Season 18

[Vos]

Season 18 ; world championship climb race in Colombia.

Good luck everyone ! 

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

The TDU goal is to go for stage results ;
Rubiera in stages 1 + 5, Dagorret in stage 2, and the today bought TT specialist Quinziatto in stage 4.

101 Rubiera ( 26 ), hills
102 Dagorret ( 32 ), climbhills
103 Meijer ( 24 ), hills
104 Zutter ( 24 ), hillsclimb
105 Quinziatto ( 31 ), TT

stage 1 TDU ;
13º  Rubiera
15º  Dagorret ( free role )
A bad result of Rubiera, because he could challenge the favorites and he had help in the first three sections.
Free role rider Dagorret ( silver hills icon ) did amazing and he surprised me a lot by finishing in the same time as Rubiera ( on 0:09" ).

[Franky]

2 in a row!!! and Leader of the 1st Division 

[Vos]

2 in a row!!! and Leader of the 1st Division 

Excellent victories ! Congrats Franky !   

stage 3 TDU ;
2º  Dagorret  on 0:00" --> grrrrr, he lost the sprint-a-deux to an unknown local Australian.  
15º  Zutter ( helper )
26º  Rubiera ( free role )
Almost a victory, unfortunately my silver Dagorret (who could not challenge any favorites) was prey to Hunter.

[Franky]

2 in a row!!! and Leader of the 1st Division 

Excellent victories ! Congrats Franky !   

stage 3 TDU ;
2º  Dagorret  on 0:00" --> grrrrr, he lost the sprint-a-deux to an unknown local Australian.  
15º  Zutter ( helper )
26º  Rubiera ( free role )
Almost a victory, unfortunately my silver Dagorret (who could not challenge any favorites) was prey to Hunter.

 

[Aurora Australis]

My team hasn't had a victory in over 2 seasons.  Oh well, one bit of ok news, for the shortest period Australian teams are 1st, 4th, & 5th in the Div1 standings.

[Vos]

stage 4 TDU ;
16º  Quinziatto
stage 5 TDU ;
3º  Dagorret  on 0:00"
29º  Rubiera ( free role ) on 0:04"

Very unexpected podium place of Dagorret, who finished in the final GC as 16º on 2:05" what is also surprising to me due to his bad TT.
He even could have finished top10 GC if he did not had a mechanical breakdown in the crucial s2 of stage 2, what costed him at least 0:30"
Rubiera finshed just 27 seconds outside the GC points, with 1x teamcaptain role, 3x free roles, and 2x mechanical breakdowns in the TT stage.

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

131 Stubbe ( 32 ), hillsclimb
132 Kummer ( 27 ), climb
133 Vorre ( 30 ), hillsclimb
134 Dagorret ( 32 ), semi-climbhills & flathills
135 Macannazi ( 27 ), climb

Good luck everyone !

[Vos]

stage 1 PN ;
15º  Stubbe  on 1:29"
Unexpected and dissapointing that Stubbe was not in the front group of dh s2. By missing this cut, it is almost certain he wasted 1 EP in s1.
In s3 he even was isolated, but 2 helpers came to the rescue in s4, so at least Stubbe finished good due to the extra helpers bonus.
Hopefully mountain stage 4 goes a little bit better.
stage 2 PN ;
6º  Stubbe  on 0:00"
stage 3 PN ;
1º  Stubbe  on 0:00" = solo victory !
The very first victory in his career.
Stubbe is the new GC leader.
But it will be extreme difficult to win Paris-Nice, also because the rivals are very close ;
nr2 Vereckei ( Agua_Verde ) on 0:03" in the current GC, and he was 57 seconds faster in mountain stage 1.
And the top 7 GC is within 0:39", so, finishing outside the final GC podium is possible too.

[Vos]

stage 4 PN ;
11º  Stubbe  on 1:17"
29º  Kummer ("helper")

A tactical bad race.
With so much good support it should go much better. Stubbe had only help in s1 + s2, and was isolated in s3 + s4.

