Season 14

[Vos]

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 ! 

[Vos]

   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 Ibarrola ( 32 ), tour
102 Tusveld ( 32 ), tour
103 Kangert ( 30 ), TT
104 Bradbury ( 30 ), TT
105 Lebrun ( 29 ), sprint

Good luck everyone ! 

[Sjiz]

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 Luchtenveld, Lezhnev and Logins will be support for either.

[Vos]

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.

[Vos]

stage 1 PN ;
8º  Kangert  on 0:07"
10º  Bradbury  on 0:10"
- - - - -
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.

[Vos]

Merry Christmas everyone !

[Vos]

stage 2 PN ;
3º  Lebrun ( free role ) 

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.

[Vos]

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.^^

[Vos]

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.

[Vos]

stage 4 PN ;
4º  Ibarrola ( teamcaptain )  on 0:19" 
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.

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.

[Sjiz]

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.

[Aurora Australis]

Your fingers have gotten fat with all of the XMas eating Sjiz    Just as well your cyclists haven't.

[Sjiz]

Haha, yes! And i am fighting an eternal battle with the autocorrect on my phone

[Sjiz]

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.

[Vos]

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.