AUSTRALIAN NT - Season 23

[Aurora Australis]

AUSTRALIAN NT - Season 23

Flooding in Gympie 7-9 days ago : Queensland - Australia

Welcome to the season of the great Qld-NSW floods, or in CFF land, season 23.  After yet another NT championship-winning result by Vos (Sportlife), Australia is up to six championships in a row.  You have me instead of Vos, but the good news is that race 6 isn't a cobbles race given that Hunter is 33 years old & aging fast; and is instead a sprint race, which may be one season too early given Sacido's 23-year-olds are still developing, however it's better than the alternative.  And the rest of the season is pretty much block standard races of the main race types.

Current Australian cyclist rankings below.

[Aurora Australis]

Race 1

Selections :
Gerard Shields   Bikeos   34
Kane Harper   Speedbird   31
Fergus Emerton   Flyvende_hjul   30
Danny Gill   ICSluj   27
James Bush   Antequera   27 (leader)
Nate Gailes   Elgrand   27
Paddy Friend   $Tourmalet   26 (fr)
Rob Mitchell   WinterIsComing   25

Callum Carpenter   Rekutxuteam   23 - selected just in case - we need more young hillers

Prospects: Bush has a love-hate relationship with NT races.  He collapsed last time out after finishing 4th the season prior, and saved Australia the previous time I was NT manager when Gerard Shields failed in his last time as captain.  Shields is domestique in his final NT race, and can hopefully encourage Bush to have a good day in the top 5.

Results:
5th   James Bush      0: 14"   180 points
16th   Paddy Friend      0: 26"   60 points

This is close to an ideal start for us, particularly with free role Paddy getting 16th, and our likely closest challengers getting few points.
Next up is our U24 lists, followed by the St Gervais climb race preview.

[ophiuko]

Good luck on this season AA!

[Vos]

Have fun and good luck this NT season, AA. And hopefully the floods in your area dissapear soon.

[Franky]

Hii!!

I'm back beaches!  My kids are not kids anymore, so, its time to compete!! I will try to do a decent season in 2D and we will see if I'm prepared to promote to first division.

#newclimbersfortheaussies 

[Aurora Australis]

Have fun and good luck this NT season, AA. And hopefully the floods in your area dissapear soon.

I hope so too, I don't want another situation like last week where I went to work & couldn't get home for a couple of days (spent a night in a cold & wet train station).  But still, it's not like we're in Ukraine.

[Aurora Australis]

We've had a decent start of the season, but now it's time to look at our future prospects.  Sacido is delivering a generation of good NT/Div1 quality sprinters, with Stamer already gold.  Our climbers, Stu is a genuine domestique for the next race, growth this season will determine leadership potential; and several younger climbers also have potential.  Hillers, I probably should have selected RHyNeStOnEs's Derek Jons for the final NT selection last race; besides him we'll want an extra hiller or two in the next couple of seasons to keep our ranks here.  Cobbles, what can I say; 20yo Gilbert Ray of Codex is our only cobbler of note aged under 29, & I'm not sure how Codex rates him; Australia's NT team is nearing critical failure point with cobbles if no new prospects come (**Cobbler teams, send your international scout to Australia for easy NT selections**).  TT, my 20-21 year olds aren't my best, but I can't complain, they'll be Div1 quality; btw Laurent_Brochard's Nobby Sand appears to have nil talent, if I was coaching him I'd recommend a fresh batch of 19-year-olds.

Anyway, the u24 team, cyclists of note.

U24 Cyclists

[Aurora Australis]

Race 2 

Selections :
Norm Bush   HTCHungria   31
Garret Woods   LOSRAYOSDELARRY   25 (fr?)
Garret Mitchum   Manicomicos_Cycling_Team   24 (leader?)
Stu Vaughn   JGMTeam   23
Dudley Iverson   LottoStelvio   32
Des Brown   JackyTeam   27
Henry Footman   BLOEMENAANDEMITTE   27
Barry Carpenter   LottoGranadier   25

At the moment Martin Wilson from ZG Age 28 is my final selection, on the basis of having been raced (others at 26yo with <20 exp isn't encouraging selection).  24yo Jason Cooper is the other cyclist under consideration (Manicomicos_Cycling_Team).

Prospects: Last season Garret Woods managed 11th, with Norm Bush 16th.  This season it's a significantly different climbs race, but with two Garrets we'll be seeking at least a top ten result.

Results:

[horace_vr]

Just to let everyone know that I'm looking for 19yo cobbled hills prospects; not much of a budget, but I can still make decent offers; prefferable Australian, of course!

[Aurora Australis]

While we're waiting for me to select the final five for tomorrow's NT race (tomorrow for Aussies anyway), here's our first look at the U21s.

U21 Cyclists

see attachment

[horace_vr]

No Zack Ronald or Graham Reed for Coobled-Hills as 19 yo...? Am i reading my team completely wrong ? 
(Now also Joe Leipheimer - pulled this morning). These guys are much better, IMHO, than Dardar

[Aurora Australis]

They were likely pulled after I downloaded the list, I haven't checked.  The 19yo flat-cobbler has even been fired since then.

[Vos]

No Zack Ronald or Graham Reed for Coobled-Hills as 19 yo...? Am i reading my team completely wrong ? 
(Now also Joe Leipheimer - pulled this morning). These guys are much better, IMHO, than Dardar

Zack Ronald, Graham Reed, and Joe Leipheimer ; they are all British, and not Australian. I guess your scout is lost a bit. 

[horace_vr]

No Zack Ronald or Graham Reed for Coobled-Hills as 19 yo...? Am i reading my team completely wrong ? 
(Now also Joe Leipheimer - pulled this morning). These guys are much better, IMHO, than Dardar

Zack Ronald, Graham Reed, and Joe Leipheimer ; they are all British, and not Australian. I guess your scout is lost a bit. 

Well, apparently his agent lied in some Customs paperwork, and he was not allowed into Australia as a consequence. So he is now in the UK, playing tennis or something.

Now: Vos, as always, you are right. Suprinsingly, after 3 seasons of mediocre finds in Australia, the minute I sent my International scout in UK, he finds 3 riders which are better (starting skills, at least) than everything I scouted in the last 3 seasons in Australia

[Aurora Australis]

Those people with tennis rackets, I think our immigration officials are highlighting them as red flags.  It could be at the stage where we warn people not to attempt to bring their tennis rackets into Australia.