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English Cff Forum => General Forum => Topic started by: Sjiz on November 26, 2020, 10:41:31 AM
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Another year, another season. The 14th! Almost every Small tour with a cobble stage and the same world championships as this season.
Its time to plan!
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So, we have started. Verbeek got his first podium and all is normal.
We were also able to sign some old, but still goodies. Cabanas is finally out of the shadow of Semon and Skogstad will prove a valuable addition to the hill climb squad.
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удачи, Sjiz ! :D
I had just one place for a new buy, and the ones I really wanted were sold for too much money, that I not even had in some cases.
But I'm happy with my new buy of 1,7M : the 31yo golden flathills- and hills specialist Xavier.
With 9 stars on both skills, and the nr80 in the golden hills ranking, listed as flathills.
In previous season I had no hills- ánd cobblehills specialists, what meant missing out many points.
If I only knew in the beginning of previous season that my team finished almost 1A podium, I would have bought such a specialist sooner.
But never too late to fix this "problem", and hopefully I bought now a point scoring hills specialist.
And even better, hopefully he will be the helper of another buy, an even better hills specialist.
Also I need a cobblehills specialist, but that will be very difficult because as almost always, my team is too full. :-[
We will see that this new season 14 brings.
Although it did not start well with a weird NT race, not a good stage 1 TDU, and my team is already eliminated in the CFF Cup.
It can only get better from now on. :)
(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/logos/27707822768c9c9c00789bdb852cbeae.png) (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/images/full(CFF).png)selection SPORTLIFE
31 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/colombia.jpg) Redondo ( 32 ), GC ?
32 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/belgica.jpg) Lebrun ( 29 ), sprint
33 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/estonia.jpg) Kangert ( 30 ), TT
34 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/portugal.jpg) Xavier ( 31 ), hills
35 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/spain.jpg) Rubiera ( 22 ), hills
Good luck everyone ! :)
stage 1 TDU ;
I did not make good strategic choices, because the 2 hills specialists were riding in a free role, instead of helping possible GC contender Redondo.
In retrospective it was also a better option to ride with Redondo in a free role, and that Xavier tried to score a few points.
Now I made a bit of a "in-between-choice" what is often not a good strategic choice. Well, it was fun to try these not-smart tactics. :)
Xavier (46º) was not good enough in a free role.
Also because he had as new bought cyclist a major form problem and a minor health problem.
The 22yo Rubiera (76º) did pretty well despite he is not in topform yet. Also good to see that he is the nr10 in the u23 DreamTeam.
His goal was to try to score a few points, what maybe should have been good enough to win the white-season-jersey.
Of course, a very little chance to succeed in that, even when he would have been the teamcaptain.
Although, you never know in the first race of the season, it could have been an opportunity. But the hills-competition was way too strong.
In a solo teamcaptain role and also not in topform yet, Redondo finished as 103º on 1:05"
For now, that does not look good for his GC ambition and it is very doubtfull if he can score some GC points.
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You had bad luck again in CFF-Cup for riding against my team in a flat-mountain stage where you sold your best rider few days ago. I hope next time I defeat you in CFF-Cup in the final :P
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Yes, that is better idea, I rather lose to your team in the CFF Cup final than now in the first round. ;)
And indeed, my sold flat-climb specialist could have won or at least would be a much more fierce contender than I had now.
Although my team was not bad in this round 1, versus a less experienced manager it even was possible to win if he had Wächter.
Too bad for me that you are too smart with tactics. :))
Congratulations with your well-deserved victory, and good luck in the 2nd round !
And did you know that beating SPORTLIFE means you have to win the CFF Cup this season ? ( so I can say I lost to the CFF Cup winner, hahaha )
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stage 2 TDU ;
2º Lebrun
28º Redondo on 0:00"
A change of strategy, because I have not much faith in the GC chances of Redondo after stage 1. Now he has to be the helper of my sprinter.
And Redondo did an excellent helper's job, and even finished on 0:00" himself.
Thanks to him, a great podium place of my sprinter, who could not challenge any favorites and is not in topform yet.
With these first points of the season, SPORTLIFE moved up from the 48º place in 1A to the 5º place, that looks much better. :)
Redondo is now 11º GC in TDU, still that 1:05" behind out of stage 1, but now behind a new GC leader, Verbeek of TeamRHB.
But in the next sprint stage Redondo will be the helper again, and I estimate it will be very (or too) difficult for him to finish on 0:00" again.
And most likely he gets a free role in stage 4, so I can test out my new buy Xavier as teamcaptain in a flathills stage.
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Verbeek did a perfect first sprint stage, the second was good. He lost a group in s5 hut i knew that could happen when inzet the tactics. Now we see how much time he can get tonight and then it is our of our hands in the TT.
Other news: We listened to Verbeeks wishes and we were able to improve our hill squad. With the new Rubels we had received from our glorious sponsors we could get Lustig. Fellow Dutchie will be a great help.
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stage 3 TDU ;
2º Lebrun
47º Redondo ( helper ) on 0:22"
As expected Redondo could not finish in the 1st group despite his 5 EP finish, but again he did an essential and great helper's job.
He dropped 2 places in the GC , now 13º GC, but still on that 1:05" behind from stage 1.
Too bad for him he has to ride stage 4 in a free role, and maybe he can move up after stage 5 the time trial, I have no idea.
But it was worth it to use Redondo as helper to make the more than excellent 2 x 2º places of Lebrun possible.
Of course, so close to victories is always a bit of a pity, but happy because he is not in topform and he could not challenge favorites.
Other news :) ;
(https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/iconoscff/colinasoro.png) Today I got this milestone. In all previous 13 seasons I had no golden hills specialist.
Yesterday the 31yo golden hills cyclist Xavier was bought, and today I bought the better 31yo golden hills cyclist Daniljev.
One more reason that Xavier will be the teamcaptain this evening, because this is his only chance, in all other hills races he will be the helper.
Let's see how the hills races will go with a golden combo, as the milestone already shows, it will be the first time.
Although on my team palmares there are 5x top10 results in the hills classics ( seasons 2, 3 and 7 ), including 2º in LBL ( season 2 ).
Unfortunately my hills duo is not so great as the new duo of TeamRHB, but in contrast to previous season, now I do expect points in hills races.
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stage 4 TDU ;
7º Xavier
45º Redondo ( free role ) on 0:22"
Hmmm, it is almost sure that I wasted energy at the start, the s1 mega peleton was 165 cyclists.
Well, let's hope all other managers did the same, who have cyclists that are not in topform yet.
Redondo moved up one place, and he is now 12th GC on 1:27"
It seems to me he can enter the top10 GC after the time trial, although this is an uncertain guess because there are 88 TT kilometers.
Maybe I should hope he does not too well, because he lost a total of approximately 40 seconds unnecessary due to wrong roles.
For now, I don't expect those 40 seconds will cause missing the podium in the Tour Down Under.
Also I have high hopes for Kangert in stage 5, although he cannot challenge favorites, this Estonian TT specialist likes cold weather.
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In previous season I had no hills- ánd cobblehills specialists, what meant missing out many points.
If I only knew in the beginning of previous season that my team finished almost 1A podium, I would have bought such a specialist sooner.
But never too late to fix this "problem", and hopefully I bought now a point scoring hills specialist.
And even better, hopefully he will be the helper of another buy, an even better hills specialist.
Well best wishes to getting a team Div1 top 3 trophy onto your wall.
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Verbeek got another second place. Maybe i should call him Arno Zoetemelk. Now its out of our hands. I hope he can finish on the podium but i guess it will be 4th or 5th. The hill stages were not difficult enough for him.
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stage 5 TDU ;
3º Kangert
39º Redondo on 2:30"
An excellent time trial of Kangert, only the 2 Australian top aces of AA were better. Congrats, Aurora Australis. 8)
Also Redondo did very well ; he ended up as 9º GC, 1:00" behind the Australian TDU winner Gatson. Congrats, Ophiuko. 8)
What is less good ; Redondo could have finished on the final GC podium when he would have been the teamcaptain in all stages.
But for the total points out of this TDU it probably does not matter much. Talking about total points ;
SPORTLIFE is now temporarily 2º in 1A. 8)
Well best wishes to getting a team Div1 top 3 trophy onto your wall.
Thanks. :)
Hopefully an 1A podiumplace is possible this season, despite I have no cobblehills riders,
and despite the uncertainty that this is a transition season for the giant oldest generation.
Also I did not look how good the rivals are, what can change with new buys, and maybe there are amazing pomoted teams.
But for sure my team will try, and this time I will be more focussed on points and the 1A ranking than in previous seasons.
Fun to mention is that Australia did very well in this Tour Down Under, just like in the reallife TDU ;
2 Australian stage winners ; Levin ( stage 5 ) and Shields ( stage 4 ). ( I wish Shields would have been amazing in the NT race too, but this aside :)) )
3 stages were won by an Australian manager ; Aurora Australis in stage 5 and $Tourmalet won stages 2 and 3 with his Colombian sprinter.
2 Australian cyclists finished top10 GC ; 6º Hunter ( FrançaiseDesJeux ) and TDU victor 1º Gatson ( the Australian OphiukoCT ).
And at the moment there are 4 Australian teams in the top 8 of division 1A. 8)
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Maybe good to mention ;
with 2 young training projects, my team is not really an 1A contendor, and I should have sold my climb TT specialist who is of no use this season.
But looking at previous season, these 3 cyclists were in my team and just 32 points short of a podiumplace. And the nr2 starts a youth team.
And despite the at least 3 "wasted" places, my team improved compared to previous season.
It might depend on rival teams if a podiumplace is possible. But if they want a podiumplace ; I predict they really have to battle for it. :D
And finishing again 4º after a fierce battle, is also fun to me. It is just a podiumplace (although very nice and very wanted) and not an 1A championship.
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Unfortunate, verbeek lost a lot of positions today. The hill stages, as mentioned, did not create enough time differences. In hindsight i should have gone for he sprinters in their stages. Ah well.
Now we look at the cobble stages and first normal Small tours. Lets see what we can do.
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Thanks Vos! First victory in a tour for my team. And finally Gatson got his TDU, after finishing 3rd and 2nd in past editions. Rumours say that the team's change of headquarters to Australia gave him extra motivation as it was an Australian cyclist riding for an Australian team in an Australian tour ;D
(https://icons.iconarchive.com/icons/wikipedia/flags/256/AU-Australia-Flag-icon.png)
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SPORTLIFE had no cyclists for the 2 points-rich cobblehills classic races, so my team dropped to place 11º in division 1A.
Despite this, there was still a success for me because I scored in the Prediction Race.
My guess in the OmloopHN was wrong, Leonid Leonov ( CobbleCrushers ) won.
But I guessed the right Strade Bianche winner ; Bart Jackson ( Zatarra ) won.
Very well done and congratulations, Zatarra ! 8)
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(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/logos/df924f77f10929a2904cfb2e4b350056.png) (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/images/full(CFF).png)selection SPORTLIFE
It was a difficult choice not to select a pure climber as helper, the GC teamcaptain could have used him very well.
But it is uncertain how well my tour riders will do, both have no cobble icon and the GC rivals can be too good.
If one of my tour riders has a chance to ride GC podium, maybe then it would be a mistake not to select a climber as helper.
Although this selection should be a safe choice to score many points. And I really want to see how Tusveld will do in his first tour for SPORTLIFE.
The negative aspect of my choice, is that one of my tour riders probably has to sacrifice his GC and will be used as helper in the mountains.
We will see what happens, we start with the time trial in sunny weather of 35ºC, what is very appropriate for the nickname of Paris Nice.
101 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/spain.jpg) Ibarrola ( 32 ), tour
102 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/holanda.jpg) Tusveld ( 32 ), tour
103 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/estonia.jpg) Kangert ( 30 ), TT
104 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/inglaterra.jpg) Bradbury ( 30 ), TT
105 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/belgica.jpg) Lebrun ( 29 ), sprint
Good luck everyone ! :)
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Good luck Vos, interesting to see what you will do with your GC guys.
For me it was also a difficult decision. Loinaz and Ablett are both capable of riding a good GC. At least i dont have to make a choice tonight :P Luchtenveld, Lezhnev and Logins will be support for either.
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Thanks Sjiz, you too good luck with your GC contenders. I see that Loinaz has the cobble icon, it could be an advantage.
And I see there are many more good GC rivals in other teams, with also the right icons for this Paris Nice.
Ibarrola has just 3 icons ( gold tour, silver climb and bronze TT ), but I hope he can make the (time)difference in the mountains.
Otherwise my numbers 101 and 102 are not right, because Tusveld is (much) better in the first 3 stages.
But it is hard to predict in what stages the big time differences will occur, that is often surprising in CFF.
Even stage 1, the very short time trial, can give big time differences sometimes.
Let's hope so, and in the cobble- and sprint stages just little time differences for not suited cyclists, that would be perfect.
Also because my GC contenders have to wait till stage 4 before they are in topform.
For now I predict the real time differences will be made in mountain stages 4 and 5. Hopefully some GC rivals have still form issues there.
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stage 1 PN ;
8º Kangert on 0:07"
10º Bradbury on 0:10"
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32º Tusveld on 1:31"
37º Ibarrola on 1:45"
Kangert did great till his mechanical breakdown in s4.
Bradbury his result seems less good, he is often better than his teammate, the in this stage -1 form compared to Kangert can explain it.
A little less total points as expected, also because the rivals were really good. But still a good amount of total points of my both TT specialists.
It is more difficult to estimate how the GC riders did.
It seems to me that Tusveld did pretty well and maybe a "normal" time trial as expected. And that Ibarrola had an excellent, lucky time trial.
Because I expected a bigger time difference between these 2 tour riders.
Both won not enough time here, to compensate the expected time loss in the next 2 stages compared to some(or many) GC rivals.
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(https://i.imgur.com/GxiUcXF.jpeg)
Merry Christmas everyone !
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stage 2 PN ;
3º Lebrun ( free role ) 8)
An excellent (and risky) race of my team. The GC riders could follow in s1, s2, s3, and dropped in s4 to the 2nd group.
Tusveld finished very good in the 3rd group on 0:55"
The only negative thing about this race was that Ibarrola finished as first of his group,
what is never good because it means he was really close to the next group.
Too bad, but even despite this, a good race of Ibarrola. And his helper Bradbury stayed with him in all 5 sections, so he did very well too.
But now finishing as 1st of the 4th group on 1:26" ; this "31seconds-loss" might be very negative in his final GC.
Also this causes a difficult teamcaptain choice for the next stages.
At the moment Tusveld is already 0:45" better ranked than Ibarrola, and Tusveld is much better in cobble stage 3.
And Ibarrola is better in stages 4 and 5.
Perhaps I will stick to my strategic plan that gambles on bigger time differences in the mountain stages.
It could be the wrong gamble, and although Tusveld and Ibarrola make it very difficult for me, it is fun to gamble like this. :)
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Also an option is to go for Tusveld and focus on his individual 1A ranking,
because I decided that he stays the whole season in my team despite his "old" age.
It is even a fun option :) ; because Tusveld is Dutch, maybe he is good enough to battle with the also Dutch Verbeek of TeamRHB.
This game has many difficult strategic and tactical choices.^^
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stage 3 PN
Ibarrola ( 64º ) and Tusveld ( 63º ) finished on 2:13"
I don't know if this is good.
Probably not for Tusveld who was one group more in the front in s1 and s2, but suddenly dropped in s3 to the Ibarrola group.
Ibarrola had a helper who did great because he was till s4 with him.
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stage 4 PN ;
4º Ibarrola ( teamcaptain ) on 0:19" 8)
63º Tusveld ( helper ) on 2:15"
Despite Tusveld was 46 seconds better ranked than Ibarrola before this stage,
Tusveld made a full sacrifice with even using all his energy in the first 3 sections, where he did a perfect helper's job.
To my big surprise Tusveld is even 3rd GC now, despite this sacrifice tactic and the other stages in a free role.
And after a magnificent stage 4, the new GC leader is Ibarrola. 8)
Looking at the results of the rivals in this stage 4, including the current nr 2 GC, I have even more strategic options for the final stage.
For example, I even think that Ibarrola can win this Paris Nice with a free role in stage 5.
So it will be a strategic choice between how to get as much points out of this PN as possible,
versus play it extreme safe to secure the GC victory. Also an option, because my team won just 1 little tour in all previous 1A seasons.
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The first 3 stages didnt really bring interesting results but after the first mountains the GC is a lot clearer and to my surprise Ablett and Loinaz are doing well. 4th and 6th. Hopefully we van pass Tusveld tonight and tget ablett on the podium. If Loinaz stats 6th this will be good.
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Your fingers have gotten fat with all of the XMas eating Sjiz :P Just as well your cyclists haven't.
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Haha, yes! And i am fighting an eternal battle with the autocorrect on my phone
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A stupid mistake in the final stage: Loinaz rode as a domestique. I guess that cost him 2 places. Still a nice performance: 2 guys in the top 10. Unfortunately very little points in the stages. Tomorrow Cabanas will make his debut for my team. Lets see how he does.
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stage 5 PN ;
15º Ibarrola on 0:41"
65º Tusveld ( helper ) on 2:03"
A good decision to sacrifice Tusveld again, and again he did a great helper's job in the first 3 sections.
Because Ibarrola finished in the same group as rival / 2nd GC Hilton ( CaptainOrange ), so the gap remained 0:09"
VanStraalen ( Combuijs ) completed the GC podium as 3rd on 1:34"
And Tusveld finished as 7th GC, but the most important was of course the GC victory of Ibarrola. 8)
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Well done with Ibarrola, Vos, congratulations. Happy with the podiumplace for van Straalen!
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Thanks Combuijs.
Well done to you too because there were many podium contenders, and the just 25yo VanStraalen must have had a very good final stage.
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(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/logos/1d29f44d0e03d78eff360ca0987b1b20.png) (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/images/full(CFF).png)selection SPORTLIFE
After a great Paris Nice, I make it even more complicated with one more GC contender and that is Samsonov.
He should be my best GC contender for this Tirreno, but he is not in topform yet.
PN victor Ibarrola is less suited for this Tirreno, but he will be the teamcaptain in the mountains because he can score the most points there.
Perhaps Tusveld could ride a slightly better GC than Ibarrola, but I will never know now because Tusveld is riding in a free role.
What is already a better situation for him as in PN, where he had helpers roles in the 2 mountain stages.
Despite this, he finished 7th GC in PN. But also for him, I don't expect he will finish so high again.
Probably also because most GC rivals are in topform now, it could be that Tusveld and Ibarrola profited of that in the mountain stages of PN.
To avoid this time that one of the GC contenders has to ride in a helpers role again, silver tour rider Beck is selected as helper.
