( silver helper )

[Aurora Australis]

Aurora Australis is clearly the best TT team. His results in stage 2 TIR, the time trial :
1º Levin
2º Clickett
3º Trump
4º Mitchum
7º Pinkney
I guess Pinkney will be punished by AA for not finishing as 5th. 

Slightly surprised by this, but possibly just a bad day from Peachy & ChronoTony TTers.  Btw, it's my fault Pinkney wasn't in the top 5, I was supposed to give him 5 races at Paris-Nice, but selected the wrong cyclist.
Twelve 1st Division race wins for Levin, still no

And looking forward to seeing you get back into the top 10 overall Vos.

[Sjiz]

Struckov and Verbeek still dont have an optimal relation. Maybe its because of the language. Struckov couldnt follow Verbeek in S1 and that was the end of the win. Especially since i had deliverately put Verbeek in the second group in S4 with the aim of gettin some help from the Russian there. Ah well, 4th is OK. Tomorrow we go for some points in the stage and perhaps a nice GC result as well. As the current 22nd of the Tour it could be possible.

[Vos]

stage 4 TIR ;
No language barrier between my Dutch helper and the Danish teamcaptain Gregersen. It sounded like a combi of English-Frisian.
VanDerKroon did a good job in both flat sections and with full energy he launched his teammate into hill s3.
That brought Gregersen in the s3 leading group of 22, and in the hills it was up to him to do it on his own.

In s4 a solo attack of the Astanadena teamcaptain.
Also in s4 Gregersen managed to stay in his group of now 14, because 7 cyclists could not follow the high pace.

My teamcaptain is just a silver hills rider, so it costed him a lot of energy to profit of the (faster) slipstream of the (faster) front group.
Therefore he finished solo on 0:15" of stage winner Laksa ( Peachy ).
But happy with his result, 3 places better than stage 1 PN where he had to do it on his own also.
12º Gregersen

[EpoGlucK]

Aurora Australis is clearly the best TT team. His results in stage 2 TIR, the time trial :
1º Levin
2º Clickett
3º Trump
4º Mitchum
7º Pinkney
I guess Pinkney will be punished by AA for not finishing as 5th. 

Slightly surprised by this, but possibly just a bad day from Peachy & ChronoTony TTers.  Btw, it's my fault Pinkney wasn't in the top 5, I was supposed to give him 5 races at Paris-Nice, but selected the wrong cyclist.
Twelve 1st Division race wins for Levin, still no

And looking forward to seeing you get back into the top 10 overall Vos.

McDermot is just thinking in the World Champion ( I hope)