Australia s28

[Vos]

RACE 5 :  TRICKY TRACK in TOSCANE

31ºC

Carrara, Italy,
Back in 2010 this Giro stage was won by the Australian Cadel Evans in his WC jersey ( see picture ).
The circumstances were brutal ; cold, rain, ánd muddy due to the gravel sections.

Upcoming Sunday it is totally different with a hot temperature of 31ºC and no rain.
But this race remains very tricky, because ;
1 stripe of wind, the Volterra hill halfway this race, and the hard final with gravel sections and 2 hills ; the Rospatio and the Civitella.

Hopefully the tactics go well, and a few of the best Australians are still in the front when the brutal final section begins.
Two days ago the i.m.o. best 7 Australians were already selected, and the last 2 will be selected later.
It is still uncertain who the teamcaptain will be ; Hines ór Ablett.
Hines has the best race GV according to my estimation, but Ablett has an active weather icon and probably a better s5 finish.
The other already selected cyclists have a good race GV too, so, Australia should be pretty strong in this tactical tricky race.
Of course, there is also a scenario that this NT race 5 will go horribly wrong, but despite this, I expect a good amount of points.

Australia NT selection :

Mannie Hines ( 32 ) Thorboassonarvesen
Alex Ablett* ( 27 ) Aspigarri
Andrew Morse ( 24 ) Plopsala
Norman Pocock ( 29 ) Flandria
Kenneth Jackson* ( 27 ) Astanadena
Noel Marbley ( 32 ) gsumar_team
Neil Spiker* ( 32 ) PORTUGAL2011
Nick Thompson ( 34 ) TeaMetal
James Crickton ( 23 ) Álvaro_Pino_Boys

[Vos]

Today the final 2 are selected as extra helpers ;
# The young James Crickton ( 23yo ) despite that his flat-skill is not impressive for this race, certainly he will finish with 0 EP.
# And good old Nick Thompson ( 34yo ) in his last NT race of his career, he could be an excellent helper due to his high flat skill.
On his palmares twice a 4th place in normal cobblehills NT races ( s23 and s24 ),
and even at his old age, he is still going strong in this 1A season with as best result 14th in E3H.

[Vos]

2    Alex Ablett      27   0: 00"   250      Aspigarri
14    Noel Marbley      32   0: 09"   80      gsumar_team
15    Mannie Hines      32   0: 09"   70      Thorboassonarvesen
16    Neil Spiker      32   0: 09"   60      PORTUGAL2011

Excellent race with perfect jobs of 3 helpers in s4, and an amazing amount of total points, because 3x free roles scored points too.
The 4th free role, the young Morse, had a too risky tactic in s2 and dropped, so no points.
And 23yo helper Crickton was used as a "3-sections-helper", he did a good job. All 7 other Australians in the s4 front group = excellent !
Australia scored 460 points, what is by far the most of all countries.

The TOP 3 season ranking looks very good, with 2 more races to go :
1.   2.205   
2.   1.150
3.   1.090

Next week ; for the second time this season a NT flat sprint race.

[Vos]

RACE 6 : SPRINT in FRANCE

7ºC

Pau, France,
NT race 3 was also a flat sprint race, and Caan finished as 3rd.
Hopefully again a top result, and even better, hopefully Caan can compete for the individual NT jersey.
But this will be very difficult, because I assume that he has only a chance if he wins this race, ór that his rivals have a disaster race.
And a disaster race can happen to Caan too.

Fortunately the battle for another World Championship of Australia seems already decided due to the current very big gap in points.
nr 2 Switzerland did not score in previous sprint race, where nr 3 the Netherlands did great with a victory and a total of 500 points.
But even if the Netherlands have again a great sprint race and Australia a disaster race with zero points ; it seems we can affort it.

The same sprint selection as in NT race 3 = all 5 golden flatsprinters + the best silver flatsprinter.
Also Pernom ( the flatcobble teamcaptain of next NT race 7 ) rides again the sprint race for extra xp.
The final 2 spots are again for young xp cyclists, but maybe I select other talents as in NT race 3, and both will be selected later.

edit ; Today the final 2 are selected ;
One of the promising 20yo flat TT specialists makes his debut, and also a debut for the 25yo Duncan, a hills-TT-specialist.
A NT hills-TT is rare, just a few times on the NT calendar, but Duncan is the best ranked hills TT specialist of CFF,
who won today the TdF time trial stage 3 in a CFF record, so, enough reasons to give him his debut, what looks nice on his profile page.