A last minute change instead of TT specialist Kangert, who had an active weather icon for this Tirreno ( and the upcoming Catalunya ).
He will be sold because my team is full. Now it is up to my other TT specialist to score some extra points in the TT stage.
011 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/spain.jpg) Ibarrola ( 32 ), tour
012 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/holanda.jpg) Tusveld ( 32 ), tour
013 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/ukrania.jpg) Samsonov ( 32 ), tour
014 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/alemania.jpg) Beck ( 27 ), tour ( helper )
015 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/inglaterra.jpg) Bradbury ( 30 ), TT
stage 1 Tirreno ;
11º Ibarrola on 0:15"
30º Tusveld ( free role ) on 0:31"
35º Samsonov ( free role ) on 0:39"
Beck did an excellent job as helper despite he is not in topform in this Tirreno.
And a good stage result of Ibarrola. Also his GC teammates did well and were in the big s4 front peleton of 77 cyclists.
However, it seems to me this stage 1 has just relative little time differences, what is not favorable for the final GC of Ibarrola.
We will see what happens, good luck everyone ! :)
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After finishing 5th Ablett can continue in Italy. Last season he was 9th but i believe this parcours suits him better. He will be acompanied by Cabanas. The new addition to the squad. Also joining him are Poldoja, Verbeek and Nilsson. Lets see where we can go.
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stage 2 Tirreno ;
17º Ibarrola on 0:44"
66º Tusveld ( free role ) on 2:02"
69º Samsonov ( free role ) on 2:02"
Very bad race, and that had everything to do with an incomprehensible section 1 of Ibarrola.
He is much better in this stage than his free role mates, and even with the teamcaptain bonus and the same amount of EP,
Ibarrola was very unexpected in the same 2nd group as Tusveld and Samsonov in s1.
Of course helper Beck did not expect such a surprising slow start of his teamcaptain, what caused a tactical failure.
Beck was one group ahead in s1, s2, s3, and one group behind in s4. So he never helped.
To make this bad race of my team complete ; Tusveld had a mechanical breakdown in s5, what costs him 0:33" extra loss.
The GC does not look good ; Ibarrola had to make the difference in the mountain stages, and he did not.
Free roles Tusveld and Samsonov are already way too far behind.
But it is cycling, sometimes anything can happen as this stage shows with how Ibarrola did.
So, hopefully positive surprising results in the next stages. And I estimate such lucky stages are necessary to still ride a decent GC.
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Decent performance from Ablett. Tomorrow i hope to gain time for a change. The hills and sprint should suit him.
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I had hoped for more with Ablett. Unfortunately his domestique was too quick and was only there for one section. Too little for a good result.
I cant be unhappy with the sideshow: a domestique on 9 and a win with a free role :p
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stage 3 Tirreno ;
87º Samsonov on 1:33" ( free role )
88º Beck on 1:33" ( helper with 5x hand symbols )
91º Ibarrola on 1:33" ( teamcaptain )
120º Tusveld on 2:07" ( free role )
Tusveld did a little less good as expected, and Samsonov could do better in a hills stage when he is in topform, but he is not.
And a more than excellent race and result of Ibarrola, all thanks to Beck who did a splendid helper's job.
Very unexpectedly Ibarrola is even 2º GC at the moment. :)
But the Tirreno will be dicided in the final 2 stages in Toscany. The upcoming hills-sprint stage is feared by Ibarrola ( who has a good TT ).
At the moment Samsonov is 20º GC and Tusveld 26º GC. Hopefully one of them (or both) can score a few GC points extra in a free role.
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An impressive stage of Pires who most likely wins this Tirreno. For Ablett it will be a battle for 3rd to 5th. Ibarolla will probably gain some time on him but i dont think it will be enough to overtake him, Winklerprins could overtake him and on the other hand maybe Palmer loses too much. We will see tomorrow.
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stage 4 Tirreno ;
My 3 GC contenders + 1 helper finished all on 1:23"
Samsonov should have done better in a free role, a tactical mistake of 25 seconds. Tusveld did well in a free role.
Also teamcaptain Ibarrola did will thanks to helper Beck.
Although Ibarrola had a mechanical breakdown in s5, but this had no consequences, without it, most likely he finished in the same group.
Ibarrola dropped from 2ºGC to 6ºGC. And my free role tour cyclists ; Samsonov 15ºGC and Tusveld 19ºGC.
Top 6 GC seems secured for Ibarrola, and the podium seems out of reach. Hopefully he can move up one place after the time trial.
And it seems Tusveld and Samsonov will score a few extra GC points.
Bradburry will score more points in the time trial. So, probably it was not such a success to select 3 GC contenders in the Tirreno.
But it was fun, and Samsonov used this little tour to get in topform.
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stage 5 Tirreno ;
7º Bradbury
final GC Tirreno ;
5º Ibarrola
14º Tusveld
18º Samsonov
(https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/amarillo.png) = Marceliano Ibarrola ( 32, ESP ), for the first time ever that a SPORTLIFE cyclist wears the 1A leader jersey :)
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Ablett finished a good 4th. A decent Tirreno with a stage victory and 4th in the GC.
We moved up to 4th in the standings. After tonight and tomorrow morning we hope to have close the gap to the podium and maybe to Vos.
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Zero points for SPORTLIFE in the upcoming classic races MSR and E3H.
And most likely also zero points in the other cobblehills classic races GW, DDV and RVV.
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Verbeek was a little dissapointing with an 11th place in MSR. Still, a decent result when you consider a peloton on 80 riders in s4.
This morning Vandervaart did well to secure a 4th place. That allowed us to take the place of Vos as second in the standings.
Tonight Loinaz can show why he is still a great tour rider. He will be our leader.
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(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/logos/8abb6ca97e11114a4e4395f49de88023.png) (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/images/full(CFF).png)selection SPORTLIFE
Difficult choices in who to select. Again I decided not to select a climber, despite Miorlin has 2 weather icons in mountain stage 4.
But he needs a helper to perform. Instead I selected another TT specialist, and tour rider Tusveld.
Selecting a climber as helper for Tusveld was also a possibillity, but he will ride stage 1 in a free role and he has no support in the hills.
So, his chance of riding a good GC was not high anyway, and to make it complete ; now he has also no support in the mountains.
And there is even a big chance he will ride stage 5 in a free role as well.
For now this is the selection, and there might be a last minute change.
Because it is fun to compete in the GC, but maybe not a smart choice to select a GC contender who finishes outside the top 10 final GC.
021 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/holanda.jpg) Tusveld ( 32 ), "tour"
022 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/dinamarca.jpg) Jørgensen ( 32 ), cobble
023 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/inglaterra.jpg) Bradbury ( 30 ), TT
024 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/belgica.jpg) Lebrun ( 27 ), sprint
025 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/estonia.jpg) Kangert ( 30 ), TT
Good luck everyone ! :)
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I thought you wanted to go for the Dutch jersey with Tusveld? Then he needs to be leader.
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I thought you wanted to go for the Dutch jersey with Tusveld? Then he needs to be leader.
It was just an option I considered, and I had to make that decision back then ( now is already too late ).
But it takes too much sacrifice of his teammates and of my season schedule, what should have been adapted bigtime.
Even if that would have been a season goal where I was fully committed to ; it would be very difficult ( or too difficult ) to defeat Verbeek.
So far Tusveld made clear he has no individual ranking ambition ; PN ( 50% free role, 50% helper ) and TIR ( 100% free role ).
In stage 3 Catalunya he will be the teamcaptain for the very first time, but he has no support.
By the way, I wanted to undo his selection and instead ; try out my 24yo climber in this little tour, but I was too late online.
I estimate that Tusveld is no rival at all for the individual Dutch championship.
Probably Verbeek will score twice as much points compared to what Tusveld will score with his season schedule.
Maybe VanStraalen can compete with Verbeek, if VanStraalen has a season schedule that is adjusted to him as teamcaptain in all races.
But even if that would be a battle ; to me the top favorite will be Verbeek. But who knows, maybe VanStraalen ( Combuijs ) can surprise.
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stage 1 CAT ;
1º Jørgensen --> first victory this season of my team. 8)
21º Lebrun ( helper )
51º Tusveld ( free role ) on 1:34"
And again 2º in division 1A, 90 points ahead of TeamRHB.
If my team will be the "main rival" of current 1A champion CaptainOrange, he will get an easy season.
Also I considered to really try to battle for the 1A ranking by selling some (future) cyclists, including my 2 training projects.
But even when I would have done that, a big change CaptainOrange is still too good.
Making a lot of sacrifices and finishing 2nd, versus, without the sacrifices my team maybe can finish podium too.
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stage 2 CAT ;
6º Bradbury
10º Kangert
26º Tusveld on 1:41"
A very good time trial of my team in this stage that was dominated by Aurora Australis ( 1º, 3º, 4º, 5º, 12º ).
Tusveld even scored a few points, and in the GC he is at the moment 0:07" ahead of (top favorite?) Hilton and 0:53" ahead of Loinaz.
Just to mention 2 cyclists, of course there are many other good GC contenders who even might be better than these 2, I have no idea.
Hopefully Tusveld will do much better in hills stage 3 Catalunya, then his 120º place on 2:07" in the also pure hills stage 3 Tirreno.
Most likely I have to wait after mountain stage 4, before it is clear if Tusveld can ride a decent GC.
In the also pure mountain stage 2 Tirreno he finished as 66º on 2:02", also not very promising.
But in all Tirreno stages he had a free role, and now he will get a teamcaptain role ( unfortunately 2 times without support ).
And if his GC is relatively good after stage 4, he will get a teamcaptain role in sprint stage 5 as well ( with very good support ).
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Loinaz went too fast for Logins but the result was pretty ok. We are now 5th and 10th in the GC. I am hoping to move up a little with Loinaz and if Ablett keeps his place it would be a good tour.
Ps: Happy new year everyone!
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Hi everybody, in the attachments you can find a doc with the talent of most of the 19 yo tourmen sold this season. It's a doc that has been shared. Hope you find it interesting too.
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Congrats with another nice victory, Vos, getting a bit tired of making stupid mistakes in last stages. This way I will not be able to challenge you for the title...
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Congrats Vos! Amazing start of the season with 2 tours.
Australian teams are at full power: 3 tours out of 4 (Sportlifex2, OphiukoCT), and 2 classics out of 4 (Zatarrax2). 9 stage victories (4x$Tourmalet, 2xZatarra, 2xAurora Australis, 1xSportlife) :o
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First of all ; happy new year ! :)
Thanks Rico and Ophiuko. An unexpected GC victory of Tusveld. 8)
After 2 good damage control tactics in the hills- and mountain stages where Tusveld had no support, he was 4th GC on 0:38"
Surprising good ranked before stage 5 Catalunya, also because he had a free role in stage 1.
So, an opportunity to battle for a podiumplace, because Tusveld could challenge GC leader Hilton, then normally 0:38" is a too big gap.
Especially versus topmanager CaptainOrange, it is rare that he makes tactical mistakes, but this time he did.
Tusveld did amazing in stage 5 thanks to the cobblesprinter(and stage 1 winner) ánd thanks to flatsprinter Lebrun ( 9º as helper ).
Finishing in the 2nd group was good enough to overtake the top 3 GC and win Catalunya.
The first time Tusveld was teamcaptain ( in 3 out of 4 stages ) for SPORTLIFE, what resulted in his very first GC victory of his career. :)
Unfortunately I have no cobblehills cyclists, so it is up to Zatarra again to show Australian supremecy in 1A. :P :))
Great classic victories in SB and E3H, Zatarra, well done !
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Thanks. Unfortunately Jackson and Haringa focused on OHN, SB and E3 this season, so I don't expect their results in G-W, DdV and RVV to be outstanding. Stamer unexpectedly finished fourth in G-W. Apparently he is a lot better in that classic than I thought.
Let's gather some more points in Flanders now. Two top10s would be nice.
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Hi everybody, in the attachments you can find a doc with the talent of most of the 19 yo tourmen sold this season. It's a doc that has been shared. Hope you find it interesting too.
Happy new year to everyone!
So basically, now people who didn't have access to all data because they were not supporter, and may have bought a cyclist with low talent, are screwed twice now. Since you reveal "supposed to be hidden" talents of cyclists, it might be even harder to sell them in the future. I don't think this was your purpose, and you may not have realised this side effect.
It has been brought up many times before in suggestions thread, on discord and perhaps on several other boards as well, but these spiderwebs are really hurting the culture of the game, in my humble opinion. If they stay in the game, it would be better if they could be visible only to the manager who owns the cyclist, and not to others.
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Hi wic! I don't wanna repeat myself what weve already talked in discord. So in a nutshell, as this information was already available to a few, supporters and not supporters, I reckon it was only fair making it available for anybody who was interested on.
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I think its more the principe of having the radar avail able. To me it takes some of the mystery out of the game. In one or two training you can now know exactly the talent of a rider. Thats a shame for me. So for me i would agree: hide the radar for all but the owner of the rider.
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Hi everybody, in the attachments you can find a doc with the talent of most of the 19 yo tourmen sold this season. It's a doc that has been shared. Hope you find it interesting too.
Question, do you know whether they recognise the difference between a 100% trained cyclist, and a 70% one? This would potentially screw their "cheat" up, because for instance I'm training flat, and my promotions to sells aren't going to remain on flat for three days, particularly if their flat skill is like 18 or something.
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Hi everybody, in the attachments you can find a doc with the talent of most of the 19 yo tourmen sold this season. It's a doc that has been shared. Hope you find it interesting too.
Question, do you know whether they recognise the difference between a 100% trained cyclist, and a 70% one? This would potentially screw their "cheat" up, because for instance I'm training flat, and my promotions to sells aren't going to remain on flat for three days, particularly if their flat skill is like 18 or something.
The difference is enough to be noticeable.
Anyway: Happy with Galunov. He did what he had to and finished in the top 10. 10th.
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(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/thkvovuMyiU2P2iDUw89Ziy-sUPfeujlzlhdDRcrYOcZErQkbmv2klfeGEjHPn5gQ-wrg6TfSugWSLm6XnGbK7Y_dSffplBAzkdu3U0wFoXE_L9wkfY) (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/images/full(CFF).png)selection SPORTLIFE
I should have been more active on the transfermarket, because I had some open spaces in this Itzulia selection.
Just VanDerVlies and Bell were scheduled to ride this little tour. So, I have to be creative now.
And I decided that recent Catalunya winner Tusveld will ride Itzulia too.
This has consequenses for him ; by selecting him now, he will ride almost all Vuelta stages with -1 form.
It is still uncertain who will be the teamcaptain in Basque Country ;
probably Tusveld can ride a good GC, but VanDerVlies is much better in stages 1 and 2.
Happily that I could buy a helper today, so that my Dutch Duo do not have to help each other and one can ride in free role.
That helper is a just 7 stars hillsclimber, bought for 62k, what could be 10 times more than he is "worth".
But to me this desperate last-minute-buy is worth it.
It is doubtful if he can help a few sections somewhere in this little tour, hopefully he is good enough to do that.
Still one open space in this Itzulia selection, and that is for climb TT specialist Smith, only to gain experience.
After not competing in the 3 classic cobblehills races, my team dropped to the 4th place in 1A.
Blackhole (ESP) is the new number 2, and looking at his amazing team, it seems to me a fierce contender for an 1A podiumplace.
031 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/holanda.jpg) VanDerVlies ( 31 ), hillsclimb
032 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/holanda.jpg) Tusveld ( 32 ), tour
033 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/australia.jpg) Bell ( 31 ), TT
034 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/dinamarca.jpg) Kastrup ( 31 ), helper
035 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/australia.jpg) Smith ( 27 ), experience
Good luck everyone ! :)
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It seems i have a similar problem as you Vos. I only had 3 riders for Itzulia (although i had no space in my team) and am not sure who to make leader or to go for stages or the GV. Anyways: Ablett, Loinaz, Skogstad, Cook and Galunov will ride the race.
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A very windy Itzulia. Skogstad finished 10th in his first ever race for my team. A good debut.
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The second stage also went well for Skogstad with a fine 6th place. Now Cook can show how well he can sprint after an tough stage.
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stage 1 Itzulia ;
3º VanDerVlies, who finished on 0:00" in the front group of 9.
stage 2 Itzulia ;
1º VanDerVlies, great solo victory ! 8)
(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/jerseys/jersey_yellow.png) VanderVlies is the new GC leader, despite he could not challenge favorites in both stages.
The last-minute Danish buy of 62k, Kastrup, did an excellent job as helper ; 4 sections in stage 1 and 3 sections in stage 2.
Tusveld was riding in a free role, and he lost too much time ; 48º on 0:28" in stage 1, and 68º on 1:57" in stage 2.
He is now 58º GC on 2:25"
Already 1:24" behind the top20 and 1:40" behind the top10, besides the fact that he has to overtake many better ranked rivals.
As teamcaptain he can finish on 0:00" in stages 3 and 4. And he can win time in the final TT stage, but not enough to finish top10 GC.
Also an option is to go for VanDerVlies as GC contender, despite he has a too low flat and he cannot sprint.
He will lose time in stage 3 and 4, but he has a lead now and he likes the hills in the time trial. Although ; final top10 GC would surprise me.
A difficult teamcaptain choice. Also because Tusveld probably can score stage points, and VanDerVlies cannot in the remaining stages.
But for now ; party in the SPORTLIFE bus after this great stage victory ! :)
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Another good stage. Cook got a podium and the rest finished in the front group.
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stage 3 Itzulia ;
19º Tusveld on 0:00"
71º VanDerVlies ( free role ) on 0:30"
(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/jerseys/jersey_yellow.png) hmmmm, VanDerVlies still the GC leader.
I estimate he would have finished also in the 2nd group if he was the teamcaptain.
Tusveld scored just 27 points, less than expected. So again a change of strategy ; VanDerVlies will be the teamcaptain in stage 4.
If VanDerVlies can limit the time loss again and rides a better time trial than most rivals, he might surprise with a final top10 GC.
Tusveld moved up to 32º GC on 1:55", that is 0:47" behind the top20 and still a too big gap of 1:29" towards the top10.
If there a big time differences in the time trial, Tusveld might surprise too ( if he can finish with a free role on 0:00" in stage 4 ).
The so far just 27 points that Tusveld scored in this little tour is for sure not enough, and a waste of 5 races in his too full season schedule.
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stage 4 Itzulia ;
32º Tusveld ( free role ) on 0:28" --> just outside the points, and for sure he was not good enough to finish in the front group of just 14.
64º VanDerVlies on 1:01" --> ai, too bad he dropped in s5 to the 3rd group.
