Season 21

[Vos]

Good fortunes at him keeping second spot Vos.
And it appears that all of us Div 1 Aussies will be back in Div 1 for next season, with only a question mark on how many Aussie based teams will be joining us from Div 2b for season 22.

Thanks, your good fortune wish helped.
And indeed, the Australian 1A teams have no relegation worries this season,
and at least 1 or 2 Australian teams from division 2b will join us next season.

stage 5 Suisse, MDMDF ;
1º  Rønneberg  --> stage victory ! 
19º  Kummer ( helper )

  Final TOP 20 GC :
1 Xavér Kövér   30   HTCHungria   0: 00"   
2     Lasse Rønneberg   31   SPORTLIFE   1: 04"   
3     Henriks Valdmanis   31   KunTeam   1: 11"   
- - - - - - - - - -
4     Serafim Gois   31   Flyvende_hjul   1: 11"   
5     Manuele Miorlin   27   Shiro_Lions   1: 26"   
6     Karl Johan Abelstedt   28   Codex   2: 07"   
7     Pat Martin   30   Flyvende_hjul   2: 26"   
8     Gustave Gloor   29   Turrones   2: 29"   
9     Lucio Queiros   30   FaltososDeChigre   2: 50"   
10  Martin Alcala   26   LaSerenissima   2: 53"   
- - - - - - - - - -
11    Afonso Rio   32   OphiukoCT   2: 59"   
12    Phil Robinson   24   ICSluj   3: 02"   
13    Bud Dixon   27   Codex   3: 03"   
14    Diogo Fraga   30   Codex   3: 09"   
15    Nestor Cabrera   33   galegospolabici   3: 14"   
16    Ferenc Bartalics   30   RealMurciaCycling   3: 17"   
17    Samuel Lotz   33   Fiestina   3: 37"   
18    Elton Griffin   26   Villavante   3: 49"   
19    Ben Camerlynck   25   QuintoYtapa   3: 53"   
20    Rick Logsdon   27   Matterhorn   3: 59"

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

21 Rønneberg ( 31 ), tour
22 Clemente ( 33 ), hills-sprint
23 Hummelsby ( 30 ), cobble
24 Duncan ( 27 ), silver sprint
25 Szõnyi ( 25 ), climb

Good luck everyone !

[Vos]

Tour de France, final GC ;
5º  Lasse Rønneberg   1:14"
A very dissapointing TdF.
Due to a bit of bad luck, but mainly due to many tactical mistakes, what caused an unnecessary time loss of at least some minutes(!).
Probably my worst tactical big tour ever. 

[Vos]

Clasica San Sebastian ;
17º  Rønneberg
Not a good result, he should be able to finish at least top 10.
The 1 EP too conservative tactic did not help to finish good, and maybe some rivals were better prepared.

Again a missed opportunity of Rønneberg to score a lot of points, because I see that he is 4th in the individual ranking now.
Maybe he gets a Vuelta selection in an attempt to battle for a ( Bronze ) Bike.
Although doubtfull if this will be successful, due to his major form problems in that big tour, especially the 2nd half of the Vuelta.

But such a "desperate" attempt might be worth it, because never in CFF history a SPORTLIFE cyclist won a Bike.
The downside is that such an attempt will cost total points of my team, and at the moment 3rd in 1A.
Well, I can postpone this difficult decision, because first things first, the BinckBank Tour :

   selection SPORTLIFE

Barrientos makes his debut for my team and he will be the GC teamcaptain.
Hopefully a good GC result, but I have no idea what he can achieve. Also because he does not have good support in stages 2 and 4.
What makes that I'm still in doubt who the stage 1 teamcaptain will be ; GC contender Barrientos ór stage specialist Hummelsby.
Stenberg makes his debut too, but he is a cheap buy of 27½k and will be used as a helper.

21 Barrientos ( 31 ), cobblehills
22 Hummelsby ( 30 ), flat-cobble
23 Clemente ( 33 ), hills-sprint
24 Stenberg ( 31 ), silver flat-cobble
25 Duncan ( 27 ), silver sprint

Good luck everyone !

[Aurora Australis]

Personally I'd go for another top 3 team classification rather than a top 3 individual cyclist classification, although I do understand the appeal of getting something you haven't gotten before & 3rd in teams doesn't mean as much when you've been 1st previously.  If I was in your situation I might hesitate if the cyclist in question was a lifetime cyclist in the team.

