Australia s31

[Vos]

From Australian perspective ; Dark clouds above NT season 31.


season 31 schedule =

= what a big bummer ! !
Because there are 2 flat time trials.

It is even an ironic dissapointing season schedule, because in all previous seasons ; 2x flat TT would have been super positive.
But this season 31 ; the first time that it is very negative, and of course in the first time that I get 2x flat TT as Australian NT manager.
I guess luck is not on my side, because 2x flat TT in one season happened at least 3 times before, and I did the NT job by far the most.

Well, let's make the best of this season 31 despite this is already 100% certain ; it will be my ( by far-) worst NT result ever.
Because I was 13 times the Australian NT manager, and despite no luck with NT schedules = 2x 2nd and 11x world champion.

Thanks for all the congratulations ( = none ) of the surprising, amazing previous NT season,
and thanks for all the votes ( = none, because for the 5th time in a row automatically NT manager as 26 times Australian champion ).
Maybe explained by that there are just a very few (more or less-) active Australian managers, probably you can count them on 1 hand.

And perhaps it is even positive that it is me who has the NT job this season,
because this bad season schedule would suck even much more for someone who made his debut as Australian NT manager.

1.   Caltagirone  HHHHH  198 km
2.   La Rosière  MMMMM  110 km
3.   Venray  FFFFF  204 km
4.   Adelaide  TT-FFFFF  88 km
5.   Harelbeke  FCHC^C^ 200 km
6.   Doha  TT-FFFFF  40 km
7.   Reims  CFFCC  226 km

Well, it is clear that the season ranking is out of sight, so let's focus on another objective ;
try to get a race victory somewhere, and also in the-most-NT-race-victories-ranking Australia is the undisputed leader.

[Vos]

[horace_vr]

Hey, Vos! Congrats on the NT Title last season! 

[Vos]

Many thanks, Horace ! 
And many thanks to a few others, who send me a congratulations by pm today. 

I guess that seeing this ironic, dissapointing NT season schedule, put me in a bitter state of mind, when I wrote my previous forum post. 
But no worries, now I have accepted this situation, my mood is positive again , because Australia can be good in 4 out of the 7 NT races.

[Vos]

Australia u24 ( 118 cyclists ) :


CFF u23 Dream Team =
cobblehills
1.  Shaun Sifford  ( 22, Villavante )
3.  Walt Furey  ( 22, Villavante )
5.  Gus Furlong  ( 22, HTCHungria )
tours
6.  Stu Twigley  ( 22, Wiggo_pupils )


Everyone good luck with recruiting and scouting in Australia ! 

[Vos]

RACE 1 : SICILIAN HILLS

32ºC

Catania, Sicily, Italy,
Just 6 Australians in the CFF golden hills ranking ( in blue ranked as pure-hills ) = nrs 31, 36, 43, 85, 111, and 145.
The best 5 are selected in this hills race with a low Australian expectation.

The other 4 places are for xp-cyclists.
Each selection for a very different reason, for example Morse ( 27, cobblehills ) has as extra that he might be good enough to help a bit.

This time no selection for my favorite xp cyclist Sifford ( 22, cobblehills ), the nr 1 u23 DreamTeam.
But Sifford and probably some others, for example Ronnald ( 25, cobblehills ), get xp selection(s) later this season.
And hopefully some still to scout 19yo Aussies with great potential, will be on my xp-candidates-list too.

Australia NT selection :

Derek Jons ( 29 ) QuintoYtapa
Callum Carpenter* ( 31 ) TeaMetal
Virgil Seaman ( 26 ) Álvaro_Pino_Boys
Paddy Friend ( 34 ) KunTeam
Sam Griffin ( 24 ) La_Vie_Claire     ( debut )
- - - - - - - - -
Andrew Morse ( 27 ) Plopsala
- - - - - - - - -
Rick Cann ( 28 ) Atlanterhavet
Sammy Alfier ( 28 ) Quickstepbronx
Oliver Lewis ( 23 ) azerite     ( debut )

[Aurora Australis]

Maybe explained by that there are just a very few (more or less-) active Australian managers, probably you can count them on 1 hand.