Remarkable this drop, because he finished harder than in stage 3 where he could follow from s4 to s5 in a free role, now he was even teamcaptain.
Well, I guess he was lucky in stage 3 or unlucky in this stage 4 or both.
This drop costed VanDerVlies a precious 0:33" extra time loss, without this, he would be 7ºGC.
Now he dropped from 1ºGC to 12ºGC.
Tusveld just gained 3 places in the GC and at the moment 29ºGC with a big gap of 0:41" towards the top20.
Other bad news :P ;) : today a Russian team passed SPORTLIFE in division 1A.
Not good, because now 4º, and it seems to me that rival team will score more GC points in Itzulia, ánd it has Verbeek for the hills classics.
My team will drop even further in 1A after stage 5 Itzulia. Valderend is close and has a GC contender who is now 2ºGC on 0:08"
Maybe too soon to look at the 1A ranking already. By far the most points are still in the game and there might be more rival teams for a podiumplace.
And as we say in cycling :"Lisbon is still far away".^^
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Здравствуйте Vos!
Our glorious leader is very happy with the current seasons prospects and results.
However, i dont expect much points in the GV tonigh. VanderVlies will overtake Skogstad easily and the others will not finish high up in the GV if they can get points at all. You are correct with Verbeek being part of our team, but the hill scene has increased in competition a lot. I do not expect Verbeek to do it as well as last season to be honest. I am happy with how the season and Itzulia are going. My main goal is to finish top 3 this year, but this will not be easy.
It is nice to see that Dutch managers are performing very well again. 4 Dutchies in the top 5, even though some pretend to be of a different nationality:P
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We finished Itzulia with a 12th and 14th place in the GC and 4 top 10 placings. Much better than last year. I am satisfied. Now the most important races for my team have come. We have many points to defend with Verbeek. It will be very difficult to replicate past seasons success with the gigantic competition on hills these days. But we will try, we have to :D
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Well, it is clear that I misjudged the situation.
This time trial shook things up, and differently as I expected/estimated.
stage 5 Itzulia ;
12º Bell
29º Tusveld
VanDerVlies did great in this time trial, he even finished 6º 8) finalGC. And Tusveld 16º finalGC.
And to my surprise my team is now 2º in division 1A, instead of the expected drop to place 5º.
The current nrs 3º, 4º, 5º are really close ; 5 points behind, 125 points behind, and 304 points behind.
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Another good result in Roubaix. Our first ever in CFF3. I am now preparing myself for dissapointment.
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(https://i.imgur.com/dEKYAeG.jpg)
It looked good with 1km to go ; Pandolfi ( ZG ) and Jørgensen still had a little gap after their attack in section 4.
Unfortunately the 5 strongest of the chasing group joined them with just 500m to go, so it was going to be a sprint with 7 cyclists.
First favorite Travin ( Thorboassonarvesen ) won, and a 2º place of not-favorite Jørgensen.
An excellent result, but so close to victory of a monumental classic race is always a bit of a dissapointment. :'(
Anyway, my team never really competed in this classic race, and now for the first time a Paris Roubaix result on the SPORTLIFE palmares. 8)
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What a race. Incredible ride from Quinto and a very deserved victory for him. I am satisfied with second for Verbeek. You always want to win but first or second is important for me, otherwise i lose too many points.
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Amstel Gold Race ;
(https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/incidencias/sad.png) 61º Daniljev on 1:00" :-[
Pffff, what a failure !
Daniljev was prepared perfectly, and with an active weather icon and a flatskill of 76, he should have no problem to ride an amazing AGR.
However, he could not follow the mega-giant-big-extreme-huge peleton of 107 cyclists in s1. :o :(
His teammate Xavier had no problems in this race with his 1 EP start and 0 EP in s2,
and he would have done an amazing helper's job if that s1 was not such a big failure for his teamcaptain.
Because Xavier was still in the front group of just 8 in section 4.
If s1 went right for Daniljev, he could have followed Xavier his wheel in s4 very easily, no doubts.
And that would mean a top5 result for sure, and most likely this costed even a podiumplace in AGR.
Xavier saved the day a little bit by finishing very good in a helper's role, and despite he was very low on energy in s5.
This helper's result shows also the great potential teamcaptain Daniljev had in this AGR. I dislike section 1 a lot.
12º Xavier ( in a helper's role )
Two more opportunities, but this AGR was the best and only chance to go for a podiumplace or even victory.
The only race where my teamcaptain has an active weather icon, and both my hills specialists have a very good flat skill.
Also the 254km should be no problem with 94 stamina.
Pfffff, even my flat-TT-specialist with very low health could follow the mega peleton in s1, and even in a helper's role.
From now on section 1 in AGR has a new name ; sucksion 1. Because s1 really sucks ! :))
Of course, I can get a comment again* that I should have taken no "risk" in s1
but the rivals take also "risk" in s1 and with less energy for the hills sections, I can forget a top result anyway. No guts, no glory.
*= This happened once before in s1 of AGR without wind, with a less suited hills specialist as Daniljev, and the Dutch comment was that my tactic in s1 was bad.
But that "bad" tactic works with much less good teamcaptains in all other seasons when there was also no wind in AGR.
So, please no comment like this again, everyone plays this game differently, I like to go for top results, what is often the better strategy.Unfortunately this time it was not.
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I had exactly the same with Harms, although he had a mechanical breakdown as well, but still... Also Stamer (7* hill) couldn't follow with 1-1 in the first two sections, but maybe he is just not good enough as a helper.
Still, weird that Harms couldn't follow the pack in sucksion 1.
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Back in CFF2, when I had hillers, I remember that every tactic in the hill classics seemed to be wrong.
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Ah well, this time Verbeek was unlucky. Other riders with lesser GV and helper bonus did make the cut in S1 and he didnt. I guess he got the unlucky draw this time. Tonight we go for redemption :P
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Flèche Wallonne ;
6º Daniljev
26º Xavier
This time a good race and a very good result.
Only after adapting the original tactics and I had no clue what the right tactics would be with several options. It was a lucky guess this time.
Xavier did an excellent helper's job, even in section 4. What is needed to get a top10 result in this fierce competition of great hills rivals.
Hopefully LBL will go very well too.
Also in La Doyenne my tactics are more guessing than knowing, it seems anything can happen with the high pace of some amazing hills teams.
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Congrats Sjiz ! Verbeek did it again in the most important ( and only monumental ) race out of these 3 classic hills races.
Great LBL victory ! 8)
Liège–Bastogne–Liège ;
4º Daniljev
27º Xavier
Again a good result. 2 out of the 3 hills classic races went well.
Thanks to Verbeek, my team dropped one place in 1A and now 120 points behind TeamRHB.
It is up to Miorlin to close this gap in Romandie.
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Thanks Vos, you are lucky that Verbeek was unlucky otherwise the gap would have been even bigger (what if, what if). But i am satisfied with the Ardennes. I expected it to be more difficult compared to last season but we were still able to perform very well in 2 races and were unlucky in the 3rd.
LBL went perfectly. Struckov went all out in s1, Galunov in s2 and Lustig in s3. There were more teams with the same idea to attack in s1 and 2 but the attack in s3 was very effective. Valter, Wirth and Caldeira all dropped out of the first group. S4 was a great sight to see with Verbeek being paced by Poldolja. On the finish line Verbeek took his time to celebrate his 4th Lieja a real record (and 9th classic).
Maybe we go for his 10th next season :P.
In Romandie its time for Loinaz again :)
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(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/logos/c61102f7ec06a98faff60612b2c41637.png) (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/images/full(CFF).png)selection SPORTLIFE
Miorlin is the undisputed teamcaptain in Romandie.
Lebrun and last-minute-buy Szarvas get free roles in their speciality to try to score a few extra points.
021 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/italia.jpg) Miorlin ( 32 ), climb
022 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/rusia.jpg) Basov ( 31 ), climb
023 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/noruega.jpg) Nyheim ( 25 ), climb
024 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/belgica.jpg) Lebrun ( 29 ), sprint
025 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/hungria.jpg) Szarvas ( 32 ), cobble
Good luck everyone ! :)
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A good start for Loinaz: he lost only 15 seconds on Hilton in this cobble stage. Usually thats around a minute, so we should be happy with this. Now the real question will be answered: how well will he do in the climbs as thats where the major time differences will be made.
Lezhnev also picked up some points and after losing van Groningen he asked me to find a new team mate so we did: Jorgensen came over from Sportlife. Giving us high hopes for the BinckBankTour.
And another nice thing to mention: After Verbeeks 4th Lieja we were finally rewarded with the king of the hills achievement, thats fitting i guess for a rider with the most wins in all 3 hill classics and the record in 2 of them.
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I have high hopes that Van Der Goor wil finally ride himself to a top20 spot in the GC. He prefers a little less climbing and a bit more hilling, but no TT in a your is perfect for him.
In the cobble stage he finished in the same group as Hilton. That was a bit disappointing, I was hoping he could even take some time there, but apparently I yet have to figure out the right domestique tactiques; Stamer was going too fast.
Tonight we'll know where she stand.
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stage 1 Romandie ;
Szarvas ( 36º ) was not good enough to score points in a free role.
I guess that was too difficult for a last-minute-buy and therefore not a perfect health, in a race with many good specialists.
And I assume enough of them have still the TC bonus of Paris Roubaix.
But Szarvas can still be of use as masterhelper for Miorlin in sprint stage 3.
So, it is more interesting to see how my teamcaptain did in this cobble stage 1 :
96º Miorlin on 3:53"
Thanks to a perfect helper's job of Nyheim, who stayed with his teamcaptain in all 5 sections.
Although Miorlin is just a pure 9 star climber, he has also GC ambitions in Romandie, despite he has not a star on sprint or cobble.
He even won Romandie once in season 9.
But back then it was more suited for Miorlin with 3 pure climb stages, also I remember that the weather gods were in his favor a lot.
In this Romandie the flat skill is of much more importance, and unfortunately Miorlin his flat is not high. Nevertheless, I expect a good GC.
Miorlin lost much time to the real / suited tour cyclists.
For example this group of 5 finished on 2:17" :
Fredickson, Vonk ( 2x Combuijs ), Hilton ( CaptainOrange ), vdGoor ( Zatarra ) and Roethlisberger ( Valderend ).
With 3 climb stages in this little tour, the favorites of stage 2 might be GC contenders too. As always, Miorlin cannot challenge the favorites.
So, it is good to see that the favorites of stage 2 lost much more time in stage 1 than Miorlin did.
4 favorites finished in 5:37" and 5:26", only the 5th favorite of stage 2 finished on 4:32", what is not far behind Miorlin.
All this is nice to notice of me, but I have no idea who the GC rivals will be. Probably there will be many with this stages schedule.
And the TC bonus period Romandie + Giro will be of big influence too in who can ride a good final GC.
I estimate that there are many real tour cyclists with TC bonus here.
Hopefully it will be an interesting and exciting GC battle, and I expect/hope that Miorlin can join that GC battle too.
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Lezhnev also picked up some points and after losing van Groningen he asked me to find a new team mate so we did: Jorgensen came over from Sportlife. Giving us high hopes for the BinckBankTour.
A bad trade/deal in quality for me :-[ :o :-* ;D ; yesterday I buy your former VanGroningen, and today you buy my former Jørgensen.
And indeed, your expectations of Jørgensen can be very high :
He can compete for victory in TdF stage 5 where he has an active weather icon.
But maybe more interesting is the later TC period BBT + Vuelta, so that he has TC bonus in BBT stage 5.
Vuelta stage 7 is also suited for him to compete for victory.
His main target is of course BBT. He can score a lot of points in 3 out of the 5 stages. But that is for sure not all ;
because in previous season Jørgensen surprised me by finishing 8º GC, and the BBT of this season is much and much more suited for him.
It would not surprise me if he rides top 5 GC easily (or even better), despite he is not suited for stage 1.
There he has to ride a good damage control tactic, and he has the advantage that his weather icon is active in stage 1.
And maybe his weather icon is active too in stages 4 and/or 5, but the weather in these stages is not known yet.
Good luck with Jørgensen ! 8)
And maybe you had already luck with him, because with 5 bids, your highest bid was maybe just enough.
Hopefully Jørgensen will not be the reason my team comes just 32 points short of finishing on the final 1A podium, just like in previous season.
Back then that very little points difference was versus Cabrasverdes, and this season it might be possible versus TeamRHB.
Now all preasure is on VanGroningen, he has to prevent such a situation of happening. :))
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Good luck with jorgi in his new team! I forgot to comment on the amazing result you got with him in Roubaix, his favourite race and the one he has been training for most of his life.
You have been able to get the very best of him, and this season I think it's been amazing with his second victory on d1 and that 2nd position in Roubaix. I think since his last season in my team he wasn't able to show this level of performance.
Hopefully he will show the same panache and ambition at rhb
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So far, not an incredible perfomance for my team in my return to the first division, as the team is occupying a relegation spot rn. Still, not the worst situation, only 200pts behind OphiukoCT.
I have high hopes for Sven for this Giro and for Piñeiro here on Romandie and on the Tour, as it is a very mountain heavy one and that fits him pretty well. Maybe the manager will be for once right with his tactics.
Just today, Martin Xavier arrived to the team, probably at a higher price than he should be, but with this signing the roster is completed, unless the transfer listed Otto Gjertsen gets sold.
For the first Romandie stage, Piñeiro lost time with Hilton but not with other GC favourites like Rogers or Loinaz. Still, probably he could do better but Dukurs felt like running away.
Now for the mountain stages, hopefully Nieto won't do the same, this is the time for Piñeiro to shine and get time over the other contenders, since he will lose some time on the sprint probably.
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Good luck with jorgi in his new team! I forgot to comment on the amazing result you got with him in Roubaix, his favourite race and the one he has been training for most of his life.
You have been able to get the very best of him, and this season I think it's been amazing with his second victory on d1 and that 2nd position in Roubaix. I think since his last season in my team he wasn't able to show this level of performance.
Hopefully he will show the same panache and ambition at rhb
Thanks Davilo07 :)
I bought Jørgensen after Paris Roubaix of previous season 13, and for sure I had to try this season an earlier TC period for him.
And he did great with a stage victory in Catalunya in a CFF record, and his 2º place in Paris Roubaix.
I must say that he had an active weather icon in both races, of course that helps.
But the by far best result of Jørgensen is achieved in your team ; solo victory Paris Roubaix ( season 10 ). Very impressive, Davilo07 ! 8)
-
Just today, Martin Xavier arrived to the team
Good luck with Xavier ! 8)
Maybe good to know that he had many bids, so it could be possible if your bid was a little lower, someone else bought him instead.
And Xavier is 31yo, so he can be of use next season too.
I really hope you win the relegation battle in 1A, Kirin. The buy of a cyclist like Xavier is a good asset to your team to achieve that goal.
Also good luck with your team in this Romandie and in the upcoming Giro.
-
A good race considering the heavy winds. Loinaz and Nilsson finished together 13th and 14th. Very happy with that result. Now to keep this position in the GC :p
-
stage 2 Romandie ;
1º Miorlin ; great solo victory ! 8)
-
Congrats Vos.
Stage 3 was a good one for my team. Loinaz was in the front group for 4 sections with domestique Luchtenveld. He finished in group 3. Maybe i could have saved some energy and finished in group 2 but this is ok.
-
Thanks Sjiz, and good luck with Loinaz in the GC !
It looks like it will be a fierce and exciting GC battle in the mountains, because the many top GC contenders are very close at the moment.
Unfortunately, after this sprint stage it seems that Miorlin will not be one of them. He has to score points in the final 2 mountain stages.
And I expect he will score some GC points as well, but a top GC result seems not achievable anymore. Hopefully I'm wrong. :)
stage 3 Romandie ;
10º Lebrun ( free role )
142º Miorlin on 2:53"
A good result of my sprinter, but an unlucky bad race for Miorlin who lost way too much time.
Despite an active weather icon and a full power start, Miorlin could not follow the very big peleton of 111 in section 1.
The fact that he started in the same group as back up helper Basov, shows also that he had an unlucky start.
Because Basov has about 12 sprint GV points less as his teamcaptain.
Very unexpectedly he even could help in 3 sections, what was the only little positive thing for Miorlin in this stage.
But his "riding behind the facts" race is never good for damage control, and being isolated in the final 2 sections is not good either.
At the moment Miorlin is 24º GC on already 3:14" behind new GC leader Roethlisberger ( Valderend ).
And for example already on 2:05" behind the top 12 GC. That does not look good.
Hopefully he will do amazing in the final 2 stages, those points are also welcome because the gap in 1A with TeamRHB is just 66 points.
Most likely that tiny little gap between our teams will remain after this Romandie if Loinaz ( now 2ºGC ) can achieve a final top GC result.
-
stage 4 Romandie ;
1º Miorlin 8)
Again a stage victory !
Although it came not easy. My whole team was in s1 surprised by the strong wind and the attack of CaptainOrange.
In mountain s2 Miorlin was suddenly isolated, what was also not good.
Luckily helper Basov came to the resque in s3, although they were both not in the front, but far behind in the 3rd group on 0:24"
Basov did a good job in s4 by launching his teamcaptain very hard,
what resulted that in s4 Miorlin was in the chasing group of 5 on 0:07" behind the 2 escaped climbers and 1 was a too fast helper.
The 2nd chasing group was already on 0:21", so the 6 teamcaptains (all without helper) in the front of the race would compete for victory.
Miorlin attacked solo in s5 to catch the in s4 escaped favorite Miro, and he did, and Miorlin won even the sprint-a-deux on the finishline. :)
Miorlin moved up to 15º GC on 1:59"
It seems to me my teamcaptain could profit of that the strong wind ánd the competitors made a real battlefield out of this mountain stage,
and some (or even many) of the GC contenders had difficulties in this stage.
Aftert this great stage victory, I estimate Miorlin has a good chance to finish final top10 GC. Although, again he cannot challenge favorites.
-
IT will be a tight battle for the GC tomorrow. Lets see if Loinaz can take 11 seconds on Roethlisberger and keep Hilton and Pineira behind him.
-
Really good result for Piñeiro today after the major loss of time at the sprint. Let's hope he can do a miracle today and recover the time lost on it with Adam(quite probable) and with Loinaz(less likely) with the help of the climbing specialist, Nieto.
After that, the Eschborn-Frankfurt classic, in where i also expect a good result, either from WrinklePrins, Endrodi, or Obert
-
An unfortunate ending for Loinaz. Roethlisberger rode the race of his life, congrats Valderend!, and took time on the Spaniard. A little mishap in S4 cost time for me and Pineiro got some time back on Loinaz. They ended up in the same time on the GC but the judges decided to give the third place to Loinaz. Luck wasnt on my side today. Still a good tour, but as always, not winning when thats the goal after a few stges is tough :P
-
stage 5 Romandie ;
5º Miorlin on 0:18"
After 2 stage victories, no victory this time.
