Season 12

[Vos]

stage 1 Itzulia ;
1º  VanDerKroon 
Great victory, and the first of my team this season.

[Sjiz]

A decent Tour for me. Itzulia was for Kaljan. He did a good job. Beforehand i feared a little for his low flat but in the end he did well. Especially stage 5 went well, i expected more time differences there. A 3rd place in stage 1 and a 6th place in the GC is something we can be satisfied with. Another top 10 position for TeamRHB this season. We have had a rider in the top 10 every Tour so far. The next one will be interesting as Loinaz will debut in the Tour de Romandie. But first some classics!

[Vos]

Final GC Itzulia = 7º  VanDerKroon on 1:11" behind Itzulia winner Ferratis ( Flandria ).
Very good result of VanDerKroon, in fact, his first top10 GC place ever. Together with his stage 1 victory, this was an excellent little tour.

Paris Roubaix ;
23º  Melnikov
Very dissapointing result due to his bad start ; to my surprise his 1 EP start was not good enough to follow the s1 first peleton of 43.
And although he had helpers in s1 and s2, he could not return in s3, there he was isolated and already 27 seconds behind.
Normally Melnikov should have followed the wheel of his 22yo helper easily, who did manage to stay in the front in s1 and s3 ( 37cyclists ).
I guess my PR teamcaptain had not his day.
Too bad this missed opportunity of many points, because I don't think Miorlin can win the Amstel Gold Race.
Let's see who else will ride the (for others point-rich-) hills classic races, just Miorlin at the start looks a bit sad.

[Sjiz]

Great Amstel. 4 very strong teams made up the lead group in s4. In the end the sprint on the Cauberg was the decision. Ambrosio won his first classic and Verbeek scored his third podium at the Amstel. I am satisfied with the race, the Ambrosio-Wirth duo was the strongest in the race and Verbeek-Poldoja did all they could. Poldoja finished a good 10th as well to take some additional valuable points for my team. Tomorrow we have a rematch!

[Sjiz]

In Flecha the 4th sector was more crowded. Just as in real life a large peloton raced to the bottom of the Mur de Huy. Another tense sprint between the 4 standout riders in the Ardennes. Ambrosio, Verbeek, Riis and Eden went flat out. Verbeek was just able to beat them and swith places with Ambrosio who got second. Riis scored another podium while Eden cried in a little corner for missing another podium.

Tonight the last of the hill classics. La Doyenne. The favourites have turned with Verbeek and Poldoja rated higher than Ambrosio and Wirth. Will it be another battle between the 4 campeones or will another rider upset the favourites?

[Vos]

Great victory in Fléche Wallonne, Sjiz ! 
Good luck to Verbeek and his rivals in La Doyenne.

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

The strategic choice of this selection is not certain yet.
Going for stage results will most likely gain more points, but it is more fun to go for a good GC result with Ibarrola who is suited for this tour.
Whatever the strategic choice will be, these 5 will ride the Tour de Romandie.
Probably with higher start numbers as mentioned now because of the expected zero points in the upcoming LBL.
( behind the --> best GC result ever + total stage victories on palmares )

181 Ibarrola ( 30 ), tour  --> 5º GC Vuelta (s11)
182 Basov ( 29 ), climb  --> 7º GC Suisse (s11) + 8 stage victories
183 Miorlin ( 30 ), climb  --> 1º GC Romandie (s9) + 20 stage victories
184 Melnikov ( 30 ), cobble  --> no palmares besides one podiumplace in a BBT stage (s11)
185 Bustelo ( 30 ), tour  --> no palmares

Good luck everyone ! 

[Flandria23]

Prepare yourself Vos cause for the first time in 3 seasons Mottet is going for the Mountain stages. We will line up a stages-hunter Squad for this Romandie.

[Vos]

Prepare yourself Vos cause for the first time in 3 seasons Mottet is going for the Mountain stages. We will line up a stages-hunter Squad for this Romandie.