Australia NT selection :

Jasper Caan ( 31 ) SaulSalinasTeam
Horace Stamer ( 28 ) TeamEuroscalt
Adrian Janson ( 28 ) Villavante
Rob Blixter* ( 28 ) TeamEuroscalt
Reggie Milne ( 32 ) CaptainOrange
Luke Morse ( 28 ) FaustoScoppi   
- - - - - - - - - -
Bob Pernom ( 24 ) PDM_cycling_team
Duke Duncan ( 25 ) Quickstepbronx    ( debut )
Edward Garza ( 20 ) Teamclaes    ( debut )

[Vos]

edit ; Today the final 2 are selected ;
One of the promising 20yo flat TT specialists makes his debut, and also a debut for the 25yo Duncan, a hills-TT-specialist.
A NT hills-TT is rare, just a few times on the NT calendar, but Duncan is the best ranked hills TT specialist of CFF,
who won today the TdF time trial stage 3 in a CFF record, so, enough reasons to give him his debut, what looks nice on his profile page.

[Aurora Australis]

No individual title for Jasper Caan, but the NT nation's title is ours again.

[Vos]

Indeed, unfortunately no NT jersey.
In retrospective, more risk taking was needed. Although, if it is too risky and Caan drops somewhere, he has no chance at all.
Anyway, it was a pretty good race with 4 helpers in s4, incl. main helper Stamer who had enough EP in s5 to launch his teamcaptain hard.
Stamer scored some points himself, and the only free role Blixter did excellent and scored points, probably due to his weather icon.
But of course, despite a pretty good race, the result of Caan is simply not good enough / not satisfactory ;

5º  Caan ( 31, SaulSalinasTeam ) 0:00"
13º  Blixter ( free role, 28, TeamEuroscalt ) 0:00"
18º  Stamer ( main helper, 28, TeamEuroscalt ) 0:00"

The WC jersey goes to Atsma ( NL ) with 500 points ( = 1º + 4º ).
Caan came not even close with 405 points ( = 3º + 5º ), what causes a dissapointing 4th place in the WC jersey ranking.

Australia had a decent result in the day ranking ( 3rd with 300 points, what is 20 points more than nr 2 the Netherlands ),
but this was not important at all, because the world championship was already secured in previous NT race 5. 

In fact, Australia scored many points this season, and it might even be a record in a NT season with one flat TT race, see overview :
https://cyclingforfun.org/smf/index.php?topic=822.msg31387#msg31387
The goal for NT race 7 in Roubaix =
score 80 points or more, to improve my best NT season and to get the 2nd high score ever of a world champion.

[Vos]

RACE 7 : ROUBAIX

20ºC

Compiègne, France,
On Monday the 5 Australian golden flat cobble specialists were already selected, and the final 4 ( xp cyclists ) will be selected later.

Not much at stake for this unexperienced young selection, besides a top 14 of Pernom, to improve my personal record as NT manager.
What should be duable, because Pernom finished as 10th in the CCCCC race ( 189km ) of previous NT season, ánd as 23yo( ! ).
Roubaix is a different race, but according to me even more suited to Pernom and I expect a good result of the nr 7 in the CFF ranking.

Australia NT selection :

Bob Pernom ( 24 ) TeamEuroscalt
Gilbert Ray ( 25 ) Thorboassonarvesen
Markus Harris ( 24 ) PDM_cycling_team
Dave Adams ( 24 ) KASTORAMA
Trevor Rooney ( 27 ) ROCKYBALBOARACING
- - - - - - - - - -
Colin Ronnald ( 22 ) MortoviaCycling
Emerson Brown ( 22 ) Atlanterhavet
Andrew Morse ( 24 ) Plopsala
Angus Dixon ( 21 ) ICSluj     ( debut )

[Vos]

Ups  , an embarrissing huge mistake ; for the first time ever I had an Australian teamcaptain who was riding with 13 EP. 
I guess it is time for someone to take over as Australian NT manager, please do.

The consequense of riding with too much EP, is of course zero points in this NT race 7.
Anyway, it did not matter ( besides now I don't achieve my personel season record as NT manager, but only myself to blame ),
because it is not that Pernom was missing out on a NT victory with this big tactical mistake.
And for the total points it was not important, Australia was in the lead with an enormous gap towards the rest, and therefore ;


For the 11th time in a row ;

Australia = world champion !

A big thanks to all managers with Australian top cyclists, who made this 15th ( ! ) Australian world championship possible ! 

[horace_vr]

Congratulations for the... how many-th time, VoS ?

[Vos]

Thanks 
Well, I was the Australian NT manager 11x = 2x 2nd + 9x world champion