But still an excellent result that he finished in the 2nd group of 3 behind the break away group of also 3.
And I guess that Miorlin was less motivated now, because at 1am just before the final stage 5 this happened :
(https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/montanaplata.jpg) Miorlin dropped to silver. :'(
What makes his 2 victories in Romandie extra special. 8) 8)
Also his 10º place on 1:50" in the final GC is good, what is just 1 second better than the nr 11. :)
It is an end of an era, and Miorlin is/was my most successful cyclist ever, with in 1A ; 24 stage victories and even 1 GC victory.
Funny to mention ; never in his career he reached the 10 stars on climbing.
This Romandie was his last performance as teamcaptain, and he did great and ended his career in style.
Probably Miorlin will be my first cyclist that I will add in my empty hall of fame.
But he will not yet retire, because his farewell races are in his home country, as masterhelper in the mountains of the upcoming Giro.
Hmmm, Miorlin just said to me that he is not happy that I posted the for him embarrissing silver climb icon, and if I could fix that.
Alright, my Sardinian friend, maybe this will cheer you up :)) ;
(https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/iconoscff/escalador2.jpg) Miorlin is still the only CFF climber who achieved this milestone.
-
I have been doubting about the tactics for Eschborn for quite some time. Unsure what to do, in the end i think i am quite happy with what i decided to do. Unfortunately Cook missed out on the win, but silver is very nice. 3rd favourite and free role Skogstad finished 13th and domestique Cabanas also took some points. All in all a nice 565 points and very welcome with Vos and Valderend on my tail.
-
Great result for Piñeiro with the 2nd place in Romandie general. My prediction wasn't accurate, as Adam did a great race, surprisingly finishing in the top 10 at the last stage, while Piñeiro only managed to get a 17th place on it. Still, he got time on Loinaz, and got the 2nd place over him with the same time due to the best stage result archived in the tour, 8th vs 14th (i think).
For Eschborn classic a 6th place with a tactic that didn't really worked, as the team tried to attack unsuccesfully on the first sections, spending some extra resources that were missed at the end, such as the help of WrinklerPrins, that would have been really valuable to Endrodi. Given the xp difference, can't really say it was a terrible result, but expected a bit better.
Now, for Giro, our objective is to win it with Sven WrinklerPrins. For doing so, he will have a team made for him, including Zsombor Endrodi, flipping the roles from Eschborn classic.
Our team:
261: (https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/639188998983647259/797904910359986248/holanda.png) Sven WrinklerPrins 31 Leader
262: (https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/639188998983647259/797905224928329748/hungria.png) Zsombor Endrõdi 25 Climbs helper
263: (https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/639188998983647259/797905555767296050/portugal.png) Martim Xavier 31 Hills helper (debuting with the team)
264: (https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/639188998983647259/797905780119830638/usa.png) Adam Zipp 25 Climbs helper
265: (https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/639188998983647259/797904910359986248/holanda.png) Rene Kaspers 26 Sprints helper
-
Good luck Pirin!
My line up will consist af Giro regulars Arno Verbeek and Paul Poldoja. They will be joined by climbers Sonny Nilsson, Bart Ablett and Tom Cabanas. Cabanas will be the leader but we are unsure how well he will perform. We think he should be able to ride for a top5/top3 but it will be his first race as leader for the team.
-
Unfortunately Ablett couldnt follow Cabanas in s4. Still not much happened. Not many time differences. On to the next!
-
Eschborn-Frankfurt ;
10º Beck
Samsonov could not challenge any favorites, but his unexperienced young teammate could challenge the 5th favorite,
so now the roles in reverse of previous season ; Beck gets as helper the EF winner of previous season.
But the tactics of helper Samsonov went horribly wrong at the start and he was not able to come back.
Beck had to do it on his own the whole race, and without a helper in the crucial s4, he could not get a top result.
TeamRHB scored many points in Frankfurt what caused a much bigger gap between our teams in 1A.
And Valderend comes much closer in 1A after the Romandie victory of Roethlisberger.
It will be an exciting Giro battle with also an 1A podium place at stake. 8)
(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/logos/8ed052732fddd78a1b24c0eb2887c9f6.png) (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/images/full(CFF).png)selection SPORTLIFE
The undisputed teamcaptain is Samsonov, and the Giro goal is a GC podium place.
Hopefully he can battle for GC victory as well. But I estimate that there are many good ( and a few better ) GC rivals,
ánd I estimate that this Giro is more difficult to Samsonov than the Giro of previous season.
Back then he did great what resulted in the first big tour GC podiumplace ever of my team.
However, he did not came close to GC victory ; Samsonov finished on 1:34" behind Pires and on 1:05" behind WinklerPrins.
It was a Giro battle for a podiumplace, and he barely won that battle with a difference of just 0:20".
021 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/ukrania.jpg) Samsonov ( 32 ), tour
022 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/alemania.jpg) Beck ( 27 ), allround
023 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/italia.jpg) Miorlin ( 32 ), climb
024 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/rusia.jpg) Daniljev ( 31 ), hills
025 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/australia.jpg) Bell ( 31 ), TT
stage 1 Giro ;
11º Samsonov on 0:12"
Not a really bad race, but it should have been better. Too carefull tactics, including that Beck could have helped in s4.
But he did not, because his manager estimated he would go too fast there. Clearly wrong, because now Beck dropped already in s4.
Well, no damage done for the GC in this stage, unless these 0:06" unnecessary time loss will cost a place in the final GC.
Maybe it was even a 0:12" loss, although just a little chance that would have happened if Samsonov had the extra helpers bonus in s5.
Positive about this stage ; 20 points more than Valderend, and 30 points more than TeamRHB. :D
-
A good start with a good second stage. Nilsson stayed with Cabanas and they finished 8th and 10th. Very nice. Unfortunately big competitor Vos did it better with the win and 7th. Still, i am happy with this result. Now a TT. Not much you can do about that.
-
stage 2 Giro ;
All Italian spectators came for just one thing ; to see the Italian climb legend Miorlin in action in his farewell tour.
And this now silver climber surprised everyone, including his manager :
1º Miorlin ( in a free role ! ) --> perhaps his best victory ever ! 8)
Also teamcaptain Samsonov did great in this mountain stage, despite his very good helper unexpectedly dropped in dh s3 with using EP.
7º Samsonov on 0:41"
He finished as last of the 2nd group of 4, together with GC rivals WinklerPrins, Rosario and new GC leader Aeschliman.
What is exactly the same as the current GC after this stage 2, they are the nrs 4, 3, 2 and 1.
But I estimate that Samsonov is not so good in the upcoming time trial compared to these and many other GC rivals.
-
stage 3 Giro ;
12º Bell
71º Samsonov on 2:49"
Samsonov dropped from place 4 to place 10 in the GC, on 1:32" behind new GC leader Rosario ( KunTeam ).
Hopefully Rosario and nr 2 GC Aeschliman ( FrançaiseDesJeux ) will lose much time in the upcoming sprint stage.
If not, I suspect that they both will battle for Giro victory, and all other GC rivals will be too far behind.
With maybe an exception of a GC contender who is amazing in the hills and can win a lot of time there.
That for sure is not Samsonov. And already after 3 stages I can see that he will have big difficulties to achieve his Giro goal.
But he is still very hopefull, with just 0:24" behind the nr 3 GC at the moment.
The 7 rivals between Samsonov and his Giro goal are a bit worrying, including the many good rivals right behind Samsonov.
What is not worrying ; it will be an exciting and fun Giro battle ! :)
-
stage 4 Giro ;
48º Samsonov on 1:12"
Grrrrrrrr, he won the sprint of the 4th group of 15.
Finishing as 1st in a big group is never good for a GC contender, with a little more luck he would have finished in the 3rd group of 24.
And a big difference of 0:32" between the 4th group and 3rd group. What is precious time for the final GC.
About this rainy and windy sprint race to Milan ;
s1 = an excellent start of Samsonov and helper Beck, both in the front peleton of just 56.
s2 = ups, unexpectedly helper Beck could not follow the high pace, Samsonov still in the front peleton of now just 35.
s3 = isolated and with his nose in the wind, the pace was too high for Samsonov, he joined the 2nd peleton and saw his helper again.
s4 = as expected helper Beck dropped, but maybe thanks to him, Samsonov could stay in the 2nd peleton on 0:25"
s5 = as already mentioned ; grrrrrrrr ! a very unexpected big drop in time with the enough energy Samsonov used, from 0:25" to 1:12"
The most positive about this sprint race was that Samsonov moved up from place 10 to place 4 in the GC.
Unfortunately the next stage is again a time trial.
-
(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/logos/8ed052732fddd78a1b24c0eb2887c9f6.png)
stage winners :
stage 1 = Neeme Põder ( 32, ZBT )
stage 2 = Nicola Miorlin ( 32, SPORTLIFE )
stage 3 = Arthur Bezotosnyi ( 30, KunTeam )
stage 4 = Christian Bordeneuve ( 29, Rekutxuteam )
GC TOP 20, after 4 stages :
1(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/jerseys/jersey_pink.png) Romeu Rosario 32 KunTeam 0: 00"
2 Murat Aeschliman 27 FrançaiseDesJeux 0: 16"
3 Sven WinklerPrins 31 azerite 1: 02"
- - - - - - - - - -
4 Dinar Samsonov 32 SPORTLIFE 1: 06"
5 Sandis Stabulnieks 29 FaltososDeChigre 1: 08"
6 Dario Fernandez 32 Luka_Warriors 1: 14"
7 Tom Cabanas 32 TeamRHB 1: 14"
8 Alessandro Figueras 31 RemcoEvenpoelckx 1: 18"
9 John Footman 30 CC_Porco_Jones 1: 25"
10 Espen Valgren 27 SentinelChickens 1: 29"
- - - - - - - - - -
11 Allan Frøyland 31 Periquitos 1: 35"
12 Jaime Roman 30 QuintoYtapa 1: 41"
13 Yvo VanStraalen 25 Combuijs 1: 46"
14 Daniel Mulikov 28 IKIBASQUE 1: 54"
15 Pedro Kranz 32 Oloteam 1: 57"
16 Anthony Hilton 32 CaptainOrange 2: 01"
17 Leandro Povoa 27 Moderdonia 2: 12"
18 Sam Lee 32 $Tourmalet 2: 30"
19 Afonso Rio 25 OphiukoCT 2: 30"
20 Alexander Rusakov 32 Facha_Bartolo 2: 58"
-
So far its very very close. Cabanas had a decent race, he dropped his domestiques in s1 but then Verbeek turned om his engine and paced Cabanas to the finish.
-
The Tts are done. Now we need to hunt down Rosario :D Cabanas still going well, but its still extremely close.
-
Indeed, the hunt is on ! :)
Although Rosario has a nice lead on many GC contenders.
Aeschliman is a good nr 2 GC with a little gap towards the nrs 3 and 4, and they have a little gap towards the others.
But nr 5 is on 2:04" and for example nr 15 on 2:31" ; it is really close at the moment.
Samsonov told me that he does not like the gap of 0:05" behind WinklerPrins and ( especially ) Cabanas. ;)
Hopefully this means he is extra motivated to close that tiny gap in the upcoming windy, brutal mountain stage to Scanuppia.
And for sure it will be brutal ; the final climb is 7½ km long with an average of 17,6%, with some steep sections of almost 45% ! :o
stage 5 Giro ;
4º Bell
72º Samsonov on 1:32"
Samsonov dropped from place 4 to place 9 GC.
-
stage 6 Giro ;
2º Miorlin ( free role ! ) 8)
32º Samsonov on 1:46" :(
Again Miorlin surprised me with an excellent result.
What was not excellent at all ; the teamcaptain-helper combo was a failure.
Helper Beck was too fast in s1 or Samsonov was too slow in s1.
Whatever it was, it caused an isolated Samsonov in the whole race because also in a further section he did not see his helper again.
A very bad race and a very bad result with a lot of unnecessary time loss ( at least 0:25" and probably more ).
Samsonov dropped from place 9 to place 12 GC on 2:34"
Did he kill his chances of a top GC result in this stage ? It could be.
-
Samsonov told me that he does not like the gap of 0:05" behind WinklerPrins and ( especially ) Cabanas.
8)
Not a great race for my team. Domestique Nilsson was one group up from Canabas the entire race and Ablett one group down. Very useless. I think the result, with this in mind, is ok. He finished in the very large group and in the same time as the #13. From the GC riders only Wrinklerprins and VanStraalen took time on him. Unfortunately he didnt take time on many riders.... except Samsonov :D Now to keep it this way ;)
There are a little bigger gaps, but its still very close. Now to see who is the best hiller and then to end up with a treacherous, windy, cobblehill stage.
-
(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/logos/8ed052732fddd78a1b24c0eb2887c9f6.png)
stage winners :
stage 1 = Neeme Põder ( 32, ZBT )
stage 2 = Nicola Miorlin ( 32, SPORTLIFE )
stage 3 = Arthur Bezotosnyi ( 30, KunTeam )
stage 4 = Christian Bordeneuve ( 29, Rekutxuteam )
stage 5 = Seppo Merisalu ( 30, Aspigarri )
stage 6 = Gerhart Wächter ( 31, galegospolabici )
GC TOP 20, after 6 stages :
1(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/jerseys/jersey_pink.png) Romeu Rosario 32 KunTeam 0: 00"
2 Murat Aeschliman 27 FrançaiseDesJeux 0: 43"
3 Sven WinklerPrins 31 azerite 1: 23"
- - - - - - - - - -
4 Dario Fernandez 32 Luka_Warriors 1: 25"
5 Yvo VanStraalen 25 Combuijs 1: 50"
6 Alessandro Figueras 31 RemcoEvenpoelckx 2: 02"
7 Tom Cabanas 32 TeamRHB 2: 04"
8 Allan Frøyland 31 Periquitos 2: 05"
9 Jaime Roman 30 QuintoYtapa 2: 22"
10 John Footman 30 CC_Porco_Jones 2: 28"
- - - - - - - - - -
11 Daniel Mulikov 28 IKIBASQUE 2: 29"
12 Dinar Samsonov 32 SPORTLIFE 2: 34"
13 Sandis Stabulnieks 29 FaltososDeChigre 2: 40"
14 Pedro Kranz 32 Oloteam 2: 42"
15 Leandro Povoa 27 Moderdonia 2: 43"
16 Espen Valgren 27 SentinelChickens 3: 02"
17 Afonso Rio 25 OphiukoCT 3: 09"
18 Emanuelle Carletti 32 Sonfuga 3: 20"
19 Maurits VanDenEede 30 FaltososDeChigre 3: 39"
20 Anthony Hilton 32 CaptainOrange 3: 44"
-
A decent stage for Cabanas yet again. Due to the efforts of Intellinet he got dropped in s1. Poldoja and Ablett joined him and stayed with him until the end. Verbeek got a free role and did what was expected of him and scored 100 points, his goal for this Giro is 400 points and with 2 hill stages remaining he is well underway.
-
stage 7 Giro ;
32º Samsonov on 0:35"
Finishing in the 2nd group is a very good result, and he moved up from place 12 to place 9 GC on 2:08"
Let's hope Samsonov does well in the hills, although maybe many rivals could be better.
But he needs to do well in stages 8 and 9, because he is bad in the final stage 10.
-
3 stages to go in this Giro and so far, Sven been doing good! (except maybe the flat sprint and maybe the TTs).
Currently second, 57'' behind former Tour winner Romeu Rosario, and with 28'' over Dario Fernandez, but Sven still has a chance as he should perform better than Romeu on the upcoming hills stages.
On the last stage, Kaspers unfortunately dropped on s1. Endrodi had to act as a helper until s3, but Sven managed to get in the second group. Still, i think he could had finish in the 0'' group if Kaspers didn't drop early. Hopefully, that won't happen today with Xavier in the hills.
-
Another decent stage. It seems that the name for Cabanas this Giro: decent. He stayed with Poldoja the entire stage and that must have helped. Unfortunately he did lose some places and is now 9th in the GC. Tomorrow will be a tough stage with bitter cold and icy winds. Luckily he is Swiss so he should be fine.
-
stage 8 Giro ;
7º Daniljev ( free role )
27º Samsonov on 0:29"
A good race. Samsonov moved up one place in the GC. In stage 9 he has to do well again, with hopefully bigger time differences.
(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/logos/8ed052732fddd78a1b24c0eb2887c9f6.png)
stage winners :
stage 1 = Neeme Põder ( 32, ZBT )
stage 2 = Nicola Miorlin ( 32, SPORTLIFE )
stage 3 = Arthur Bezotosnyi ( 30, KunTeam )
stage 4 = Christian Bordeneuve ( 29, Rekutxuteam )
stage 5 = Seppo Merisalu ( 30, Aspigarri )
stage 6 = Gerhart Wächter ( 31, galegospolabici )
stage 7 = Pascal Cruyff ( 29, TilburgTerriërs )
stage 8 = András Valter ( 25, Quickstepbronx )
GC TOP 20, after 8 stages :
1(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/jerseys/jersey_pink.png) Romeu Rosario 32 KunTeam 0: 00"
2 Murat Aeschliman 27 FrançaiseDesJeux 1: 13"
3 Sven WinklerPrins 31 azerite 1: 23"
- - - - - - - - - -
4 John Footman 30 CC_Porco_Jones 1: 37"
5 Alessandro Figueras 31 RemcoEvenpoelckx 1: 50"
6 Sandis Stabulnieks 29 FaltososDeChigre 1: 50"
7 Allan Frøyland 31 Periquitos 1: 52"
8 Dinar Samsonov 32 SPORTLIFE 1: 56"
9 Tom Cabanas 32 TeamRHB 2: 00"
10 Dario Fernandez 32 Luka_Warriors 2: 02"
- - - - - - - - - -
11 Daniel Mulikov 28 IKIBASQUE 2: 04"
12 Espen Valgren 27 SentinelChickens 2: 24"
13 Jaime Roman 30 QuintoYtapa 2: 48"
14 Yvo VanStraalen 25 Combuijs 3: 02"
15 Afonso Rio 25 OphiukoCT 3: 05"
16 Sam Lee 32 $Tourmalet 3: 36"
17 Oliver Bru 32 BorinotTeam 3: 47"
18 Alexander Rusakov 32 Facha_Bartolo 3: 58"
19 Pedro Kranz 32 Oloteam 4: 02"
20 Leandro Povoa 27 Moderdonia 4: 03"
-
stage 9 Giro ;
20º Daniljev ( free role )
69º Samsonov on 1:15"
The 20º place of Daniljev is not good enough, also because of the 1A ranking ;
CaptainOrange ( 5º ), TeamRHB ( 4º + 10º ) and Valderend ( 2º ) scored many more points in this stage.
