Season 12

[Sjiz]

Yeah, i need to improve this season if i want to stay 200 points ahead of WiC again

Although i had no interest in Riis, I am very interested to see what he can do in Winters team. He is a great rider for sure. I am happy with Loinaz as he fills a gap in my team that was there for a long time and is a world class rider of course. My CFO was less happy with the amount of money. Shouting at me: 'We will never get that money back! Its a waste. That Spaniard is too old! Next season he is worth 20million less!' But if you want to compete you need the best.

[Vos]

stage 4 Paris Nice ;
18º   Løvdal

Ibarrola and GC leader Dékány had free roles in this stage, just in case they could score a few GC points in the end.
But Dékány has a low hills skill, lost his yellow jersey and dropped 25 places in the GC.
Ibarrola finished outside the points and after this stage 19th GC. To me it is very doubtfull if he can remain on this GC position.

stage 4 Paris Nice ;
22º   Løvdal

Løvdal was just 30th or so in the GC before stage 4, due to his 105º place in the climb TT on almost 2 minutes.
But he was just 30 seconds or so behind Ibarrola, and Løvdal is better in stages 4 and 5.
With 2 stripes of wind in stage 4 it was important that he had a good helper, so I decided that Dékány and Ibarrola had to help.
The only ones who could help, however, they both helped just in s1 and dropped already in s2.
Despite Løvdal was isolated so soon, he managed to stay in the s4 front peleton of 61 and even scored a few points.

He moved up many places in the GC and now 14th on 1:27" behind GC leader Ablett (TeamRHB).
Hopefully he will do well too in the final stage and scores a few GC points.

Sjiz, good luck with defending the 0:01" lead of Ablett versus nr2 GC Reinertsen (Flandria), it is really close ! 
Also good luck defending the yellow jersey versus Pantani and Lorenzetto ; according to me they are fierce rivals too for winning Paris Nice.

[Sjiz]

I agree Vos, there are still many possible winners. If you lose 1 group that could easily be 20-30 seconds and then all of a sudden you are not on the podium anymore.

[Vos]

You did great with Ablett so far, and it is better to be in the position to try to defend the GC lead, instead of trying to make up time and places.
And my financial manager was shouting to me too, but with a different text than your CFO  :
"Hé Vos ! Why did we not have enough money to outbid others so we could buy Loinaz ! He is a great investment in results !"
Well, at last a good sell of a 19yo today, so I can inform my financial manager that he can buy almost a half Loinaz now, hahaha.

[Sjiz]

I agree Vos, there are still many possible winners. If you lose 1 group that could easily be 20-30 seconds and then all of a sudden you are not on the podium anymore.

As i said Unfortunately it was Ablett that lost a group and 34 seconds. 6th. Before the race that would have been good, but to end like this. Well, i guess the feelings of Roglic are nothing compared to mine

[Flandria23]

I agree Vos, there are still many possible winners. If you lose 1 group that could easily be 20-30 seconds and then all of a sudden you are not on the podium anymore.

As i said Unfortunately it was Ablett that lost a group and 34 seconds. 6th. Before the race that would have been good, but to end like this. Well, i guess the feelings of Roglic are nothing compared to mine

Good race Sijz, you put pressure on us It was all or nothing... we had to move the race on S1 and 3.

[Sjiz]

I agree Vos, there are still many possible winners. If you lose 1 group that could easily be 20-30 seconds and then all of a sudden you are not on the podium anymore.

As i said Unfortunately it was Ablett that lost a group and 34 seconds. 6th. Before the race that would have been good, but to end like this. Well, i guess the feelings of Roglic are nothing compared to mine

Good race Sijz, you put pressure on us It was all or nothing... we had to move the race on S1 and 3.

Congrats!
I had a feeling i put in the wrong tactics today but didnt want to change as thats sometimes also not right Its a shame of the other 3 stages where everything went very well. It was a rookie mistake of me. Ah well, always next race

[Vos]

stage 5 Paris Nice ;
Not a great stage, Løvdal and his 2 helpers suddenly dropped to the 2nd peleton in s3.
Tactics were based on to hang on as long as possible, and then full power in hills s4, and totally exhausted see where he ends up in s5.
Already dropping in s3 was not part of the tactical plan, also not finishing 89º on 1:10"
But the good news is that this stage result is good enough for a few GC points ;
Løvdal finished as 17th GC, 2 minutes behind Reinertsen. Congrats Flandria.

Let's see how silver tour rider Løvdal does in the next little tour, the Tirreno Adriatico.
There he will be in topform and another advantage is that there is no time trial.

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

Løvdal should score points in stage 4 and in the GC.
However, in stage 5 he gets a free role, because Bergman will be the teamcaptain in his speciality.

191 Løvdal ( 30 ), tour
192 Bergman ( 30 ), flatclimb
193 Witsche ( 23 ), hills / helper
194 Bustelo ( 30 ), hillsclimb / helper
195 Dékány ( 30 ), allround helper

Good luck everyone ! 

[Vos]

stage 5 Tirreno ;
Ups, one stripe of wind, gambled and lost, because my whole team could not follow the s1 break away group of 32.
In s4 the situation was the same, still 32 cyclists ahead and the peleton came just 1 second closer since s1.
4th favorite Bergman had an amazing climb in s5, he passed many cyclists, and he even managed to get to the 2 cyclists in the front.
Unfortunately he was too tired compared to the other 2 contenders for stage victory, who were both in the decisive break away group.
3º  Bergman on 0:00" 

Too bad, no stage victory, but on the bright side ;
in stage 5 the first achieved sponsordeal (148k) ánd the first podiumplace of my team this season.