A very big chance I will go for the GC in Romandie, and this is also the case in the Giro, the Tour and the Vuelta.
Probably none of my climbers will be the teamcaptain in one of the mountain stages of this season.

But just one of my climbers will be the masterhelper in Romandie, so the other can ride in a free role.
Maybe a miracle happens and my free role climber beats Mottet.
No worries about the SPORTLIFE climbers, Flandria, unfortunately no real rivals for Mottet and almost always my climbers are no favorites.
And an important fact, both have no TC bonus in Romandie.

But maybe there will be an exception in the Tour de France and one of my climbers will be the teamcaptain (with TC) in the mountains,
because I have just a silver GC rider for that big tour. Although, even with just silver he finished 6º GC Giro in previous season.
Stage 1 Tour de France looks good for 9-star climber Miorlin who is the nr 275 in the golden climb ranking,
there Miorlin can use his "secret" weapon, so maybe he could be a rival to the nr 55 Mottet who is even the 10th best pure climber in CFF.

Good luck in the mountains, Flandria, hopefully next season more mountain battles between our teams.
In previous season I bought a few GC riders for the first time in CFF3, I even have 4 tour riders now, so my focus is on them this season.

[Vos]

Oh, I see I bought that silver tour rider already on 2020-06-09, so he is longer in my team than the other 3 tour riders. Time flies.

[Sjiz]

The Amstel was a small stain on the past 3 races. Verbeek did excellent and Poldoja also rode great races. Thats almost 2000 points in 3 stages. I am satisfied

[WinterIsComing]

The Amstel was a small stain on the past 3 races. Verbeek did excellent and Poldoja also rode great races. Thats almost 2000 points in 3 stages. I am satisfied

Well done Sjiz, and congrats. Riis did well with triple bronze in the Ardennes, but and his helper were clearly outfavoured and outraced by your team (Verbeek/Poldoja) and Thor's (Ambrosio/Wirth).

Good luck in Romandie, everyone. Supporters are highly anticipating the first Hilton-Loinaz clash for this season.

[Sjiz]

Thanks! And yes, Romandie will be the race where Loinaz makes his debut for the team. I am curious to see if i can challenge Hilton and fight for the wins.

[Flandria23]

Congrats Sijz for the doublet!

[Vos]

Also a great victory of Verbeek in La Doyenne, twice well done, Sjiz ! 

Let's go into the lower regions of division 1A,  the SPORTLIFE results. 
Luckily no hills anymore, but a mountain stage so my team could finally score some points.
stage 1 Romandie ;
6º  Ibarrola  on 0:08"
18º  Miorlin ( helper )
21º  Basov ( free role )

Basov was dissapointing, his 1 EP start was not good enough, so he was riding in an unsuccessful "riding behind the facts" free role tactic.
Ibarrola (and his 2 helpers) started good and were in the front peleton of 54, and the 6º place of Ibarrola is an excellent result.
But what a very unexpected rollercoaster ride it was for him probably thanks to his much better helper Miorlin ;
s2 = Suddenly Ibarrola was isolated in the break away group of just 4 cyclists.
s3 = Ibarrola dived into a ravin, but fortunately no injuries, just 30 seconds behind now.
Together with his 2 helpers in the third chasing group of nrs 7 to 23.
s4 =  To my big surprise a solo attack of Ibarrola, I guess he was still full of adrenaline of his dive into the ravin, what caused this escape.
Of course, also a cause could be that Miorlin did a great helpers job. Although my tactics were based on both together in s4.
And not based on an attack of Ibarrola ; 0:07" ahead of 2 chasers, and 0:21" ahead of the main chasing group (including Miorlin).
s5 =  An excellent 6º place in the second group ( nrs 5 to 8 ) on 0:08" ( Fun fact  in this stage = Ibarrola 6º and Mottet ( Flandria ) 7º. )
This stage was a bit of a test case, and this result means that he will be the teamcaptain in all other stages to try to ride a good GC.