Samsonov did not bad and his helper did a good job in s1, s2, and s3, but he did not help in s4 due to a bad tactic / due to the storm.
With the upcoming final stage 10 in mind, Samsonov had to ride an amazing stage 9 and he did not.
It is positive that he moved up one place to place 7 GC, and gets closer in time, now on 1:22"
But with a cobble skill of 14 and again a stage with storm, I'm prepared for a dissapointing, too big drop in the final GC.
-
The flat hills stage was terrible for Sven as he couldn't manage to stay with the group on the first section. The pure hilla stage wasn't good either, but he snatched some seconds and tied the time difference with Aeschliman. For the last stage, I don't know what will happen. Never raced this one for the general clasification, and also with wind.
The chance of winning the Maglia Rossa is very small, but maybe it's still there.
-
It will be very interesting tonight. The GC can look completely different. I hope to gain some places with Cabanas but he could just as well drop out of the top 10. We will try our best.
-
It will be very interesting tonight. The GC can look completely different. I hope to gain some places with Cabanas but he could just as well drop out of the top 10. We will try our best.
Well, 2 places. From 9 to 7. Thats a good result. All in all a good Giro for me. Also a unique moment: TeamRHB is now the leader in the first division at the teams and individual. We have been at the top before but not this late in the season. We are also 1000 points clear from the #4 Valderend and thats the most important. Now to keep this up for the second half of the season.
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TeamRHB is now the leader in the first division at the teams and individual.
Nice ! 8)
stage 10 Giro ;
80º Samsonov on 2:07"
A good race considering his very low cobble stat.
He had help in all flat sections of 3 teammates, and helper Daniljev even stayed with him till the finish line.
A less bigger drop as expected, just 3 places. Samsonov ended up as 10º GC on 1:54" behind Giro winner Rosario ( KunTeam ).
-
(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/logos/8ed052732fddd78a1b24c0eb2887c9f6.png)
stage winners :
stage 1 = Neeme Põder ( 32, ZBT )
stage 2 = Nicola Miorlin ( 32, SPORTLIFE )
stage 3 = Arthur Bezotosnyi ( 30, KunTeam )
stage 4 = Christian Bordeneuve ( 29, Rekutxuteam )
stage 5 = Seppo Merisalu ( 30, Aspigarri )
stage 6 = Gerhart Wächter ( 31, galegospolabici )
stage 7 = Pascal Cruyff ( 29, TilburgTerriërs )
stage 8 = András Valter ( 25, Quickstepbronx )
stage 9 = András Valter ( 25, Quickstepbronx )
stage 10 = Ismel Kaloev ( 30, Luka_Warriors )
TOP 20 FINAL GC :
1(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/jerseys/jersey_pink.png) Romeu Rosario 32 KunTeam 0: 00"
2 John Footman 30 CC_Porco_Jones 0: 42"
3 Sandis Stabulnieks 29 FaltososDeChigre 0: 45"
- - - - - - - - - -
4 Sven WinklerPrins 31 azerite 1: 05"
5 Murat Aeschliman 27 FrançaiseDesJeux 1: 20"
6 Espen Valgren 27 SentinelChickens 1: 31"
7 Tom Cabanas 32 TeamRHB 1: 35"
8 Alessandro Figueras 31 RemcoEvenpoelckx 1: 41"
9 Daniel Mulikov 28 IKIBASQUE 1: 45"
10 Dinar Samsonov 32 SPORTLIFE 1: 54"
- - - - - - - - - -
11 Jaime Roman 30 QuintoYtapa 2: 04"
12 Allan Frøyland 31 Periquitos 2: 10"
13 Dario Fernandez 32 Luka_Warriors 2: 20"
14 Sam Lee 32 $Tourmalet 2: 22"
15 Yvo VanStraalen 25 Combuijs 2: 29"
16 Afonso Rio 25 OphiukoCT 3: 12"
17 Oliver Bru 32 BorinotTeam 3: 24"
18 Pedro Kranz 32 Oloteam 3: 42"
19 Alexander Rusakov 32 Facha_Bartolo 3: 52"
20 Anthony Hilton 32 CaptainOrange 4: 10"
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(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/logos/191b5bdfdfade94930708639639a8727.png) (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/images/full(CFF).png)selection SPORTLIFE
Just one change compared to the Giro selection ; TT specialist Bell is replaced by cobble specialist Szarvas.
Unfortunately this is not an impressive Dauphiné selection.
Cobble stage 4 makes this little tour not suited for both tour riders, so the goal of this selection is to score points where ever they can.
Not many points are expected, what is not good for the 1A ranking. Most likely the 3 rival teams score many points more in this Dauphiné.
Samsonov his Giro goal was to finish on the podium, but he finished 10º GC.
Miorlin saved the Giro with his amazing stage victory and a great 2º place in the other mountain stage, both stages even in free roles.
Therefore, ánd out of respect to this Sardinian climb legend, Miorlin gets the backnumber that ends on 1.
Although the expectations are low for this silver climber without TC bonus.
In fact, he should have retired by now. But his manager was not active enough on the transfermarket, so again, Miorlin is needed.
021 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/italia.jpg) Miorlin ( 32 ), climb
022 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/alemania.jpg) Beck ( 27 ), tour
023 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/ukrania.jpg) Samsonov ( 32 ), tour
024 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/rusia.jpg) Daniljev ( 31 ), hills
025 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/hungria.jpg) Szarvas ( 32 ), cobble
Good luck everyone ! :)
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stage 1 Dauphiné ;
3º Daniljev
A more than excellent result, despite ( and as planned ) he had no support in the whole race.
The first time ever in his career that Daniljev finished on the podium. :)
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Also nice to see after race 53 of this season ; my 23yo training project gets his golden climb icon.
(https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/montanaoro.jpg) Denis Macannazi ( ITA )
Officially this young climb talent is now better than his mentor-teammate Nicolai Miorlin ( also ITA ).
He enters the golden ranking as nr 384, but I have to mention that there are a lot of much better 23yo- ánd 24yo top climbers.
More promising should be my other training project, the 22yo hills specialist Egoitz Rubiera ( ESP ).
And maybe my focus should be on the 1A ranking instead of on training projects. So, not smart, but fun to train a few good talents aside. :)
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Also nice to see after race 53 of this season ; my 23yo training project gets his golden climb icon.
(https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/montanaoro.jpg) Denis Macannazi ( ITA )
Officially this young climb talent is now better than his mentor-teammate Nicolai Miorlin ( also ITA ).
He enters the golden ranking as nr 384, but I have to mention that there are a lot of much better 23yo- ánd 24yo top climbers.
More promising should be my other training project, the 22yo hills specialist Egoitz Rubiera ( ESP ).
And maybe my focus should be on the 1A ranking instead of on training projects. So, not smart, but fun to train a few good talents aside. :)
The most important thing is to have fun, plus: it seems to go well in the 1a ranking for you. It seems like its working for you.
For my team we had a slightly dissapointing 7th place for Verbeek. He started too slow. Still his 10th top 10 of the season. Thats nice. Only one more race for him left this season. Ablett and Cook stayed together for 3 sections which was good. Not sure what the impact is on the GC but we will see.
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Indeed, fun is the most important. :)
So far it seems it will be an exciting battle between 4 teams for 3 podiumplaces.
And talking about fun ; having cycling legend Arno Verbeek in your team is a lot of fun.
I assume he is very happy with next season 15 calendar. Some even write about him in the Spanish topic. In case you missed it ;
Ya lo comenté por discord, pero con tanta GV "rara" y tan colinas y sprint-colinas. ¿Cuántas opciones le dais a Verbeek, el Barbacoa, para la bici de oro?
Molaría que un no hv ganase el premio más prestigioso individual de cff, y sería un colofón increíble para el final de la carrera de uno de los más grandes corredores de este CFF3.
And some more reactions to this post.
My comment ; if Verbeek would be Australian, his nickname would have been even better. :))
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Indeed, fun is the most important. :)
So far it seems it will be an exciting battle between 4 teams for 3 podiumplaces.
And talking about fun ; having cycling legend Arno Verbeek in your team is a lot of fun.
I assume he is very happy with next season 15 calendar. Some even write about him in the Spanish topic. In case you missed it ;
Ya lo comenté por discord, pero con tanta GV "rara" y tan colinas y sprint-colinas. ¿Cuántas opciones le dais a Verbeek, el Barbacoa, para la bici de oro?
Molaría que un no hv ganase el premio más prestigioso individual de cff, y sería un colofón increíble para el final de la carrera de uno de los más grandes corredores de este CFF3.
And some more reactions to this post.
My comment ; if Verbeek would be Australian, his nickname would have been even better. :))
Haha, i didnt see it. Didnt know he had a nickname now. I like it :P But yes, next season everyone in my team will leave except for Verbeek and anyone i need as a domestique. The last competitive season of TeamRHB will be fully for Verbeek as a thanks for what he did in his career.
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Hello everyone!
This Giro leaves me a bitter aftertaste beacuase Alessandro Figueras ended only 1:41 despite not beeing concentrated and my horrible tactics in both mountain stages. So I think Alessandro could have fought for the win with decent tactics and concentrated. I thought Pires was going for the Giro so I decided to go for an almsost secure win in Itzulia. Now I feel like I've lost a great opportunity of winning a Grand Tour and I think won't have another chance in the near future :'(.
But the season is not ended yet so i hope my young climbers get me a big amount of wins in the rest of this mountainous season ;D.
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You did great in Itzulia yes. I guess for all of us there is always some time to gain. Still, it was a very close Giro. Thats for sure!
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The expectatives were not met as Sven only got the fourth place on the final classification. The hills stage demolished all the chances he had, and the last stage wasn't good for him either, as he lost the podium place.
Now, we don't have many expectatives until Le Tour De France, where we hope Piñeiro can fight for the win
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stage 2 Dauphiné ;
1º Samsonov --> victory ! 8)
6º Beck ( free role )
WOW ! Very impressive and unexpected results. Both could not challenge the favorites.
The risky s1 tactics were good, and Miorlin did great by launching Samsonov into the s4 break away group of 5 isolated teamcaptains.
Samsonov after this stage victory :"This was a good revanche for the Giro where I just finished 10º GC,
what gave me a bitter aftertaste because I should have competed for Giro victory.
With this Dauphiné stage victory I made very clear that out of the many Giro contenders with a bitter aftertaste, I'm the best !" :P :))
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Good race Vos. Just make sure you dont have too many of them ;)
Here my risk with Cook didnt pay off. Ablett did finish in group one so thats fine.
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Good race Vos. Just make sure you dont have too many of them ;)
Thanks, and I guess Miorlin disagreed with your advice. ;)
stage 3 Dauphiné ;
3º Miorlin
20º Samsonov ( free role )
Miorlin keeps on surprising me ; even without TC bonus this silver climber achieves an excellent result.
SPORTLIFE comes closer to the nr 1 position in 1A ; now 166 points behind TeamRHB, who has an 1 point lead over CaptainOrange.
I guess it is up to Jørgensen ( transfered to TeamRHB, grrrr^^ ) to defend that enormous gap of 1 point. :))
What for sure is also interesting to me ; at the moment my team has a good gap of 1.026 points towards the nr 4.
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The fight seems to be for the win in the division. With that in kind i had a bad stage. Ablett lost a lot of time. Hopefully he can gain some places in the last 2 stages.
I foresee a difficult suisse as well so we need to survive to keep our chances high.
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This tour is not going too well unfortunately. We are in damage control mode. I cant wait for this one to end :P
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stage 4 Dauphiné ;
18º Szarvas
Not a good tactical race, but this very cheap new bought cyclist scored a few points, what is good enough.
I see that Samsonov maybe can score a few unexpected GC points despite finishing as 138º on 3:39" in this stage 4.
At the moment he is 18º GC, so my team has a goal to battle for in the final hillsprint stage.
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stage 5 Dauphiné ;
34º Samsonov on 0:48"
s1 ; good help.
s2 ; despite being isolated, still in the front.
s3 ; an unexpected drop out of the front peleton that increased in numbers here.
s4 ; still in the 2nd group on now 0:23" together with helper Beck.
s5 ; a "disaster", he finished as 1st of the big 3rd group of 43.
Even helper Beck, with lower GV and no energy left, finished in the 3rd group. And Samsonov used 5 EP in s5.
Well, this weird and unlucky time loss of 28 seconds costed just 1 place in the final GC.
Final result ; Samsonov 15º GC.
I did not expect he could score a few GC points, he even had free roles in 3 out of the 5 stages.
Despite these extra points, the 2 main rival teams in 1A scored more GC points in this Dauphiné.
CaptainOrange takes the lead again in 1A after the 3º GC place of Hilton. And TeamRHB had 2 cyclists in the top 20 GC ; 10º and 18º.
SPORTLIFE is now 423 and 309 points behind these 2 teams. I assume that the battle will continue in the Tour de Suisse. :)
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2 good stages, 2 bad stages and a really good stage. Unfortunately that didnt result in many places, still hot one that was needed for my sponsor. We have given Captain his first place back, for now, and will proceed with another difficult tour.
In other news: last night our team foight hard in the cup and new arrival Zars took the win. We are through to the semi finals and have to fight a pure hill stage against Azerit. It will be a battle between Aguado and Verbeek. Lets see if we can reach the finals.
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(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/logos/8e2fd4d4ee620c3f1192c94b40da9db9.png) (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/images/full(CFF).png)selection SPORTLIFE
In this season 14 calendar it is obvious that the mountain competition will be huge and fully prepared in this TdS and the upcoming TdF.
Also SPORTLIFE is one of the many teams that tries to compete in the mountain stages.
Basov gets the backnumber that ends on 1 because he has climbTT as extra,
and maybe he can surprise by scoring a few GC points despite he cannot sprint and has a very low hills skill.
Basov has a good palmares in the Tour de Suisse, and he even has 2 CFF records of TdS stages, including the climbTT in stage 3.
But I assume there are many better specialists for stage 3 by now.
Also in the normal mountain stages the competition is much better than in the past.
For example Basov cannot challenge the favorites of stage 1, although this is not something new, also in the past this was often the case.
The young Nyheim is the best climber of my team, but most likely I will go for Basov as teamcaptain. Nyheim gets his chances in the TdF.
Smith is the nr 1 climbTT specialist of this game, but with his very low downhill he is not so suited for this climbTT stage ( Basov is better ).
But I expect that Smith can score a nice amount of points in this only mountain time trial of season 14, probably even outside the top10.
Also next season he is not lucky with just 2 climbTT stages in little tours ( he is not suited for the TdF HFFMM TTstage ),
but that is already much better than this season 14. And those 2 stages have no downhill section in it, so he should be 1st favorite twice.
Hopefully there will be for the 1st time a climbTT as world championship TT in season 16. :) But perhaps a climbTT will never happen as WC TT.
This TdS selection was not complete, so at the last moment good old Miorlin is added as extra helper in the first mountain sections.
The maybe difficult goal in this Tour de Suisse = score more points than 1A rival teams CaptainOrange and TeamRHB. :P :P :))
021 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/rusia.jpg) Basov ( 31 ), climb + climbTT
022 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/noruega.jpg) Nyheim ( 25 ), climb
023 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/australia.jpg) Smith ( 27 ), climbTT
024 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/hungria.jpg) Kristóf ( 32 ), climbhills
025 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/italia.jpg) Miorlin ( 32 ), climb
Good luck everyone ! :)
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stage 1 Suisse ;
6º Nyheim
9º Basov ( free role )
Too many tactical doubts/too many changes of tactics often results in a tactical bad race, also the case in this windy stage 1.
Probably also a wrong strategic choice to make a last minute change of teamcaptain, because Nyheim could not follow helper Miorlin in s2.
And there were many more tactical issues/failures. But despite a very bad race, the results are not bad and a good amount of points.
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Logins had a terrible moment for a breakdown in s4. That cost him a top 10 place for sure. Loinaz and Jobet stayed together the entire race but i fear that Loinaz is not good enough for his tour.
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stage 2 Suisse ;
7º Miorlin ( free role )
25º Basov on 0:45"
26º Nyheim ( free role )
It seems I'm making the wrong strategic decisions in this Tour de Suisse.
Probably Basov could finish on 0:00" with Miorlin as helper.
And in stage 1 probably Basov could have finished 26 seconds sooner if he would have been the teamcaptain.
With the right strategic decisions Basov could have been split 2ºGC on 0:06" right now ( instead of 11ºGC on already 1:17" ).
Basov can win time in the time trial, so perhaps this is a missed opportunity for a good amount of GC points.
But also a possibillity that he loses a few minutes too much in the climbhills stage, and these strategic failures do not matter much.
Anyway, Miorlin surprised me again with a very good stage result, and SPORTLIFE comes a little closer to the nrs 1 and 2 in 1A.
Although, without GC points in this Tour de Suisse, battling for the 1A championship seems out of reach.
Maybe out of reach anyway, because in the Tour de France my team has no GC contender.
And CaptainOrange has Palmer ( TC = TdS + TdF ) and Hilton ( TC = Vuelta ), the silver and golden bike winners of previous season.
( their TC periods are just my suspicions )
But in CFF there is always something to battle for ; :)
finishing on the final 1A podium would already be great, and beating TeamRHB in the battle for the 2nd place would be even more great.^^
But for now ; the top 3 in 1A is really close, ( in theory ) it is a fierce battle for the 1A championship right now. 8)
If Basov does great in the upcoming 2 stages, SPORTLIFE can take the temporary lead in 1A. Just to make the rival teams sweat. :))
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It is very close right now. It hasnt been this close in 1s between the top 3 teams at this stage in the season for a long time. All 3 of us can win, we all have some good races to look forward to.
Loinaz did well, I changed his tactic and that ensured him a place in the first group. Unfortunately, Cook didnt do as well and lost contact from the start.
In Suisse there may be more possibilities for Loinaz then i thought. He is currently only 28 seconds removed from 4th place and most riders in front of him dont have a tt or hill icon. We will see tonight. Another big battle in the mountains is scheduled.
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finishing on the final 1A podium would already be great, and beating TeamRHB in the battle for the 2nd place would be even more great.^^
8)
For me the goal is the same: i want to finish top 3. Of course i will go for the win if theres a chance but i guess that wont change how i race. I need to do everything just to make the top 3 and maybe thats good enough for the win. We will see. Right now i think Captain is still favourite. His two stars have their main goals in front of them. For me i know a lot more once the Tour is over. I have no idea if Skogstad will be good enough in the mountains. For the mountainclassics, BBT, Vuelta, WC TT and road i have a lot better idea how i can perform.
