Australia s21

[Vos]

SEASON 21 PREVIEW :

Australia is at the moment 3-times-in-a-row world champion, at the goal this season is to make that 4-times-in-a-row.
It should be duable with this versatile season schedule with 3 races in Spain, 3 races in France, and the final race in Italy.
The individual world champion will be one of the 7 NT race victors ; the one with the most NT caps, because that is decisive.
Hopefully an Australian can win a NT race, so he might have a chance.

[Vos]

I will try to publish all youth lists in the first week of this season, but already now the u21 list to make Horace happy.
Hopefully next weekend there are enough 19yo's, so I can make the u20 list.
Aurora Australis recruited already a good 19yo TT talent.
Everyone good luck with recruiting and scouting !

Australia u21 ( 38x 20yo's, 2x 19yo's )

[horace_vr]

I will try to publish all youth lists in the first week of this season, but already now the u21 list to make Horace happy.

Thank you, I really appreciate

[Vos]

RACE 1 :  rolling Galicia hills

19ºC

Mombuey, Spain,
This race will be a rollercoaster in the northwest of Spain, just above Portugal, because there are almost no flat meters.
The expectations are high ; Australia is pretty good in the hills, ánd it has top contender James Bush as teamcaptain.

No space in this race for promising young hills specialists as semi-helpers, and no space for other kind of top talents as xp-cyclists.
Because Australia is going fullpower / fullstrenght in this first race of the season.
Michael Odom was very close to be selected, but I prefered to select the much more experienced Walkins and Fredickson.
Also all other good Australians were in the picture. At the moment there are 17 Australians with a golden hills icon ( incl. flat-hills ).

Australia NT selection :

James Bush ( 25 ) Antequera
Fergus Emerton ( 28 ) Flyvende_hjul
Nate Gailes ( 25 ) Cabrasverdes
Gerard Shields ( 32 ) QuintoYtapa
Christian Segond* ( 28 ) Matterhorn
Paddy Friend ( 24 ) $Tourmalet   ( debut )
Danny Gill ( 25 ) ICSluj
Zack Walkins ( 32 ) azerite
Herbie Fredickson ( 31 ) Turrones

[Vos]

Hmmm, the very big peletons in s1 ( 105 ) and s2 ( 85 ) were not in the favor of my strategy.
I was gambling on that the front groups would  be much smaller. Probably a waste of energy in s1 and/or s2, to almost all Australians.
Well, at least all 9 Australians were in the s2 front peleton.
The troubles started in s3 ( 45 in the front ), where 6 Australians dropped to the 2nd group on 0:20", including teamcaptain Bush.
I'm not satisfied about this race, but in the end a decent result of Bush ( thanks to help in all sections ) and a few points of a helper.
Results ;
4º  James Bush ( Antequera )
19º  Zack Walkins ( azerite )

Australia is 5º in the ranking.
And funny to see that the top 6 of previous season are now very close together on places 4º to 9º.
But who knows, every season is different, maybe the current top 3 ( Italy, Estonia, Switzerland ) will have a great season.

Next week we go to the Pyrenees ( France ) for a brutal mountain race with finish on top of the notorious Pla-d'Adet.

[Vos]

Almost no Australian specialists in the u23 DT of this season 21. Hopefully the next generations are better.

CFF u23 Dream Team =
cobble
3. Norman Pocock  ( 22, LOSRAYOSDELARRY )
climb
8. Garret Mitchum  ( 22, Manicomicos_Cycling_Team )
tours
4. Clive Emme  ( 22, ProdopingPong )
5. Os Blair  ( 22, Manicomicos_Cycling_Team )
9. Zack Dix  ( 22, Facha_Bartolo )


Australia u24 ( 165 cyclists ) :

[Vos]

Australia u22 ( 75 cyclists ) :

[Vos]

  Very good news to Australia ( and to me, and to CFF ) :

I suspect that in previous season, Zatarra did not had any selections since the Tour de Suisse.
But I see now that his team has a Tour Down Under selection. Welcome back Zatarra ! 
Great to see that your break did not had consequences ; your team finished as 28th with 3.960 points.
( That is fortunate , because there were 1A seasons where this total amount of points was not good enough to stay in 1A. )

[Franky]

hey! I'm back just for saying..."not so bad!! I have 2 kids in the DT!  " I knew that Garret and Os were my best kids...so this is basically why I just focused on them, the rest are just meat  .

I'm not competing a lot, just the basis for staying in 2nd division, and to train exp for this 2 kids... I will back to the game in any moment, I promise! I think is my first time a bit off in 13 years LOL

[Vos]

Already welcome back, Franky ! 
And indeed, your 2 kids are for a big part defending the honor of Australia in the u23 DT.