[Vos]

I will assess the situation this evening.
After the BBT points ( and knowing if the Bike rivals ride the Vuelta ) it might be a little bit more clear what to do.

Maybe an 1A podium is also possible with sacrificing some points due to a desperate attempt to try to win the Bronze Bike.
I never had a cyclist who came close in the individual ranking, so, I'm really tempted to go for that, even if there is just a little chance.
But perhaps my goal should be to avoid this scenario : 4th in 1A ánd 4th in the individual ranking. The only scenario that would suck.

Good luck with your TT specialists in both Vuelta stages ánd the WC TT, Aurora Australis.
And I assume you like the WC TT of next season even more,
with current TT world champion Christian Pocock, who has the CFF record in that FFMDF time trial.

[Vos]

BBT stage 1 ;
6º  Hummelsby ( teamcaptain )
18º  Barrientos ( free role )  0:14"
A bit of a dissapointing result, because 4th favorite Hummelsby tried to go for stage victory.
He had the important s4 helper, but he was outsprinted by 5 rivals and finished as last of the front group.
Barrientos surprised me a lot with his excellent free role result.

BBT stage 2 ;
32º  Barrientos ( teamcaptain )  0:38"
A decent good result, and he had a helper in one more section as expected, because somehow Clemente was with him in s3.

BBT stage 3 ;
5º  Clemente ( teamcaptain )
26º  Duncan ( helper )
56º  Barrientos ( free role )  0:58"
No teamcaptain role of Barrientos, because I expected too much time loss in this hills-sprint.
But to my surprise he did pretty good in a free role by finishing in the big 3rd group of nrs 37 to 71.

BBT stage 4 ;
35º  Barrientos ( teamcaptain )  0:42"
A very bad result. The 0 EP start was too risky, what caused that he could not follow the s1 front group of 32.
And as expected, he had no help after s1.

BBT stage 5 ;
8º  Barrientos ( teamcaptain )  0:22"  --> with lightbulb.
16º  Stenberg ( helper )
Again Barrientos surprised me on the flat cobblestones with this excellent stage result.

BBT final GC ;
8º  Barrientos  0:40"
With 2x free roles.
But it seems he could not have won this BBT with 5x teamcaptain roles.
Because max. 7 seconds better was possible in stage 1,
but in stage 3 it is doubtfull if he could have finished in the 2nd group as teamcaptain, what would have been 27 seconds better.
And even if he could ; 7 + 27 = 34 seconds, and then he would have finished 4º GC on 0:06"
Barrientos messed up in cobblehills stage 4, what is even his speciality.
And his manager messed up by estimating that he would lose much more time in hills-sprint stage 3, due to the low sprint skill.
But for the total team points in this BBT ; most likely it did not matter that Barrientos had 2x free roles.

Up to the Vuelta !

[Aurora Australis]

Espana & TT WC squad
291   Eric Armstrong   24
292    Markus Benett   28
293    Kirk Workman   33
They're not going to win any races, they're simply seeking strong top ten or even top five if lucky results.

Espana
294   Alex Trautemberg   23
295   Kirk Clinton   28
They might snag a few points, but they're mainly there for a little more experience, and that the 19-year-olds really aren't good enough to waste it on (at least two current 19-year-olds will probably be sacked at the start of next season).
Remaining two TT WC spots will be solely for experience points.

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

11 Rønneberg ( 31 ), tour
12 Beckham ( 25 ), climb
13 Makarov ( 32 ), TT
14 Rubiera ( 29 ), hills
15 Christensen ( 29 ), tour

Vuelta stage 1 ;
14º  Beckham ( masterhelper )  0:36"
15º  Rønneberg ( teamcaptain )  0:36"
A very good result, thanks to excellent help in this stormy flat-climb race.

[Vos]

Vuelta stage 2, TT ;
7º  Makarov
70º  Rønneberg  2:54"

Vuelta stage 3, cobblehills ;
106º  Rønneberg  3:32"

Vuelta stage 4, hills ;
11º   Rubiera ( helper )
35º  Rønneberg  0:52"

Vuelta stage 5, hills ;
27º   Rubiera ( helper )
62º  Rønneberg  1:15"

Perfect helper's jobs of Rubiera in stages 3, 4, and 5. In stage 5 he even had to ride in an 11 EP tactic, otherwise too fast.
As expected, Rønneberg sucked in cobblehills stage 3, what caused a very big drop to 28º GC.
He does not like the hills stages too, but thanks to his helper, the SPORTLIFE teamcaptain returned in the top 20 GC.