The good thing is: we can still win everything. We are in the semi-finals of the cup, close to the lead in 1a and have a rider on top of the individual standings (although i think that Pires will win that one, but hey. So far, so good).
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I agree with your text, Sjiz.
And for sure my main goal is to finish top 3, after last season where my team missed out a podiumplace by just 32 ( ! ) points.
At the moment it seems to look very good, only one team can be a podium rival and no other teams :
My team has a big gap of 1.024 points towards Valderend. And Valderend has a big gap of 1.020 points towards the nr 5.
But that good rival team is also doing great this season and the situation can change.
For now that gap is big enough to be focussed on trying to beat the current numbers 1 and 2.
That will not be easy, for example Verbeek likes a rainy Lisbon.
But first things first, let's hope there will be a good TdS mountain stage 3 in a few minutes.
Every point can be worthfull, that is the leason I learned from previous season. :))
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stage 3 Suisse ;
3º Basov
12º Nyheim ( free role )
Not a perfect race, but I'm satisfied with these very good results.
Now it is up to Basov in stage 4 to close the current small gap of 66 points towards TeamRHB.
Basov is even ranked as 2nd favorite, what is much better than I was hoping for.
Smith will score points too. Perhaps my predicted temporary 1A lead is possible, because CaptainOrange is just 118 points ahead.
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Loinaz got a nice lightbulb next to his name. Unfortunately he was the lead of a large group with a bunch of GC guys. Tomorrow is the Tt and hillclimb. Lets see if and how much he can climb in the GC.
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Is this tour over already? :(
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stage 4 Suisse ;
2º Basov
8º Smith
Just 0:04" behind the much better Gabriele Tiblias ( 27, OphiukoCT ) who even finished with a mechanical breakdown, and in a CFF record.
Congrats with this well deserved stage victory, Ophiuko ! 8)
Excellent results of both SPORTLIFE cyclists, and now 2nd in 1A ; 130 points ahead of TeamRHB, and 44 points behind CaptainOrange.
It's extreme close in the top 3. :)
At the moment Basov is 3º GC on 0:33"
I really regret my strategic/tactical mistakes what very most likely costed 1:11" unnecessary time loss. :-[
And maybe even added with the 0:07" of stage 3, because finishing on 0:00" was possible with perfect tactics.
Despite Basov is very bad in the final climbhills stage, it is already certain that these mistakes will cause missing out a lot of GC points.
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A brilliant finish for Loinaz. I did not think it would be this good. But another great race of Loinaz. after 4 seasons i finally understand how to race him :P His second light bulb this tour. I think this is the best i could do with him. A good 7th place in the stage and a big jump to 7th in the GC as well. With that we are now well ahead of Vos in the standings. I dont see how he can be a threat anymore ;). This has also turned out to not be a terrible tour but one where we could minimise the damage. Captain has opened a gap again. Now we will see how Skogstad will do in the Tour.
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Hahaha, my team is totally defeated now and an enormous big gap between our teams, I can forget about beating TeamRHB. :))
But without kidding, really well done with "Lightbulb Loinaz" in this Tour de Suisse, Sjiz.
stage 5 Suisse ;
114º Basov on 2:17"
Not a good race ( but maybe he could not do better ), what causes a drop to 9º GC. ( without mistakes he would have been 4º GC :-[ )
Free role Kristóf was very dissapointing in this stage, he did not even score points.
And in retrospective it was a mistake to give Nyheim a helper's role.
He was not good enough to help in s3, and in a free role he would have scored 40 (or 30) GC points instead of now zero points.
Without this last mistake my team would have been 2nd in 1A, now 3rd again with a gap of 12 points towards TeamRHB.
As expected, CaptainOrange has a big gap again due to his current silver bike winner.
And he even has the current golden bike winner in reserve for the Vuelta. I guess my main target is TeamRHB. :P
Unfortunately I have no GC contender in the Tour de France, so my team has to score many, many, many stage points.
But I'm already happy if I make much less mistakes than in this Tour de Suisse.
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(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/logos/ec365cb5b403c66bf9212fc15b3d4289.png) (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/images/full(CFF).png)selection SPORTLIFE
No GC ambition in this big tour. And even a 23yo climb talent had to be selected to complete my Tour de France team.
Hopefully a few good stage results and enough points to keep on battling for a 2nd place in 1A.
021 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/rusia.jpg) Basov ( 31 ), climb
022 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/noruega.jpg) Nyheim ( 25 ), climb
023 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/hungria.jpg) Majoros ( 32 ), flat-sprint
024 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/holanda.jpg) VanGroningen ( 32 ), cobble-sprint
025 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/italia.jpg) Macannazi ( 23 ), climb
Good luck everyone ! :)
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Le Tour is about to start, and on azerite we hope we archieve a better result than in the last Giro. I think with that we will archieve the goal of staying another season in first division.
For doing so, we have selected this riders:
241: (https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/639188998983647259/801620792605540382/spain.png) David Manuel Piñeiro 25 Leader
242: (https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/639188998983647259/801620792605540382/spain.png) Roberto Carlos Nieto 28 Climb helper
243: (https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/639188998983647259/801621311285100554/alemania.png) Reinhardt Kahn 32 Cobblehill helper
244: (https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/639188998983647259/797904910359986248/holanda.png) Rene Kaspers 27 Sprint helper
245: (https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/639188998983647259/801621749917417502/ukrania.png) Ilga Biba 25 Climb helper
Piñeiro has a great chance to archieve at least a podium spot on here. However, there are a lot of strong rivals like Pires and Palmer that will fiercely battle for the maillot jaune.
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stage 1 TdF ;
2º Basov
26º Nyheim ( free role )
Exellent start of the Tour de France ! :)
Because my climbers cannot challenge any favorites in this TdF, for example Basov is the nr 223 in the golden climb ranking.
The just 23yo Macannazi did a great helper's job by returning to the front peleton of 40 in dh-section 4.
A bit dissapointing that Nyheim could no do that, but probably logical due to his free role, low flat, low xp and the many excellent rival climbers.
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Well i put Piñeiro as a domestique on the first stage, great start :D
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Just 0:04" behind the much better Gabriele Tiblias ( 27, OphiukoCT ) who even finished with a mechanical breakdown, and in a CFF record.
Congrats with this well deserved stage victory, Ophiuko ! 8)
Thanks Vos, Tiblias has 80 in downhill skill, so that made him perfect for this stage, which included a downhill section.
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Basov was 2nd favorite, and he could not even challenge 1st favorite Tiblias in the climb time trial of the Tour de Suisse.
It shows the big difference in GV. Basov has climb TT as extra and he is not a real specialist with a TT skill of 79.
Good news for Tiblias ; it seems that he has no rivals in this specific climb TT stage with 1 dh section in it.
Maybe he does have rivals, but it is almost sure they are not riding in 1A because this was the only climb TT of the season.
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stage 2 TdF ;
3º Basov
The experimental and risky helper's tactic of Nyheim did not work. So it was up to the 23yo back up helper Macannazi.
And he showed he learned climbing from the best ( = the today sold Miorlin ), because he did an amazing helper's job.
He brought Basov even in the s3 break away group of just 4, what looked pretty cool ;
section 3 = 1x a too fast helper, 1x 1st favorite/later in the race the stage winner, and 2x SPORTLIFE, including a 23yo. 8)
Basov finished solo as 3º, what is again a more than excellent result.
Hopefully also such a good result in the next well known mountain stage. And well known because Miorlin has the CFF record.
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After 3 stages its clear that in the mountains Skogstad rides for a top20 place. He has been constant so far en the results have been decent. Right now he only lost 40 seconds on Palmer in the GC, 12 on Pires and 3 on Pineiro. So, its very close still. It will be very interesting to see who is the least worst on cobbles and sprint. Pineiro seems to be good on cobbles but not on sprint and Palmer, Pires and Skogstad look to be good on sprint, but not on cobbles. Then we have Menke who looks to be the 5th GC guy at 1:40 from Palmer. Right now i feel optimistic to be able to fight for the tour podium and maybe the win.
On the transferfront i made a massive error. I have no clue what happened but on thursdaynight i received money before the transfers which is strange to me. But that led to the purchase of VanVliet. Still a usefull rider, but after buying Lacroix i would have liked a different type of rider :P Lets hope that doesnt make a negative difference in the end.
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stage 3 TdF ;
3º Basov
26º Macannazi ( helper )
What is clear after 3 stages ;
Basov is doing more than great, 2nd helper Macannazi is doing much better as expected,
and "best" helper Nyheim is really underachieving for an inexplicable reason. Again Nyheim was of no use in this stage 3.
To my surprise Basov was isolated in the s2 front group of 19, what of course was not the tactical plan.
Also to my surprise Macannazi (instead of Nyheim) came to the resque in s3. So in s3 Basov had a helper in the front group of now 17.
And again surprising, Macannazi could close the gap from s2 to s3, but with the same +2 compared to his teamcaptain,
Macannazi dropped in s4. Also Nyheim his tactics were based on helping in s4, but he was far behind, what makes not much sense to me.
I guess surprising, puzzling, unexplicable things happen in the mountains of the Tour de France.^^
Anyway, Macannazi launched his teamcaptain hard into s4,
where Basov was isolated in the 1st chasing group of 3, 0:09" behind the 2 race leaders ánd favorites who were battling for victory.
The Miro-helper was also in this 1st chasing group, and as expected, he could not follow the high pace on the final climb.
So, it was a sprint for the 3º place versus Markhus, that was won by Basov.
Again, Miro ( Rekutxuteam ) won this stage, what makes it 3 victories in a row for Miro. Very impressive !
Let's see what surprising things will happen in the next brutal mountain stage to Sestriere, one of the 2 queens stages in this Tour de France.
The other one is stage 10 to Val-Louron, including legendary climbs on the Aubisque and on the Tourmalet.
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stage 4 TdF ;
1º Basov --> amazing victory ! 8)
25º Nyheim ( helper )
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stage 5 TdF ;
5º VanGroningen
20º Majoros ("helper")
A bad tactical race. The teamcaptain-helper combo started too slow, and in s2 I should have given the helper 1 more EP.
Now the helper was 1 group behind the isolated VanGroningen in the whole race.
But I assume many more teams had difficulties in this windy stage to Antwerpen, because these results are good.
And for sure a good investment of 22k for VanGroningen. :)
Something else is good too ; SPORTLIFE is the new temporary leader in division 1A. 8)
And today even more good news ( due to the stage 4 victory of Basov ) ;
(https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/iconoscff/escalador3.jpg) King of the mountains ! 8)
SPORTLIFE is the only team that has this achievement/milestone ( and the only team that has this 2 stars milestone ).
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Half of the Tour is done, and Piñeiro (25, azerite) is 1' 02'' behind the current leader, Julio Manuel Miró (28, Rekutxuteam). But is unlikely that Miró stays as leader after the sprints.
Among the main rivals for the Maillot Jaune, Allan Palmer (31, CaptainOrange) is 15s over Piñeiro right now, and with another 2 mountain stages to come, he might be the number 1 favourite.
Maybe if i didn't put the wrong roles on stage 1, Piñeiro would be the one leading among the GC riders.
Other great contenders could be Lazare Pires (27, FrançaiseDesJeux), Hugo Skogstad (32, TeamRHB) or Aleksandr Menke (27, FaltososDeChigre).
1 Julio Manuel Miro 28 Rekutxuteam 0: 00"
2 Allan Palmer 31 CaptainOrange 0: 47"
3 Daniel Basov 31 SPORTLIFE 0: 50"
4 Jérémy Huard 25 RemcoEvenpoelckx 0: 54"
5 David Manuel Piñeiro 25 azerite 1: 02"
6 Boris Walker 24 Moderdonia 1: 48"
7 Lazare Pires 27 FrançaiseDesJeux 1: 55"
8 Reto Meyer 28 ZG 1: 59"
9 Hugo Skogstad 32 TeamRHB 2: 34"
10 Aleksandr Menke 27 FaltososDeChigre 2: 34"
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It will be intersting to see how good the climbers can sprint and how much time they will lose. I expect a few to challenge for the podium. Im not entirely happy with Skogstad this morning. He finished first op his group and Palmer last. Thats a big shame. A chance to gain time lost. Hopefully we can fight for the podium after the sprints are done.
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(https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/iconoscff/escalador3.jpg) King of the mountains ! 8)
SPORTLIFE is the only team that has this achievement/milestone ( and the only team that has this 2 stars milestone ).
And the only team who ever will, well unless you sell the cyclist who got it.
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(https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/iconoscff/escalador3.jpg) King of the mountains ! 8)
SPORTLIFE is the only team that has this achievement/milestone ( and the only team that has this 2 stars milestone ).
And the only team who ever will, well unless you sell the cyclist who got it.
I have sold Miorlin yesterday, before the TdF stage 4 victory of Basov what caused getting this milestone.
Miorlin had 25 victories, and Basov has just 11 victories now.
So, perhaps it is not a milestone for an individual cyclist, but perhaps it is a milestone for the team ( I had some other victorious climbers too ).
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Grrrr, I see that Basov dropped to a 9 star climber today.
But a stage victory just before dropping, is a great way to say goodbye to his 10 stars. And almost 100% sure this was Basov his last victory.
For the managers of GC contenders in the Tour de France ; the current nr 3 GC is no rival. ( very, very bad in sprint, and very low hills skill )
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(https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/iconoscff/escalador3.jpg) King of the mountains ! 8)
SPORTLIFE is the only team that has this achievement/milestone ( and the only team that has this 2 stars milestone ).
And the only team who ever will, well unless you sell the cyclist who got it.
I have sold Miorlin yesterday, before the TdF stage 4 victory of Basov what caused getting this milestone.
Miorlin had 25 victories, and Basov has just 11 victories now.
So, perhaps it is not a milestone for an individual cyclist, but perhaps it is a milestone for the team ( I had some other victorious climbers too ).
It is for your team but its a strange one with the new dynamic calendar. You need to get x amount of wins in a type of race. But the dynamic calendar messes up the count. So it varies after how many wins you get it.
A good flatclimb today. After a heavy and quick start skogstad sat comfortably in the front. Jobet was able to help him excellently and Skogstad finished on a solid 9th place with a light bulb. I guess i have to be happy then :) Hopefully he can get some time back on all the people higher up than him in the cobblehill stage.
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stage 6 TdF ;
28º Basov on 1:04" :-[
Hmmm, I decided to take no risk at all despite there was just 1 stripe wind, because Basov cannot ride a top result and every point is welcome.
Very unexpectedly Basov ( 2 EP ) and his better helper ( 3 EP ) could not follow the s1 break away group of 27.
Even Nyheim ( 3 EP ) in a free role with active weather icon was in the 2nd group of s1, but maybe that was due to his mechanical breakdown.
And to make things worse, Basov was suddenly isolated in s4, because his helper ( and free role Nyheim ) dropped out of the 2nd group.
A very dissapointing result ; although Basov did not even get the CFF dissapointment icon. In my opinion he should have deserved that.
The maybe top favorite to win this Tour, Palmer ( CaptainOrange ), finished as 3º. And his helper finished as 15º.
So, SPORTLIFE is again 2nd in 1A, but it was fun to take the lead once. :)
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Skogstad was only able to gain 20 seconds on Palmer. Thats not enough and the gap for the win is too large now. We now need to focus on keeping menke behind and gaining time on pineiro on the sprints. Pires is most likely also too strong.
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After a very tough stage agains Kirin and his Aguada we managed to come out on top. Verbeek won the stage for us and we are faced with another hill stage, the Lisbon WC race, in the finals. I feel confident ahead of the stage but i also know that i havent had an easy round yet. After IKIBASQUE (1a, round 1), Cabrasverdes (1a, round 2), RajenKujen (2b, last 32), BlackHole (1a, last 16), GMV_Cycling (1a, Quarter-finals) and then Azerite (1a, semi finals) we made it to the end and the first prize of the season is in the pocket.
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Great semi final victory in the CFF Cup, Sjiz ! 8)
Already a very nice silver price, and a good chance that Verbeek can turn it into a golden price, because the CFF Cup final is a HHHHH race.
Good luck in the final versus Mlb !
Of course, also Mlb congrats with the semi final victory 8) and good luck in the final !
Maybe Mlb can surprise with Berry ( 76º ) versus Verbeek ( 6º ). Berry had already a surprising good result this season ; 4º Fleche Wallonie.
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After a very tough stage agains Kirin and his Aguada we managed to come out on top. Verbeek won the stage for us and we are faced with another hill stage, the Lisbon WC race, in the finals. I feel confident ahead of the stage but i also know that i havent had an easy round yet. After IKIBASQUE (1a, round 1), Cabrasverdes (1a, round 2), RajenKujen (2b, last 32), BlackHole (1a, last 16), GMV_Cycling (1a, Quarter-finals) and then Azerite (1a, semi finals) we made it to the end and the first prize of the season is in the pocket.
I think ur mistaking me with Aspigarri.
Anyways, congratulations on getting into the finals! U have a good stage for Verbeek on it so its almost yours
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After a very tough stage agains Kirin and his Aguada we managed to come out on top. Verbeek won the stage for us and we are faced with another hill stage, the Lisbon WC race, in the finals. I feel confident ahead of the stage but i also know that i havent had an easy round yet. After IKIBASQUE (1a, round 1), Cabrasverdes (1a, round 2), RajenKujen (2b, last 32), BlackHole (1a, last 16), GMV_Cycling (1a, Quarter-finals) and then Azerite (1a, semi finals) we made it to the end and the first prize of the season is in the pocket.
I think ur mistaking me with Aspigarri.
Anyways, congratulations on getting into the finals! U have a good stage for Verbeek on it so its almost yours
Wups, you are correct :p
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stage 8 TdF ;
30º Majoros
Remarkable that he finished with the dissapointment icon.
According to me it was doubtfull if he was good enough to score points in a hillsprint stage.
But indeed, a bad race, because his 1 EP start was not good enough, and despite a total of 6 EP in s2 and s3, he could not return in s3.
stage 9 TdF ;
6º Majoros
Revanche ! A very good result because he does not like that hill in the final s5. VanGroningen did an excellent job as helper.
As expected, Basov ( in a free role ) lost many minutes in both sprint stages, but good to see that he will score extra unexpected GC points.
At the moment he is 13º GC on 9:17" behind upcoming Tour de France winner Palmer ( CaptainOrange ).
Probably Basov can move up one place after the final mountain stage.
Unfortunately, it seems CaptainOrange will be again the 1A champion ( as expected ).