Including the not-so-active TeaMetal & myself, the count I have is 6.  Of course by my count there are only around 180 or so managers in the game, and maybe 20 created teams last season (including one time flyby registrations), so it's pretty standard these days here.

[Vos]

Of course not me included ( I'm not going to congratulate myself, hahaha ), so, my remark "count on 1 hand" was right. 

And even including my own team, I'm counting just 5 ( more or less- ) active Australian managers,
because it seems that Teamclaes is not active anymore.
Hopefully I'm wrong or hopefully he has a break and returns to the game in due time.

At the moment 5x = Antequera, Aurora_Australis, OphiukoCT, SPORTLIFE, TeaMetal.

[Vos]

7º  Derek Jons   0:16"
A more than excellent result, thanks to the only s4 helper, the unexperienced Griffin. A very surprising great debut of this 24yo helper.

[Vos]

Australia u22 ( 59 cyclists ) :

[horace_vr]

Of course not me included ( I'm not going to congratulate myself, hahaha ), so, my remark "count on 1 hand" was right. 

And even including my own team, I'm counting just 5 ( more or less- ) active Australian managers,
because it seems that Teamclaes is not active anymore.
Hopefully I'm wrong or hopefully he has a break and returns to the game in due time.

At the moment 5x = Antequera, Aurora_Australis, OphiukoCT, SPORTLIFE, TeaMetal.

Slight off-topic: is osca still around...? He logged into forum last in January, and on discord it was someone else (bicis...?) who answered as an admin when speedbird had an issue with a rider

[ophiuko]

Osca transferred CFF admin to Bicis (Agua_Verde in the game).

[Vos]

RACE 2 : FRENCH ALPS

34ºC

Frontenex, France,
A short race of 110 km, but with many climb kilometers ;
HC - Montée de Bisanne = 12,4 km á 7,9 %
HC - Col du Pré = 12,8 km á 7,8 %
2C - Cormet de Roselend = 5,7 km á 6,5 %
1C - La Rosiere = 15,9 km á 6 %
Australia has top climber Rick Cann, he is one of the favorites to compete for victory. Of course, if the tactics go very well.

Australia NT selection :

Rick Cann ( 28 ) Atlanterhavet
Garret Mitchum ( 32 ) bikeandwine
Stu Vaughn ( 31 ) ProdopingPong
Allan Sheehan ( 28 ) Stuttgarter
Ken Holland ( 28 ) Milestone
Rick Pierre ( 28 ) Astanadena
Barry Carpenter ( 33 ) Kelme4ever
Paddy Hines ( 30 ) Flandria
- - - - - - - - - -
Shaun Sifford ( 22 ) Villavante

[Vos]

A surprising victory of the 33yo Veiko Luts ( EST ), the nr 90 in the CFF ranking, and ranked as 20th best pure climber.
Luts was far behind in s4, but thanks to the extra bonus, experience, and active weather icon,
he was riding the final climb 20 seconds( ! ) faster than the nr 1 pure climber of CFF, Rick Cann, who was going full power in s5.
At least Cann won of the s4 solo attacker Agudo, and a victory was possible if helper Mitchum was not 3rd in s4, 6 sec behind Cann.

1    Veiko Luts      33   0: 00"   300      LottoGranadier
2    Rick Cann      28   0: 08"   250      Atlanterhavet
3    Victoriano Agudo      32   0: 09"   225      Innioraths
4    Amauri Moser      32   0: 21"   200      LottoGranadier
5    Sem Karstens      31   0: 33"   180      Bergtoppers
- - - - - - - - - -
15    Garret Mitchum      32   1: 10"   70      bikeandwine

The 2nd best helper Vaughn was a bit unlucky by finishing in a little group of 3 ( nrs 19, 20, 21 ) and as only one without points.
But Australia scored the most points of all nations in this climb race = nice !

[Vos]

Australia u20 ( 22 cyclists ) :