US Nat team season 14

[Kekipi]

I'm thankful for being elected as the coach for Team USA for S14.  I'll do my best to promote the team for the season and for seasons to come.

The following is the top ranked of our crop of 20 year olds.  I did the analysis just before the turn of the season, hence the 19 yo designation in the chart, but for S14, these riders are now 20.

Current Team USA U21 rankings

[Kekipi]

Current Team USA rankings--Start of S14

[Kekipi]

Current Team USA U24 rankings

[shalgo]

Thanks for the updates!

Goodman (number 2 U21 climber) and Roche (number 6 overall sprint-hills and number 9 cobbles) are both for sale for €1:

https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/team.php?userid=33

[Kekipi]

S14 NT Race 1

Outlook: At #111, Blanton is the only USA guy in the golden hills rankings, so he is the leader.  He replaces Gerard Paul, the captain of season's past, who scored, surprisingly, in last season's hills race. Hopefully Blanton can pull off a similar surprise.    Paul Vince, 20, has been included on the roster.  He will eventually be the USA hills leader.

Race recap:  If the tactics had been correct, Blanton should have scored. Yes, famous last words.  I say this because the riders who finished 12th (Moretti of Italy) and 13th (Riguetto of Italy) were 133rd and unranked in the golden hills list.  The stage winner, Marino, also of Italy, is ranked 23rd, so the best-tactics award goes to the manager of Ares, who is the brains behind Team Italia.   Good job.

[Kekipi]

S14 NT Race 2

Outlook: At the moment of this posting, there are 429 Golden Climbers in the game with Matt Janson ranked 171st,  Friend 281st, Washington 308th, Stamer 375th, and Fox 397th. Meanwhile, Gaucata is 51st and Judd 282nd but as Climber/Hillers and the final two are Silver Climbers, with Ward being the best of the U24s.   A look at the past NT mountain stages has seen the US make the top 20 in 11 of 13 races, the highlight being then 23-year-old Sam Sweet's victory in stage 2 of season 5.  How Sweet that was!   In seasons thereafter, Sweet placed 6th in S8, 12th in S10, and 9th in S11.   But he is now retired, with the most senior climber now being Richard Washington, who finished in the points at 15th last season in S2.  So for this go-round, even though he does not have the highest GV, Washington will get the nod at captain over Janson.  The hope is that his experience will benefit him and he will make the top 20.
 
Race recap:  With the top three being 25, 24, and 24 years-old respectively, and the average age of the top 20 being 28, USA's old man Washington, 32, fared well among the youngens.  He got help in the first three sections and that is what he needed to finish in the top 20 (12th place).  Despite being far outside of the Golden Climbers Top 100, Washington certainly benefited from his experience (100).  In the coming seasons, Janson will likely assume the captain's spot for pure climbing races.   

[Kekipi]

The following is the top ranked of our crop of U21s.  Now in the mix are a handful of promising 19 year olds.     

Current Team USA U21 rankings

[Kekipi]

S14 NT Race 3

Outlook: I had to decide whether to go with Truex or Saucedo as captain and, though Saucedo is the higher-ranked golden sprinter, 78th to Truex's 132nd, I decided on Truex because of his better experience.  After the top five, there is a significant dropoff in talent, so I decided, for experience's sake, to race three young cobble-hillers in Whisman, Hamilton, and Finn.

Race recap: Truex, expending 7 EPs had help from five of the eight domestiques in the first four sections, and finished just out of the points in 21st.  Perhaps if he had used one fewer EP in the lead-up, he might have scored.  Or maybe 21st is the best he could do.  Of some consolation is that of the top 20, only one rider, Nurk of Estonia, was lower ranked (163rd) than Truex. The average golden-sprint rank of the top 20 was 37, so there was a lot of talent there, no doubt.   

[Kekipi]

S14 NT Race 4

Outlook: As noted by the Australian NT coach, this stage is puzzle and figuring out possible GV calculations was a challenge but an interesting one.  Regardless of what the correct GV formula actually is, Team USA, save for McDermot, is woeful TT-wise, so it almost didn't matter.   But I enjoy seeing how the numbers shake out when the racing is done.