A good lead after this TdF, and a good chance that team scores many future points. For example Hilton is a top favorite for the Vuelta.
I guess it will be a fun battle versus TeamRHB for the 2nd place.
Already it looks almost certain that my team will get an 1A podiumplace this season. The best result ever, and very nice after 3x 4º places.
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stage 10 TdF ;
2º Basov
27º Nyheim ( helper )
Again a more than excellent result of 9-star climber Basov finishing solo as 2º, just one of the favorites was better.
Basov even moved up 2 places in the GC, and he ended up as 11º GC.
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We finished as 5th this TdF. I am happy with the result but i did not expect to lose the podium in the sprints. Still happy with how the Tour and Suisse went. Beforehand the most difficult races for me and they went ok. It does appear that Captain created a decisive gap. Gaining 1500 points will not be easy, in fact, i think it will be impossible with Hilton and the Vuelta still coming up. I guess the fight will be for second in the division. Hopefully i can get some points back on Vos tomorrow morning. Skogstad will continue riding there.
the BinkBankTour will also be interesting. VanGroningen and Jorgenson swapped teams and will be optimally prepared for the race. I hope to challenge for the podium with the Danish cobbleguy and second of Paris-Roubaix. But first to Spain!
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Really happy with the performance of Palmer and his domestiques. 9 really strong stages and a mediocre last one when the victory was almost sure already. Palmer did well to gain time on other GC rivals in the mountains and did a great job to finish in the same group as Pires in the sprint stages.
Good results of Sportlife in the mountain stages (fighting against a superb Miro) and TeamRHB with Skogstad in the GC means this season is not over yet, but this Tour de France is a good step towards ending on top at the end of this season.
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Well my 2 major mistakes costed me the Tour, but it wasn't that suited for Piñeiro with the softness of the cobble stages, so it wasn't a bad perfomance at the end. I will take the podium. Also the last sprint stage was really good for Piñeiro, he even missed no time with the much better sprinter Pires.
Now time for Binckbank Tour, where maybe Kahn or Winter can opt to the podium as well
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# Great Tour de France victory of Palmer, Rico. 8)
# Also a great Tour de France of Piñeiro, Kirin !
Finishing with a just 25yo behind 2 amazing GC contenders like Palmer and Pires, in my opinion that is a very good 3º GC podium place.
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First the for my team important SanSebastian ; important, because I have doubts if my not great BBT selection can score enough points.
And after the BBT ;
Tusveld is joining the fierce GC Vuelta battle versus Hilton ( CaptainOrange ), Loinaz ( TeamRHB ), and many other good GC rivals.
Loinaz is a guess, I'm not entirely sure what Sjiz his Vuelta strategy is.
But I'm sure it will be an interesting Vuelta on many fronts. I'm looking forward to it already. :)
Let's hope Tusveld does well despite he rides 7 or 6 stages with 99 form.
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Clasica San Sebastian ;
28º Kristóf ( helper )
30º Myers ( teamcaptain ) :-[
Massive tactical failure ! ! !
Teamcaptain Myers and free role Vorre started too slow, while the 3 helpers were in the front peleton of s1, s2 and s3.
Vorre and even Myers could not return, and the teamcaptain was the whole race isolated and too far behind.
A missed opportunity to score many points with the especially for this race prepared Myers.
Most likely he could have finished top 10 with a good start.
A big mistake, with maybe big consequences.
Wanted ; new manager for SPORTLIFE ! Because the current manager sucks ! :D
Just a dissapointing total of 60 points, and probably this is the worst San Sebastian ever of my team.
1A leader CaptainOrange scored 275 points and rival TeamRHB scored 225 points.
This is not good at all. And with the upcoming BBT, the current nr 2 position is in jeopardy. Because the difference is just 236 points now.
(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/logos/d3b3b3dd456bf24faf1cea8cfca6c56d.png) (https://i.imgur.com/GvIPZ8B.png)selection SPORTLIFE
Perhaps a new team shirt will help me not to make big mistakes.
This supercool, amazing team shirt is created by Franky, muchas gracias ! 8)
Let's hope this not strong BBT selection can score enough points, despite their fear for ex-SPORTLIFE cyclist Jørgensen ( now TeamRHB ).
This selection is not even complete, what gives climber Nyheim an opportunity to gain very needed experience.
021 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/hungria.jpg) Szarvas ( 32 ), cobble
022 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/holanda.jpg) VanGroningen ( 32 ), cobble-sprint
023 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/hungria.jpg) Majoros ( 32 ), sprint
024 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/belgica.jpg) Lebrun ( 29 ), sprint
025 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/noruega.jpg) Nyheim ( 25 ), experience
Good luck everyone ! :)
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A strange San Sebastian with a lot of attacks. Skogstad lost his domestiques very quickly. Luckily he was able to ride good race. I thought he could do a podium if i was lucky. Well, I was not but 6th is also good. Valuable points and the gap with vos is a little smaller now.
Tonight we will ride for jorgenson. I am very curious to see where he can finish. In my mind he has already won the GC and 2 stages. Lets hope this becomes reality :p.
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(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/logos/d3b3b3dd456bf24faf1cea8cfca6c56d.png)
The BinckBank Tour favorites in the Prediction Race :
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Yannick Pierre ( 32, CobbleCrushers )
⭐⭐⭐ Dré Degrande ( 32, Cabrasverdes )
⭐ Spodris Martisons ( 24, Mlb )
⭐ Toms Brikmanis ( 26, BlackHole )
⭐ Kyril VandenBergh ( 32, Cabrasverdes )
For what it is worth, for example in my opinion VandenBergh is not suited for this BBT.
Although also to me ; Pierre is thé top favorite.
But not mentioned are possible top GC contenders like Anders Jørgensen ( 32, TeamRHB ), Bram Travin ( 32, Thorboassonarvesen ),
and there are probably many more flat-cobble-sprinters with a little hill-stat as extra, who might ride a top GC in this specific BinckBank Tour.
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I have no idea if it went well. We will see in the next few stages :p
Edit: compared to the cobble favourites tomorrow it was a good stage and i took more than 1:30 on many of them.
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Stage winner Yannick Pierre was active in the Tour de France,
so if he has cobble TC bonus then it is not active anymore in stage 5.
What is an advantage to the GC contenders with TC bonus in all 5 stages.
Among them ( hopefully ) Szarvas, who finished 83º on 2:19", what is pretty good with his low hills GV.
Szarvas is not a top GC contender, for example already 0:50" behind Jørgensen ( of rival TeamRHB ), who is also better in all upcoming stages.
But Szarvas needs to score some GC points, so that the expected gap towards TeamRHB is as small as possible after this BBT.
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A good race: Jorgenson took the win. Very happy with it. My first flat cobble win this version. The time gaps were small which doesnt bode well for the chances on the win. Only a handful seconds gained on Pierre. Still, we are up to 16th on the GC. Thats already a good start.
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Great victory with not-favorite Jørgensen, very well done Sjiz ! 8)
Just one thing in your amazing stage 2 BBT is not great at all ; you make the battle for the silver 1A cup way too exciting ! :P :))
stage 2 BBT ;
7º Szarvas on 0:00"
A good result, and also good that he finished in the break away group of 8.
It seems a few extra GC points will be difficult ( and maybe too difficult ) ; at the moment 45º GC on 2:11"
This is not promising looking at the small time differences of stage 2, and probably Szarvas cannot finish on 0:00" in sprint stage 4.
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A fine 3rd place. Unfortunately Lezhnev couldnt follow in S1 and that cost me the victory. Jorgenson had to ride the entire race on his own. Still a good day and a nice jump in the GC. He is now 6th. Lets see how the sprint goes and after we will try our best in the last cobble stage.
the only downside to this race are the 3 riders from Vos in the top 10 :P
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the only downside to this race are the 3 riders from Vos in the top 10 :P
;D
TeamRHB is hard to beat, I guess I have to use all possible fox-tricks.^^
stage 3 BBT ;
8º VanGroningen ( free role )
9º Szarvas ( teamcaptain )
10º Majoros ( free role )
A good amount of points in a bit of odd tactics, but I had to try because these 3 are very different in stats.
I had no faith in them riding good together. And probably helper Lebrun showed this was a good decision,
because he suddenly dropped in s3 despite he accelerated compared to his teamcaptain ( s2 = +1, and s3 = +2 ).
And in case that happened, Lebrun had a back up tactic to return in s4, unfortunately he could not make the jump.
But very satisfied with this stage 3 to Rotterdam. :)
And important ; Szarvas finished as last of the break away group on 0:00"
He enters the top 20 and now 18ºGC on 1:48" behind GC leader Pierre.
However, it is all very close together in the battle for some GC points, and Szarvas fears the upcoming sprint stage.
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Zars was the best domestique and Jorgenson was able to just hold on to the peloton. A good stage in which we were able to gain some time and positions. It will be very close and an interesting battle tonight. I have no idea what is possible. Jorgenson will just have to ride his best race and then we will see the results once the dust from the cobbles settles.
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stage 4 BBT ;
10º Majoros ( free role )
14º Lebrun ( free role )
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49º Szarvas on 0:27"
In retrospective, looking at how this race went ; too safe tactics / probably all my cyclists used a bit too many energy in the first 4 sections.
Perhaps it was even possible to ride in a risky tactic in order to get teamcaptain Szarvas finishing in the first group.
Or perhaps that was too risky. Now I will never know with my tactical choice based on that he would finish in the 2nd group for sure.
This stage 4 most likely could have been better, although not a bad race ;
the free roles scored enough points, and also as planned, helper VanGroningen was the whole race together with teamcaptain Szarvas.
Szarvas moved up 2 places and now 16ºGC on 1:48"
Hopefully the final cobble stage goes very well and he can move up a few places.
Every point is needed to get the expected division 1A gap behind TeamRHB as small as possible after this BBT.
As it looks now, it will be a very small gap.
Both teams in a fierce silver 1A cup battle, narrowed the gap towards CaptainOrange. Although the 1A leader has still a way too big gap.
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Hmmm, just noticed this ;
(https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/adoquinplata.jpg) Leó Szarvas ( 32 ) dropped to silver this morning.
His Vuelta selection was already doubtfull, maybe this means he will not ride that big tour despite every point is needed.
Instead of Szarvas, perhaps an extra helper for Vuelta teamcaptain Tusveld will be selected.
Stage 5 BBT might be the last race of Szarvas in my team, who was bought halfway this season and a good investment of just 162k.
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Magnificent final GC victory of Anders Jørgensen in the BinckBank Tour, Sjiz ! Congratulations with this very impressive result ! 8)
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Magnificent final GC victory of Anders Jørgensen in the BinckBank Tour, Sjiz ! Congratulations with this very impressive result ! 8)
Thanks, he had good morale after finishing second in Roubaix ;)
It was a very close race and i enjoyed being the hunter for once. I didnt really expect the win anymore, not after the close second stage. But luckily this one was tougher. In the end Jorgenson had to give the stage to Friend. He couldnt win the sprint after pulling so hard and long on the front. Still a very good result and only my second ever GC win.
All in all this was a very good BBT. I hoped for 3 stage wins and the GC. But 1st, 2nd and 3rd and the GC is something i am happy with :P The gap to Captain is now 700 points, which isnt much but at the same time it is :P. Vos is close behind still but it seems the top 3 is set, maybe not the order. Although i expect Captain to pull away after the Vuelta I will try my best. Loinaz will have to prove his worth.
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stage 5 BBT ;
9º Szarvas on 0:23"
An excellent stage what caused moving up several places and Szarvas ended up as 10ºGC. Better as expected. :)
Also TeamRHB did better as expected, Jørgensen even won the BBT !
So, due to this GC victory the gap towards TeamRHB is much bigger as expected, but now 195 points behind, that is still a little gap.
Next "battle ground" = Vuelta a España !
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(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/logos/c8892128eff206aeb674bcc6880a73a6.png) (https://i.imgur.com/GvIPZ8B.png)selection SPORTLIFE
Tusveld has GC ambition and he will be the teamcaptain in all stages.
Possibly that Simon gets a free role in stage 10 to score extra points. And Bell should score extra points in TT stages 2 and 3.
So it mainly depends on how well Tusveld will do, in order to keep on battling for the 2nd place in division 1A.
021 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/holanda.jpg) Tusveld ( 32 ), tour / teamcaptain
022 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/australia.jpg) Bell ( 31 ), TT / helper
023 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/alemania.jpg) Beck ( 27 ), tour / helper
024 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/colombia.jpg) Simon ( 31 ), hills / helper
025 (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/rusia.jpg) Basov ( 31 ), climb / helper
Good luck everyone ! :)
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Climb legend Nicolai Miorlin returned to SPORTLIFE. 8)
He was just 8 days out of my team to ride the Tour de France in the 2nd division.
Miorlin will retire now and he gets the job as assistent manager. He will be the first cyclist in my hall of fame.
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A decent start, not unhappy with 16th for Loinaz. The only problem is that he already lost time on some competitors.
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stage 1 Vuelta ;
8º Basov
13º Tusveld on 1:02"
The gap with TeamRHB decreased, and CaptainOrange increased the gap.
A few GC rivals won too much time in this stage ;
Miro, Hilton and Walker finished on 0:20", although maybe Miro and Walker are not real GC rivals ; 6º and 8º in the Tour de France.
Pires finished on 0:31" and Blix finished on 0:41"
Del Piero and VanStraalen finished in the same time as Tusveld, who won 10 seconds on Loinaz of rival TeamRHB.
Tusveld has to make the difference in the upcoming 2 time trials ( I suspect TT is his strenght compared to many GC rivals ),
to compensate the expected time loss in other stages ( I suspect cobbles and hills are the weakness of Tusveld ).
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stage 2 Vuelta ;
6º Bell
21º Tusveld
stage 3 Vuelta ;
8º Bell
23º Tusveld
No incidents in both time trials, that is good.
As expected, Tusveld is now high ranked in the GC. Although I was hoping that he could win more time in both TT stages.
With mountain stage 1 in mind ( GC leader Blix was 0:21" faster, Pires was 0:31" faster and Hilton was 0:42" faster ),
the current GC has too small time differences.
And Tusveld has many more fierce rivals who are already now too close in the GC.
Perhaps it is more clear to me what Tusveld his GC chances are after stage 7.
But because the current GC looks great for Tusveld, let's post it already : :)
(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/logos/c8892128eff206aeb674bcc6880a73a6.png) GC after 3 stages :
1(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/jerseys/jersey_red.png)(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/no.png) Aksel Blix 27 Aspigarri 0: 00"
2 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/co.png) Dario Fernandez 32 Luka_Warriors 0: 01"
3 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/nl.png) Tjerk Tusveld 32 SPORTLIFE 0: 09"
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4 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/fr.png) Lazare Pires 27 FrançaiseDesJeux 0: 18"
5 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/nl.png) Yvo VanStraalen 25 Combuijs 0: 44"
6 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/gb.png) Anthony Hilton 32 CaptainOrange 0: 48"
7 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/no.png) Allan Frøyland 31 Periquitos 1: 00"
8 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/es.png) Rafael Carlos Loinaz 32 TeamRHB 1: 08"
9 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/gb.png) Richard Rogers 31 Facha_Bartolo 1: 09"
10 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/ru.png) Daniel Basov 31 SPORTLIFE 1: 37"
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11 Edward VanPutten 31 SentinelChickens 1: 41"
12 Pedro Kranz 32 Oloteam 1: 45"
13 Aleksandr Menke 27 FaltososDeChigre 2: 04"
14 Nestor Cabrera 26 galegospolabici 2: 06"
15 Adam Zipp 25 azerite 2: 11"
16 Jaime Roman 30 QuintoYtapa 2: 16"
17 Leandro Povoa 27 Moderdonia 2: 24"
18 Alvaro Vaca 32 Kelme4ever 2: 31"
19 Pietro Ferrara 32 Sonfuga 2: 34"
20 Terry Montgomery 26 IntellinetCyclingFF 2: 47"
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stage 4 Vuelta ;
12º Tusveld on 1:04"
26º Basov
Very bad race !
Tusveld was suddenly and unexpectedly isolated in s2 already, and because of that he made a big drop in s3.
Somehow helper Beck and even masterhelper Basov could not return to their teamcaptain, also not in s4.
And not just a very bad race, but also an unlucky race because Tusveld finished as first of a big group.
Just one place behind Loinaz who finished 0:21" faster.
And Tusveld should have been good enough to finish together with VanStraalen and Hilton, who both were 0:54"( ! ) faster.
Almost one minute unnecessary time loss is not good at all. :-[
Tusveld dropped to 5ºGC on 0:41" behind GC leader Blix.
Let's hope all other Vuelta stages go much better, and let's hope this bad stage has no big consequences in the GC ánd the 1A ranking.
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stage 5 Vuelta ;
7º Tusveld on 0:21"
This sounds familiar ; again section 2 did not go well, all 4 helpers dropped. I guess I'm making bad tactical choices in this Vuelta.
And perhaps also strategic bad choices, because Basov could have scored points in a free role, instead of dropping in s2 as helper.
Despite Tusveld had to do it on his own, he finished very good.
In the same group as Loinaz and Pires, but of course not good that Loinaz finished 2 places better, that is 25 points difference.
6 seconds were won on Blix and VanStraalen, and 16 seconds on Hilton and Fernandez.
Again a missed opportunity of Tusveld to win more time, although in this stage just a few seconds, the previous stage was much worse.
Tusveld moved up to 3ºGC, and if he would have had a better manager, he would have been the GC leader.
Let's see what the very different 2nd half of this Vuelta brings.
The top 8 is still close together, and maybe even more GC rivals will join the battle, or maybe they are already too far behind the top 8.
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(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/logos/c8892128eff206aeb674bcc6880a73a6.png) GC after 5 stages :
1(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/jerseys/jersey_red.png)(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/no.png) Aksel Blix 27 Aspigarri 0: 00"
2 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/nl.png) Yvo VanStraalen 25 Combuijs 0: 23"
3 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/nl.png) Tjerk Tusveld 32 SPORTLIFE 0: 36"
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4 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/gb.png) Anthony Hilton 32 CaptainOrange 0: 38"
5 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/co.png) Dario Fernandez 32 Luka_Warriors 0: 44"
6 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/fr.png) Lazare Pires 27 FrançaiseDesJeux 0: 45"
7 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/es.png) Rafael Carlos Loinaz 32 TeamRHB 1: 13"
8 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/no.png) Allan Frøyland 31 Periquitos 1: 48"
9 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/ch.png) Boris Walker 24 Moderdonia 2: 50"
10 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/nl.png) Edward VanPutten 31 SentinelChickens 2: 51"
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11 Daniel Basov 31 SPORTLIFE 2: 58"
12 Adam Zipp 25 azerite 3: 00"
13 Richard Rogers 31 Facha_Bartolo 3: 03"
14 Pietro Ferrara 32 Sonfuga 3: 23"
15 Elia Del Piero 32 Sonfuga 3: 24"
16 John Footman 30 CC_Porco_Jones 3: 32"
17 Pedro Kranz 32 Oloteam 3: 38"
18 Andy Pezet 27 Aspigarri 4: 00"
19 Oliver Bru 32 BorinotTeam 4: 06"
20 Herbie Steele 32 CaptainOrange 4: 12"
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A nice result voor Loinaz, not the strongeat climb er. But his domestiques rode full out in s1 and 2. Reading the Story from vos and looking at Palmer it may have had succes. I am satisfied. As we call it in Dutch: een speldenprik.