This Tirreno is not successful ;
GC contender Løvdal finished outside the top 10 = 13th GC.
And he scored a 14º place in stage 4, plus some extra points in stages 1 (29º) and 5 (21º in a free role).
In stage 3 the 23yo Witsche finished as 18º in a free role.

Hopefully the next little tour goes much better, what is needed because I expect no results in the 2 upcoming point rich classic races.

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

Very high start numbers due to the current low 1A ranking.
There is no GC ambition in Catalunya, so the goal is to score as much points as possible in stages 1, 2, 3 and 5.

221 Basov ( 29 ), climb + climb TT
222 Dékány ( 30 ), climb TT
223 Smith ( 25 ), climb TT
224 Perea ( 30 ), sprint
225 Washington ( 30 ), climb

Good luck everyone ! 

[Vos]

Also Catalunya was not successful.

stage 1 ;
8º  Basov
29º  Dékány ( free role )
The helpers did an excellent job, but in retrospective Basov wasted 1 EP in s1 with a too safe tactic.
But maybe some rivals did the same, because Basov could not challenge any favorites and 8º is not bad with a wrong tactic.

stage 2 ;
6º  Basov
7º  Dékány
26º  Smith
A little bit dissapointing results, because Basov was 4th favorite and Dékány had TC.
However, just tiny time differences in this mountain TT, so luck could be of big influence.
And there were 3 active weather icons in this stage, what for sure is of big influence, and my Catalunya selection had no weather icons.

stage 3 ;
13º  Basov
22º  Washington ( helper )
Again Basov could not challenge any favorites and he started hard.
To my big surprise Basov could not follow in s1, and his 3 helpers were in the s1 break away group of 15.
I guess Basov had not his day or so. Despite he was riding with 100/100, and the unexpected bad start caused a tactical disaster.
Because his best helper was still in the front group of 11 in s4, and normally Basov should have easily followed his wheel, or most likely, he would be ahead of his helper in s4. Also not once Basov could profit of a helper who dropped out of the front group.

stage 5 ;
7º  Perea
My sprinter could not challenge any favorites, and he was the only one of this selection who performed well.
In advance he had no helper, but unexpectedly Dékány did a good job as helper in the first 3 sections.

Ok, after this little tour it is time for the point rich cobblehills classic races.
Unfortunately SPORTLIFE has just one ( top30-suited ) silver cyclist for Gent-Wevelgem, in DDV and RVV he will not be good enough.
Gent Wevelgem ;
32º Neville
A mechanical breakdown caused he could not follow the 1st peleton of 65.
With the hard storm in this classic race such a bad start is killing, and in fact his race was over in s1 already.

Hopefully Neville can surprise me by scoring a few points in DDV, but it does not look good for my team so far this season.
Because also for the hills classic races I have no point scoring hills specialist.
But still above the relegation zone with a 21º place at the moment, and I expect my team will do well in the upcoming 2 little tours.
Also I expect some points in Roubaix, and to make sure this season 12 will not be the worst 1A season ever for my team ;

Today I bought Dinar Samsonov. 
He had excellent GC results this season in his previous team FaltososDeChigre ;
8º Paris Nice, 1º Tirreno (his very first GC victory ever) and 2º Catalunya.
Only one time he managed to finish top10 in the Vuelta d'España ; 4º in season 7.
Let's see if he can improve that result in his new team SPORTLIFE.

[Sjiz]

So far the season is not coming my way. Two failed sprinthill stages cost me the win in the TDU and PN. And after im still not really in the game. So far its not my season. This also showed in Dwars door Vlaanderen where Nyland couldnt follow the best. Hopefully i can turn the season around with good results from Verbeek and Loinaz. But i am slowly saying goodbye to my goal of finishing top 3.

[Sjiz]

Well, Nyland had a good day this morning. He finished a very nice 4th. I guess he really like Flanders. Its his 4th top 10 there.

[Vos]

Dwars door Vlaanderen ;
29º  Neville
A few unexpected extra points to compensate his s1 failure in Gent Wevelgem.
But this Australian was just bought for 3k to complete the BBT selection of season 11 and score a few extra GC points ( 17º or so ),
and this season he did a good helpers job in the successful Strade Bianche ( 4º teamcaptain Crone ).
At least now I had someone to race with in the recent 3 cobblehills races, and time he has to go. Also time for a little tour : 

   selection SPORTLIFE

A Dutch-Norwegian selection, added with a Hungarian to score points in the ( mountain-flat ) time trial.
But the main goal is to ride a good GC and good stage results with teamcaptain VanDerKroon, who does not like the time trial.
He has just one suited helper, because this little tour is not in the season schedule of other suited cyclists to ride in a helpers role here.
What creates space for my 23yo's to gain experience in Basque Country. Although Witsche can be a very good extra helper in hills stage 4.

221 VanDerKroon ( 30 ), teamcaptain
222 Løvdal ( 30 ), helper
223 Dékány ( 30 ), stage 3 climb-flat TT
224 Witsche ( 23 ), stage 4 hills helper
225 Nyheim ( 23 ), experience

Good luck everyone !