Australia s24

[Vos]

A new NT season starts ! 

No NT candidates Down Under, so the Australian champion is automatically the new NT manager, and I guess that is me.
The season schedule is not good due to the 2 flat-cobble races, what is the worst speciality of Australia and 2x zero points is possible.
What makes it very doubtfull if 7 times in a row world champion can be achievable ( probably not ).
And no chance at all to compete for the individual world championship, because that title will go to a flat-cobble specialist.
The most positive of this season schedule is that the Australian sprinters have "home advantage" in NT race 3.

season 24 schedule =

1.   Sallanches  HHHHH  148km
2.   Provence  MMMMM  177km
3.   Adelaide  FFFFF  51km
4.   Breda  TT-FFFFF  36km
5.   Harelbeke  FCHC^C^ 200km
6.   Paris-Roubaix  FCFCC  259km
7.   Richmond  CCCCC  259km

[Vos]

RACE 1 :  Sallanches


18ºC

Sallanches, France, near the Swiss- and Italian border,
The 9 best Australian hills-specialists are selected, so, it will be full power in this first race of the season.

An important race, because this season there are just 5 suited races where enough points are possible ( if the tactics go right ).
In the TT no tactics, so we need 4 races with excellent tactics, maybe then Australia can still compete for the word championship.

The Aussies are motivated and ready to ride this rainy and windy race. Hopefully James Bush can achieve a top result.

Australia NT selection :

James Bush ( 28 ) Antequera
Paddy Friend ( 27 ) $Tourmalet
Fergus Emerton ( 31 ) Flyvende_hjul
Rob Mitchell ( 26 ) Villavante
Nate Gailes ( 28 ) Elgrand
Callum Carpenter* ( 24 ) Rekutxuteam
Danny Gill ( 28 ) ICSluj
Christian Segond* ( 31 ) Speedbird
Michael Odom ( 30 ) Manicomicos_Cycling_Team

[Vos]

I gambled on a hard race with an influence of the wind, where I expected that there would be decent big time gaps.
Apparently the wrong gamble, because the time gaps were very small till s4. It was decisive in s5 and many rivals had more energy left.
What resulted in zero points for the free roles ( although they had each a different tactic ), and a dissapointing 13º place for James Bush.

Next week the helpers will be important water carriers, because then it is a climb race in the French Alps with 39ºC

[Vos]

Remarkable ;
The 23yo Sean Chapman disappeared out of this game, he was worth millions, and one of the very few good Australian hills talents.
He even was a few times selected for the NT to gain extra xp.
What in retrospective was a waste of an honorable ánd valuable place in the NT selection.
Of course this has consequences in my selection policy if that team has again young promising Australian talents.

Note ;
Not many Australians in the u23 Dream Team, luckily we have Aurora_Australis.

CFF u23 Dream Team =
TT
1. Maurice Hunter  ( 22, Aurora_Australis )
2. Andy Nixon  ( 22, Aurora_Australis )
3. Pat Foley  ( 22, Aurora_Australis )
hills
8. Derek Jons  ( 22, RHyNeStOnEs )
climb
8. Ken Holland  ( 21, Mustangs )

Note ;
Ken Holland is the only 21yo of all countries who is in the u23 CFF Dream Team.
He is ranked as flat-climb specialist for FFFFM races without downhill.



Australia u24 ( 110 cyclists ) :

[Vos]

RACE 2 :  La Madone d'Utelle


39ºC

Nice, southern France,
The final climb to the peak of La Madone d'Utelle ( see picture ) is in theory not that hard ; 15,3 km with an average of 5,7%
But this mountain race will be brutal ;
starting at sea level and finishing on 1.165 meters, with a total of 7 climbs, and extreme heath of 39ºC.

The teamcaptain will be Mitchum. Although it is great to see that the just 24yo Vaughn is just as good as Mitchum.
Both are very high ranked in the CFF pure climb ranking ; nr 6 + nr 10.
So, the goal should be to get a top result in NT race 2.
But tactics matter a lot in the result(s), and even besides this, NT races are always erratic, unpredictable, and often surprising.
Hopefully the race goes very well for Australia, because every point is needed in this season with an unfavorable, bad schedule.