But in previous season there were many more Australians in the u23 DT, for example time trial had already 7 Australians.
And no doubt your now 23yo Fraser Kitchens was among them, he is for sure not "just meat".
In fact, with the right training ( for example now a.s.a.p. from 88 to 90 stamina ) he can be just as amazing as the 2x 24yo's Australians,
who have a top ranking in CFF  and who are the numbers 2 and 3 in climb TT.
Good luck with training your entire Australian team !

[Zatarra]

Very good news to Australia ( and to me, and to CFF ) :

I suspect that in previous season, Zatarra did not had any selections since the Tour de Suisse.
But I see now that his team has a Tour Down Under selection. Welcome back Zatarra ! 
Great to see that your break did not had consequences ; your team finished as 28th with 3.960 points.
( That is fortunate , because there were 1A seasons where this total amount of points was not good enough to stay in 1A. )

Thanks Vos. I indeed suffered from loss of interest. Pity, since I have some promising (Australian) tour riders. I will try to maintain my interest. It will be hard to stay in 1st division once again. There are only a handful of managers that were present in 1a for more seasons than I, so I try to keep up... Vos .

[Aurora Australis]

Very good news to Australia ( and to me, and to CFF ) :

I suspect that in previous season, Zatarra did not had any selections since the Tour de Suisse.
But I see now that his team has a Tour Down Under selection. Welcome back Zatarra ! 
Great to see that your break did not had consequences ; your team finished as 28th with 3.960 points.
( That is fortunate , because there were 1A seasons where this total amount of points was not good enough to stay in 1A. )

Thanks Vos. I indeed suffered from loss of interest. Pity, since I have some promising (Australian) tour riders. I will try to maintain my interest. It will be hard to stay in 1st division once again. There are only a handful of managers that were present in 1a for more seasons than I, so I try to keep up... Vos .

By my quick count

D1 Seasons
19 SPORTLIFE
18 galegospolabici
18 Thorboassonarvesen
17 Zatarra
17 KunTeam
16 FaltososDeChigre
16 CC_Porco_Jones

D1 Seasons in row
19* SPORTLIFE
17* galegospolabici
15* Aurora_Australis

Btw: I haven't really announced it yet this season, but I'm hunting for 19 yo Aussie flat-TTers, I'm just thinning my current cyclists out a bit to make room.

[Vos]

 

[Vos]

RACE 2 :  French Pyrenees

19ºC

Lézat-sur-Lèze, France,
In previous season this mountain race was also on the NT schedule. The only difference is the weather, in s20 there was 3x wind.
Back then a very surprising, incredible, formidable 5º place of Norm Bush !
And if I read the forumpost of Aurora Australis ( s20 NT manager ) correctly, this amazing result is even achieved without a s4 helper.
According to me there are many rivals who are much and much better, so, I don't expect a top 10 result at all this season.
But who knows, maybe Norm Bush can surprise again, because again teamcaptain, and also this time his weather icon is active.
Realisticly I'm already happy if he can score points.
After all, he is the nr 194 in the CFF golden climb icon ranking, and even listed as flat-climber.

It is almost certain that only the Australian teamcaptain is good enough to score points in this specific race.
Despite the fact that Australia has some very good, young climbers now. But they like pure mountain races much more.
For example the best ranked pure climber, the 25yo Des Brown, has 4,1 race GV points less than teamcaptain Bush.
That is a lot, and the reason he is just the 8th selected cyclist according to my estimated race GV of this FMMMM race.

Fun to mention the position of the selected Australians in the CFF golden climb icon ranking.
Besides Norm Bush, everyone else of this selection is listed as pure climber.
The position is mentioned in brown before the name. And the selection is in order of my estimated race GV.

Australia NT selection :

194  Norm Bush* ( 29 ) HTCHungria
173  Dudley Iverson ( 30 ) LottoStelvio
212  Jason Furey ( 32 ) CajaRuralZamora
298  Martin Wilson ( 26 ) ZG
083  Henry Footman ( 25 ) BLOEMENAANDEMITTE
111  Ian Abolins ( 24 ) SPORTLIFE
067  Barret Ryan ( 24 ) RajenKujen
052  Des Brown ( 25 ) JackyTeam
098  Tyler Edgar ( 24 ) BLOEMENAANDEMITTE   ( debut )

[Vos]

Also good to mention that all promising u24 climb-talents were in the picture.

Including the 2x 23yo's, Barry Carpenter and Garret Woods, who both already have a golden climb icon.
But they are pure climbers and have a too low GV for this specific mountain race. And there is no space for xp-cyclists in this selection.

In the future the 22yo Garret Mitchum will be much more suited for this FMMMM race than the 2x 23yo's.
But also Mitchum is a pure climber, and his current flat-skill is way too low, to be a good future contender in this specific mountain race.