Season 11

[Vos]

stage 1 Catalunya, flat time trial ;
Again a mechanical breakdown in the most crucial section, the reason the result is a bit dissapointed :
12º  Kangert --> just 4 seconds behind the number 6.

stage 2 Catalunya, stormy hill-sprint ;
Excellent result of my sprinter who finished in the break away group of just 7 cyclists :

1   Ramon Antonio Vigo   25   WinterIsComing   0: 00"   
2   Alfréd Jannakopulosz   29   SPORTLIFE   0: 00"   
3   Pascal Cruyff   26   TilburgTerriërs       0: 00"   
4   Miksa Pelle   29   °Peachy°Melocotons   0: 00"   
5   Martinho Vidal   29   CaptainOrange   0: 00"   
6   Tõnis Kaarnamets   29   Psychoedge      0: 00"   
7   Leonards Bleidelis   27   Caracoles   0: 00"

Unfortunately the MSR victor wins also this stage, but still satisfied that my sprinter(as not-favorite) beat hill-sprinters like Cruijff and Pelle.
Thanks to his helper who did a great job in this stormy race by being in the s4 leading group of just 18. He even scored points himself :
18º   Colaco

[WinterIsComing]

Good result, Vos. I guess the couple Vigo-Bettencourt was just too strong for Janna. Thanks for motivating my cyclists in the Tirreno!   

[Vos]

Good result, Vos. I guess the couple Vigo-Bettencourt was just too strong for Janna. Thanks for motivating my cyclists in the Tirreno!   

Hahaha, thanks / you're welcome, and again congratulations with another well-deserved victory of Vigo.
And before the race I knew you have an amazing combo Vigo-Bettencourt, and as confirmation of my point of view on your combo,
it was even visible before the race in the challenges.
Because not-favorite Jannakopulosz could challenge Vigo, the 4th(or 5th) favorite, but also he could challenge not-favorite Bettencourt.
And that is very impressive !

For sure your combo is much better than I have with Jannakopulosz-Colaco, for example Colaco is just a 8 star sprinter with low hills.
Surprising to me Colaco was in the small s4 leading group of just 18, he did more than great (he could not follow with 5EP in s2).
However ;  my sprinters have many several bonusses because they are riding for SPORTLIFE.     

edit ; my combo is for sale, so you can compare their stats with your amazing combo.
Jannakopulosz = https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/vision.php?ciclistaid=10970
Colaco = https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/vision.php?ciclistaid=20571
Let me know if you want to trade out our combo's. 

[WinterIsComing]

Thanks Vos. I am quite sure that Bettencourt was 5th favourite yesterday, and Vigo was 3rd.

Maybe we can trade cyclists, but only if you bring a lot of money to the table, haha. 

[Sjiz]

Nice race. Burton and Poldoja are performing well. The Estonian seems to fit in just nicely. Helping Verbeek in de final of MSR and now winning his first race for the team.

[Vos]

Great victory with Põldoja, Sjiz ! 

My team did excellent too in this stage.
And because Verbeek (TeamRHB) is not riding Catalunya ;
my very young Dutch cyclist decided he had to defend the honor of the Netherlands by finishing as best Dutchman.

The "fox-trick" was to profit of the less hills competition in Catalunya because many hills cyclists are on training camp for the 3 hills classics.
I guess it worked. With many thanks to his also Dutch teammate ( a hillsclimber ) who did more than great with 5x hands symbol.
13º Witsche --> finished with
19º VanDerKroon

[Vos]

stage 4 Catalunya ;
A to me unexpected very big peleton of 140 in s1, and also in s2 the peleton was way too big with 117.
Looking at the sizes in s1 and s2, probably I wasted too much energy.
Although the teamcaptain is not in topform, and again he finishes with a lightbulb. Still, my fox-gut-feeling says a harder finish was possible.
30º  Witsche

[Sjiz]

I had the same feeling. It feels like flat counted more than i expected and that made making gaps harder. Poldoja got a 7th which was fine but he didnt make up enough time. A lot of the hill sprinters where able to follow. Tonight will be interesting. Maybe Poldoja can make the top 10 but i also wouldnt be surprised to see him out of the top 20.