Australia NT selection :

Garret Mitchum ( 25 ) Manicomicos_Cycling_Team
Stu Vaughn ( 24 ) JGMTeam
Barry Carpenter ( 26 ) LottoGranadier
Garret Woods ( 26 ) QuintoYtapa
Henry Footman ( 28 ) BLOEMENAANDEMITTE
Barret Ryan* ( 27 ) RajenKujen
Des Brown ( 28 ) JackyTeam
Tyler Edgar ( 27 ) BLOEMENAANDEMITTE
Rick Cann ( 21 ) Teamclaes     ( debut )

[Vos]

Hmmm, I'm not so satisfied about how this race went. Although it was not bad, and perhaps I should be satisfied with the results :

6º  Garret Mitchum  ( 25, Manicomicos_Cycling_Team )
15º  Stu Vaughn   ( 24, JGMTeam )


Australia moved up to the 6º place, and now 265 points behind leader Ukraine.
Next week a sprint race in Australia.

[Vos]

There are not enough 19yo's yet to make an u20 list. At the moment just 10x 19yo's what is a low number after one week.
Hopefully tomorrow there are enough 19yo's. Good luck everyone with recruiting and scouting in Australia !

Australia u22 ( 71 cyclists = 10x 19yo, 24x 20yo, 37x 21yo ) :

[Vos]

Australia u20 ( 19 cyclists )

[Vos]

Australia u21 ( 41 cyclists = 16x 19yo's and 25x 20yo's )

[Vos]

RACE 3 :  Adelaide


31ºC

Adelaide, Australia,
At the moment there are 8 Australian sprinters who have a golden icon on flat-sprint, and they are all selected.
Including 3x 24yo's of Sacido, and good old Jasper"the Bullet"Blair in his last NT race.
This selection has been supplemented with a young TT toptalent for extra xp, who makes his debut.

Australia has 2 high ranked flat-sprinters with Jasper Caan and Horace Stamer.
Normally with real top cyclists, there is an expectation of scoring a lot of points.
But in a NT sprint race everything is possible, incl. a tactical failure and zero points.
Hopefull are the excellent past results of the now 27yo teamcaptain Caan ;
24yo = 5º ( s21 ), 25yo = 3º ( s22 ), 26yo = 4º and 3º ( s23 ).

Australia NT selection :

Jasper Caan ( 27 ) SaulSalinasTeam
Horace Stamer* ( 24 ) Sacido
Ian Hamsten ( 31 ) Pantani28
Leroy Ablett ( 31 ) ChronoTony
Adrian Janson ( 24 ) Sacido
Jasper Blair ( 34 ) Manicomicos_Cycling_Team
Rob Blixter ( 24 ) Sacido
Reggie Milne ( 28 ) GMV_Cycling
Sammy Alfier ( 21 ) Aurora_Australis    ( debut )

[Aurora Australis]

Jasper got 4th race 3, 3rd race 6 last season (S23)

[Vos]

Ok, thanks for the correction, I mixed up s22 and s23.

[Vos]

VICTORY ! ! !
1º  Jasper Caan ( 27, SaulSalinasTeam )
10º  Horace Stamer ( 24, Sacido ) --> in a free role and very unlucky ; mechanical breakdown in the decisive s5.
Magnificient race and Jasper Caan had excellent support with way too many s4 helpers, well, beter too many than none.

Australia moved up to the 2º place in the season ranking, now just 90 points behind Ukraine that remained the leader.

[Kekipi]

VICTORY ! ! !
1º  Jasper Caan ( 27, SaulSalinasTeam )
10º  Horace Stamer ( 24, Sacido ) --> in a free role and very unlucky ; mechanical breakdown in the decisive s5.
Magnificient race and Jasper Caan had excellent support with way too many s4 helpers, well, beter too many than none.

Congrats!

It was a strange albeit interesting race for Team , where we saw our captain, Crichton, dropped in S2  but then had two silver sprinter helpers end up in the top 20.   

As I usually do, I've saved the tactics and results for future reference, but, as we all have figured out, tactics used in the past may not lead to the same results in future sprint races.  I'll save them anyway, just in case...

[Vos]

Thanks