Race recap: McDermot does not fare well on a hilly course but he had enough cobble skill (and max experience) to finish in the points.  Cann, meanwhile, is better in the hills and not so much so on the cobbles, but his biggest drawback is a lack of experience.   Not lacking in TT skill and experience are the Aussies, who raked in 760 points for the day and gained the top spot in the team rankings.   Hats off to them.

[Vos]

Not lacking in TT skill and experience are the Aussies, who raked in 760 points for the day and gained the top spot in the team rankings.   Hats off to them.

Thanks on behalf of all CFF managers with amazing Australian TT specialists.
Good luck in the next NT race, Kekipi.

[Toshette]

 

[Kekipi]

 

A star in the making!   Good job!!

[Kekipi]

S14 NT Race 5

Race recap: The plan was to ride hard in the first three flat sections. In this exact race in Season 10, Ford likely rode 111, which resulted in him being gapped in the first three flat sections and ultimately ending up in 9th place. 

So, noting that unpleasant result, I had him (and his teammates as well) ride harder in the opening three this go-round.  Ford drove 221 with helpers going at 332 or 444.  The happy consequence was that Ford was not dropped in the opening three and he had all seven teammates with him heading to the hilly S4.

The shakedown in S4 resulted in a five-rider lead group, which included the eventual winner, Jackson the Brit and a key helper.   For the US, only free-riding Finn (33150) and leader Ford (spent 3 EPs here) were in the 41-rider trailing group @ :03.  That no USA helpers were able to make this group doomed Ford to a place outside of the top ten.   I was too lazy to check, but my guess is that those who ended up in the Top 10 either were in the lead group in S4 or had a helper in the hills. 

Ford’s 4 eps in S5 was enough to land Ford in 11th overall.  This may be his last time as captain so I’d like to compliment him for many seasons of outstanding riding for the team.   

Speaking of compliments, hat’s off to the Colombians and the French who did well to get 6th and 8th places for Oliverio Ferrer and Jacky Bardot, respectively.   Both riders are outside of the Top 100 of the Golden Cobble rankings, so a Top 10 finish for these guys is worthy of note.   Chapeau to these teams and these riders!

**GCR = Golden cobble rank

[Kekipi]

S14 NT Race 6

Race recap: With the team being out of the scoring in NT flat cobble races for many seasons, I was hopeful that we'd have a breakthrough with Vorel.  Well the tactics for Vorel didn't pan out but, to my surprise, they did for Gatson, who rode 41430 in a helper role to finish 12th!   Gatson, btw, was the only unranked (in the GCR) rider in the top 20.  Vorel, meanwhile, rode 30324 and had help in the first three sections but none in, for him, the decisive 4th. He is 89th in the GCR so his 35th finish is not terrible.   

**GCR = Golden cobble rank (Stevens, Whisman, Finn, and Hamilton ranks are for Cobble-Hills).

[Kekipi]

S14 NT Race 7

**GCR = Golden flat cobble rank

Race recap: The goal was to get help to our captain Vorel in the first three sections and have him remain in the lead pack.  Then, if all went according to plan, he’d be set loose in S4 with the dream he could hang on and remain in the points in the final run-up. 

Well, mission (almost) accomplished. 

All was well in S1 and S2 with all the Americans being able to stay with the lead bunch.  And while Vorel fell out of the lead group in S3, he was just 10 seconds in arrears, but fortunately he had helpers.

So when the Big V attacked in s4, he was able to team up with podium riders Brady of Britain (the eventual gold medalist) and Chaves of Portugal (bronze medalist) and also Pandolfi of Italy (5th place on the stage) in a chase group in pursuit of Bram Travin of Russia, who was racing in his 26th NT stage!

In the final segment, Travin faded to 7th and Vorel to 12th.  Meanwhile, Angus Friend of Australia was the beneficiary of great team riding and bolted from 25 seconds down in S4 to a near win. He earned the silver medal for the stage and the gold medal in the individual rankings for the season.  Chapeau! 

Meanwhile, there was also hope that our lone free rider, Gatson, could sneak into the top 20. Recall that in race 5 (CFCCC) last week, he finished 12th as a helper, so we had aspirations for him this time.   Though he could not pull off another miracle, he still finished a credible 29th.

Congrats and thanks to all the NT managers for a challenging season of racing!