[Vos]

About stage 4 Catalunya HFFFH ;
It seems to me weird the peleton is so big in hills section 1, that is way more than the half of all cyclists.
And even 13 unhealthy cyclists could follow.
In such a stage the front group should be much smaller in hills section 1, and often in flat s2 the front group is bigger compared to s1.

This is how the stage went ( the number of cyclists in the front per section ) --> 140 - 117 - 128 - 108 - 3

It seems to me a FFFFH stage instead of a HFFFH stage.

Does anyone else agree with my suspicion ?
If so, I will post this in the bug topic.

[Sjiz]

Could be, worth looking in to. Makaay was a big favourite and he generally is in a ffffh stage.

[WinterIsComing]

We committed to post in bugs sections if anyone is suspecting a non-matching profile in a stage. So yes, please do so, Vos. I think you could be right.

Edit: I see you already did. Good job.

[shalgo]

I don't know what to think about the profiles anymore.  It seems much easier to drop people on flat sections that I remember from the past.  In stage 2, only 37 riders made the lead group in section 1 in FHFFF race.  I had my leader and domestique use 3 effort points in that section and they were still dropped.  I know the wind has an impact, but that still seems extreme.

Looking ahead to today's MMFHH fifth stage in Catalunya, here are the likely GC contenders--riders who have at least a bronze mountain icon:

2   Alex Riis   29   Astanadena   0: 23"
6   Alessandro Figueras   28   QuintoYtapa   1: 25"
7   Brendan Owen   29   $Tourmalet   1: 26"
8   Jose Guillermo Tello   29   Cabrasverdes   1: 44"   
9   Dries Smulders   29   °Peachy°Melocotons   1: 50"
14   Marzio Pantani   29   Wiggo_pupils   2: 11"
18   Bekir Spies   29   SentinelChickens   2: 25"
22   Richard Rogers   28   ProdopingPong   2: 44"
30   Adao Baiao   25   ProCyclingTeam10   3: 06"
33   Oliver Bru   29   BorinotTeam   3: 11"
39   Leonid Foros   29   CC_Porco_Jones   3: 22"
41   Amancio Montesinos   29   Barrioska   3: 30"
42   Joaquin Palomeque   29   Shiro_Lions   3: 31"
48   Oliver King   29   Combuijs   3: 41"
50   Roland Kámory   28   Valderend   3: 44"
51   Clermont Agasse   26   Flandria   3: 44"
53   Romeu Rosario   29   KunTeam   3: 47"
54   Patrick Fredickson   29   $Tourmalet   3: 49"   
57   Todd Power   26   Valderend   3: 55"

[shalgo]

Well, some of the riders without a mountain icon hung on pretty well in the final stage, including Vigo, Sainz, and Poldoja!

[WinterIsComing]

Well, some of the riders without a mountain icon hung on pretty well in the final stage, including Vigo, Sainz, and Poldoja!

Yes, happy with the result. Vigo had good help from Polis throughout the whole stage, which helped him keep fighting for the podium. Before the Tour started, I had good hopes of winning the hillsprint-stage, but I didn't expect Vigo to finish on the podium, but things went very well for him. I guess he utilized the good morale he gained from winning Milano-San Remo earlier. 

Congrats to Riis (Astanadena), who was the main candidate for winning this Tour all the time, and Smulders (Peachy), for beating me for the silver by just 1 second.

[Vos]

stage 5 Catalunya ;
9º  VanDerKroon

A good stage 5 result and a good little tour in Catalunya.
Unfortunately my team will remain on 0 points in the one-day-races of this season, because I have no cobblehills cyclists.
After Gent-Wevelgem already out of the top10, and I expect SPORTLIFE will drop many places more after DDV and RVV.