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And there it is, my first non TT win on 1st div!!!
Zipp also managed to do decent on a free role, breaking the peloton on s2.
For the upcoming stages, we will try to win stage 8 and get the not on best shape Zipp into top10 of La Vuelta.
I don't think we need points on Worlds or Lombardia, so we will just chill and ride for experience.
Good luck to the ones that are fighting for winning 1st div or not demote!!
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And there it is, my first non TT win on 1st div!!!
Zipp also managed to do decent on a free role, breaking the peloton on s2.
For the upcoming stages, we will try to win stage 8 and get the not on best shape Zipp into top10 of La Vuelta.
I don't think we need points on Worlds or Lombardia, so we will just chill and ride for experience.
Good luck to the ones that are fighting for winning 1st div or not demote!!
Congratulations, Kirin, great victory of your 25yo Sergey Babak ! 8)
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A good day for my team. This morning Loinaz took 5th and a little time, this evening poldoja took 9th and Loinaz a little time on a few competitors (except that annoying Palmer) and just now Verbeek won the final in the cup and with that he secure the first prize of the season. I was the big favourite but still had to do it. Mlb did a great cup but was onfortunate with the draw. Still well done!
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(https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/copaq.jpg) Great price ! Congratulations and very well done Sjiz ! 8)
(https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/copaq2.jpg) Also well done to Mlb and congratulations with the silver CFF Cup ! 8)
Although Mlb lost the CFF Cup final, one hour earlier he won a great price :
(https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/camiclasicas.jpg) (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/australia.jpg) Angus Friend ( Mlb ) = individual NT world champion ! 8)
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Thanks Sjiz and Vos! :) :)
And congrats also to both of you.
Sjiz congrats with the cup victory, i tried my best but Berry is no competition for the great Verbeek.
And Vos congrats with your 2° place with Australia in the NT championship, and many thanks, because Angus won the individual NT jersey thanks to your great tactics.
;) ;)
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Thanks guys!
Another good stage. No time loss on Hilton in a cobble race is good. In fact, no time loss on any GC guy and almost a minute gained on Pires. Thats good news and we went up one place in the GC and are now 5th.
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Thanks Mlb :)
stage 6 Vuelta ;
33º Tusveld on 0:47"
The tactics of best helper Beck were too risky, he started too slow, and never saw his teamcaptain in this race.
Also hills specialist Simon could not help despite a 4 EP start. Tusveld had only help in s1 of flat TT specialist Bell.
So, Tusveld had to do it on his own again almost the whole race.
He proved in hill s4 he is not very suited for this stage, because despite full power he dropped from the front peleton into the 2nd chasing peleton on 0:23" and without sprint icon and due to not much energy left, he lost more time in s5.
He dropped one place and now 4ºGC.
stage 7 Vuelta ;
36º Tusveld on 1:25"
Before this race it was clear it was all about damage control ; no sprint icon, no cobble icon, and no helpers.
Tusveld surprised me by doing pretty well, and he even moved up one place and now again 3ºGC.
Let's hope that Tusveld has some good help in the next stage 8, because so far this Vuelta the helpers are performing very badly.
What has a big impact on the GC ranking of Tusveld.
Another ranking is also interesting ; in 1A TeamRHB is just 91 (!) points behind ( and CaptainOrange has a big lead of 946 points ).
A very close and a very exciting silver 1A cup battle. What makes the (also close) GC battle between Loinaz and Tusveld even more fun. :)
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(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/logos/c8892128eff206aeb674bcc6880a73a6.png) GC after 7 stages :
1(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/jerseys/jersey_red.png)(https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/no.png) Aksel Blix 27 Aspigarri 0: 00"
2 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/gb.png) Anthony Hilton 32 CaptainOrange 0: 18"
3 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/nl.png) Tjerk Tusveld 32 SPORTLIFE 0: 36"
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4 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/nl.png) Yvo VanStraalen 25 Combuijs 0: 50"
5 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/es.png) Rafael Carlos Loinaz 32 TeamRHB 1: 13"
6 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/fr.png) Lazare Pires 27 FrançaiseDesJeux 1: 17"
7 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/co.png) Dario Fernandez 32 Luka_Warriors 2: 37"
8 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/no.png) Allan Frøyland 31 Periquitos 2: 39"
9 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/nl.png) Edward VanPutten 31 SentinelChickens 3: 18"
10 (https://www.worldcyclingstats.com/img/flags/small/gb.png) Richard Rogers 31 Facha_Bartolo 3: 30"
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11 Nathan Lust 28 FaltososDeChigre 3: 47"
12 Adam Zipp 25 azerite 3: 52"
13 John Footman 30 CC_Porco_Jones 3: 57"
14 Aleksandr Menke 27 FaltososDeChigre 4: 50"
15 Jaime Roman 30 QuintoYtapa 4: 51"
16 Oliver Bru 32 BorinotTeam 4: 57"
17 Elia Del Piero 32 Sonfuga 6: 33"
18 Norbert Buijs 26 BLOEMENAANDEMITTE 7: 05"
19 Nestor Cabrera 26 galegospolabici 7: 06"
20 Pedro Kranz 32 Oloteam 7: 22"
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A surprise result for Loinaz, a great podium. It is a shame that now i finally understand how to race with him, he is old and in his last season at my team. So far i dont think i made a mistake this Vuelta and in Suisse it was the same.
For the GC this stage did nothing and for the podium battle of 1a it also didnt do a lot as Vos, me and Ricardo finished 2,3 and 4. Still a good stage, better then expected.
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stage 8 Vuelta ;
2º Tusveld --> his best race result ever ! :)
16º Beck
Tusveld is for sale :
https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/vision.php?ciclistaid=8990
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stage 9 Vuelta ;
42º Tusveld on 1:10"
He had good help in the first 3 sections, probably the reason he had a good race.
Although he lost 5sec. to Loinaz, 14sec. to VanStraalen, 19sec. to Blix and 28sec. to Hilton.
At the moment Tusveld is still 3ºGC, now on 0:55" behind GC leader Blix.
But I guess that VanStraalen and Loinaz will overtake Tusveld in the final stage, so I expect a dissapointing drop of 2 places.
The real damage of this tactical bad Vuelta was already done in earlier stages,
in my opinion Tusveld could have been the GC leader now, with at least more than 1 minute ahead of Blix and Hilton.
Perhaps the managers of Aspigarri and CaptainOrange made many mistakes too, if not, Tusveld could/should have been the Vuelta winner.
Maybe this bad Vuelta has big consequences in the final 1A ranking.
Of course, looking at the whole season, more things that can cost a place in the final 1A ranking, for example not having a cobblehills cyclist.
Anyway, I'm ready for a big dissapointment, but it was (and is) fun to compete high in the GC of the Vuelta. :)
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A little dissapointing result. The domestiques did a fine job but the result was not what i hoped. I guess that Loinaz just wasnt better. Not enough time gained and i even lost some on other. We did gain some time on Pires which is good news. With only one stage remaining it appears that the gap behind Loinaz is sufficient and we can look forward and hope to gain some places. That would have to be at the cost of two Dutchies, Tusveld and Van Straalen. I am not so sure that Loinaz will be able to pass them at all, 30 seconds is a lot. For now i expect to remain 5th.
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Well, Tusveld and Loinaz are for sale, so you can compare their hills GV.
Loinaz should be much better, but maybe it is not entirely sure yet if he can win 0:32" compared to Tusveld in stage 10.
Although my "worries" are huge. All hope is on VanStraalen now, that he stays ahead of Loinaz. I guess I have to buy some Combuijs beer. :))
Because Loinaz 4ºGC and Tusveld 5ºGC = 50 points difference.
And Loinaz 3ºGC and Tusveld 5ºGC = 150 points difference, what is way too much. :P
Especially because now I see on the TL how good your cyclists are, except for your 2 hills specialists, but they are notorious to me anyway.
Also I knew already that you have a pretty good Lombardia selection, but a little surprising to me is to see your TT specialist Spiker.
He should be good enough to score a good amount of points, ánd he has an active weather icon ( luckily just 1 is active, he has 3 ! ).
Still it is a very exciting silver 1A cup battle, and after seeing your cyclists, I'm counting even more on many points in the WC TT.
I estimate those TT points are very needed, because I fear your hills specialists the most.
But first step 1 in the battle ; VanStraalen ( Combuijs ) has to prevent that Loinaz scores 100 points extra in the GC.
And funny+exciting that the difference between our teams is very little at this moment, just 105 points. :)
Whatever happens, we already can assume we achieved our season goals of an 1A podiumplace. The nr4 is far behind. 8)
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stage 10 Vuelta ;
11º Simon
48º Tusveld on 1:00"
A much better outcome as expected after stage 9 ; Tusveld finishes on the final GC podium as 3º.
Despite this good result, it was not a good Vuelta because the mistakes were much bigger than the time of 1:32" behind Vuelta winner Blix.
And perhaps a chance on the 1A championship was possible if Tusveld would have won. ( 500 points difference compared to now )
Now 954 points behind 1A leader CaptainOrange, instead of 454 points behind if Tusveld had a good Vuelta.
Luckily there is still something to battle for, the silver 1A cup.
At the moment 184 points ahead on TeamRHB. Next battle ground = Lombardia.
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A very good race of Loinaz. Unfortunately Tusveld and Van Straalen had a too large lead and Loinaz stayed 5th as i thought (but not hoped :P). Poldoja did a good race and was with Loinaz for the first 3 sections as expected and finished 4th as domestique. He is ready for Lisboa.
The way it looks is that it will be close but i think i'll end up 3rd this season. But we still have 3 races to go, 3 races with a lot of points on the line.
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The way it looks is that it will be close but i think i'll end up 3rd this season. But we still have 3 races to go, 3 races with a lot of points on the line.
I'm sure you'll keep 3rd, Valderend doesn't have a suitable TTer.
I'd suggest that Vos could be a slight favourite at this point in time.
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The way it looks is that it will be close but i think i'll end up 3rd this season. But we still have 3 races to go, 3 races with a lot of points on the line.
I'm sure you'll keep 3rd, Valderend doesn't have a suitable TTer.
I'd suggest that Vos could be a slight favourite at this point in time.
I agree, 3rd should be OK even though Drulo will score many points still. Last season he won Lombardia and the WC TT and got 4th on the road. Thats 2000 points right there. Still the fight for the podium can go anyway now. I think Captain is favourite, Vos second (although he did pick up a TTer as a free rider which is a smart move) and me third.
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I am going to revise my odds. I think Vos is the favourite at the moment.
Edit: it looks like Vos will be very close or have a slight lead over Captain after the TT and i will be 1000 points behind. So all i need to do is rode the best road race ever :p
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Giro di Lombardia ;
12º Kristóf
14º Vorre
Not good and not bad, although I was hoping for more.
Maybe I should be happy with the first classic race of this season that went average like this, because AGR, EF and SSB were a failure.
Just PR, FW and LBL went well. In the other 7 (!) classic races I did not even had a suited cyclist.
What means missing out many, many, many points. Of course my own fault, and of course I did try to buy a suited cyclist ( cobblehills ).
But that was not successful and on the short term. Instead ; I should have planned this far ahead.
Back to Lombardia ; my team scored 280 points.
Both rival teams scored more points ; CaptainOrange ( 2º = ) 400 points, and TeamRHB ( 6º + 20º + 25º = ) 350 points.
At the moment still a little ahead ( just 114 points ) on TeamRHB, and I gamble on the lottery of the WC TT to secure the 2º place in 1A.
( For now ) Bell is 5th favorite, and in previous season he finished as 5º on 0:11" in this exact same time trial.
That is not all, because according to my estimations Millan and Reinumägi should have approximately the same GV as Bell.
The same for Sarap, but I bought him less than 15 races ago, so he does not have TC bonus.
Of course, it is a WC TT, so anything can happen in this lottery. Besides this, the competition might be much more fierce this season (?).
Also because there are 2 weather icons active in this race.
The 1st and 3rd favorites have an active weather icon. Only 1 of my TT specialists ( Reinumägi ) has an active weather icon.
And looking at the results(/time behind) of previous season ; the 1st and 2nd favorites should be out of reach.
SPORTLIFE is fully* prepared for this time trial, so let's hope my team can score enough points.
( * = equipment 9-7-8, health 100, form 100, luck card, 4x TC bonus, director 101-78-91, stimulation 195, training camps 200, and tuning 100. )
After this WC TT the WC roadrace,
and in contrast to previous season, my team will compete in this race as well ( with the nr60 of the golden hills ranking ).
And after these 2 races ; next season. :)
That will be a reorganisation season, and hopefully finally lucky/successfull to set up a youth team aside.
It will not be a real sabatical season, because setting up a youth team needs activity in the first 2 weeks.
And even with a (mini) youth team aside, my next season goal will be to stay in 1A and score a few victories.
But my next season goal(s) is mainly uncertain at the moment, all focus was on this season, and one of my 2 training projects is still young.
Also there is a big chance that I will be active in the NT races, because so far there are no candidates for the NT of Australia.
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SPORTLIFE is fully* prepared for this time trial, so let's hope my team can score enough points.
( * = equipment 9-7-8, health 100, form 100, luck card, 4x TC bonus, director 101-78-91, stimulation 195, training camps 200, and tuning 100. )
Appreciate this intel about being "fully prepared." Will file this away for (near) future reference. :D
And after these 2 races ; next season. :)
That will be a reorganisation season, and hopefully finally lucky/successfull to set up a youth team aside.
It will not be a real sabatical season, because setting up a youth team needs activity in the first 2 weeks.
And even with a (mini) youth team aside, my next season goal will be to stay in 1A and score a few victories.
Best of luck with that goal.
Also there is big a change that I will be active in the NT races, because so far there are no candidates for the NT of Australia.
There's a high bar established for the Australian NT. I'd be hesitant to put in for the job because of that.
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Thanks Kekipi, you too good luck in the near future. And ups, a bit too much info in my text. ;)
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Well done Vos, i think getting the free rider will give you the win. I dont think i can make up 1250 points tomorrow. I would need a really great race for that to happen. Still, we will try :P
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Lisboa TT WC ;
6º Millan 0:11"
9º Bell 0:13"
13º Reinumägi 0:19"
23º Sarap 0:35"
25º Grabovskis 0:39"
As always, luck plays a big role in the TT WC.
Millan had a good race, but the higher ranked 5th favorite Bell had not a lucky race at all.
Also Reinumägi had not a lucky race, because he could challenge the same 3 cyclists as Millan.
And despite the weather bonus extra of Reinumägi, he finished 7 places and 8 seconds behind Millan, what is a lot.
Anyway, my team scored many points and hopefully that will be enough. The exciting final WC roadrace will be decisive.Well done Vos, i think getting the free rider will give you the win. I dont think i can make up 1250 points tomorrow. I would need a really great race for that to happen. Still, we will try :P
Thanks, Sjiz. We will see what happens in the exciting and decisive WC roadrace. Good luck !
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Lisboa WC road race ;
15º Simon
30º Daniljev
For sure a bad race of my team, but good enough compared to the rival teams, because .........
(https://i.imgur.com/C9MDHTa.gif)
(https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/images/SPORTLIFEnewshirt.png)SPORTLIFE = (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/1equipos.gif) 1A CHAMPION !
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Great job Vos.
Also six Aussie teams in Div1 next season, great result Franky to get a promotion into Div1.
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Congrats with a very nice season, Vos
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Lisboa WC road race ;
15º Simon
30º Daniljev
For sure a bad race of my team, but good enough compared to the rival teams, because .........
(https://i.imgur.com/C9MDHTa.gif)
(https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/images/SPORTLIFEnewshirt.png)SPORTLIFE = (https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/imagenes/1equipos.gif) 1A CHAMPION !
Congrats, Vos!
I luckily managed to finish above relegation line after just dropped below it following the WC TT. Pfew!
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Unfortunately, for the second time this season Verbeek lost contact in s1 where he should have stayed. His friends went on the attack and he was left behind. The all or nothing became nothing :p
Still very happy with the season. I got my main goal and got a 1a trophy by finishing 3rd in the standings. In addition to this we also won the cup and became russian champion. 3 prizes i did not have. In a rider level Verbeek took his 6th national jersey and Ablett got his first American, also a new prize. So, all in all very happy.
And congrats Vos, well done. Your 450 extra points in the WC TT forced me to make errors.
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Wopppp!!!
Congrats Vos, fantastic end of Season.
It has been very interesting to see,this last 3 stages of the Season. I was checking all your results. Today,when I saw Simon in second group in section 1😳
Well, congrats the 3 of you!!
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Congrats Vos, amazing season! First Australian team winning 1a
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Congrats Vos!
A really good season with great tactics throughout the season. The most exciting season in the last years, also avery good season of Rico an Sijz, with very strong teams. I am excited to see who takes over next seasons
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Many thanks all ! :)
And special thanks to Rico ( CaptainOrange ) and Sjiz ( TeamRHB ), without them this exciting season was not possible.
Twice 1A champion Rico is used to excellent results, therefore to Sjiz ; Congrats with your great season, 1A podiumplace + CFF Cup winner.
And TeamRHB is for the first time champion of a nation ; Russia.
My team has for the first time an individual champion of a nation ; Russia.
I guess we have to drink Russian vodka now, to celebrate this amazing season. 8)
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Congratulations with your division 1 titel Vos :)
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Gratz Vos, great season!!
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First Division, here I come again! 8)
The only team in First Division with only 1 nationality in the team (including staff!), and it's fully aussie!
(https://i.imgur.com/vJSnT3J.png)
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Many thanks all ! :)
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Congrats with winning the (close) relegation battle, Zatarra.
To Franky ; congrats with the promotion of your fully Australian team.
Very impressive, because you are playing this game on a much higher level with the Aussie "restriction".
Also everyone else with good results, prices or achievements ; congrats ! 8)