AUSTRALIA NT: SEASON 16
Stage 1: Hills HHHHH
Stage 2: Mountain FMDMM
Stage 3: Sprint FFFFF
Stage 4: TimeTrial FFFFF
Stage 5: Cobblehills C^C^C^C^C^
Stage 6: Cobblehills FFFFC^^
Stage 7: Cobblehills CC^CCC^
4 stages in Italy. Cobblehills everywhere. Not only the random stage 6 was a flat-cobblehills, but the stage 7, which usually is flat cobbles, turned out to be Strade Bianche, in which hills are also important. Indeed it's not a good calendar for Australia. Not only the Australian TTers will be probably on their lowest level ever, but there is no flat cobbles, the other terrain in which Australia has great power with Angus Friend and Keith Hunter.
Maybe Levin, Trump and Clickett could still make a good result right now on a TT stage, but I guess that due to their age, they will be worse when the TT race arrives. Fortunately, we have some other young TT talents coming soon. Apart from the 23yo generacion of AA, the 24 yo Bud Mount is the 8th best flat TTer on game right now. I hope that Mount, Clickett, Workman and, maybe, Licuria can score good points on the TT race. We'll see.
The other positive aspect of the calendar is that the 2 last races seem quite suitable for Sam Rooney. I don't think he is good enough to win a race, but maybe he could score some good points and maybe I can consider taking him as leader for the stage 5 too, in order to fight for the individual championship. It depends on how good the young talent Marc Huling becomes, as he is now on the transfermarket waiting for his new team to be training on the final sub24 year. Anyways, maybe I'm too optimistic and he doesn't have any chance against top cobblehillers from Ukraine, Spain, Belgium or Netherlands who will, for sure, be leaders on the 3 races counting with a bunch of top riders as domestiques.
I will try my best to keep the Australian NT level closest to the previous seasons as possible. Any advice or suggestions are more than welcome. Specially if you have experience with tricky tactics for any particular race, just send me a message with your advice. NT races are very often quite unpredictable to me.