GC, halfway the Vuelta ;
18º  Rønneberg  3:31"
This GC ranking is not good enough, due to his bronze-Bike ambition. Hopefully Rønneberg will move up in the 2nd half of this Vuelta.
19º  Christensen  3:36"
To my surprise Christensen is still on a point-scoring GC place, but he will drop because of his role as a helper.

[Vos]

Vuelta stage 6, TT ;
10º  Makarov
69º  Rønneberg  3:04"
What caused a drop to 21º GC.

Vuelta stage 7, climbsprint ;
1º  Rønneberg  --> victory ! 
16º  Beckham ( helper )
Amazing victory without TC bonus ánd without topform, because this was the 36th race of Rønneberg.
With big thanks to Beckham who returned in s3, and with big thanks to the new masseur who gave a boost to the major form problem.

Rønneberg moved up to 16º GC, and even better, he moved up to the 3rd place in the individual ranking of 1A.

The final 3 Vuelta stages will be a struggle due to his form problem, and his manager does not have formcards for this Vuelta.
Just one formcard left what even not gives topform, and that is for Lombardia due to the Bronze Bike battle.
So, to Rønneberg it could be really important that he scores some Vuelta GC points, what might be very difficult to achieve.
Probably it will depend on the tactics ánd if some GC rivals have also major form problems.

[Aurora Australis]

Most likely Kirk Workman's final victory before retirement (will retire early next season).


1st      Kirk Workman      33   Aurora_Australis   0:00"   250 points

He'll hopefully get a top-five in the TT WC to perhaps take the Australian jersey into retirement.

[Vos]

Vuelta stage 8, hills-sprint ;
17º  Rønneberg  0:27"
Despite his form issue, an excellent race with good help of Rubiera in s1+s2+s3,
and a very unexpected good result by finishing in the 2nd group ánd even score points, what is beneficial to his Bronze Bike Battle.

Vuelta stage 9, cobble-sprint ;
63º  Rønneberg  2:05"
Ups, very difficult to the topform helpers to ride in the same pace as their out-of-form teamcaptain.
This time it was a failure and Rønneberg was isolated the whole race. But one thing went very well ; he finished as last of a big group.

At the moment 15º GC, but he fears the final mountain stage. Hopefully his direct GC rivals have the same fear for the 3 brutal climbs.

[Vos]

Vuelta stage 10, mountains ;
2º  Beckham ( free role )
23º  Rønneberg  1:19"
A scary moment in s3, the climb to Calar Alto, where helper Christensen was too fast for his teamcaptain.
Fortunately they joined up again in descent s4, and therefore the important extra bonus to Rønneberg on the final Alto de Velefique.
What caused an excellent stage result despite 97 form, and an unexpected 30 points extra.

Rønneberg finished as 16º GC, what gives 100 points.
I think that he has enough points now to already secure the Bronze Bike.   ( the Silver Bike is very far out of reach )
It is for the first time ever that a SPORTLIFE cyclist wins a Bike.

Also Beckham ( in a free role ) did great in stage 10, much better as expected.
And these unexpected extra points can be very valuable, because the battle for the 1A podiumplaces is not decided yet.

[Vos]

Giro di Lombardia ;
16º  Rønneberg
A nice result, although he did not need these extra points, the Bronze Bike was already secured.

Richmond TT WC ;
13º  Makarov
A dissapointing result. I expected at least top 10.

Richmond WC, flat cobblestones ;
3º  Hummelsby
17º  Plitus ( helper )
Excellent result of not-favorite Hummelsby who finished in the front group of just 4. Too bad he was outsprinted by the 2 top favorites.

Unfortunately but expected ; AquaVerde defeated my team in the battle for the 2nd place in 1A, due to many points in this WC race.
Heijmans ( AquaVerde ) won, and his teammates finished as 12º, 13º and 16º, what gives a total of 1.800 points.
Despite my team scored many more points as expected, it was not enough, and now 3rd in 1A, just 162 points behind AquaVerde.
But a 3rd place in 1A is also nice.
season 21 overview = 
3º  SPORTLIFE   13.253   5  3  3
  Lasse Rønneberg
  Australian champion
3 little tour victories ( Tirreno=Terry Montgomery, Catalunya=Lasse Rønneberg, and Romandie=Birk Christensen )
  Lasse Rønneberg
  Edgar Clemente

  NT world champion ( as Australian NT manager )