Hillsclimber Vorre was going too fast in the first three sections, and not good enough to help in s4.
Masterhelper Macannazi started too fast, helped in s2, and dropped already in s3.
Best masterhelper Kummer only helped in s1, and was riding the rest of the race one group behind his teamcaptain.
Both masterhelpers were 0:08" behind in the crucial s4.
I expected that at least one of them would do a good helpers job, but that did not happen.

The positive aspect of this mountain race ; only 2 GC rivals did better.
As expected, one of them was Vereckei ( Agua_Verde ), again he finished much sooner, just like in stage 1, this time 43sec ahead.
He takes back the GC lead, and is leading with a gap of 0:39" towards nr 2 Stubbe.
A few GC rivals did not ride a good stage 4, so Stubbe has less rivals now as expected.
The nr5 is already on 1:26", but nr3 Fraga on 0:55" and nr4 Körvér on 0:57" could  still be fierce rivals for a podiumplace.
Or even the Paris-Nice victory, but that will depend entirely on GC leader Vereckei, only if he fails in stage 5 there might be a chance.

[Vos]

stage 5 PN ;
7º Stubbe  on 0:13"
12º Dagorret ( helper )
A very good race.
But the 53º place on 0:34" of GC leader Vereckei ( Agua_Verde ) was good enough for him to win Paris-Nice.

Stubbe finished as 2º GC on just 0:18"
A good result, but also a missed opportunity to win this little tour.

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

51 Stubbe ( 32 ), hillsclimb
52 Beck ( 31 ), hillsclimb-sprint
53 Baiao ( 32 ), tour
54 Bleidelis ( 34 ), hills-sprint
55 Dagorret ( 32 ), semi-climbhills-flathills

Good luck everyone !

[Vos]

stage 1 TA ;
6º  Stubbe
20º  Beck ( free role )
21º  Baiao ( free role )
27º  Dagorret ( helper )
stage 2 TA ;
12º  Stubbe
stage 3 TA ;
3º  Bleidelis
Excellent podiumplace, and also nice that he scored a little sponsordeal.

Stubbe is still leading the 1A individual ranking.
But he cannot score GC points in this Tirreno-Adriatico, so he enjoys this leadership while he still can.
The Swiss shopmanager is happy with this temporary jersey, even after stage 3 ( 92º Stubbe ) a bruto-profit of 4.905,-

[Vos]

stage 5 TA ;
3º Stubbe  on 0:00"
23º  Baiao ( free role )
In retrospective, I should have taken more risk in order to try to win this race.

There were some unexpected extra GC points in this Tirreno ;
14º GC  Baiao , despite he rode all stages in free roles.
20º GC  Stubbe , despite he cannot sprint and is very bad in time trial.

[Vos]

I did not had a selection in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad,
and as expected, my silver cobblehills specialist was not suited for Strade Bianche ( 53º ).
But some points were scored in the recent 2 classic races :

Milano Sanremo ;
12º  Bleidelis
A dissapointing result, but logical, because he did not had a good helper.
Beck should have been the very important s4 helper, but he already dropped in s2.
Maybe a wrong helper tactic, although he had to gamble and most likely he was just not good enough as MSR helper.

E3 Harelbeke ;
27º  Antic
As expected, my silver cobblehills cyclist had just help in s1, so, he had to do it on his own.
Despite this, he rode a very good race. For example, in s4 he was in the 2nd group of nrs 13 to 26 on just 0:09"
But to my surprise he could not finish well, apparently he had a bad or unlucky s5. Or the competition was too good.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Hopefully it goes better in the next little tour.
Beck should ride a very good Catalunya, but maybe my expectation is too high because he is just a silver tour rider.

   selection SPORTLIFE

61 Beck ( 31 ), silver tour
62 Vorre ( 30 ), silver tour
63 Bleidelis ( 34 ), hills-sprint
64 Macannazi ( 27 ), climb
65 Stubbe ( 32 ), bronze tour

Good luck everyone !